The View From Here (Part One)

There’s a few great things about my Montreal life.  One of them is simply the view I have from my front room.  I know lots of people in this city and in the whole world have way better views than me.  But, I have been enjoying the heck out of mine for a few years now.  From here, I can see the shiny buildings of downtown, have a clear view of Mont Royal and the St. Joseph’s Observatory.  There is the added bonus of the highway just outside, providing hours of vehicle-watching, seeing accidents nearly happen on the highway just outside.  Haha.  I sit out on my front balcony for 3 seasons, watch my plants grow, listen to my pot-head neighbors as they party a few balconies over, pull up my head from my book to the sound of cars honking.  In summer, I can see the fireworks from the International Fireworks Competition (but only the ones that go really high).  I can see Mont Royal turn from brown/grey to that baby-bright green in spring, to full dark green in summer, over to yellow and red in the fall.  And then when winter hits, I sit inside and watch the snow fall, looking out at the highway, glad to not be driving one of those cars I see out on the road.  I snuggle under a blanket with the purring cat, and feel grateful.  (Yes, you might have noticed, I am easily pleased.)

However, now, it is March.  The only month of the year that I regularly wonder: “WHY didn’t I move further south?  Why oh why oh why?”  I’m ready to head out to the balcony again.  Cabin fever is setting in, and the wacky weather has begun.  Single-digit (Fahrenheit) cold one day, things are melting the next day for a few hours, then whatever melted turns back into ice.  Then they predict a snowstorm, and it’s back to winter with 20 cm of snow.  Two days later, it’s a sunny day.  The sunlight lasts until after you leave work (miraculous!) and you begin to notice that the days, in fact, are actually getting longer.  And now that the U.S. government decided in 2007 to extend Daylight Savings time, this modern miracle of screwing with time happens even sooner.  (In fact, we’re almost there!)  By the way:  thank you to the Canadian government for also adapting the new Daylight Savings time. 

However, this is still March.  To me, the month of eternal torture.  The temperatures hover around the freezing point, above and below, above and below, rarely shooting high enough to give actual hope.  March.  It’s supposed to ‘come in like a lion and go out like a lamb,’ but I’ve noticed that ever since I moved to various northern locations near or north of the Canadian border ten years ago, that this isn’t really true.  Where is the lamb?  Somewhere in April, the lamb shows up.  Until then, it’s simply daydreams of sitting out on the front porch, quietly plotting my new container garden, literally dreaming of soil and basil plants.  At least we have St. Patrick’s Day to look forward to.  Green beer, anyone?