> I would hate living anywhere without winter. Think what you'd miss - sledding, skating, snowmobiling, ice fishing, cross-country skiing, hot chocolate with marshmallows, winter hot dog roasts, "White Christmases", the lacy pattern of frost on windows, snow forts, icicles glistening in the sun, and those nights where you can almost reach out and touch the Northern Lights.
>

Stop tormenting me. ESPECIALLY with the part about the Northern Lights!!!

I love snow. I've never lived where it snows regularly... it snowed maybe once a winter in Holland, six inches if we were lucky, and if we were REALLY lucky it would actually STICK and stay for a few days before giving way beneath yet another rainstorm. (Holland is the Land of A Whole Lot of Rain.) And here in the Bay Area, we also get rain, although not to the degree we did in Holland. Hardly any thunderstorms, for one thing.

True, winter here (or what you can call winter - the line between winter and spring is very vague as many trees begin blooming as soon as the last dead leaf is gone) is nice in it's own way. The rain brings life to the eastern hills, which are covered with grass that is brown most of the year. (The western hills are really the coastal range of mountains, and are mainly pine and redwood forest.) In winter, the hills turn brilliant green, and when you see them like that covered with mist near the top it's enough to make an Irishman say it looks like home. (Which it has. Hehe.) And, every so often, usually in February - it snows. Not on the valley floor, but there have been weeks when I can look out the window and see the tops of the green hills covered in snow. It's very, very beautiful indeed.

Although I still want the Northern Lights. :P

Sosi"snow envy"qui