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| Our home in Penticton, BC, a few years ago. |
The driveway has been snow-covered for two weeks, with never enough time between snowstorms to completely clear it. It is snowing again as we chat with her. Brrr.
Every winter, a few of our dedicated friends and family members make the two-week trek back to northern homes to visit with grown children and grandchildren for the holiday season. Are they crazy? Probably.
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| Lawrie, leading the way on a hike across our property. |
And every year we all pooh-poohed the idea. “It’s not Christmas without snow. It’s just not Christmas with palm trees and sandy beaches.”
Were we crazy? Yep!
In Mexico, we can swim, snorkel, fish, boat, and buzz around on a motorcycle or golf cart twelve months of the year.
Occasionally, we experience a cold front from the north that drops the temperature by ten degrees, blowing fine white sand into our swimming pool and killing the more delicate tropical plants.
Central heating for houses is unheard of here, so when the odd “Norte” hits, we simply add an extra blanket to the bed at night. The “Norte” also creates my only gardening challenge: finding plants that can survive the salty winds.
In the north
during the winter months, you can ski, snowboard, ice skate, toboggan,
build snow-people, and shovel the white stuff from driveways, or scrape the ice
from your car windshield every morning.
Annually, in October, we drove our vehicles to the local garage to have winter-tread tires installed, and then in April, we reversed the process to switch back to summer-tread tires.
Every fall, I'd carefully put my garden to bed for the winter, covering over less
hardy plants with straw mulch, cleaning out pots of geraniums and stacking the
terracotta pots in the garage until spring.
In Canada, we prided ourselves on not feeling the cold, wearing lightweight clothing during the winter months as proof that we were truly Canadian, tough like our pioneer forefathers, and able to face adversity.
When we first moved to Isla Mujeres, we snickered at the sight of locals
bundled up in parkas, with toques pulled down tightly over their heads, and
knee-high boots covering chilly skin.
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| Friends and family enjoying a winter lunch at Ballyhoo |
In Mexico, we can swim, snorkel, fish, boat, and buzz around on a motorcycle or golf cart twelve months of the year.
Occasionally, we experience a cold front from the north that drops the temperature by ten degrees, blowing fine white sand into our swimming pool and killing the more delicate tropical plants.
Central heating for houses is unheard of here, so when the odd “Norte” hits, we simply add an extra blanket to the bed at night. The “Norte” also creates my only gardening challenge: finding plants that can survive the salty winds.
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| John and Lynda, 1986, x-country skiing. |
Annually, in October, we drove our vehicles to the local garage to have winter-tread tires installed, and then in April, we reversed the process to switch back to summer-tread tires.
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| World-famous Ice Wine harvest in Okanagan Valley, BC. |
In Canada, we prided ourselves on not feeling the cold, wearing lightweight clothing during the winter months as proof that we were truly Canadian, tough like our pioneer forefathers, and able to face adversity.
 |
| Friends and family enjoying a winter in Mexico |
Strangely enough, after living here for four years, we are comfortable
wearing jeans and occasionally a sweater during the winter months.
Our northern blood is thinning; we are acclimatizing. All the more reason to spend winters here and not there.
Our northern blood is thinning; we are acclimatizing. All the more reason to spend winters here and not there.
Lynda & Lawrie
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2 comments:
Our northern blood has also thinned. The sure signs of a snowbird here in Arizona are shorts, t-shirts, and crop pants in the 60 degree dry desert wind. Brrrrrr. The Arizona desert in the winter is cold enough for me! I've been covering plants this last week every night since the temps have been dropping below freezing. Pretty snow photos. Nice to look at, but wouldn't want to be there.
We didn't mind the snow - until we spent three months here in 2007. Then when we returned to Canada ... we sold everything that wouldn't fit in the car and drove to Mexico. No more snow for us! I do love Arizona and New Mexico as well. Such a pretty area.
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