Asters are the honey bees last collection of pollen and nectar before everything seems to close down in the garden. There is a long winter ahead of us and this is a short reprieve of still mild weather before the cold, snow, and short days and long nights.
I thought this was a mild winter, but it's not. It's -25 C this morning and getting colder, the furnace runs and runs and runs but the house doesn't warm up. The other night the city removed 25 - 30 cm of snow that they had ploughed to the side of the streets, and then it snowed again, and it snowed last night, not a lot but a white covering on everything. We're a northern people, more northern that anything else because that is our geography and geography affects who and what we are, our attitude to life, our relationship to the world. Living here, even if you are from the Islands or South America, you will become like us, a northern people. Geography has dictated it. Seven weeks to the end of winter, the days are getting longer, and we're Canadians, we'll get through this, we have no other choice.
There are never many people on the hidden trail, perhaps one or two dog walkers, sometimes no one is there but me. Usually I am alone. We're moving along to mid-November and December and the inevitable, unwanted, winter months that follow; one faces them with a certain dread. What will winter be like this year? The forecast for eastern Canada has changed from more snow and colder than ever to quite mild, but our "mild" is most people's cold, long, winter. And that is the problem with winter here in Montreal, it's just too long; a month of winter, as they have in Vancouver, would be enough for most of us, but our winter stretches on from January (the coldest month of the year) to February (a short month so that is our consolation) to March (sunlight lasts longer but it is still very cold) to April (when April showers can be a last snowfall) to May (getting better). Even Toronto has one month less of winter than we do and the rest of their winter is milder than ours. Victoria has no winter, just more rain. Even Burlington, Vermont, just south of us has a milder winter than we do. And our winter can begin in early December, not all of us want a white Christmas, I prefer a green Christmas and an unlikely green January . . . well, that never happens. The thing is to get outside and walk, and it doesn't matter where you walk as long as you get some exercise, even fresh air is optional, we need to walk because it releases positive hormones and gives us a sense of optimism. Personally, I like the hidden trail but, all in all, I like walking anywhere; I like seeing people and their homes, I like walking by stores and restaurants, I even like cars shooting passed me, I like life and people. The hidden trail isn't for everyday walking, for daily walking I prefer the streets and places that are not special to anyone but to me.
Our endless winter -- 2008 -- here in Montreal. This is from the last snow fall, 30 - 35 cm. in early March. Here I am, leaving our home by the side door.
Our front lawn and "tempo", or temporary garage, installed every fall to early spring in which people who don't have garages park their cars.
More shoveling, and then the city snow plough drives by and you're snowed in once again.
Impassable sidewalks, no parking, endless shovelling, endless winter...
