Farewell winter 2022

It's the last day of winter, the first day of spring. Winter 2022, you will not be missed. Hurrah for spring! Any spring, this spring or spring next year!

Here is the news on the spring equinox: 

When does spring 2022 start? Twelve hours of daylight returns on Sunday with the spring equinox. The vernal (aka spring) equinox will occur this Sunday, March 20, at 11:33 a.m. EDT. On Sunday, there will be roughly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness almost everywhere on Earth.

Photos taken on March 10, on the path from behind an apartment building to the Westminster Bridge. 

Farewell winter, you will not be missed; if only you didn't overstay your welcome,

but you always stay too long, four months, five months (we don't like you that much),

it's too much to bear, you're not even scenic by the end,

and even two months is too long for winter, 

we tire of you, oh winter, 

which is surely a bad sign, and we are happy to see you go,

you are no longer pretty or cosy or even welcome,

and we are no longer happy as we were with the first snow,

by the end snow is just snow, dull, grey, and slushy;

farewell winter, you will not be missed;

there's a new season in town, it's time for spring.

The last day of winter 2022

Winter 2022 will soon be a memory. Here are some photos from one of the few walks I took, on many days it was just too cold to go outside for a walk.

This is the approach to Meadowbrook Golf Course, one of the few undeveloped pieces of land left in this area. Notice that a few years ago the city of Cote St. Luc cut down the trees adjacent to the road. Why did they do this? They claimed that some of these trees were a danger, they might fall on passing cars. Some people hate nature, and perhaps they were really preparing for the day when the golf course will be the site of condos and townhouses. Progress is relentless and unforgiving.

Photos taken on March 10th, 2022.

 

As Canadians we endure

The young Morse's name is Endeavour, like the drama on television. Another possible name, for Canadians, would be Endurance, that is what we do best considering our long winters. Endurance is also the name of Shackleton's ship that sank in the Antarctica in 1915, and the ship itself has endured, frozen in time by the frigid water in which it sank. We Canadians endure while others surrender, including Americans who never tire of telling the world how great they are and that you can be anything, literally anything, if you put your mind to it. We know this isn't true, but it's good old fashioned American get up and go and will power over all obstacles. Good for them! If you have enough money and resources you can possibly achieve what poorer people can`t achieve, but it is also pride, hubris, and self-satisfaction. I think the moral fibre and vision of life comes from the very earth and geography on which we walk, and anyone coming to Canada soon drops their old ways and learns how to endure. I remember a book in the SGWU stacks, on Robert Lowell, titled Everything to be Endured, but that is also life. Call me Endurance, like other Canadians, I have survived. 

Meanwhile, a snow storm is blowing up from Texas or a cold spell is blowing south from the Arctic; these photographs of an earlier snowstorm were taken in February 2022.

A white garden/ a garden under snow

There isn't really a lot to commend winter, I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder but winter drags on too long and, like a house guest after two weeks, can overstay its welcome. The first snowfall in November or December is serene, quiet, lovely to see the snow lined branches of trees, and even a big snowfall (let's say 20 cm) isn't all that bad, not if you're at home, don't have to go out, and can enjoy quiet time during the falling snow. What is not fun, pleasant, happy, serene, meditative is how our winters drag on into late March and sometimes even early April; four of five months of winter is just too much. A three month winter, from first snowfall to the snow melting, is about all many of us can stand. 

Here is my Canadian cottage garden in early March this year. I gave up even walking back there two months ago, previously I would go for a walk and then, arriving home, I'd check out the backyard. We miss the diversity of summer, the colours of flowers, the many plants, birds singing, insects, and then we surrender all of this to winter. "Mon pays c'est l'hiver" sang Gilles Vigneault, but it's not my country. 

It's -25 C, feels like -32 . . .

Snow clearing (the dump trucks, snowblowers, sidewalk cleaners have already passed) in progress on what looks like a nice winter day, but it's -25 C and feels much colder. We are breaking records for cold weather, not something any of us want. 

View from our front door.

The garden under snow

There's nothing you can do in the garden when it's winter and -25 C (or colder), except stay in-doors, read a book, watch Morse on Vermont Public Television, listen to the radio, cook a meal, make your home cosy, keep the heat at 23 C., wait it out. It's difficult to have any enthusiasm to go outside. The good news is that spring is just two months away. We can do it! We're tough! We're Canadians!

Community Garden at St. Thomas Anglican Church

Located at Rosedale Avenue and Somerled Avenue, St. Thomas Anglican Church has a long history in Montreal; the community garden is behind the church. I took these photographs on the last day of November, it was about -3 C and cold, some snow had fallen a few days before and was still on the ground. You can't see what they grow here but it seems to be more vegetables than flowers. The caretaker came out as I was standing looking at the garden, I mentioned that for some reason Covid had been good for gardens, they've flourished last year and this, but he said it was sad that so many people had died. Let's hope this snow melts before our long winter sets in. 

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course on March 1st, 2021