It is truly spring today ... apparently

I got this email from a bloke I work with down on the South Shore sometimes... he's an immigrant too and hates the long winters, so he's been reassuring me with each slide back into winter... I thought I'd post this as it's interesting folklore

Dear Queenie,

We had the long-awaited "grass snow" (post-equinox snowfall #3) yesterday.

On Sunday, I dropped in to the La Have Bakery. The owner is a francophone from Quebec. She hates winter as much as I. This gives us a mutual interest - a prerequisite for small-town small talk. I mentioned we had not yet had the "third snow".

She thought aloud a minute. "We had the Sugar snow, then the Shad snow, but you're right, "she told me, "we haven't yet had the Crow snow.

So we compared notes on the names of the snowfalls. Sugar refers to Maple Syrup production, and the beginning "sap runs" of late March. This equates to our "smelt snow".

Shad are an anadromous member of the Herring family, like Alewife (a/k/a Gaspereau, Kayak). They run up the St. Lawrence and into larger Quebec rivers, like the Saguenay. The timing of Quebec Shad runs roughly coincides with the arrival of migrant Newfoundland Race Robins (the black-headed ones) in Nova Scotia. Thus, Shad Snow=Robin Snow.

I am left to conclude our Grass Snow equates to Quebec's "Crow" snow. Crows are not truly migratory, but they do withdraw from the northernmost parts of their range (leaving behind their relative, the Raven). As Spring comes, the Crow recolonizes areas of its range abandoned in winter. This happens in mid-April.

The long and short of it is that you may now conclude it is True Spring!

Cheers
Paul

Cheers yourself Paul... it had better be!