Snowy Speculations

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Image
If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
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Bird Banger Alarm Clocks

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 Bird Banger Alarm Clocks



My daughter and her friend were walking down the Heritage Trail on Concession 1 mid-afternoon last week, when her friend suddenly jumped out of her skin, covered her ears and yelled, "What was that?" My daughter had been chattering about something nonchalantly and had looked at her friend in puzzlement, until, a moment later,  the shots fired again and her friend ducked in sheer terror. 

Sigh ... city slickers. What seemed to invoke fear and trembling in my daughter's friend, was of no significance to my daughter. This example clearly demonstrates how easily humans get used to something and how resilient children are. Our youngest was four when we moved into this house. Kilometres away from Inniskillin Wines and literally almost kitty-corner to a small cottage winery, hearing air cannons shooting off their warnings to the swarms of birds that like to raid the vines before the farmers get a chance to harvest the grapes at this time of year, has just become white noise to us. 

Well, white noise the majority of the time. But the two days I wanted to stay in bed until 7:00 last week, were not to be as the muted bangs in the vineyard across the street around 5:45  ricocheted off my bedroom windows and the last few minutes of desired shut-eye disappeared along with the remnants of my early morning dreams. 

Grapes are hanging ripely off the vines all around us, truly a sight to behold. Their bunches of plump, black, almost purple berries are a beautiful contrast to the green foliage and the blue sky behind. Morning tractor traffic has increased considerably and harvest is approaching rapidly. I recently spoke with a lady who mentioned that the grapes off her large acreage had already been sold and that the revenue generated this year was so much better than 2019. Reassuring to hear when there is so much uncertainty in the economy right now.  As I was driving home from showing a house a few nights ago, I heard a brief clip on the radio stating that wine sales were up considerably this year, thanks to Covid. 

That's good news for our wine region! Tourists flock to our little Town each year and besides the beauty of Old Town, thousands of people take part in the winery circuit to taste our local fare. Life as we know it in our little neck of the woods hasn't changed that much. And although the rules for wine tours have been altered and taking the necessary precautions is now a part of our normal routine, we have never seen so many cyclists heading to wineries on the rural roads as we have this summer. 

Gas cannons, aka bird bangers, do their job. Fields of reflective tape blinking and fluttering in the sunlight help as well. Our farmers work so hard to ensure that their crops are top-notch. During harvest, they work around the clock. Their income for the year is based on the sale of these grapes and so they have to protect their vineyards in whatever way they can. 

So bring on the bird bangers! Bring on the sound tracks of birds in distress that are played over and over in the vines so that even my ears have grown immune to these recordings. It's for a short time and well-worth the sacrifice of a bit of noise disturbance. When you're sitting around the table with family and friends during Christmas this year, those sounds will be long forgotten and replaced by the voices of  those who are important to you, raising a glass to toast family and friends with wine grown in this beautiful region we call home!

Lolita Schimann Hale

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