I love this time of the year. It’s wonderful, it’s magical.
Nope, it’s not Christmas (although it still looks like it outside).
And it’s not back to school either. It’s not even Halloween (my favourite holiday).
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know what time of the year it is. It’s Roll Up the Rim to Win time!
Every year, the arrival of spring is heralded, not by warmer temperatures or longer days, but by Tim Horton’s yearly coffee contest. It’s a uniquely Canadian lottery. Up for grabs every spring are millions of dollars worth of prizes from free coffee and donuts, all the way up to cars and plasma televisions.
Timmies!
Our prairie prognosticator, Balzac Billy and his shadow aren’t our main predictor’s of spring. Oh no. The only way you know spring is truly around the corner is when the bright red cups come out.
February is typically our coldest and snowiest month of the year here in the foothills. And this year has been brutal. We received two separate dumps of over a foot of snow this month, and the temperature has been hovering between -10 and -20 C, which makes for a treacherous drive in to work. I’ve practically lived in my snow pants these last few weeks as I need them to keep warm on the walk to work. But spring is on the way. At least that’s what my coffee cup tells me.
Two feet of snow and a single rutted lane
I’m eagerly awaiting the signs of winter being over so I can start my seeds indoor. This year, I want to try my hand at cucumber and peppers. The deer and jackrabits around these parts come in mobs, so instead of building a garden at ground level, I’m going to test drive a small porch garden and see how that works. I just have to wait for the porch to thaw and the signs to appear.
Someone left a cake on my porch table
What are ‘the signs’, you ask? I think here in the foothill’s they’re unique to the region.
1. Fire in the sky.
During winter, the sunsets are pastels and subdued due to more ice crystals in the atmosphere. In the springtime, we receive an abundance of chinooks–warm winds that create arcs of clouds that turn brilliant and fiery at sunset.
Pastels in winter, fiery skies in spring
2. The jackrabbits turn brown before the snows melt.
These little buggers are everywhere, but oddly I don’t have any pictures of them. Jackrabbits are one of the three banes of every foothills gardener, the other two being ground squirrels and white-tailed deer (and the occasional moose).
The neighbourhood meese
3. Frost
I know it sounds weird: frost means spring? Here on the leeward side of the Rocky Mountains, our air is bone dry in the winter. It’s not until the temperature warms up enough to bring melt water into the atmosphere that we’ll get frost. We may have warm nights and warmer days, but the frost won’t come until humidity reaches the magic number. The magic number means spring.
So I’m keeping an eye out for my signs of spring. Late February and early March are typically when we start to see them. Until then, I’m cuddling up with my double-double and keeping the luck warm. Maybe I’ll win a TV this year. I’ll be happy with a free coffee, though.
That’s what makes this time of year so much fun!
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