Seasonal sense of humour waning

Dear Person in Charge of Spring:
This letter comes from a mid-sized urban community in Saskatchewan. This urban community is surrounded by a rural area which relies on the vagaries of the four seasons and in turn influences much of what is economically possible in the urban centre.
In the city, we look to the calendar to tell us when it is time to play hockey and when it is time to applaud the boys and girls of summer.
The calendar has also conditioned us that the Victoria Day long weekend is the deadline for all self-respecting gardeners and yardeners to have vegetable seeds in the ground and greenhouse flowers transplanted into concrete planters.
In the country, no such calendar is needed. Farmers know by the feel of the soil, the melting of the snow, the winds whipping dust across the grid road, the re-appearance of gophers and the early brightening of the sky that a new season is here and with it comes only a short window of opportunity.
Unfortunately, both urban and rural colleagues are in a state of flux right now, not able to rely on either calendar or instinct to accomplish what is normal for the first six weeks of what we're led to believe is part of the spring season.
It is supposed to be April showers producing the inevitable May flowers but Mother Nature, you seem to be suffering some kind of technological blip and are sending April moisture in the form of flakes that produce banks and resemble the snow of winter.
If you can't overcome this virus in your system, then how can mere urban and rural mortals ever hope to carry on in the traditional patterns of seasonal performance?
You have to admit that you've been toying with us - one day we're checking out the hoes and garden forks of spring and the next we're dragging out the shovels of winter because snow tends to fall through the tines of the fork.
One minute birds are singing loudly as they build new nests. The next they are pecking through frozen snow to find a seed that has fallen from an abandoned feeder.
On Monday the temperatures encourage shorts and flip flops. On Wednesday, just as someone suggests tanning time is here to stay, naked limbs are being covered with long pants, sweaters and leather coats.
Mechanics are just as confused as their customers over whether it is time to replace winter tires or if blue window washer should give way to the pink fluid for erasing summer bug deposits from the windshield.
Is it really spring cleaning if there is still snow in the ditches and in future, should yard sales be held indoors?
Should children be shooting hockey pucks on the street or should they be playing with balls and gloves as dictated by the calendar?
So, Mother Nature, you must surely see that this uncertainty with the weather is causing all sorts of stress and strain and leaves us wondering just what it is you're about. A thunder storm and hail while the tulips are growing and there's snow on the ground is just too bizarre for even the hardiest Prairie dweller.
Your serious attention to these concerns is anticipated and will be appreciated by all of us, both urban and rural. Thank you.

Joyce Walter can be reached at 691-1259.