Thanks to my dear Japanese's friend for this post. We share the same passion for gardening so we were both happy when the spring started. She wrote this post when the snow was starting to melt. Hopefully now the weather is becoming more interesting for gardening so we are both looking forward to start working in the garden.
I'am so happy to share her perspective as a Japanese woman who is married to a Canadian man. Enjoy. 😉
It is the middle of March. People are anxiously waiting for spring at this time, especially me from the south of Japan. I feel that people in Canada have a different image of “SPRING” than mine. “SPRING” for me is about blooming flowers, picnics at the park and temperatures around 20 ℃ degrees in the sun. But in Canada it is melting snow, continuing cool weather, and even freezing temperatures overnight. I want to say it is still winter but my husband's uncle says, “spring has about three months, from March to May, repeating cool (cold!) and warm days, melting the snow completely and slowly warming up. I got the idea and I like it that Canadian people enjoy the processes or changes of spring.
This is my fourth spring since moving to Canada. I noticed some other slight differences from my country so I would like to write about them. I chose three things Canadian people do when spring comes.
First, they start biking with family members right away. I suddenly see a lot of people biking as soon as the snow melts on the road, and often even before. They enjoy biking as a hobby and exercise more. In Japan bicycles are more like a means of transportation to go to schools or offices, or to pick up children from daycare like cars here. (I should say there are people who enjoy biking as a hobby in Japan, too.)
Secondly, Canadians start barbecuing immediately! You can see smoke from each house and smell the BBQs; it makes us hungry when we go out for walks around 5 p.m. They have BBQs just as ordinary daily home cooking. In my country barbecues are popular too, but they are a very special outdoor meal that we enjoy for a party or when out camping.
Finally, Canadians start gardening at the first sign of spring. I think they need to clean up their gardens first of all since it often snows before they even have finished cleaning up the autumn leaves. Also, you’ll see some garbage that has remained frozen under the snow for months. Then they plant vegetables and hang out flower pots. My husband is so anxious to plant the garden that he sometimes plants too soon and the young sprouts die in the cold. But Canadians seem to try to enjoy this season 200%. I totally understand the feeling because I am also suffering from the long cold winter. Japanese people also enjoy gardening in spring with 100% but they cannot compete with excited Canadians.
Every spring I look forward to seeing if people do the three things above. And then I say to my family, “See? People are biking, barbecuing and gardening!.”
One more thing to add is that many Canadian people, especially the young, go out in short sleeve T-shirts and shorts much sooner than I would expect. When it is still only around 10 degrees, Canadians are out enjoying the weather as if it were the middle of summer!
Spring makes me feel everything is going well. We are still in a pandemic but “ÇA VA BIEN ALLER.” (that is the expression you see everywhere in Quebec.) I will just enjoy the three things as Canadians do in spring.
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
— Margaret Atwood
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