This week's #ThemeThursday post is brought to you by the word: Arctic
As a kid growing up here in Canada and learning about the far north, I always thought it would be neat to go to the arctic. From the pictures, it looks like a magical winter wonderland almost all I the time! But then winter would actually roll around here and I would be reminded that being cold wasn't really my thing. In fact, if there is such a thing as past lives, I'm fairly confident I must have lived somewhere warmer...like Hawaii or maybe even somewhere on the Mediterranean. Anywho, winter would come and I would spend from November to April wrapping myself in multiple layers, cursing the windchill and praying that spring would arrive quickly!
Now according to many of our non-Canadian friends, Canada IS the arctic. But, while there is an area in the north that falls within the arctic circle, a LARGE majority of the population actually lives nowhere near the arctic circle. That includes all of us right here in Southwestern Ontario. Sure, we have winter, and sure, it's colder here than a lot of places, but a typical winter here is NOTHING in comparison to a real arctic winter.
Two weeks ago, we had the closest taste of an arctic winter that our area has had in over 50 years. Several days of -25 to -35 degree weather with windchills that were significantly colder than that even. Kids couldn't go outside due to the threat of instant frostbite, vehicles wouldn't start, water pipes froze (fortunately for us...just in the barn!) and many people experienced a "frost quake"...it's a real thing...Google it! It was freaking cold! Especially for this past Hawaiian-Italian (clearly I look the part with my translucent skin tone, freckles and red tones in my hair!).
Anyways, as I sat in my warm house (thank you carm and our "fair" division of household tasks), I was thinking about how stupidly cold it was and how i couldn't wait for spring to arrive...my usual winter thought train. But, then in an effort to be more positive, I decided that winter must have been created for a reason, so I tried to come up with a few cool things about winter...here's what I came up with:
1. Winter kills bugs: creepy crawlers but more importantly, germs. Ironic that flu season falls over the winter, but after a really cold snap, what had been ailing people for the previous weeks, suddenly disappears. I learned from a vet that when your calves are sick, you need to make sure you are thoroughly washing the milk feeding equipment with hot water and soap, and then store it in the freezer until the next feeding to kill anything that didn't get washed off...there ya go! Winter kills bad stuff!
2. Snow days: No need for much explanation on this one...everyone knows snow days are AWESOME!
3. Winter Olympics: without winter, there would be no Winter Olympics. As a Canadian and sports nut combined with my overwhelming desire to win things, I LOVE to watch the Winter Olympics. According to the hashtag, #wearewinter so naturally Canadians excell much more at the Winter Olympics than the summer games (not to take anything away from our awesome summer Olympians!)...who doesn't like watching their flag raised while the anthem plays...and this just happens a lot more often at the winter games as Canadians skate, ski and sled their way to victory.
Speaking of sledding, 4. Tobogganing: if you haven't tried it...you must!! You'd think that sliding your way down a hill only to have to trudge back up the hill in all your winter gear and dragging your toboggan with you would get old after the first time down the hill...but it doesn't! Trust me!
5. Water: we are fortunate around here to have many lakes and rivers and overall abundance of fresh water. This is due in large part to our winters. Snow is made of ice and ice melts into water which replenishes our water tables every spring. A snowy winter is always welcomed by the farmers around here for this reason...a winter with not much snow leaves a lot less room for a dry summer and therefore a lot more rain dances need to be performed throughout the summer months. Farmers don't like to dance...so they like snowy winters! Haha
6. Maple Syrup: Yup! Canada's (and Buddy the Elf's) favourite condiment! More than 80% of the world's maple syrup is produced in Canada (mainly in Quebec). There are two vital ingredients to making maple syrup: maple trees and winter...both of which we have here in Canada. I won't go into the science...you can google that.
7. Snowmen: this one came from Miss M. Her daddy is a mean snowman making machine...tradition says that the children roll balls of snow and stack them up and decorate them into Frosty-esque creatures. Again with the competitive nature, Carm can't just build a regular snowman with the kids...his involve loader tractors to lift the giant boulders of snow on top of each other! Clearly that kind of industrial sized snow art can't be done in any other season.
So there you have it! Seven cool things about winter! We don't live in the arctic and thank goodness for that, but we still live where we experience winter and all of the cool (and sometime downright cold) things that go with it!
Now, is it spring yet?
Until next time!
1/9/14 – equal
1/16/14 – arctic
1/23/14 – bottle
1/30/14 – ice cream
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A small side note to your comment about Maple Syrup.. Did you know Lanark County is the Maple Syrup Capital of Ontario! :)
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