The next morning, I awoke to the sound of a small 4-stroke gas engine throbbing under load, hard at work. No doubt a snowblower, struggling to clear the previous day's accumulations. The morning had dawned crisp and clear, with an emphasis on both crisp and clear. The previous days' snowstorm had added a thick blanket of clean, white snow on top of an already massive snowpack. Combined with the bright spring sun, it was incredibly bright outside. The ambient temperature was shockingly cold for the beginning of April: -20 degrees C (-4 F).
Not wanting to miss capturing this strange juxtaposition of seasons, I went outside to take a few photos.
Scenes from January... er, April
Deeper than even in my youth
I would be remiss if I did not make mention of my Mom - the principle driver of our Easter visit. Given that she had been cooped up inside the house for most of the snowy winter and spring, we decided to invite her on an "historic" drive - to an area of North-eastern New Brunswick that figured prominently in her early days in Canada (my Mom is Italian, and immigrated to Canada in the late 1940s).
My Mom's original home upon arrival to Canada was the small Acadian fishing community of Shippagan, positioned way out at the northeastern tip of the province. The area is known for its extensive fishery, especially for crustaceans such as crab and lobster. My family - well before I was born - lived in Shippagan and my father operated a general store there.
courtesy JInnes
Robichaud Residence
It was a beautiful ride past quaint Acadian villages to get to Shippagan. We marvelled again and again at the huge amounts of snow, both fresh and old, lining the highway. Everyone was out snow-blowing their driveways clear, adding yet a bit more to the already sky-high banks.
courtesy JInnes
We elected to continue on past the town of Shippagan, heading as far northeast as we could drive to the tip of Miscou Island. This was the true northeastern end of the province, with nothing but the ocean waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence beyond. Unfortunately, we could not drive right to the tip, owing to the recent dump of snow - the road was actually impassable beyond a certain point. So, we got out and took a few we-were-here shots at the farthest point of travel.
Returning to Bathurst, we spent the rest of the weekend hanging about, enjoying my mom's great home cooking and reminiscing about this or that. I spent a fair bit of time instructing everyone about how to make video calls using Google's hangouts application. I created a very clear set of instructions for my mom, and we did several test runs. I thought that this would be a great way to enhance her interaction with all of us when we were not at home.
courtesy JInnes
We returned back west - to Ottawa - on Tuesday, April 7. Although it had been a short visit, it had been quite filled with activity and excitement. I was glad to have witnessed the snowy conditions - conditions that I can't recall ever occurring at any time during my youth. Truly a remarkably weird and cold winter.
-20C on April 7
By the time we had crossed halfway through the province of Quebec, the snow accumulations had dropped back to nearly nothing - mostly bare ground with a few patches of snow here and there. In other words, relatively typical for this time of year.
Returning to snowless central Canada
I was fairly anxious to get back to Ottawa by a reasonable hour, for back home (if you already don't know) we were in the process of harvesting maple sap from the maple trees in our back yard. I had been watching the forecast, and knew that the current weather in Ottawa had been ideal for sap production. Although Jenn's brother had been caretaking while we had been away, we were concerned that the day's sap production would overwhelm our buckets.
If you would like to read about our maple syrup experiment, you can
click here.
On a final note, here's a short one-minute video of snow-socked northern NB:
A short video of snow-socked Northern New Brunswick - Click on video above to start
