I think it is amazing that you can still appreciate snow in February, because I imagine you are getting to that place where winter seems eternal.
Yes, that's very true -- it does begin to feel eternal sometime in late January. At that point, we've usually had about 3 months of cold weather and snow, and have about 2 more months to go. Up here, it's almost necessary to make a real effort to cope with winter, especially at this point. The good thing is that the days are getting longer and the sun is noticeably warmer. For example, this morning it's -15 F, but we've had a great sunrise -- a huge bright sun with a warm, orange-rose band along the horizon, blending up into an impossibly blue sky. At this time of the year, even on very cold days like today, if you're walking on a sheltered trail with your back to the sun, you'll still feel the warmth through all the layers of your clothes. It certainly gives you a greater appreciation for how much we depend on the sun just for our existence.
Many people up here, ourselves included, are very active in winter sports such as cross-country or downhill skiing, snowboarding, skating, snowshoeing, ice-sailing, or even dog-sledding. In late January and throughout February, there are all kinds of winter carnivals on in the cities and towns in our colder regions. Winterlude is happening in the nearest city and thousands of people come from all over to skate on the frozen canal system which is maintained as a huge skating rink that is several miles long and winds through the center of the city and out to one of the two university campuses. When I was at university, a lot of my friends used to skate from their appartments downtown, out to the university for their classes each day. At just about any given time, there will be hundreds of people gliding along the canal, day or night as they have lighting all along most of its length, and the underneath of the bridges above are decorated with white Christmas lights. There are little winter cafes at intervals along the ice throughout Winterlude and even before and after as there are so many people using the canals from the time they are opened until the close with the spring thaws. They sell hot coffee, chocolate, soups and the local favourite -- "Beavertails" which are sort of like a big, thick, flat pastry...sort of like a flattened crueller, with cinnamon, maple syrup or other toppings. Lots of calories to give you some energy to burn off as you skate from the Parliament Buildings out to Dow's Lake and back. (-:
This weekend, there are dog-sled races on in a forest trail system near my area, and last weekend there was a major cross-country ski tournament where competitors ski from village to village through the Gatineau Hills -- a distance of about 50 miles or so.
For people who aren't so much into winter sports (or even those who are), there are international ice sculpting and snow-sculpting competitions with the finished sculptures displayed in plazas around the National Arts Centre -- these having coloured lighting arranged to show them off, and music that goes on late into the night for the many people who come downtown to wander around enjoying them.
In winter, the galleries run a lot of shows, and there's quite a bit happening with music and theatre. The musems usually put on major exhibitions -- the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display at one of the museums at the moment. The downtown pubs and cafes are usually packed with people who sit around drinking beer or coffee and playing chess and backgammon. Everyone seems to find a way to cope with winter one way or the other -- whether outside involved in winter sports as we are, or indoors hanging out in cafes and bookshops.
The funny thing is that we quickly convert to our summer mode as soon as the snow disappears. The cafes open up their outdoor tables and everyone moves outside for the summer. Restaurants switch over to summer menus with lots of crunchy vegetables and salads. The Tulip Festival happens sometime in May, with tulip plantings all along the canals in bloom. People trade in their skates for their jogging shoes and bicycles and move onto the bicycle and jogging paths that wind along both sides of the canal past the flower beds. People like us trade in their snowshoes for their hiking boots, sailboards, sailboats, kayaks or canoes and take off for the hills, forests, lakes and rivers. In the city, over summer, there's a Dragonboat race weekend, a beach volleyball tournament (one of the biggest in the world, which is a fundraiser for the region's children's hospital). There are outdoor jazz, blues, and folk music festivals, and theatre perfomances in a couple of the parks on many evenings throughout summer.
Many people from here will tell you that they live here for the quality of life..the ability to be outdoors -- up in the Gatineau hills (low mountains) -- you can actually walk or bike up into them within a few minutes from the city..or about 15 minutes by car to the very top where there are hiking and ski trails and lakes for paddling. The whole region is surrounded by lakes, rivers, and forests, so this really is an place to enjoy the outdoors.
The thing is, it's not the place for everyone. To truly enjoy living here, I think you may have to love the outdoors a great deal. Some people come here and absolutely hate the winters, or find out summers too hot and humid. They soon move some place else. Our friends from Holland who occasionally come to visit us, always remark on what outdoors addicts we all are, and how the people of our city almost seem like two civilizations...the Winter People and the Summer People. I don't really know why we're like this, but I think the radical variations in our climate causes many of us to push life to the limit to get the most out of the changing seasons.
croc |
