Beautiful Autumn

The Old Man of the Forest

Finally

It seems silly to talk about how fast October went when we're almost halfway through November. Suffice it to say that the week after Ian and I had our little holiday I went to Ottawa for a few days so I could check in with the Mothership, and the week after that I went to Calgary for five days. The primary reason for going was to attend the wedding of the oldest son of a dear friend of mine, who I've known for nearly thirty years.
But there were lots of secondary reasons to go -- like, I hadn't seen my youngest son since we left in July 2008; I wanted to catch up with other friends; it was important to me to go back to the old office and say goodbye to people who will be retiring in the next few years and who I'll probably never see again; and, finally, it was time to see the place again and note my reaction.

And my reaction was....

"Well, isn't this odd. I feel absolutely nothing. Nothing at all."

Just as I used to feel when I returned to Calgary from being away somewhere. Well, actually, nothing was lots better than the bleak despair I felt sometimes.

I did enjoy seeing the moutains again. They have always produced a feeling of almost romantic pleasure -- their sheer size, their cold, rocky indifference, the wildness still there, despite our constant attempts to get to each and every corner by any means we can. The evening I flew in they were bathed in an eerie, yellowish glow, the effect I'm afraid of a nasty inversion over the city. It's really a shame about the air. Too many cars I guess.

And it was wonderful to see everyone else as well. Especially the friend who was kind enough to put me up (put up with me?). It was as if I never left. We even got in a golf game!

But it was even more wonderful to land at Pearson the following Monday and realize that it felt like home, and with every passing mile east on the 401 the feeling was stronger.

When I got to Brighton on Monday evening it was to face guests who had arrived the day before. More about them another time.

They left on Wednesday, and by Saturday, the month was done.

Just. Like. That.

What happened to October?

I turned around a couple of times and it was gone. A short vacation to the Niagara region and the Lake Erie shore with Ian. (Check out the palm trees -- who would have thought it? Palm trees on Lake Erie. I was excited! Of course when I asked the waitress how long they'd been there and she said "Since May", I returned to reality. They were to be shipped back to their winter home at the nursery that very week. )

Still, they added an element of romance to the shore.

We spent a day visiting wineries in the Niagara region, and doing the tourist thing in Niagara Falls and pretty little Niagara on the Lake. I didn't realize there was so much history there. We will go back.

It rained a lot over the four days we were away, but we saw sunshine as well and lots of scenery. It's quite different in the Lake Erie part of Ontario. Old tobacco farms are giving way to fields of peppers and squash -- the tobacco sheds lie abandonned. And dotting the land for many miles are giant windmills, part of the Lake Erie Wind Farm system.

We spent our third and final night in Stratford. We arrived around six p.m. in a torrential downpour, so saved our sightseeing till the next morning. Another lovely little town. You could almost believe you were in England!

We'll come back to this town too.

Tomorrow: the next October adventure.