Yep; high temperature records for March -- and even April -- were being broken by as much as 20 Celsius degrees!!! It was back to seasonable temps by Friday, and it's featuring snow squalls and gales right now. We've had one of the least-wild winters in many generations.
Dear Reader, can you say: "Climate change?"
I present some of my favourite 'signs of spring.'
-- Let's begin with the famous line: "In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love," from the poem, 'Locksley Hall,' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Love to read all those rhyming couplets!
-- We study the astronomical sunrise / sunset charts and are encouraged as the days continue to get longer, we set our clocks one hour ahead for Daylight Time and ‘Spring’ appears on the calendar!
-- The flora and fauna start reacting to the increased light and warmer temperatures: buds begin to peek out of branches and shrubs, robins and blue jays appear, and there is a greater variety of bird song.
-- There is a great frenzy in the sports world: curling stages its Canadian national and international finals; local colleges and universities present championships in basketball, volleyball, hockey and a host of other sports; and we who are interested in U-S college sports tune into ‘March Madness’ and the ‘Frozen Four’ elimination playoffs, in basketball and hockey, respectively. (I went to Boston College, so my cheering goes something like, “Go, Eagles!”)
-- Britain sends us the ‘Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race,’ which is a quick and wet adventure down the tricky waters of the Thames River in London, in a scull with eight oarsmen, with coxswain. I enjoy the BBC television coverage from all angles: helicopters, bridges and even from a camera on the boat behind the coxswain! The teams are made up of mostly English crew, with a smattering of Americans and Canadians among them.
-- Major League Baseball begins ‘for real,’ after 6 weeks of training camp and the Grapefruit Leagues. (This year, the Toronto Blue Jays have scored an impressive 19-4-1 record in pre-season! They play in a tough Division: with Boston, New York and Florida, but ... could this be ‘their year’?)
-- Of course, the lengthy Stanley Cup cup playoffs begin (and carry on till June!), and this year they will have to do without The Habs / Le Canadien de Montreal," who are due to finish near the bottom of the standings.
-- Then, there is 'The Masters' golf tournament: each year, we seem to watch most of the final round on Sunday, especially if there are interesting stories. Tiger Woods is back on winning form, so it will be fascinating again this year.
-- A week later, we watch the all-day coverage of the Boston Marathon, and marvel at the number of participants and how well they perform.
-- At our house, of course, the big event of the spring is Easter. We are both heavily involved in parish work, and the next 2 weeks are probably the busiest of the year. We help prepare, carry out and participate in all the liturgies of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. Sometimes, it's difficult to stay a couple of days ahead with our texts, to present liturgies with large numbers of ministers, in our parish church, and two seniors' residences.
This year, at least, we will be able to watch the Masters after all our work is completed!
(Would you believe: the road signs are up already?)
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