Tuesday 12 February 2013

Snow Again!

Past week I thought that spring was just around the corner although the temperatures didn't really support my hopes. However, in my neighbourhood, in front of an individual house, I saw the very first light yellow tips of wild primroses peeping out in the middle of frost-bitten lawn and the discovery made me optimistic. I should have known better! It's only February... thus high winter in this part of the Earth. The Alpine World Ski Championships that are being held in Schladming at the moment prove it. Okay, the ski resort is in the mountains and it's about 140 km from Graz, but winter doesn't care about such unimportant details.

Last night it snowed again. Heavily. The whole town is once more under a white cover. Well, on the streets and pavements the snow that the warmer temperatures during the day haven't transformed into dirty puddles is now beige or even dark grey. Car wheels and shoe soles have that effect. It looks really disgusting in much frequented areas that haven't been cleaned from the snow. In addition it's slippery on streets and pavements despite the heaps of crushed stone and road salt scattered everywhere around. Such is winter in a town like Graz where about 300,000 people have their homes and where even more people come every day for work. Winter wonderlands only exist in the countryside and in gardens.

And yet, we have been lucky so far. The forecast had spoken of heavy snowfalls during the whole night and most of the day, but in Graz they stopped some time before noon. I don't really know when because I have been at work and I don't have the habit of passing my time staring out of the office window. My boss will be happy to know that! At any rate, instead of half a metre of snow there are only estimated ten centimetres of the cold white splendour that annoys me so. The bad news are that more snowfalls are expected in the coming days. Well, I can't help it and it's no reason at all to lose hope, either.

After all, soon it'll be March... and then, spring will really come!

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