{"id":600187684,"date":"2026-04-08T02:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/08\/waiting-for-spring-to-finally-spring"},"modified":"2026-04-08T02:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:00:13","slug":"waiting-for-spring-to-finally-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/08\/waiting-for-spring-to-finally-spring","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for spring to\u2026 finally spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mother Nature played a cruel joke on us this winter. She brought the cold and the snow early and it seems like she doesn’t want to let go. If I were to make this about me, it could be said this is my punishment for having complained in late November when I wrote about the lack of snow – but I won’t. Instead, I will merely say that it is a case of Mother Nature doing her thing and reminding us that we are in Canada, after all.<\/p>\n

Although the holidays have long since come and gone but, until very recently, we were still decked out for Christmas. One could be forgiven for thinking we were lazy but alas, that was not the case. Everything was actually frozen in place.<\/p>\n

I ignored Groundhog Day for a couple of reasons. First, I am not a fan of parading the groundhogs for show and, before you say anything, I know we use a puppet here in Manitoba. Second, I am not sure how scientific the exercise is. Ahem.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Photo\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Photo by Debbie Ristimaki<\/p>\n

While Mother Nature seems to be taking her sweet time, signs of spring are beginning to appear at local garden centre, such as Lacoste (above).<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

So, aside from being able to put our parkas and heavy boots away, what brings me hope for the change in seasons and the start of spring?<\/p>\n

• The arrival of the Canada geese whose honks shout “Spring has arrived!”;<\/p>\n

• Hearing the songs that emanate from the flocks of robins as they return, as well as the ticking sounds of the dark-eyed juncos that stop in for a visit, as they journey back from their winter homes;<\/p>\n

• Seeing that the seed trays and selections have taken up their rightful spots at the local garden centres;<\/p>\n

And, most of all; checking out our favourite haunts, as we dream of planting season, and discovering that their flowers and vegetables have started to appear. Now that is what I call exciting<\/p>\n

A couple of those haunts include:<\/p>\n

• Lacoste Garden Centre at 2787 St. Mary’s Rd.<\/p>\n

• Shelmerdine Garden Centre at 7800 Roblin Blvd., in Headingley.<\/p>\n

They are soon to be followed by Jardins St. Léon Gardens, which will soon reopen at 419 St. Mary’s Rd.<\/p>\n

Until Mother Nature lets go, we have been bringing spring indoors with cut flowers from our local grocery store. A little colour goes a long way in helping us get over this never ending winter.<\/p>

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Mother Nature played a cruel joke on us this winter. She brought the cold and the snow early and it seems like she doesn’t want to let go. If I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":600187685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-600187684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents","category-west"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Debbie Ristimaki","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/08\/waiting-for-spring-to-finally-spring","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Waiting for spring to\u2026 finally spring","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/08\/waiting-for-spring-to-finally-spring","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/04\/08\/waiting-for-spring-to-finally-spring"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4102197_web1_Ristimaki-0408.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/4102197_web1_Ristimaki-0408.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"laurieb"}],"creator":["laurieb"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-04-08T07:00:13Z","datePublished":"2026-04-08T07:00:13Z","dateModified":"2026-04-08T07:00:13Z"},"rendered":"