Crescent moon

A waxing moon, two days old, hangs in the west over the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers tonight. On such a clear night that it's also possible to see the rest of the disc that's in shadow. Geese are squawking in the moonlight. It still feels bitterly cold outside when we head into the northwest wind, but most of the pavements on our evening walk have been swept clear of grit, which must mean that the city deems it to be spring now. The next thing that will happen is that the huts, re-used Christmas trees and other accoutrements left on the Rideau Canal bed after the skating will be hoisted up and carried away and the canal sluiced out and flooded to a proper depth of water (last year that happened on April 20th, although Parks Canada hasn't updated its information page yet for this year). At this point the level of water in the Rideau River (from which that water comes) will noticeably drop.