Mather

Wild mushrooms are late in coming this year, but they are making up for lost time by coming out in abundance. It could be the hot, dry summer we had that slowed them down. Now the cool, damp September just past has set everything right again.

The fall colours are so beautiful, especially with the backdrop of fog. Fog is a common visitor at the lake this time of year.

September arrives in a shower...and the showers continue through the month. This year, it will take a lot of showers to make up for the hot, dry summer.

Matches? Did I pack matches? Of course, I know I packed matches - I packed them in three different containers, in three different places. Now, where did I pack them? We had arrived at our destination lake in the middle of the afternoon.

Ever since the end of May, I have managed to take a morning swim. It’s not easy. Sometimes I stand at the end of the dock for a long, long time; contemplating the water, the sky, the trees, the clouds - anything to postpone the inevitable.

It’s quiet this morning after yesterday’s strong winds. The lake is calm, glassy. The air cool and damp. Pastels of green and grey surround me. At the dock, I sit a while and listen to the morning. I slowly wake, as do the forest dwellers.

It was a dark and stormy night, much darker than expected for the twilight hours of summer. Thunderclouds took away the evening pastels, only to replace them with frequent bolts of sudden light.

Early June, quiet morning. A gentle rain taps on the maple leaves outside my window. Rain! How we need it! We’ve had a few days of rain in the past two weeks, but not nearly enough to wet the forest floor.

Some may think that after 30 plus years of gardening on the Cambrian Shield, I would be pretty good at it. Perhaps I might even know a little something about gardening. A “little” something describes my gardening knowledge very well.

Blackflies love bananas. Blackflies especially like to sip the blood of people who eat bananas. Why should blackflies love bananas? Clearly, this fruit is foreign to the northern Ontario landscape.