Canadians love to talk about the weather. From what I understand, this is similar to how it is in much of the UK, only we get to say far more than "Shame about the rain". We like it as a topic because we have so much of it. We have four seasons, mostly, although there is a debate that "Construction" and "Winter" only constitute two seasons.

We have distinct summers that get quite warm (read 'hot and humid' from Sarnia to Montreal), certainly distinct winters just about everywhere, and at least a proper month of spring and fall in between. Each varies quite a bit from place to place, based on geography, inland/coastal terrain, pollution, etc., but they're there. Some places are famous for certain things, for instance, Toronto is muggy like the dickens through July, Saskatchewan blows away in the wind, Winnipeg is "Winterpeg" for a reason, and the Yukon is surprisingly temperate. The main exception here is Vancouver, where generally speaking, they get to say a lot of "shame about the rain" to each other.

One of the questions I get a lot of now that I'm here in Winnipeg, usually from my friends in the Toronto-Montreal corridor, is "What's the weather like?" See, they could just check The Weather Network, but we might somehow fail to have a conversation about anything else without breaking the ice with weather first. For a while, I just had to say, "It sucks," and they'd gloat, or pity me, but I've really come to appreciate it. We had a glorious September, rare in that there was no killing frost until October, and though we had it quite cold, compared to, say, Toronto, for a week, it warmed up again and now has become beautiful. Sure, the leaves are all off the trees and have been for a week, but it's dry and clear and get this, when the sun sets, it's like white fire it's so bright.

Two days in a row, I've gone for walks and came back with a glow on my cheeks. Today I walked around much of the Exchange District, in which the Museum is located, and discovered all sorts of neat little shops and eateries, historical buildings and equally historical faded billboard paintings. If I've got the time, and if the weather holds, I think I will bring my camera down on Saturday and try to capture some of the slanting, clear light and fascinating structures. More and more, I'm liking this city, but, of course, this is all subject to the weather.