Waiting For The Tree To Sink

I live in a weird little town. It has a weird name. Sometimes they have weird festivals; like Festival of the Goose or as I call it Festival of the Quacks.  It's one of those towns that either you embrace it and love living there or you never get it and move as soon as you can, never to return. I moved away to attend college and after living in various places across Canada, I moved back. And honestly, I love it's quirkiness. I love that I can't go grocery shopping without getting stopped by people who remember me from when I was little, regardless of the fact I haven't a clue who they are. Or that we seem to have a community activity that celebrates every season and then some. One weird "celebration" we have here is the end of Winter. I call it celebration because it's occurrence is something pretty much everyone in town looks forward to.

You see, every year for as long as I can remember one morning in January our town wakes up and discovers a used Christmas tree stuck in the snow/ice on the river that runs through town. Some years there is just one tree, other years there's two or three. It's come to be an indication to us town folks of when Winter has ended and Spring has finally arrived.

If the tree is standing upright, it's still a while off.

If tree has slumped over, it's a couple weeks still.

If tree has sunk into the river, Spring has arrived!

Every time we drive across the bridge everyone looks for the tree. Longing for the day it's no longer visible. It hasn't happened yet but when it does there will be happiness! Winter coats and boots are packed away and spring coats and rubber boots are brought out. So here's to the tree... may you sink soon!