Actually, although most dumb Americans seem to think Canada is a land of perpetual ice and snow, I grew up in a part of it that rarely saw more than an inch or two. Victoria is (was) a little island paradise and has a micro-climate that is supposed to be similar to the Mediterranean. (Well, having lived now for a few months in a real Mediterranean climate, I can say that this is something of an exaggeration). We would get snow for a couple of hours a year and it was such a rare thing that all work and school stopped so people could rush out and play in it as fast as they could before it melted.
Nevertheless, I have lived in places with a bit of snow: the NWT, Halifax. I learned to use snowshoes in high school gym class and yes, I've driven a dog sled... for about 50 meters. I did a bit of cross-country skiing (never down hill, people get killed doing that crazy stuff).
I've hunted ptarmigan in the winter and used a snare line to catch rabbits. (When you go check the snares in the morning, the bunnies have usually been dead for quite a while. You pick them up by the foot and they're stiff as boards. Bunnysicles. Haw.)
I've even ice-fished two miles out from shore on the Great Slave Lake.
And I miss it. I really do.
Snow and cold.
Can always come back for a visit, y'know!
ReplyDeleteI think you've been to one too many Novus Ordos.
ReplyDeleteHilary,
ReplyDeleteI grew up outside of Buffalo, where every night, when the TV station signed off, they'd play "O Canada" first, with pictures of The Falls, and then "The Star-Spangled Banner," with, er, pictures of The Falls.
I can recite "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by heart.
In college, my major was History, my minor, are you ready?...Canadian Studies.
I once visited Ottawa, went to Parliament Hill and sat at the Cabinet table, in...Joe Clark's chair! (I'm giving away my age).
Canada's a swell place, but unless you're prepared for a life of the Nervous Ordish and none other, stay right where you are.