Spring???

Most years, when spring is in the air, I get a distinct mood of optimism.  The snow begins to melt and ponds form and the runoff is underway.  Normally docile prairie creeks become raging rivers of meltwater runoff for a few weeks.  The return of the migratory birds adds to the air of rebirth.  This year it doesn't feel quite the same... for two reasons.  The weather has been really crappy, and we have the Corona virus pandemic on our hands.

Last week, for a couple of days, the sun game out and the weather really warmed up.  On Thursday it was really nice, and I understand that out west in the foothills it got as high as +17C.  The spring thaw seemed to be getting underway.  As I drove out to the cottage on Good Friday I noticed the creeks starting to run, and saw a lot of birds.  I saw ducks, Canada Geese, swans, Red Tail Hawks, crows, and several flocks of starlings.  It was looking as though spring was about to finally arrive, although the mood was definitely tempered by all the issues with the Corona Virus Pandemic.  Then Friday evening it started to snow.  We got at least five inches of fresh snow overnight out at Nordegg and when I got up on Saturday morning, it looked more like Christmas than Easter.  So far it has continued to snow off and on through Saturday.

The girls spent the past week out at the cottage while I stayed home alone and went in to work.  It has become a very strange world.  Many businesses are closed and there is very little traffic on the roads.  The few people that are working are involved in businesses that are deemed essential I suppose.  Although there has been a real lack of information on the part of the government.  No one has approached my company and questioned anything, or provided any instruction as to whether or not we can continue to operate.  In a sense we are somewhat essential as we are providing protective screens for other businesses.  Plus, we only have nine employees in a big shop of 14,000 square feet so maintaining safe distances is relatively easy.

Most people are staying home and isolating.  I see lots of people going out for walks around the neighborhood.  It will definitely be quite some time before things begin to return to normal.  In the mean time, the ominous threat of the virus, and the winter like weather, have really destroyed the usually optimistic spring mood.
While I was out at Nordegg over the Easter weekend, I installed the upper cabinets in our kitchen, and put the fir slab into our bay window.  It was pretty laid back and that's all I seemed to accomplish over the whole weekend.  I was hoping to get out for a bit with my camera, but the weather was so crappy that I never got around to it.  Can hardly wait to return to the work week back at the shop...!
Easter was very different this year.  The girls still had an Easter egg hunt... but Easter dinner this year consisted of pizza.....