Friday Flashback

We moved here 7 years ago and it was, for the most part, comfortingly familiar. Sure, we moved from a larger city to a rural town, but I grew up in the country, so the pace wasn't hard to re-adjust to. The weather is similar here. The crops, the farm animals, the natural flora, fauna, animal, mineral, vegetable - all quite the same as home.

Autumn arrived, and the fall colours were breathtaking. Same colours as home, but they surrounded me here. Southern Ontario is flat, flat, flat. Vermont's Green Mountains, and New York's Adirondacks might not be the mountains of the west, but they are mountains nonetheless, and the colour goes all the way to the top.

I was driving north to Burlington one day that first fall, and looked up. The sky, I remember, was clear blue, cloudless, and a flock magnificent, bleach white birds performed ballet across its stage. Swan Lake? Goose Lake, actually. This was my first encounter with Snow Geese, and I was lovestruck. What wonderful, beautiful birds. They aren't here yet, but soon. Fall's a little late this year.