The May 24th Long Weekend!

This is the official end of winter and the beginning of summer. Really we only have the two seasons in Alberta, as spring and fall are just transition periods that are impossible to predict whether the weather will be warm or cold. You just can’t count on the weather at all.

 

The May long weekend is the weekend that in years before Covid heralded the beginning of camping season. Before we had kids and shortly after we had kid, Louise and I would always go to Waterton Park in the south of Alberta for a long weekend of camping. There must have been some really good weather, but all I remember is huddling around the campfire in the rain and every now and then pushing up on the tarp to get rid of the pool of water that had accumulated since the last time I pushed up on the tarp. 

Sometimes we would huddle around the campfire and watch the snow fall. We were young and the campground smelled wonderfully of smoke and or pine. Often Lake Crandell would look like an extremely large Slurpee. The ice had slivered and hadn’t yet melted, remaining somewhere between solid and liquid. Not a place to swim unless you happened to be a fish.

 

One year , the year Arwen was born, we went camping with friends and on the Monday morning we woke up to the cars, tents, picnic table and pretty much everything in the forest covered in a thin layer of ash. I assumed it was one of the assholes in a Motorhome that made the fire so big they could see it from inside while playing cards. Firewood was free back then. On the drive home we learned that the ash was from the Mount St. Helen’s volcanic eruption. The news that week was very interesting.

 

The May long weekend is also the weekend that the good people of Calgary plant their gardens. It might still be a little early, but it’s certainly worth the risk. I have been moving the plants we bought in and out of the garage for two weeks now. If you don’t get your plants early, you don’t get your plants. We went to buy a couple of extra plants today and found that the more delicate plats died from the below freezing nights we have been having. The big box stores don’t have the ability to move the plants inside at night I suppose.

 

Tonight will be the last sub zero night for a while and I feel confident that once in the ground my plants will be alright. They may not be, but I am willing to take the chance. Worst case scenario the plants die and I have some expensive things to add to the compost bin. Everything should be fine, barring a mountain exploding.