The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la!

Well, these crocuses are almost blooming. I photographed them on a cold day, and they needed some sunshine.

A cherry -- or is it a plum tree? -- is out early, just up the street. Photo by John Denniston.

My neighbour's snowdrops, in her very clean and tidy garden.

These dangling buds in Camosun bog look like a good beginning to spring.

Daffodils are actually blooming outside in sunny spots, but I cheated and bought these for the dinner table.

Guests from eastern Canada, looking at the polar vortexes and extreme cold warnings they were missing at home last week, sighed over Vancouver’s mild weather and blooming flowers.

They’re headed back home now, so they will miss the hype about – gasp! – snow flurries expected on Sunday, and the coldest temperatures of the year, waaay down to -6C.

The snow will go (or never arrive) and the temperatures will rise, but the other side of living in the best climate in Canada won’t change. The conversation about housing prices, that inevitable endpoint of any Vancouver discussion – as our visitors noticed -- will go on and on.