That’s what I was taught back in Holland. In Holland, April can be a beautiful month. It is the month of tulips, nice weather and…
Rain. Hard wind and sunshine. April has a reputation of always doing what it wants, without giving notice of changes. What about April in Winnipeg?
Winnipeg has no tulip fields. I guess you already know that. In April, Winnipeg is slowly emerging from the arctic cold winter.
Still half frozen, Winnipeg comes back to life. Little by little patios open again, squirrels show themselves again and scold any visitors getting too close to their nests, butterflies appear.
Still a bit timid
The butterflies are already out, albeit only the kind that lives through the winter and wakes up when the temperatures are still far too cold for summer species.
Sunbathing and feeding
There is a small crack in this tree where sweet sap is flowing. All these butterflies were there to take advantage of it.
Esplanade Riel
The Esplanade Riel is again snow free, even if the sky is not the most promising. Everything is still wet, green grass is not yet visible.
Destroyed trees
In Munson Park, the sick trees that were marked for destruction last year are finally cut down and destroyed. They are not even good for firewood because they have Dutch Elm disease. This disease can travel through air to other trees even when the wood itself is being burned. Therefore, they have to be destroyed. Sad but true.
Old burs
The old burs finally start to disintegrate and cling to anything they can to get the seeds farther away from the mother plant.
Housing
Since there are no leaves yet, some housing elements are now visible, waiting for new tenants. In a few weeks when everything is green, nothing of this nest will be visible.
Canada Geese
The geese also came back, announcing spring. Canada Geese never come back to Canada if it is too cold to stay. So, when they arrive, everybody knows that spring is not far away.
You can notice the murky water that gave Winnipeg its name.
Murky water
Of that murky water there is more than enough at the moment. The rivers on the other hand are only supposed to crest in a few weeks. A floody promise.
But like I said, April has its own will. The next day in the same place, the ice was hanging off the branches over the water.
Ice formations
The water being near freezing temperature and the air below zero. This is what you get. Cold freezing your fingers as well as everything else. Personally, I prefer temperatures around –20C, at least through the window from the apartment you can see that it’s cold. No false promises.
Not too long after that, Father Winter came back to shake some more remaining snow out of his pockets.
Snow, heavy and wet
Although the temperatures didn’t drop to winter levels again, it was again cold for a few days. Also, the nice, sunny days were all during the week, while the grey wintery days were for the weekend. And the weekend is the time I go out shooting.
Let’s hope that soon we will get some better weather so we can enjoy the spring.
Small and fragile
Soon spring should be here, the trees start to show us what they will do when the sun is warm enough for them. All is in preparation, now we only have to await the final wishes of Father Winter.
Apart from the lead picture in this post, all pictures were taken in sequence.