I may have mentioned from time to time that I live in Canada. Just the mere mention of this country to some people sends them into spirally daydreams of us living in igloos, eating moose, and wearing big heavy parkas and snow shoes while there is 6 feet of snow on the ground.

While I will be the first to admit that moose is in fact rather tasty, it’s not a common delicacy on this side of the country. We prefer instead to purchase half a cow and throw it into our freezers.  And the 6 feet of snow? Thankfully not here, though some of my family members are not so lucky on the east coast.

I live in Victoria, British Columbia. The weather here is, well, um….unpredictable? Take last Thursday for example. In the space of two hours as I sat here and read my book and glanced out the window, I saw sun then hail then sun then rain then snow then hail then sun then rain then snow again. The saying here is “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes” and it’s very true.

When I first moved here from New Zealand in 2001, I found it to be incredibly balmy a good portion of the year. In fact, the weather is rather a lot like the weather in Auckland. I paraded around all year in my flip flops like some sort of hero that was hell bent on converting the rest of the world. I rarely wore a jacket, unless it was raining. My stepmother constantly complained it was cold and I informed her that she was a wimp and went about my day.

Now, 7 years later, I find myself wearing a jacket from October through to May. Gone are the days of the year round flip flops and you can go screw yourself if you think you are getting me to wear anything but pants until June. I believe this is a phenomenon known as “acclimatization”? I now live in pants, fleece sweaters and either my running shoes or my Ugg boots (authentic ones from NZ!).

Fashion faux pas aside though, I really am grateful for living on this side of the country where I rarely have to deal with more than 6 inches of snow, and even that melts after two days. The rain can be a bit tiresome after the 26th straight day of downpours, and the wind knocks over fences once in awhile, but it’s a nice city. We live on an island and it’s fantastic.

It is green here all year round and that’s a happy thing. I used to think my father was insane because wherever he went, he took his camera. Then he would sit us all down for a picture show and instead of seeing cool pictures of homeless people cuddling their dogs or loving couples having a fist fight in the park, there were millions of pictures of flowers and trees and birds. Bloody nature lover. I had no idea my dad was so deep.

Somehow, this penchant for nature pictures has rubbed off on me and I find myself with more pictures of ducks and flowers than I do of the hellions. But they’re awfully pretty aren’t they??