Spring has Come!
A bit earlier than we are used to, so we all feel pleasantly surprised, but it is welcome. In the last week we have had a lot of snow and ice disappear. The most used roads are clear and where residents have cleared the sidewalks in front of their properties, there the sidewalks are fine too.
Despite all that, yesterday morning walking to my office here I had countless “near falls” on little patches of ice here and there, even where the sidewalk looked clear. Early in the morning the temperatures are still hovering too close to the freezing point, 0 Celsius, and over night the slushy snowy patches have frozen. So there it is like walking on icy rocks.
By the afternoon, when I walked home at 5 pm, many more spots had cleared and dried off - even though the sun was hiding and the skies were grey and overcast. Where there was still snow it was slushy or sometimes like dry sand. (That means the warm air must have drawn all the moisture out).
When I got home yesterday I saw that a neighbour had cleared the slush and snow off the sidewalk in front of my place, so I decided to get some exercise by doing it in front of my other neighbour’s house. This morning that sidewalk looked clear, but it has a thin glaze over it, and I had to watch my steps. When I get home, I hope it will have dried off.
Even the snow on my garden is disappearing and I can see strips of black dirt beside the path! However, there is a big puddle under my car. And the old wall plaster I had knocked out of the stairwell and dumped behind the car has become a clay-goop.
Oh well, spring is here. We’ll tolerate all these things. The problem is - we may get spoiled and have a downer when a big spring snowstorm blows in! So those of us older and wiser are bracing ourselves for another dose of winter yet.
I called my sister Elsie last week for her birthday, and she said they had all kinds of flowers out in B.C. but she was worried the blueberries would start blooming too soon, and would die if another blast of winter should hit there.
But hey, compared to the people who are experiencing earthquakes - do we have anything to complain about? Do we?