Almost Like Home...

Often, I miss home.
And even after a combined 20 years or so in Canada, home for me is still Oregon, where I grew up.
I thirst for the moisture, the trees, the rivers, the green green grass, and the hills that cut the sky into a lovely silhouette at sunrise.
I miss the water.
I miss being at sea level.
However,
I have come to see that the prairies have a rugged expansive beauty all their own.  And in the winter, the sky is often such an intense "Crater Lake" kinda blue over whiter than sin-cleansing snow.

Davey on the Road less Travelled

Failed snowman suicide by Donovan and Weston

That's when I start to fall in love with my new home.
I can't get over all that blue.

Jack Rabbit tracks

And then the sparkly sparkly white, that doesn't go away - but stays!

I hear Albertans sometimes grumble about the white that will not go away - just like some Oregonians grumble about the rain.  But both the snow and super bright sun are still kinda new to this transplanted Oregon Girl, so somehow it's still a surprise.
And I can't ignore the beauty of it all.  Sometimes I just have to step out onto my deck, sing opera for 3 seconds and close my eyes into the fire orb of the sun and breathe.

Then of course I go back in, eat something, and settle in front of my computer... but for a few moments, I have celebrated the outdoors.





I know those in the West already have crocuses and tulips and promising pink fluff hibernating in the trees, but I'm still grateful for now that the white is here.  And I can't shake the old glee that somehow school will be cancelled because of it!