It’s Spring ……Oh no! – it’s snowing again

Even after five years, life north of 54 still bewilders me. I’m learning to cope. I know to warm up the car in winter at least ½ hour before you have to leave because it’s humanly impossible to scrape that much ice from a windshield. I’ve learned from experience to unplug the block heater from the extension before you back out of the driveway. Those little covered outdoor outlets-on-a-stake cost $38 to replace! I no longer expect to plant bulbs past mid October. As a transplanted southerner (49th parallel), used to a mere month of snow during a ‘hard’ winter on the We(s)t Coast, I now know that grass isn't green year-round everywhere. I'll never get used to a brown yard well into April and I'm amazed at such huge piles of thatch raked from lawns.

There’s also northern etiquette to learn. If the new people on the block don’t have a snowblower and you’re out doing your driveway, wheel it over and do theirs too. I had a driveway fairy the first complete winter after the move. Never found out who it was, but thank you.

Not being a skidoo, show-shoe or skiing person, I don’t wish for snow the first thing after Halloween. The later the better. After six months even the life-long residents are fed up with the dirty white stuff, or what’s left of it and shovel it onto the street. So begins my photo essay to illustrate:














Proper neighbourhood etiquette would appear to dictate that drivers should attempt to squash the lumps of snow you have begrudgingly plopped onto the street, even if it means veering onto the wrong side, in order to hasten the look of spring. Or maybe it’s just plain fun. Take that, Winter!