You may recall that we travel to Wiarton every second year on even numbered years so this would typically be an off year. Last year, we agreed to break with tradition and travel to Punxsutawney to visit the Punxsutawney Phil festival. The special reason? Groundhog Day 2019 is on a Saturday! You can expect 40000 revellers on a typical GHD, on a Saturday, you may expect many more especially if the weather is good. We had a whole expedition planned with Sam, Trevor, Zach and Amie joining us. Unfortunately, Sam broke her finger very badly about 10 days ago and she wasn’t up to the trip; we figured it better to look forward to next year (GHD will be on a Sunday) than to scale the trip down this year. Next year we will plan an extra special trip including staying in a local hotel and full participation in the weekend’s events.

Star and April continue their annual trek to a different Groundhog Day event despite ever busier lives. This year they attended the Milltown Mel festival in New Jersey, check out their report here.

You can see from this clip that Wiarton Willie is showing much better composure this year than in his rookie appearance last year; a huge professional development over the course of just 6 months (don’t forget that a groundhog sleeps 6 months of the year). Sorry for the 30 seconds of ad. I’ll look for a better version but this will do in the meantime.

Punxsutawney Phil agrees with Willie this year so no need for a tie break.

On the topic of tie breaking, remember that in the event that Wiarton Willie and Punxsutawney Phil do not agree, and cognizant of the fact that we are actually equidistant from both here in St. Catharines, we turned to our local but quite minor groundhog, Fenwick Flossie who breaks the tie. Now we turn a bit of a blind eye to the issues with Fenwick Flossie. First off, she is a teacher in a groundhog suit; second, and more serious really, she will only come out on school days; in the event of a GHD long weekend, she comes out on the Friday previous. This year was the last straw when the Fenwick Flossie event was cancelled because it was too cold. Luckily, Punxsutawney Phil and Wiarton Willie agreed so we can relax. Next year, we inaugurate a new policy; in the week before Groundhog Day, we will name a guest groundhog and look to his/her prediction to break ties.

On balance, it has been a very good winter but in the last 10 days, we have seen significant snow followed by serious cold. As I write this; however, the temperature has soared to 11C. I think that we are all pleased to know that the winter will be over quickly.

To take away the sting of the cancelled trip to Punxsutawney, we travelled to Toronto for the weekend, Sam and Trevor joined us for a swanky brunch. Sam is mending, we expect more specific news in about 10 days on her next course of treatment but all indications are positive.

Watch for next year’s report, we look forward to the most extensive Groundhog Day celebration ever.