March Break

This week is March Break for school kids here in Ontario.  It's also referred to as "Spring Break" on the calendars, and on Monday and Tuesday we had some beautiful spring weather. 

 

I took my son and a friend to the Metro Toronto Zoo on Monday, and I was quite comfortable in a spring coat (with a wooly scarf & gloves!) the entire day.  The sun shone down on us as we navigated the heaps of snow everywhere and admired the new animals at the zoo. 

 

The polar bears had a new baby named Humphrey, and on Monday he was exactly 4 months old (about the size of a golden retriever).  I didn't want to have the heavy camera around my neck all day, so I don't have any photos of him ... trust me, he was adorable and very playful!  Here's a nice shot of his dad from last March ...

This year there were large ice flows on the top of their deep pool of water, and the male & female bears were soaking wet from a recent swim, but they didn't enter the water while we were admiring them.

 

There were also two visiting giant pandas, but they were quite mucky looking and not as impressive as I'd hoped.  One was outside (and a bit cleaner from the snow), but the indoor panda was a dark dirty yellow which was rather sad to witness.

 

My favourite part of the zoo is the Arctic exhibit, which opened last year.  There are polar bears, arctic wolves, arctic fox, snowy owls and reindeer.

Arctic fox ... also taken last March

It was a great day outside and also in the numerous pavilions for the warmer climate critters.

 

Yesterday my son and I decided to head into Toronto to visit the Royal Ontario Museum.  We've been there lots of times with my family and with my brother and his two rambunctious boys, but it was really nice to go with just my own son this time.  He wanted to visit the entire museum ... and I think we were pretty close to that goal by the end of the day.  We had such a wonderful time together, and he is a real delight to discuss everything we saw.  The dinosaur exhibit is really amazing and we spent a long while in there.

 

There are a few windows in the museum where you can check what's happening outside ... and yesterday we were suffering through yet another blizzard (I know).  I had originally planned to drive into town far enough to just take the subway directly to the ROM, but when they predicted 10cm of snow, we took the GO train instead ($$).  Unfortunately, the GO train had rescheduled their trains (ie. "reduced" their trains) because of the storm, so we were packed into a train of commuters where there was standing room only.  So after walking on concrete floors the entire day, we were forced to stand for the hour's ride back home while all the commuters who had been sitting on their bums at their desks all day rode in relative comfort.  There was a foot of snow on the van when we got back into town, so I was glad for the ease of the train.  So another fun day of the March Break. 

 

This morning it is bitterly cold again ...

 

... yep, that's right ... -20C (not sure what the wind chill makes it, but it's really windy out there)

 

And there's snow thick everywhere again ...

 

 

We are promised warmer weather I think tomorrow or at least by Saturday.  I'm really disappointed with this snowstorm.  My backyard on Tuesday was almost bare of snow and I could see grass!!  My patio had completely cleared of snow too, and I was "this" close to pulling out a patio chair to sit out there in the sunshine.  I tossed the birdseed out for the birds, but I haven't seen them yet.  Maybe even our little winter birds have given up.

 

I know a lot of us had this same disappointing weather, but I'm sure it's the last big snow we'll have this year!!  Perhaps we need to hold a candlelight vigil to entice Spring to our area again., eh?!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy