Date: 01/12/2004

Number: 1

PRELUDE TO SPRING
BY JOHN NEVILLE
January 20, 2004


Victoria is situated at the south east corner of Vancouver Island in a region that enjoys a particularly mild late winter. This has become known as Pre-Spring. By late January or early February you hear comments like: "Spring is in the air!" or "is it still really winter?". James Douglas surveyed the site of his new Hudson's Bay headquarters in 1842. "The place itself appears to be a perfect eden in the midst of the dreary wilderness of the north west coast." The First Nations had known about these mild conditions for centuries, but it was a pleasant surprise for the Hudson's Bay Company and later settlers from Britain. Situated in the rain shadow of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Penninsula the area from Campbell River south to Portland Oregon enjoys two months of mild winter or Pre-Spring. In the Victoria Times Colonist, February 21,2002, Helen Chestnut wrote:"for several weeks now pearly-white Snowdrops and deep violet-b

Salt Spring Island, BC

Latitude: 48.8 Longitude: -123.5

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