The last summer days are coming to a close.
Unable to continue their slowing breaths, some leaves in this northern clime are already turning yellow.
So must we all.
And know the beauty that exists in the end.
Wherever you are in the northern hemisphere, happy autumn. 🙂
To you southerners, happy spring. 🙂
Well, not completely wordless.
I am back in the north now but took a photo of this lovely billow just before
leaving the Okanagan Valley.
Happy Wednesday.
The Okanagan Valley of British Columbia has the perfect environment for growing many types of wine grapes.
It’s very mild and damp in the winter and very hot and dry in the summer. Those conditions produce the right combinations of sugars and flavour profiles for many types of wines, especially “Bordeaux- style blends” (named after the region of France from where they originate), for which the Okanagan is also famous. In England, these blends used to be referred to as “claret.” Here they are often referred to as “meritage.”
One thing many people don’t realise about these grapes is that sometimes, a red grape produces a white wine.
In fact, sparkling wines (in France, it’s known as champagne) usually result from red grapes.
The Okanagan also produces fantastic ice wine. This is a dessert wine that results when grapes are touched by a slight frost. Ice wine is terrific with cheese – a perfect combination of sweet and salty.
Often, I enjoy a good Bordeaux-style blend or meritage.
With a steak or other hearty meal it’s heavenly.
Many people can be intimidated by wine and wine jargon. Try not to let that stop you, because finding a wine you like is one of life’s wonderful little things – and in moderation, it’s also good for you.
Do you like to enjoy a glass of wine?
Sometimes we have shadows. They help us stay cool or they lead to the light.
Sometimes we have shadows. They sit in our hearts or they lead to the night.
My wonderful friend C has an equally wonderful yard. It took her many years to bring it around.
She has many beautiful, mature trees, a small pond, and a vegetable patch.
Loads of flowers, ornamental plants and a gurgling stream complete this garden oasis.
It is truly stunning but also relaxing. My friend has built a remarkably calming haven in the middle of a dense and busy neighbourhood.
On a recent night, we sat on her large comfortable deck, ate good food, listened to sleepily twittering birds, and watched the sun go down and the bats flit in search of dinner. We talked and spent time together.
Thank you, C.
Here’s a little tour of my home in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. When I am not working in the Northwest Territories, I am usually here.
Okanagan Lake is a very deep, very long north to south (135 km) body of fresh water with very different climates from one end to the other.
Even within short distances, there are extremes. Enormous sage bushes crouch in the dry soil in one spot, and a few meters away …
… there’s a vibrantly green apricot tree.
And then there are the grape vines. Many, many varietals. Some of these grapes will become very expensive bottles of wine while others are much more lowly, but pleasant and worthwhile all the same.
Part of this valley is classified as desert while other parts further to the north are made up of deciduous and coniferous forest.
Right now it is very hot (about 36°C) and dry and while the wine grapes might really like that, there have been some significant lightening-triggered fires as well. A few rain showers would be very helpful.
What are the defining characteristics of your part of the world?
We recently drove across Alberta’s northern prairies during a rain storm.
We passed beautiful canola fields.
And then we left the storm behind as we continued our drive through the Rocky Mountains.
The western provinces are very different from each other but very beautiful.
We are home now in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.
How is your July?
For the past few days, I’ve been working in Inuvik, NWT, which is at 68° N latitude. It’s very much the home of the all-night sun.
I found these pretty cotton plants.
And purple fire flowers.
And the Mackenzie River, which is so wide that it looks like a lake.
Greetings from the summery far north.
It has been a rather dodgy spring and summer also has had an interesting start. Well, not really. Kind of alternating. A couple of days of cold rain followed by a couple of days of sweltering humidity. Really unattractive.
But …
There have been wild roses.
And interesting clouds.
And panting northern hot dogs.
And lots of green growing.
And more wild roses.
But my, it’s been rainy and humid and cold.
Not the best spring/summer, but lots to appreciate.
How about yours where you live?
When you think of home, what do you think about?
Is it a town? A city? A building?
Is it being in the same place with your significant other?
Or is it a state of mind?
Do you have to leave it in order to recognise it? To know that it’s home and it’s where you belong?
I left “home” many years ago. So many places have now been “home” that I don’t really think of it any more as a place.
You can’t go home again. That is the title of a novel by Thomas Wolfe. In it, the idea of home is explored, but there are no definitive answers.
Once you leave home, does home become a construct? Is it an illusion? A sentiment? If what you experienced as home still exists, is it the same? Or was it ever what you thought it was?
I think of home as a place in my head. I don’t always recognise it, but I know it when I feel it. The land where I now spend my working life is a type of home, but I also know that it isn’t home.
Some people can’t wait to get back home. They will only leave it temporarily, if they do at all.
I couldn’t wait to leave home. I wanted nothing to do with it and got as far away from it as I could, both physically and emotionally. I had to find my own concept of home, and did so by exploring the homes of many others. I travelled a lot, both throughout Canada and the world.
And what I found was that the idea of home held a great number of commonalities across ethnicities, countries, religions and regions. It was often about a familiar group of people doing familiar things in an environment that, for the most part, held few surprises, even if there was a war going on. In fact, the notion of emphasising their familiarities was even more pronounced if there WAS a war going on.
So, maybe home is about expectations. We expect certain people to be doing certain things in certain ways in a certain environment. When all about us moves and changes, this idea of home provides a great deal of – well – certainty.
I once took a course that taught that expectations are inherently disappointing. That if you expect something, and then don’t get it as so often happens, you are causing a lot of trouble for yourself.
Maybe that’s why you can’t go home again. Expectations are never what they are in your head.
Now it’s your turn. What are your thoughts about home?
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 