Wiarton Willie saw his shadow

I’ll save you the trouble today of trying to get onto the official website of Wiarton Willie: Our favourite groundhog saw his shadow.

Six. More. Weeks.

There’s some irony in all of this. For the esteemed rodent to see his darker self, of course, the sun must be shining. And so it is. In fact, in Toronto the temperature is above zero, there’s not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky, and you might dare to think there’s a hint of spring in the air.

Yesterday, the view from the top of a snowy mountain in Collingwood was surreal to someone used to seeing Georgian Bay in summer. In the dazzling sunshine, the ice shelf extending off the east shore of the Bruce Peninsula was blindingly white, and beyond that, the blue expanse of Georgian Bay stretched to the horizon. We imagined —was it just imagination?—that we could see whitecaps breaking, but they might have been more lines of ice.

What a transformation from the dog days of summer, when the bay is blue and warm and dotted not with blindingly white ice, but sails.

That other famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, courtesy of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. Photo by Alan Freed