Tailing the last days of October, the weather showed up unbelievably warm.
It was reminiscent of those crazy, hazy, and lazy days of August. Jennie, my jitney, and I were once again on tour talking to the animals. That’s our job; Jennie is an expert at getting me around. It turned out to be one of those days that you almost felt like singing.
Lyrically, I’ve always been a little embarrassed, as I have never, ever been able to carry a tune. But, on the other hand, perhaps that is God’s way of allowing me to do a favour to the rest of the people of the world by keeping my mouth shut. I don’t sing, but occasionally I feel like humming. This was one of those days.
I was watching and listening to the quiet, contented crunching of Sage, named after her colour, our newly acquired Appaloosa riding horse, as she nibbled her green grass lunch. Her companions, in the same paddock, were named, I suspect, by a play on words: Dolly and Larry llama, with ears erect and bright eyes gazing at the browsing herd of Boer goats as they speckled the hillside across the valley.
When I looked upward from there, for whatever reason, I could not quite believe what I was seeing, but seeing is believing. Arcing the entire blue sky – north, south, east and west, as far as the eye could see – were strips of fluffy white clouds that stretched unattached to each other from horizon to horizon.
Never before have I seen clouds in this formation. It looked not unlike the entire sky had been ploughed by some giant machine in preparation for winter. Within the hour, the formation had departed, and solid sunshine greeted the rest of the day.
In the meantime, folks, we have acquired a new prime minister. I personally tried to follow the debates as Election Canada criss-crossed the country, but my eyes saw little debating.
Debates, I thought, were to be about ideas and concerns of what the people’s wishes were, not a continued bashing and rehashing of insults concerning efforts of the past.
I, like the majority of others, had little desire to jump from the frying pan into the fire. Who in their right mind would want a bunch of petty bickerers running our country?
It makes me wonder, when all was said and done, how many quietly chanted the nonsense syllables “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” as they picked up the pencil to mark the circle behind the screen at the ballot box. Four years down the road will tell if we were a little bit lucky, yes or no.
We have now had a couple of quite heavy frosts that have browned near everything but the grass. Our gardens have been cleared of all unnecessary debris, disked over a couple of times, and are now, as I, waiting for spring.
I expect the first 2016 seed catalogue to arrive in our mailbox a few short days after tomorrow.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-986-4105