It seems that every year about this time, knowing full well we have plenty of winter left, I start thinking about spring activities. Recently, I’ve started to consider possible places to look for morels. I’ve been thinking further ahead too, about other mushrooms I might find in our local woods later in the season. Right now, I’m adding to my mycological knowledge by reading Michael Kuo’s 100 Edible Mushrooms.
At the same time the morels will appear in Ontario, trout will become interested in mayflies like the Ephemerella subvaria – the Hendrickson – and others. Soon I’ll clear the accumulated junk from my tying desk and sit down to tie a few dozen trout flies to imitate these little bugs. I wonder how my river will look in the spring. Each year its just a little bit different. Pools and runs change. Spots that have held good trout for years suddenly don’t look so good and other spots, apparently barren previously, now look very trouty indeed. I always look forward to those first two or three times out at my favourite stretches, getting to know the river again, getting to know the new spots, smelling the river and the forest, taking it all in.
Meanwhile, I’ve shovelled snow exactly once this year and I could have just as easily accomplished it with a broom. The last week or two has been cold, but where is the snow?
27th Street 
The area of Ontario south of Georgian Bay has had a bit less snow than normal. It is all white here and I had to dig out my driveway 3 times so far this year and that is pretty much normal. I dont get too excited about anything less than 4 inches on the driveway, figuring it is better to eventually let it melt that to shovel it. The area right around Lake Ontario has had hardly any. If you go to the Orillia/Muskoka area though it is a whole different story. They had 3 feet in just one storm and that gave them a nice base to start adding to.
I have been putting some deep thought into this global warming thing and I have reached some deep conclusions. The first step in the process is to accept the fact that because of all of the different forces acting on the climate it isn’t possible for climate to remain unchanged. It just has to get warmer or cooler. The planet has already tried out global cooling. Its effects can be seen all over the world with huge basins scraped out by ice age glaciers, much of the life on the planet becoming fossilized as it dies, and things being generally unpleasant for everyone. The other choice is of course global warming. This sounds like a pretty good way to go to me compared to an ice age and I am all for it. Everyone has their shorts in a knot over the possibility of spots like New York ending up under 8 feet of water and polar bears becoming extinct. I think in an ice age we need to worry about more than a few animals becoming extinct. The issue with coastal cities as I see it isnt so much that it is a bad thing as it is that there are too damn many people on the planet. There are almost 7 billion people infesting the globe. I figure the planet can comfortably support maybe 1 billion in a sustainable way. Maybe a bit less. If we don’t address the size of the planet’s population it really isn’t going to matter if New York is there or not. The long term affects of extreme population will be disease, starvation, and war and that will continue until the situation rights itself and we arrive at a number that is sustainable. Once we get the population under control I think folks especially in Canada will learn to like a bit of a warming trend.
where is the snow?
According to my mother…aka The Dragon…it’s in Oldham.
If I get relly lucky the bitch might freeze!!!…;-)
I was just thinking about when to go searching for morels.
The snow is not here (outside of Vancity) either. I do worry about the lack of snow on our mountains, and a potentially very dry, dry summer again. I don’t think it’s a good combination.
Here, we should see morels in the first week or two of May….there, in the land of plenty, I have no idea.
I’ve got the snow!
OK, as long as someone has it. What a relief. Now that we know you have it, it’s ok if you want to keep it for a while.
Who knows where the snow is? It’s not in Vancouver, either!
The lack of snow, while making things easy for drivers and homeowners, is worrisome. I hope your trees will be okay.
It’s never too early to start dreaming of spring.