Homeless in Vancouver: Winter's welcome but spring isn't going anywhere

We may be seeing something in the nature of a scheduling mix-up. Either the flowers are early or the bees are late.

With news that single-digit winter temperatures are expected to return next week, I’m leaning toward thinking that it’s the flowers which have jumped the gun a bit.

Hocus Pocus...crocus!

If I didn’t know better—that flowers grow up and out of the ground—I might’ve guessed that crocuses had been air-dropped on parts of Ontario Street between 12th and 9th Avenue (aka, West Broadway).

In addition to vivid patches and strips inside yards, there are irregular sprays and pointillist dabs of the purple and yellow flowers everywhere else: in the grass bordering the streets and even butting in on the little rounds of earth that surround the curbside trees—the bloomin’ cheek!

And if this early taste of spring is expressed on the ground in blazes of purple, blue, green and yellow—with occasional spills of cream—then in the tree branches it’s various hues of pink, from little rosé cherry blossoms to big, eye-watering magenta things, all set against the billion green and brown dots of budding leaves.