One of my favourite passages from Leonard Cohen comes from his 1966 novel Beautiful Losers. “In Montreal spring is like an autopsy,” he wrote. “Everyone wants to see the inside of the frozen mammoth. Girls rip off their sleeves and the flesh is sweet and white, like wood under green bark. From the streets a sexual manifesto rises like an inflating tire, ‘The winter has not killed us again!'”
Montreal’s short spring is always a revelation. It begins with the first mild days in March and April, when the streets suddenly fill with people who, once again, are walking for pleasure. Without snow and biting wind, the city no longer seems so hostile. People open their windows and everything seems louder, more immediate, more alive. Then, in May, the pleasures of sitting on soft grass, walking down a tree-shaded street and basking on a sunny balcony are quickly remembered.
Sometimes, you don’t realize how much you have missed something until it returns in the spring. Just now, sitting in my kitchen, I noticed that, for the first time this year, I can hear the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees behind my apartment. It’s soothing, like sitting next to a fountain or the sea. I’m reminded of all the times I have sat outside in the summer, at night, listening to the trees.
How does the arrival of the warm season change the way you experience the city? What are the spring and summer experiences that you realize you’ve missed?
6 comments
I skipped two springs in the past four years, being abroad in countries where it is permanently summer (the Canadian definition) and it’s always remarkable that the difference between winter and summer, when not experienced through incremental changes, can be so so dramatic.
One’s backyard, where you could see your neighbour’s windows, are now blocked by a wall of green. Or, streets narrowed by the snow piled up on each side, are now seem suddenly as broad as Chinese boulevards (less the people).
I can ride no-hands on my bike, not worrying about bits of snow, slush or ice. As for the potholes, I’ve got them all memorized already.
I sometimes wonder if this great feeling is caused by the change of seasons or if I could just feel great all the time if I lived somewhere that was always warm.
Personally Im starting to think it ridiculous that I basically write off half my year, every year, to depression and darkness.
I LOVE the Great Thaw, very energizing, everyone’s faces just open up again, there’s all that sap rising…! One of the best things is rediscovering the SMELLS. The world breathes out again and I breathe it in through my nose.
Sometimes I miss the slow, soft spring of England, which lasts a full three months or more. Here what passes for ‘spring’ lasts about three weeks (but I love it anyway) before catapulting us into full-on summer.
I’m not sure, Paul514, that you’d feel great all year round if you lived somewhere warm. I think the contrast itself has a massive effect on moods. I’ve lived in more constant climates and just didn’t notice the weather as much… one finds other things to be depressed or elated about!
I lived a very hot country for a few years and I can tell you, I missed the seasons like crazy. When I returned I discovered a huge love for winter. Glorious, glorious winter. How lucky we are.
I remember Aprils in Montreal as a bit of a Spring tease: generally 1-3 warmer days earlier in the month, possibly warm enough to melt the rest of the snow, even allowing us to wear shorts if headed to the Dep. But then, almost as if on schedule, there was always that one last snowstorm. Get out the toque. Finally, as May approached, the weather turned for the better, the sun setting later and later. The Montreal summer peaked with those long, humid, Summer days, only to bring on the most incredible Autumn weather in Canada. I miss Montreal alot right now.