It happens every April. 

EVERY single April.

I tell people. I warn them. I see them out in their t-shirts and sunglasses, all excited that Spring is finally here because March has been somewhat okay and omg it’s April and there is no snow and SPRING IS HERE HALLELUJAH.

Nope.

I’ve been doing a photo project of one sort or another for around nine years now and I can say with some authority that every April it will snow. Always. Every year. We always get one final April F-You from Mama Nature and then, it’s Spring.

And not a moment before.

Case in point:

The good news is that after we get that final dump, it’s clear sailing from there on out. Spring has sprung, rah-rah.

I took this next iPhone photo on Earth Day, April 22nd, and you can still see a bit of snow hanging around in the background

I was feeling a little Bitter-Betty as I watched the news showing all of the Toronto folk (a short 45 minutes away) running around outside in their shorts and t-shirts performing Earth Day rituals, cleaning up, partaking at local patios, and generally having a blast in the beautiful sunshine.

It was still relatively cold here. Sweater weather, for sure.

But, like I said, after that final April WTF moment, it’s only a matter of time before I too am sporting flip-flops and shorts and basking in the glorious sunshine of Spring.

Kinda like this guy (minus the flip-flops and shorts thing),

And this little guy. How absolutely utterly ADORABLE is he???

He’s an American Red Squirrel (as in the Americas, as in North America, which also includes Canada, and South America too, in case you were confused and thought the US of A type America has the market cornered on this cuteness). He’s smaller than your average squirrel and slightly bigger than a chipmunk. Before I did some research on him, I pondered over whether or not one of our squirrels had made some sweet sweet squirrel love to the chipmunk that lives out back and made a hybrid squirmunk baby .

Sadly, no. What I great story that would have been.

I love him. He’s awesome.

And fast!

And a tough little dude.

I’ve watched him put the run on all manner of creatures that dare to encroach on his territory (our back garden shed) (why do these critters insist on living under my buildings?) and they are totally scared of him.

He might be a bully.

He’s adorable.

Things were definitely feeling very spring-like.

And then?

April pulled a second WTF.

Unheard of in the history of my photo-taking projects.

Maybe in the history of ever.

After assuring my Husband and friends that the April WTF moment had occurred and we were now in the clear, Mama Nature out-WTF’d me.

The storm raged all weekend. We were lucky not to lose power, but tens of thousands were not so lucky. Ice covered absolutely everything and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

Come Monday morning, my street looked like a holiday Monday. Nobody could leave for work. In my town, and most of Southern Ontario, snow removal contracts come to an end on April 1st (they obviously don’t follow my photography projects or they’d know better), and with it being so late in the month, it took a helluva long time to get the trucks, plows, salters, tanks (kidding on that last one, kinda) out to clean up the mess.

My car was frozen to the driveway, with a wall of ice surrounding it up to my wheel wells. I wasn’t going anywhere.

If you follow me on instagram or facebook, you’ll know I posted a ton of photos and videos over the course of that weekend. I’m kinda done with it, over it all, so I’m just posting a few here.

so.done.with.winter.

And, I’m happy to say, it’s done with us. It’s downright balmy here now. All is well in my world.

I spent most of last weekend outside, playing in the dirt and cleaning up our new yard.

I may even have a bit of a tan *gasp*

It’s wondrous, really.

As for this month’s 7 on 7, due to all of that playing outside in the sunshiney sun, I went and flaked on the due date for this post and I am late, late, late. I’m off to visit the rest of my friends, who are not slackers, and if you would like to join me, you can start right here with Kristina, and follow the links at the bottom of each post to lead you to the next photographer.

See you next month!