Spring/Summer at last!

Last Monday, as we made our fifth trip from the rear shed to the newly remodeled front flower bed with one of many armfuls of perennials gleaned from a local garage sale, my husband stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into him. With a look of apprehension on his face he turned to me and said, "It feels so...strange today." He paused, looked slowly around and, with guarded wonder shining from his eyes, said"...it's warm out here!"

Isn't that the truth here in Alberta? When Spring finally comes, it's like summer follows so quickly on it's heels that it almost overuns it and we can scarce believe our good luck! No more parkas and mitts - it's time for flip-flops, t-shirts and all the cream bronzer we can slather on!

Why the cream bronzer you ask?

Well, on the prairies it's been known to snow in August so with that short of a summer facing us we need to get our tans in asap. Just make sure you put it on evenly. There is nothing nastier to look at than orange streaks on lily white arms and legs competing with blue sunblock on the noses that our Hollywood-style sunglasses sit on .

That is unless you count Uncle Leroy's ensemble. Plaid quilted shirt done up to the belly button, a two-hole-in-the-front-t-shirt from "I ate at May's Restaurant" underneath, with a cheap gold rope chain peeking out through a mound of salt and pepper chest hair. His grease stained khaki's are ripped off mid-calf and he wears those grey wool socks with the little red line around the top - one down around one skinny ankle and the other reaching just to the botton of a knobby knee barely covering up a bad case of exzema. Top that off with a pair of faded green alligator cowboy boots with last year's barnyard sludge still on them and a sweat stained, dust dyed Blue-Jays ball cap shoved on top of thin greasy grey hair tied in a 5 day-old ponytail and you have one sad looking camper, yes siree!

So get out there and get the sun while you can - don't worry about sunburn, the snow'll take care of that soon enough!