Although I thought winter had past (we had a few warm days already), we got a bunch of icy snow last night. After the snow here, armies of people set out to clear the sidewalks using shovels and brooms. Here's a shot of the action in front of my office building this morning. You can see the big brooms made of clumps of twigs tied together. Not many people use sand and salt on sidewalks because of the cost. (The crews who clear the roads use snowplows, sand, and salt -- more like the crews in the US.) I saw this scene repeated dozens of times in front of shops and office buildings on my way into work this morning.