Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Dog Days of Winter

         Now I know you'll be saying "dog days of winter!" What's he talking about? I know I'm borrowing very heavily from dog days of summer. I also know that dog days of summer refers to the hot muggy uncomfortable time when the best of summer is over. I also know that for the ancients they knew that the most prominent star at the time was the dog star and that's how we think we got the term "dog days of summer."

       I like to think that we are in a very uncomfortable part of our winter which is slowly moving toward it's end. February here has been brutal this year. We usually think that once we get to February that we will get a cold spell but it won't last long as we will get a mild spell. Not this year. We've just had one long cold spell with only one little break where it was mild enough to thaw. We've had snow cover for 110 days. We have about 50 cm (20in.) of snow on the level. We've had high winds and blowing snow. Blowing snow here in the city is pretty rare.

       So I feel that the term "dog days of winter fits pretty well. I will apologize to dog owners ahead of time if they take offense to me using the term dog in a negative sense. We are all tired of the long cold spell and really look for a break when the forecaster said , "It's going to be a cold spring!" That's too much!

      Now I know I'm ranting and raving. I even changed my mind yesterday about posting such a rant on the weather. I had read a very positive uplifting blog post and for a short time it cheered me up.

    However, I know that spring is soon to appear and our snow will start to melt and all of this will seem like a bad memory. I promise to post about beautiful spring time conditions when they get here.

14 comments:

  1. I don't see the term dog days of winter as negative, it made me think of a puppy with his nose to the cold window saying, come-on Mr Winter lets get on with it, enough is enough, lol.
    I am going to show my paintings at Kerry Wood Nature Centre in July, thanks for putting the bug in my ear about that one, I owe you a big hug! I am pretty excited about that. Also looking forward to checking out Medicine River Sanctuary this spring. Oh and so looking forward to flowers blooming.

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  2. I am fortunately missing the cold and wind in Washington state while being here in Florida. I'm hoping spring will be in progress when I return next week! Dog days of winter is a good phrase, Red.

    Oh, and Babe is doing pretty well. Still sleeping a lot but she has been hydrated and eaten a bit.

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  3. We can only hope that spring will be here soon!

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  4. It has been a relentless winter. Dog days pretty much sums it up. We are finally starting to get a reprieve though and our days are getting a tad warmer and longer. I am very happy about it too.

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  5. When my neighbor puts the boots on her puppy, the puppy just stands in the middle of the living room and won't move!
    I look forward to seeing your show when it comes to KWNC.
    I keep telling the southern bloggers that we start later but we catch up in a hurry because we have longer hours of sunlight.

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  6. If I was in Bellingham right now I'd think it was spring already!
    Good luck with the new puppy.

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  7. Thanks for dropping in to visit Hiawatha House. Spring will come when it's ready so I'll have to be patient.

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  8. My daughter is impatient to get out in the yard. Most of their snow is gone. I think she's still on Alberta spring time. When it comes here it's fast and we get much more daylight than you do.

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  9. I like this term a lot. Dog days of summer is the time when summer is very entrenched, as is winter now. It's seeped into our bones.

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  10. Although Dog days of summer isn't that common any more, it has a long history that was a surprise to me when I looked the term up.

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  11. Dog days is a very logical way to describe these remnants of winter. I've had enough too.. but really, it can't be too much longer. I hope.

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  12. You might have remanents , but I've got the whole deal!! Pardon my whining!!
    Actually I'm a winter person so I still want to get insome more cross country skiing .

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  13. We're into cat days. Oliver just captured another red squirrel. We've had a dump of snow! Good for you in venturing out. I'm so behind in my blog reading.
    Thanks for visiting!

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  14. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who gets behind with blogs. I will have to learn to be more efficient, but the whole blog experience is quite rewarding.
    I don't mind cats beating up on the odd squirrel but I draw the line when it comes to birds unless it's house sparrows.

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