Spring!!
I always used to think my favourite time of the year was Autumn, with its balmy nights and crisp mornings. Living here has making me re-evaluate that. Because the hope that spring brings is virtually tangible. Perhaps my favourite time of year will always be around April, whichever hemisphere I am in!
Of course, I may need to explain what spring is here. I think that in Australia we have quite a different understanding to a Siberian notion of spring.
First of all, usually snow still covers the ground for the entirety of March – often going well into April. The weather at the moment is really anomalous, and Sasha is convinced it is God answering her prayer. It may well be – the weather hasn’t been this warm for many years and the thaw has been incredibly quick, taking just a few weeks.
March is normally much cooler than it was this year, with a median temperature of -5.7, however, our average temperature was above zero. The average mean temperature for April is around 6 degrees, but we have hit the teens quite a number of times now. The last vestiges of winter remain with cold mornings, and on the sides of the mountains across the river I can still see some snow, but spring is finally here!
Given that aside from a few days in Singapore and Queensland before we arrived in Russia, we have not experienced temperatures in the 20s for about a year, it is needless to say that we are very excited to be able to go outside without taking 10 minutes just to rug up. Finally, after 6 weeks of spring, temperatures are like that of a Melbourne winter!
Unfortunately, spring takes a little while to get activated here. People started telling me they could feel spring from the 1st of March – when the overnight temperatures where still dipping down to ‑29C! I put it down to wishful thinking, but then over the next few days I began to notice that I could hear more birds singing, and I could even begin to feel a vague warmth when I saw sunlight. Believe me, as an Aussie, the notion of sunshine without warmth is a very strange thing, but in the middle of a Siberian winter, a sunny day means it’s even COLDER, because there is no cloud cover to trap the warmth. To be able to feel a gentle heat on my face was incredible. And if you looked close enough, you could even see the tips of the branches swell in preparation for budding But there was still snow EVERYWHERE.
And then it began to melt! Normally this takes several weeks of thaw/freeze cycles, but within the last two weeks of March, it really started to disappear. We had a few weeks of very slippery (and sometimes quite hairy) paths, and then giant puddles (small lakes really – they had more water than some Australian lakes do at times!) that take some major re-routing to get past. Not to mention mud. I have no idea why, but storm-water drainage here is almost non-existent. During this time it was definitely NOT advisable to walk on a footpath by a main road – unless you wanted to look like you had just spent a day at a spa retreat with a full body mud-mask. Actually, that’s kind of how most of the cars looked.
Now, the puddles have dried, and most of the mud. That leaves us with a lot of dirt and dust. And gravel. During the winter, salt and/or gravel mixtures are put on the roads and some paths to make them safer. This builds up over the winter, and when the snow melts – it’s still there. I have noticed some road cleaning trucks, and some people sweeping up dirt and gravel around our area, but unfortunately the air is now very dusty. There is often a smoggy haze in the sky when I go to uni in the morning, and I can feel the grit in my teeth when the wind picks up. Add that to the dust from the aluminium plants and it really does affect the air quality. I am hoping that there will be some good rain to wash it away…
HOWEVER, the green is finally starting to show!!
Much of the grass still looks dead, but if you look you can see patches of green grass fighting through, some trees are just beginning to unfurl their buds, and I have even seen some bulbs poking their heads through the soil! It takes a while, because even after the snow is melted, it can be a bit longer before the ground below is thawed out. I’m told that once it really starts, it happens rapidly. Stay tuned for some more spring shots!
