April (snow) Showers
Central Ontario, especially around Georgian Bay, can be very beautiful once spring arrives. Trouble is, she arrives late for the party, & then turns up at your front door all breathless & rather hot.
In Meaford it's not unusual to have snow on more than one occasion during this month of April, & in Toronto, at least once. I have set up the "My Yahoo" page to show the weather in London, Meaford, Toronto, Melbourne & Omaha. Today it was 8 degrees C in Meaford & Toronto, while Omaha was at 23 C. This is typical for this time of year I believe, but still a surprising difference for less than 250 miles of vertical geography.
March & early April are the least visually attractive months around Meaford - the snow is almost gone, but everything still looks dead. Brown & beaten down by 4 months of snow.
By comparison, Omaha is very pleasant now. We've turned off the heating in the house, & already you see quite a few people wearing shorts as they shop. I wore mine over the weekend, too. But this pleasant temperature was accompanied by the strong winds which come up from the dust-bowl country of Kansas to the south. When it rains, as it did, your car gets dirty quite quickly.
The 3 or 4 weeks of mild weather have brought spring here in reality. Our neighbour got his lawnmower going on Sunday, & as I look out my window onto the golf course, the grass is very green. This has changed colour in the last week. During the same period, flowering trees have made themselves noticed. Omahanians (is that what they're called?) don't go in for magnolias much, (although I've seen a few) but seem to prefer cherry trees - mostly white but also some pink ones. And suddenly they've all come into bloom it seems. Now it's a pleasure to drive around & observe the pockets of white trees among the greenery.
Omaha has lots of green space, & the general impression is of comfortable roominess. Houses are set well back from roads, & shopping centres are well landscaped with sensible access roads. Canada could take notice of this to it's advantage. Sometimes the grass verges are 100 feet wide, & that's where I first noticed the flowering trees & shrubs like forsythia.
In Meaford it's not unusual to have snow on more than one occasion during this month of April, & in Toronto, at least once. I have set up the "My Yahoo" page to show the weather in London, Meaford, Toronto, Melbourne & Omaha. Today it was 8 degrees C in Meaford & Toronto, while Omaha was at 23 C. This is typical for this time of year I believe, but still a surprising difference for less than 250 miles of vertical geography.
March & early April are the least visually attractive months around Meaford - the snow is almost gone, but everything still looks dead. Brown & beaten down by 4 months of snow.
By comparison, Omaha is very pleasant now. We've turned off the heating in the house, & already you see quite a few people wearing shorts as they shop. I wore mine over the weekend, too. But this pleasant temperature was accompanied by the strong winds which come up from the dust-bowl country of Kansas to the south. When it rains, as it did, your car gets dirty quite quickly.
The 3 or 4 weeks of mild weather have brought spring here in reality. Our neighbour got his lawnmower going on Sunday, & as I look out my window onto the golf course, the grass is very green. This has changed colour in the last week. During the same period, flowering trees have made themselves noticed. Omahanians (is that what they're called?) don't go in for magnolias much, (although I've seen a few) but seem to prefer cherry trees - mostly white but also some pink ones. And suddenly they've all come into bloom it seems. Now it's a pleasure to drive around & observe the pockets of white trees among the greenery.
Omaha has lots of green space, & the general impression is of comfortable roominess. Houses are set well back from roads, & shopping centres are well landscaped with sensible access roads. Canada could take notice of this to it's advantage. Sometimes the grass verges are 100 feet wide, & that's where I first noticed the flowering trees & shrubs like forsythia.
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