I live in Central Ontario, about 45 minutes north of Toronto, also called the GTA.
My city of 125,000 surrounds a large freshwater bay leading to a beautiful lake called Simcoe.We have abundant beaches, lots of forests and many miles of rolling farmland. I can walk to the beach in about 5 minutes, same time to walk downtown. Walking from town-end to town-end might take an hour.
Many people here are very friendly and laid back, but the suckers that commute every day into Toronto are miserable and short-tempered and pretty self-centred. These suckers moved here from Toronto to buy cheaper houses but now they spend 3-4 hours a day commuting. Hardly an intelligent choice IMO.
Just to my north begins the Canadian sheild, a very rugged and rocky landscape with thousands and thousands of clear freshwater lakes of all sizes, and heavily forested for the most part. There are millions of tourist getaways for good prices, or lots to see within a mornings drive.
If I really feel the need for sand and sun Wasaga beach lays 30 minutes to my west. It is the largest freshwater beach worldwide.
Our summers are generally good, tho' this year has been hot and humid since it started. We've averaged about 30C with the humidex pushing 40c for the last few weeks. Summer starts winding down as late as September or sometimes October then Indian summer arrives. It's a week or two of 20c+ breezy days. Perfect weather.
Some years the snow starts in early November and doesn't stop until late April, depositing 2-4 metres in total. Everyone owns a snowblower and a touque
Other years we have a December-February winter and then it's over. But, it's certain we'll have a week or more of -40c stuff to hide from. On average, Moscow has warmer winter temps than we do IMO.
I have learned to love the variety of my surroundings and climate. Some years the winters are too long, other years the summers too short, but other than Tornado season I've nothing to fear from quakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes and whatnot.
Enough from me now.
Edited by wallythacker 2005-08-03 8:31 PM
