Optimism.

Over the last few weeks we’ve seen an unusual amount of snow around here - and it’s been what I might even call real snow.

This morning we awoke to a few centimetres (which is stacks for this part of the country) carpeting the street and covering the cars. Played hob with the commuter traffic this morning.

Of course, by lunchtime the rain had come and it was all a distant memory. But not to the two boys playing in the street as I came in just before tea-time. They had managed to find a little pocket of snow somewhere - probably under someone’s garden shed or something - and were each running around clutching a ball of the stuff, not daring to throw it because then it would be gone. Or at least they would have to scrabble around on the ground for the shards of snowball to try and gather them back up for another shot.

That would be dedication.