We know what cold is.

In most places in the northern hemisphere, March represents the end of winter and a welcomed fade into spring. Not so for us in the north. March is still wickedly cold... mercilessly cold.

By March we have all had our fill of winter, but up here, winter has only reached it's halfway point.

And this week up north, the calendar may have been turned to the hopeful month of March, but the temperatures hovered around minus forty…. a gentle reminder of our arctic reality, lest we forget.

And while it's easy to complain, and to ache all over for warmer days, instead I thought I'd pay a little tribute to the cold with some photos. We certainly do know what cold is up here…

 ^^ frozen eyelashes, and frozen waves in the bay ^^

 ^^ the lock on our front door routinely freezes over ON THE INSIDE because it's so cold! ^^

^^ this is what it looks like when we open our door in the morning ^^

^^ and don't get us started on "the wind chill" issue. They don't use that measure up here. They don't need to. The actual base temperature is already cold enough. I'm not going to lie, we sometimes sneer at other people's definition of "cold".  We see our friends' Facebook statuses complaining about how cold their weather is, claiming to be enduring minus thirty-something degree weather… but it's not the actual true temperature, it's the "wind chill temperature". And we snicker to ourselves - "ha! they don't know what cold is... WE know cold"! And for some immature reason this makes us feel better about ourselves, and tougher, and a little less miserable ;) ^^

And even though I get sick of the cold come March, I have learned to accept it, and even to appreciate it ….. for the experiences it gives us, for the way it shapes our lives, and for the beauty it brings….

… it makes it all worth it in the end.