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Showing posts from November, 2020

Snowy Speculations

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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 th...
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Starling Clouds- Nature's Shape-Shifters

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  Since we moved into this home in the fall, one of the earliest memories here is of opening the back breezeway door to the loudest chorus of birds I have ever heard. It was like a swarm of thousands of bees, but at less of a buzzing sound and of the most pleasing tone and pitch I have ever heard. My father-in-law was helping us out with some renovations at the time and was just coming out of the house. So I stopped him and beckoned him to listen to the music coming from the back of the house. This was before he got his hearing aids and sadly he could not even hear one chirp! The birds noticed our presence and in an exodus accompanied by the rushing of hundreds of wings that sounded like one loud whisper, they rose simultaneously and with a whoosh were gone. Since we are in the throes of fall again and winter is approaching rather quickly, I have been conscious of our bird choruses many times over the last few weeks. They will swarm a cluster of trees and have their little chat wi...
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Doe, a Deer...

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 Living in a rural setting is relatively quiet and serene. Granted, the tourist traffic picks up for most of the warmer seasons. But now that the temperature is dropping continuously and the brilliant array of reds and oranges on the escarpment is gradually diminishing, our road has become significantly quieter. When our home was a pottery studio years before we came along, the owner also rented out a few rooms for Bed and Breakfast. When we purchased it, a little note remained in one of the rooms referring to our little house as The Potter's Cottage . Although we have changed the facade and the gardens significantly, I still feel as though I am puttering around in a cottage some days and life here is sometimes cottage-like. I often mention the wildlife and the surrounding vineyards as I sit in my office looking out the window and my deep appreciation is evident in my thoughts that I put on paper. But this morning brought a different aspect of wildlife to light.  It was late m...
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