Fractured Fairytales

Winter has finally relinquished its hold on Peterborough. The temperature has been above zero for a week and patches of grass (actually more mud than grass) and garbage are starting to show through the snow.

Laura and I have been opening our windows to air out the apartment. It is amazing what a difference air makes when it is carrying a subtle scent of spring. We are by no means expecting to see buds on the trees in the next week or so, and yet, there is still a different feel and smell to the air. It`s almost as if Peterborough is poised, waiting, ready for the arrival of spring.

I can`t help but be reminded of the opening chapter of `The wind in the willows`when I catch a whiff of spring in the air and like Mole I can`t help but want to shout `hang spring cleaning`and rush out without even putting on a coat.

Peterborough becomes a lovely town when the first breeze of the spring is carried through on the Otonabee. The wind carries an inviting promise of the lilacs and wild strawberries. Children begin to sneak out the back door of their homes in the morning in order to get away with wearing shorts to school in the middle of March.

The combination of Scottish-Irish heritage in the area that I grew up in has created an interesting mixture of foolhardy and cheap children. As a result, instead of packing away shorts, t-shirts and sandals during the nine and a half to ten months of winter weather (what a waste of hard-earned money), the people in this area have simply adapted to having blueish appendages for the months of March-June and October-December. In fact, you could crop a photo of student in the Peterborough area walking to school in December and photoshop it into a background from Bermuda and no one would even notice that the student was out of place.

A friend and I once had a competition in high school to see who could get the closest to Christmas wearing just sandals on his feet (obviously we would not be wearing socks, fashion does matter people!). Talk about sophisticated diversion tactics that were used to avoid walking directly in front of Mom as I headed out the door to the bus.

Right, spring. So I am considering heading out for a walk...anything really that is better than whitewashing or writing papers will do.

I think that I will hold off on the shorts until I can do a bit of discreet tanning. The other issue with Scottish-Irish heritage is that, in the four months or so when people are wearing vacation apparel without seeing a UV rating high enough to bother an Albino is that their legs and feet the glare from their legs has a tendency to harm people`s vision.

The other issue is that with only one real exit in our apartment, Laura is sure to notice the white flash as I crawl out of the bedroom window with my shorts on.

Tot Ziens.