“Someday we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny.”

And yes that’s from Rosalita by Bruce Springsteen. Sorry for the boomer reference (I HATE “CLASSIC ROCK”), but it fits.

One question I get a lot after our move to Calgary is something like, “oh, winters must be brutal!” Actually, no, and this past one was, aside from a couple of the usual arctic outbreaks (-37 one bitter morning as I recall), really not bad at all. In fact, we only had one below-zero (below-freezing for you Fahrenheit junkies- that’s below 32 degrees) high in all of February. March was lovely too.

It’s not winter that’s brutal. It’s SPRING. April? April can be vicious here, from the unpredicted blizzard of a week and a half ago to the torture chamber we find ourselves in now. Four straight days of snow predicted (starting yesterday), and a high of below zero- it SHOULD be 14, or a very pleasant 57F, this time of year- until next Friday. Basically, a week worse than any we had in February. Sucks.

Here’s some of what I saw today, this after a dump of maybe 10 inches yesterday and more coming in flurries all day today. First, our patio:

Puts you in the mood for a picnic, eh?

You might be wondering how my tulips are doing. They’re under there somewhere:

Before setting out (to shovel snow, again, then off to lunch), I had to don these studded things so I wouldn’t slip on all the unshovelled walkways…

…and then I walked across the street to get this amazing (IMHO) shot of our house through the budding poplar branches:

Beautiful shot if I do say so myself, and it says it all- well, not until you see overexposed me, as the SUN was starting to poke through and making everything blindingly bright:

Ah, me. I can’t deny there’s a brutal beauty here, and the moisture is great. I guess another week won’t kill me, unless I die in a car wreck, which is a distinct possibility.

Stay warm! And shovel your damned sidewalks, Calgarians!