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.
3 comments:
Can always come back for a visit, y'know!
I think you've been to one too many Novus Ordos.
Hilary,
I 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.
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