I have a bone to pick with Wiarton Willie. It was just over a month ago that southern Ontario’s groundhog pointed his head out of his hole and did not see his shadow — predicting an early end to winter. Yet here we are, with less ten days to go to the late “six more weeks of winter” that the site of his shadow would have foretold and not a single sign of spring in the air. February was officially declared coldest on record by Environment Canada and now the Royal Botanical Gardens has measured 15 inches of ice in Cootes Paradise – basically frozen to the bottom. Methinks that blasted marmot has some ‘splaining to do!
February is always a tough slog. Dark when you leave for work and dark when you come home. But by the beginning of March, things are supposed to start getting better. The sap runs to make maple syrup and maple sugar. The world is full of new beginnings as creeks begin to run freely, trees begin to bud and the birds begin to sing once again in earnest. Usually by now, I can wander out into my garden, move a few leaves aside and see things starting to grow – in fact most years, I’ve got snow drops in beginning to bloom by now, and other early plants starting to peep their heads out of the warming soil.
Not this year.
This year, I still have more than a foot of snow. And thanks to the freezing rain earlier this week, it’s now got a shiny hard surface on top that will slow down any eventual melting – not to mention making everything more slippery than it needs to be. Heavy winter boots and coats are still needed just to have a chance of staying warm. I’ve been fortunate not to be one of the literally thousands who’ve had water pipes freeze and burst, or heating systems fail, but it’s hard to feel fortunate. It’s just too damn cold! Even my dog doesn’t want to go out in this constant arctic chill.
My church choir is practising for Easter, but we joked half-seriously last night that In the Bleak Midwinter might be more appropriate.
Climatologists say that the world’s temperature continues to rise. In fact, Ontario’s ministry of envionment and climate change recently issued a new discussion paper on the subject, reiterating the accepted number 4 – the number of degrees this century the world is on track to warm by and they’re looking for citizen input at in-person consultations scheduled this month or online (shameless plug for my industry: I think nuclear, with it’s CO2-free energy, is part of the solution).
But no matter what the science and our logical selves tell us, global warming is emotionally difficult to conceptualize in the middle of a deep freeze.
I’m ready for a change. Meteorologists are promising a warming trend soon, but I can’t wait. I want to see bicycles and sidewalk chalk, not snowshoes and mittens.. I want to see it in the near future, so let’s band together, kick old man winter to the curb and usher in the warming breezes of spring. Now. Like today. Or sooner. Anyone with me?!
