Mather

Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere, but none are fit to eat. Or are they? A lot of us have a curious fascination with wild mushrooms. They seem to be fruiting everywhere this summer.

I climbed to the top of another hill this month. I’ve completed six decades of life. Yet when I look in the mirror, I don’t see an old woman looking back at me. I guess I’m not old yet, and I am starting to wonder if I ever will be old.

The sun rises to the northeast long before sleep is ready to give way to the day. I half wake as the first rays of sunshine creep in my window. I can guess the time from where the sun hits the wall. Not six yet, my eyes close and I sleep some more.

Whoever would have thought that the oldest red pine forest in Canada is within the city limits of Greater Sudbury? It’s true.

Spring flowers are in full bloom, much to my surprise. It seemed that the forest floor was brown as ever, until I noticed the violets blooming beneath my feet. Pretty little clusters of purple flowers emerged from last year’s fallen leaves.

After the shortest winter ever, I find myself looking out to a landscape without snow.

March 20 — the first day of spring. Or is it? Spring seems to have come weeks ago, and there is no better place than the lake to see how deeply we are into the season. Just two weeks ago we were skiing on some of the finest snow of the winter.

This is the warmest winter ever. I’ve become so used to temperatures hovering around the freezing point that it seems really cold on those few days when the temperature is “normal.

January is a most wonderful month. Because of the light! Gone are the dark days of November and December. It is colder, yes. Minus 31-degrees C at my house Saturday morning, but brighter than those grey days of late autumn.

The wind died in the middle of the afternoon. Within a few hours, the lake disappeared under a maze of ice crystals. We were on our way home in the boat, knowing it was to be our last crossing of the year.