This year I experienced three spring seasons. The first was in France where the blooms were out in early April, then in London where the trees were flowering in mid to late April and now in Toronto in early May.
…it’s been quite the year for accumulations of snow
After a couple of warmer days much of the snow has melted but there are still snow banks at the edges of peoples driveways and unmelted snow in the parks. We’ve been having this thaw, freeze, thaw cycle of weather for the last month and in between we’ve been getting more snow. For the rest of the week and into next week there are at least four days of snow forecast. Here are some of the days right after a night of gently falling snow.
When we had the big snow storm and over 50cm came down our back deck was impossible to walk on and I couldn’t make my way to the bird feeder so I put seed on a plate and placed it on top of the snow as far away from the door as my arms would reach. I was hoping that the birds would see it and fly onto the plate. In fact, it was the grey squirrel who found the plate first and with some difficulty made his way over the deep snow and had quite the feast.
When I say first, I mean the first snowfall with 40 to 60 cm accumulation. Snow days in this city are rare and I remember as a kid and even when I was teaching we would dream of snow days. Buses were often cancelled but schools were open and teachers were expected to go to work. Many teachers who lived north of the city frequently couldn’t make it because the snow conditions were usually worse.
The irony, of course, is that today was the first day kids were supposed to go back to in-school learning.
View from my snowy window this morning My husband clearing the sidewalk in front of our houseNow that he finished our sidewalk we both moved to the other side of the street to work on our neighbours sidewalksI actually like shovelling snow
As pretty as it was, the snow continued into the afternoon and major highways around the city were closed due to high winds, drifting snow and accidents. The message from city hall stresses staying home and staying off the roads. The high winds that are expected in the next hour or so will make the problems worse. I’m happy to stay home and glad that I don’t need to go anywhere. Even if I did I wouldn’t be able to get out of my driveway and when the snow ploughs do finally arrive they will probably push more snow in front of the driveway. No point in stressing. Enjoy the snow for the day.
Birds and squirrels must know when they need to stock up on their food intake. It was a crazy day at the bird feeder and between the birds and the tree rats (my husband’s name for squirrels) the feeder and seeds around the feeder quickly disappeared.