Signs of Spring

Minus ten degrees Celsius. That's the average winter temperature in Montreal. If you've ever lived in the northern reaches of the world, you know that statistic is nonsense. Temperature means nothing without a windchill factored in. If you hate the cold as much as I do, it usually feels like minus a million.

Winter in Montreal sucks. Many of my foreign co-workers moved to Canada hearing little else about it other than "It's cold! Haha! We'll think of you when we're on the beach at Christmas, mate!". That said, this past winter has sucked a little less hard than usual. The snow was gone by mid-March. If that doesn't sound remarkable, here's a picture from March 11th 2008:

Montreal approaching spring. Really! Look at all the melting snow on the sidewalk. 

This winter, there weren't very many days where it dipped below -20, let alone -30. This winter, there was never this much snow on the ground at any one time. This winter, my dad didn't get a chance to use the snowblower that March 2008 prompted him to buy. This year, on March 11th, it was 10 degrees ABOVE zero, and people were walking around in shorts and T-shirts.

SO, because I'm a horrible Canadian for loving how early spring has come this year, and thinking that this global warming stuff isn't so bad, I (maybe) lost it a little when I saw the first daffodils blooming in the hospital garden today. I might have cooed. I might have forced Jesse to stop walking, just a second please please I need to take a picture of the flower.

Daffodil. Date stamp: April 19th. It happened. 

Unknown blue flower. The onset of spring has co-incided with the installation of "Hipstamatic", A riotously fun photo app, on my iPhone.

Green grass, green shrubs, spring spring SPRING!!

Spring is wonderful, the same way Fridays are wonderful. Sure, Friday isn't the WEEKEND, but it's great because you're so close you can taste it and since it hasn't started yet you're not sad about how soon it's going to be over.

Maybe I need to live somewhere where it's summer all year round.