A beautiful piece of writing to start my day. I grew up in a neighbourhood in Southern Ontario that was a combination of light ( and not so light) industrial use and preserved parkland...a flood plain for the Grand River. It was always striking where one met the other, with fencing or stock piles of debris. There was also air pollution and noise pollution alongside the birdsong and the natural beauty. Thanks for the memories.
And I like "the exertions of cattails, buckthorn, crab apple, Manitoba maple, sugar maple, willow, chokecherry." Yes, exactly, the exertion of the "green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer." When you mention Manitoba maple I think you are laying your head down near the Sherwood Park Freeway...
There are many Alberta reminders here: the saskatoons (which they call serviceberry here and use frequently as landscaping rather than food producer), the prevalence of poplars here and there, even the odd canola field, and of course all those Manitoba maples...
I like the collection of things the fence can't stop; water, birds, vision, memory.
A profusion. Unstoppable.
Well explored.
Thanks!
A beautiful piece of writing to start my day. I grew up in a neighbourhood in Southern Ontario that was a combination of light ( and not so light) industrial use and preserved parkland...a flood plain for the Grand River. It was always striking where one met the other, with fencing or stock piles of debris. There was also air pollution and noise pollution alongside the birdsong and the natural beauty. Thanks for the memories.
This, to me, is southern Ontario, just as you describe. It continues. Thank you for reading, Rhonda.
And I like "the exertions of cattails, buckthorn, crab apple, Manitoba maple, sugar maple, willow, chokecherry." Yes, exactly, the exertion of the "green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer." When you mention Manitoba maple I think you are laying your head down near the Sherwood Park Freeway...
There are many Alberta reminders here: the saskatoons (which they call serviceberry here and use frequently as landscaping rather than food producer), the prevalence of poplars here and there, even the odd canola field, and of course all those Manitoba maples...