...but winter isn't!

UPDATE: Due to the danger of AVALANCHES, the highway

that passes by Irdning at Trautenfels has been closed.

Check out this link for villages that are completely snowed in! http://steiermark.orf.at/stories/348425/

Pruggern (center black pixel is a sledder!)

March in the Ennstal is nothing more than a taunting game of weather roulette. It's too warm for ice skating or Eisstockschießen. A week ago Irene and I went sledding in Pruggern under gorgeous sunny skies. On Sunday my friends and I dined al fresco at their alpine cabin (40˚F!). Pussywillows are in bloom everywhere and there are snowdrops in Irene's garden. Ants have invaded the apartment in Irdning, another sign that fair weather can't be far behind. But right now it is snowing; in fact it has been snowing off and on for the past three days.

It's enough... it reminds me of a song that we learned in junior high school (copyright Mr. Bowles, wherever he may be):

I just can't sit around waiting for winter to melt into spring

Because summer's just gonna be too late, and I know

Deep down way under the ground there are flowers

Just waiting to blossom and winter is gonna make them wait...

Day after day as I sit and listen springtime is trying to propose

Beckoning through all the ice and snow to daisies and iris

and violets and roses.

So maybe if all of us sing about sunshine

and flowers that bloom in the springtime

Wait, isn't that when April showers?

And summer when temperatures rise to a

hundred and twenty degrees in the shade

That's when summer's got to go.

By then I'll be wishin', forget about fishin'

By then I'll be wishin' for snow!