Spring is in the air!

My first trip to Fort McMurray was in March 2007. It was a day of about -20°C with snow flurries and a wind blowing the snow around. I was gasping with the cold (breathe through your nose and you do not cough as much) and in disbelief that anyone would live in such an extreme environment. It was here I met Adrienne. Adrienne was the client counterpart for the work I was to do for the next year. Just a shade under 5ft, she is a dynamo with a bright, cheery smile and an infectious giggle. Not your stereotypical mining engineer!

Adrienne had arranged to give me a lift downtown where we were having dinner. She picked me up in her monster vehicle and chatting happily, pointing out items of interest, we drove off site. This required us driving along the tailings dam between two ponds. Wind was whipping the snow across the road and I was feeling like a subject of David Attenborough’s Life in the freezer”. Adrienne turned to me and in her bubbly manner declared “Can’t you just feel spring in the air?”

I knew then, she was insane.

Fast-forward two years. There remains a metre of snow on our front lawn. The temperatures continue to dip down to -20°C and it snows a couple of times a week. I cannot believe it but I now understand it. Spring is in the air. The snow looks different, it feels different – and it actually even smells different! The trees look like they are thinking about budding and the river is defiantly thinking about breaking. Spring is coming!

In Calgary, the long weekend in May (May 18th in fact) is the weekend we plant our gardens. Prior to then, we can still get dumps of snow and severe frosts. After that weekend we generally don’t. It is the weekend when we can safely declare winter is done. Only another 6 weeks and I can start to defrost. Hurrah!

And as for Adrienne, she is not insane at all. Like Miss Smilla, she just has a feeling for snow!