The Selfish Giant of Cardston

While I was in Lethbridge today I spent a few minutes in the woods down near the river to check on my geocache. Although the trails were still a bit muddy in places it was such a nice day there. Part way along the path that leads to my cache I came across a young rabbit which of course ran away as soon as it saw me, or rather, as soon as I saw it. The sun was shining, there were rabbits hopping, birds singing and in general it was just spring all over the place there.

I found my 5 ½ year old cache still in amazingly good condition, still bone dry on the inside and containing a traveling monkey named Fred. Fred seems to have began his world adventures in 2005 in California and has so far traveled over 16,000 km including two trips to Hawaii. This is a photo of "travel bug" Fred who was placed in my cache just three days ago.

After meeting Fred and completing my other business in Lethbridge I started back toward Cardston. This time spring gradually gave way back to winter, first with snow in the ditches then more and more remaining in the fields. Finally the view of Cardston in the distance included an immense blanket of pure white snow. I was instantly reminded of the story of the Selfish Giant that I posted about recently and how the scene looked so much like the giant’s garden still held hostage by the relentless winter while just outside spring had already come to everyone else nearby.

Apparently there is another Selfish Giant living right here in Cardston who is obviously responsible for this blatently localized and unacceptable delaying of spring. For all I know, he could be me. Yikes! All these years I had attributed the ridiculously long winters in Banff to its northyness and location in the mountains but maybe it was me all along. I apologize to all the residents here and promise to move on just as soon as possible. In the meantime, hopefully spring will somehow manage to find its way here soon.