Sunday afternoon thoughts on a Monday afternoon

But it's a public holiday so it feels like a Sunday. Ontario has an incredible amount of public holidays - today is "Family day". I've been walking around in the traitorous sunshine - cold and freckle-inducing - so here are the thoughts I've been thinking.

I've long had a fascination for cold places - I loved the Snow Queen and all the Russian fairy tales I read at school. (It's funny what you remember, I can remember being told off for "vandalism", and for a while I thought it meant peeling the laminated edge off a desk. I remember making candles out of old crayons and bricks of wax and I remember the small and treacherous chili bush in the playground. I would turn the air conditioning to the lowest temperature setting, take the books about Baba Yaga and shiver under my blanket for authenticity.)

So while everywhere I go locals will talk about the "better times of year" - I have really enjoyed shivering with authenticity. I like the look of empty trees, I like the sight of my breath, I like the feeling around my nose and cheeks when I walk into a shop or house after being in the cold. I'm not too far away from the time when I'll have to return to familiar stars but it saddens me that I'll have to leave all the new ones behind.