Season's Greetings to You and Yours from Jubilee Avenue

So I went for a nice walk yesterday evening. And I took my l'il digital camera along with me, for reasons that I'll elaborate on in a minute.

The Bridge Drive-In opened for the season this past weekend, to my knowledge the last of the city's major ice cream institutions to do so; it's been a weird year so far, with weather nice enough that both Sargent Sundae and Banana Boat opened in March. So with the BDI now joining them in operation -- and quite clearly doing okay for themselves --



-- I think it's safe to declare that spring has officially arrived. Depending on the upcoming weather through to August, it may be the point to declare that summer has arrived, but hopefully this won't be the case. (We just had one of those bizarre chilly summers, what, two, three years ago?)

Yes, spring is in the air; the grass is growing, the sun is shining, and folks are eating through the whipped cream and the bananas to get to the milkshake underneath the hot-fudge sundae atop their magnificent five-dollar ice cream behemoths. So with this spirit of warmth and rebirth, new life and positive energy flowing through the veins of our fine town, I just wanted to take this opportunity to pass a message of seasonal tidings along.

So let me just say this, right now, to the dear residents and good citizens of Jubilee Avenue:









It's April.

What is this? What is even this. You have to be kidding me.

This, as you've probably figured out, was the motivation for bringing the camera along; I drove along this street a few days prior and I couldn't not notice the mass proliferation of Chris-a-mas decorations down this road. It's not as though it's a long road, either! The whole avenue is seven blocks, tops, and in those seven blocks -- I am not exaggerating this in the slightest -- there are over three dozen residences still sporting their most festive wintry accoutrements.

Is it just that nobody takes down their lights if nobody else bothers to take them down? Is it a willful neighbourhood initiative, like somebody coordinated this in a newsletter or something? Is this an elaborate series of coded visual signals to preserve the secrecy of a shadowy Jubilee cabal? What?

It isn't just a few strings of lights here and there, oh no. While many of the setups do appear haphazard at best, some of these displays are obviously the work of people who were really, really into this whole Christmas thing.







You will note the decals in the window in this next one:



And in these next three you will note the, well, note the everything.







But the real kicker about the whole scenario is that a couple of the houses still have their -- ha ha -- they have their -- ha ha ha ha --





HALLOWE'EN WAS SIX MONTHS AGO

WHAT AM I LOOKING AT

So, yeah, walking up and down the length of Jubilee is quite the experience right now. And the really funny part? I didn't even finish the whole street. I went west along the north side, had the sun begin to set on me as I looped around to the south side --



-- and then watched night set in completely while I was in the line for ice cream, because you know I love BDI but damn if it doesn't take forever to get an order in. So there are actually still more examples, ones I didn't reach in time to photograph, even beyond the extensive gallery I've collected here for your browsing edification. And if there's a similar stretch of land in this city with more Christmas decorations cluttering up the atmosphere, I haven't found it, but that would definitely be quite the sight to see.

Season's Greetings, one and all! Just try not to think too hard about which specific season it is!