Shifting gears

We ease our way out of one season and into the next, shifting gears, breathing differently, inhaling clear crisp air. Lawn mowing is intermittent and tracked-in grass is only occasionally an issue.

The Cove is mostly deserted during the week and every shore creature is heaving a sigh of relief. Has it been a hard summer for wildlife? Probably. The extreme heat has surely affected our fellow creatures as much as it has us humans. 

Tropical Storm Debby paid the Island a visit, setting rainfall records from Georgia to Montreal but treating us kindly. No power outages, no flooding. On the day of her visit we attended a wedding down the road. Wind and rain kept celebrants indoors shoulder-to-shoulder, but no one minded. Unfortunately an important member of my household has a broken ankle, and it was a challenge to keep enthusiastic guests at a safe distance from her tender toes. 

Before this ankle event occurred there was a family reunion in Maine. It’s difficult to leave our bountiful garden and delightful Cove, but other venues are equally inviting. New Brunswick displays one glorious vista after another, from the rolling hills bordering the St. John River, to the almost primeval lushness of the Kennebecasis River Valley, to the grey gravel shores and invigorating breezes of the Bay of Fundy. Crossing the mighty St. Croix River into Maine you enter a world of islands, coastlines, lakes, mountains, old cemeteries, stone walls, and an embarrassment of yard sales. 

During our time in Maine, the world was introduced to Kamala Harris. Athletes made their way to the Paris Olympics. Alice Munro fell from grace. The world experienced the hottest day on record. A third of the town of Jasper, Alberta, burned to the ground. It was almost too much.

But we were lucky. Our lovely Island awaited us. Turning at Shediac towards Port Elgin, we took the Murray Corner turnoff and followed that old-fashioned winding byway where white clover clusters grow chest-high right up to the edge of the road, and tumbledown farms beg to be purchased by Ontario retirees.

Back home, everything, weeds especially, had doubled in size. Golden cherry tomatoes needed to be tied up, beans cried out to be picked, and some creature had dug a hole in the flowerbed in search of tulip bulbs. Oh well, deal with it later. We biked down to the Cove, plunged into room temperature water and felt life settle calmly around us.

Next day we turned our attention to the up-coming Strawberry Social. Called CBC Noticeboard, hung posters, baked cookies. Picked raspberries, harvested the garlic… and then the broken ankle occurred. As my friend Pauline says, “That changes the water on the beans.”

So we’re shifting gears. Regarding stairs, doors and walkways in a different light. Feeling renewed respect for modern medicine, our health system, our fragile bodies, our family and friends. Setting priorities. 

I see that the lawn needs mowing. It’s raining over the Strait this evening so tomorrow might be wet. Oh well. I’ll get around to it sometime.