I live in Canada — the true north strong and free, a nation of ‘nice’ people, of wide open spaces, abundant resources and the strangest mess of weather you can find.
In my corner of the country, we have so far revelled in an unseasonably lovely autumn. Temperatures have been pleasing, on some days even balmy. Leaf raking has been done in t-shirts and there was even a late October campfire with the neighbours.
The urgency that typically happens as we try to put away the outdoor furniture and batten down the hatches for winter to blow in, just hasn’t been there. Though there was a tiny trace of snow a few weeks ago, it soon disappeared and a calm complacency has settled instead.
Not to be confused with denial, of course. In Canada we know that the weather changes in a heartbeat. If it rained yesterday, it might snow today and tomorrow could promise sunshine and warmth. Clouds can scurry overhead, ominous predictors of inclement changes, while a mile or two out of town the sun is blazing, the sky clear.
When it comes to weather, variety is the word that comes to mind. No more so than in this country. We can live in the deep freeze of winter for six months some years, four another. Our world can turn milk bottle white with blizzard after blizzard, or we can enjoy my favourite — an open winter.
Spring can be wet and late, or arrive full of life right on cue. Summer brings the best and the worst with sunshine and intense heat, gentle showers and frightening storms. Autumn can be as sparkling as the sun on a dewdrop, or as bleakly depressing as missing the lottery by one number.
This all kind of gets me thinking about a quote I once heard, something about if you’re not liking the weather, just wait a minute or two and it will change. No matter what you might be looking for, though, you can find it in these terrific collections of weather clipart:
