The vagaries of spring

Good-bye tulips -- hello irises!

 Canadian spring is a bit of a tease. This year, it started out cool, then turned a lot wet and even gave us a peak at the summer yet to come by hitting 40 degrees C with the humidity (to my American friends, that means freaking hot). And it still has a few weeks left to throw something new at us.

Unfortunately for the people in the midwestern US, this crazy spring weather has proven fatal with killer tornadoes tearing up entire towns. That's a pretty scary thing and my heart goes out to those people. The 26th anniversary of the Barrie tornado occurred on Tuesday and, to this day, I still have the occasional dream where I end up in a twister (which could also be caused by the small dog curled up in my legs).

Japanese tree peonies

Blooming and blown over

Who else gets screwed up by this whacky weather? Animals (both inside and out), weather forecasters and, of course, my garden. It's hilarious to watch my cat, who spent the majority of Tuesday outside basking under the shade of my raspberry bushes, come streaking back into the house after 30 seconds in the cool, windy weather today. Even the birds weren't enough to tempt her to stay outside. And the birds went ahead and hatched all their eggs thinking, "Hooray, summer is here", only to get practically blown out of their nests by the herculean gusts of wind that sprang up.

Beautiful rhododendrons

I guess that's the most appropriate way to put it, too. Everything "springs" up in this season -- flowers, babies, wind and rain, weeds, poison ivy, potholes and idiots on motorcycles. Although sometimes, I think the motorcyclists drive like idiots to avoid the potholes so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. My garden is blossoming at an alarming rate. Tulips are gone and irises have opened. Peonies have popped up and my rhododendrons are blooming (that $8 fertilizer stuff actually worked, thank you Toronto Rhododendron Society). Of course, here are the requisite photos.

Roxie rolling around at Sunnidale

As for my indoor friends, their appetites seem to have increased alarmingly. Fry, our adult iguana, just about bit my hand off today when it was feeding time at the zoo. This was after his initial meal and a healthy snack. Our tortoise, Lebowski, inhaled all his food instead of just walking in it. I did the cricket thing and practically had the lizards jumping as high as the insects when I opened their cages. Not only that, but the lizard couples have been chasing each other around their cages which makes the cat and the snakes crazy. What a frisky bunch!

Bathing beauties, Della and Victoria, at Tollendale Park

Of course, the other thing affected by the summer-like spring weather, is fashion. All of a sudden, girls are wearing short shorts and boys are going topless. Unfortunately, sometimes these fashions are adopted by older, less svelte, people who should save those things for the privacy of their backyard. White trash is so last century. Then there's the beach, where anything goes. It's kind of like a parade of pale, cheesy flesh that becomes red, blotchy skin after a couple of hours. But that's Canadians for you. The first time the temperature hits 15 degrees, the shorts are out of the closet. We like to stretch our summer out as far as we can.

It's June and time to get those bodies into beach condition. Or, if you're too lazy like me, grow bigger flowers so you can hide out in your yard!