It’s March and in Toronto the temperature has finally climbed well above the minus double digits. It’s been a cold winter. Toronto is not as cold as other parts of the country but it seemed that this year at least we could legitimately share the national pastime of complaining about the cold.

Let’s start again. I went and checked the historical temperatures for December, January and February. February was cold – double digit cold. The other months, not so cold. It looked to me that last year was colder for January at least. But what I remember of last year was not the cold but the snow. What does this tell me.

Cold is relative.

Cold is what others tell you it is.

Let’s take the second point first. If someone tells you something, which you can experience for yourself, who would you believe? This year the weather people kept saying how cold the winter has been, over and over and over. Well, yes it was cold this winter but colder than normal? not according the historical data I looked at. But when you are in the middle it’s hard to see the relativity of it all. So you buy into what you hear. It’s cold out there, really, really, cold. Well yah, duh, it’s winter. What do you expect. Colder than previous years. Well maybe for February but not over all. Perspective is what is needed. Perspective and long underwear.

But now we are into March and the first point comes into play. Spring is around the corner and the glories of having four seasons is unfolding before me. The temperature is above zero, – say 4 to 5 degrees C and what do you see: people running in shorts, people in light jackets, people  out and about. And I love it because I know that if this was November  and it was 4 or 5 degrees, people would be looking for their winter coats, staying in or dragging out their winter running tights. It’s all relative! The temperature is the same but what we feel is so completely different that reality is warped. 5 degrees in November is NOT 5 degrees in March.

Expectations are also different as spring unfolds. One of my daughters is on Vancouver Island and I was talking to her last night.

Me – “The snow is melting like crazy. It’s amazing how quickly it goes.”

Her – “The trees are blossoming here.”

Me – “What?”

Her – “What are those big pink blossoms, sort of like cherry blossoms?”

Me – “Magnolia?”

How on earth can it be so different from one part of the country to the other – the world I can understand but in one country that is supposed to be part of a northern climate! (Of course I understand the meteorological reasons – she’s on an island in the pacific and it’s going to be significantly more moderate there – but really!)

So spring is relative – here in Toronto hope springs in it’s inhabitants breasts and in Victoria it’s already sprung.