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Spring rituals arrrive

I joined countless other drivers this past weekend driving east through Couchiching and then over the Noden Causeway to see what shape Rainy Lake ice was in. By late Friday evening, the ice had retreated deep into Sand Bay and the inside channel along the 7 Mile Bridge was opening up.
North of the causeway, the ice had turned almost a midnight black. Where the ice road had been this winter, a black slick of water curved north. From the fixed railway bridge to the Causeway an opening in the ice just over a boat was visible.
By Sunday, Commissioner’s Bay was open, and the ice had retreated farther east in Sand Bay.
Checking the ice is my spring ritual. This year the anticipation of ice out and getting to the cabin has taken on a whole new meaning. My sister announced Monday morning that she had heard that we could make our way to Turtle Island by boat. Her neigbour Brian Keffer had announced that you could go walleye fishing in Rainy Lake on Sunday.
The walleye season does not close until the 15th of this month.
Susan Taylor let us know that the 2010 river swimming season has begun. Youth were seen jumping into the river from the docks. In normal years, only persons unfortunate enough to break through the ice the first weekend in April went swimming.
While parts of Ontario basked in plus 29 temperatures on the Easter weekend, our temperatures didn’t break 20.
Yes the temperatures have been unseasonably warm. Yes the green shoots of grass are rising through the brown thatch of last years grass. Yes the weeds seem to be outpacing the start of new grass. And yes again, the barbecue season is well underway.
The tulips jumped up through the soil in my yard over the weekend and I suspect that the way they are growing will bring an earlier than usual tulip display to my yard.
This past Easter weekend found people out in the yards do their annual cleanup. Trees were being trimmed, lawns raked, pop cans and bottles were being picked up from under shrubs and bushes. And a whole new crop of youngsters were out riding their new bicycles with training wheels.
My Alpine Currant shrubs are bursting out into green as are my Cotoneaster bushes and Spirea. It is the earliest ever for them to bud out. The ground is dry and I wonder if I should be watering my lawn and the cedar bushes I planted late last summer.
Kitchen Creek opened the links to golfers this past weekend.
There is an extreme fire danger across the district.
Spring has arrived much quicker than we had anticipated.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher