Looking through Windows

"Weather always looks worse through a window" goes the old saying. Often that is very very true -- although if it's a cold sleety mess out there, the window can well be the preferable medium from which to deal with the weather.

This time of year, the rains come.  Gordon Lightfoot immortalized it in song, The Sinking of the Ella Fitzgerald, in the line "when the rains of November come early."

Southern Ontario has been drenched this week. If you didn't have waterfront property before, possibly you do now...  The good news up here in God's Country is that it has not rained endlessly. There have been windows -- both glass and in the time/space continuum that have allowed outdoor activity.  Walking the dog (who is all snuggled up in warm clothes having just returned from the Dog Spa looking slim, trim and elegant, but who as a result can feel the chill!) has been possible.  The BMD has been hard at it gathering leaves, trimming trees, winterizing cottages.  Carol and Sue have been pushing hard to get the fall cleaning done. I've been able to get some work done in gardens.  It is, however, indisputably soggy out there.

The forecast for the weekend is brilliant though, the sun is still out there and will show its face again!

Walking the woods at this time of year requires appropriate clothing choices, true enough, but that's easy done.  The rewards are there for hikers -- you can see the 'bones of the land', with the leaves down the Muskoka granite and the shape of the hills comes into its own.

There is still late colour -- the oaks are deeply russet, tamaracks are donning bright gold, the beech have gone to yellow and tan. The evergreens are darkly green. Mushrooms, enjoying the damp, have popped up in shades of red and yellow in unexpected places. The mallards are drifting on the bay, considering the trip south, resplendent in full plumage. The young loons are still here too.  The deer come back onto the lawns to pillage the apple trees, now wearing coats the colour of mocha coffee rather than their spring fawn shades.

We need to look for the beauty that is out there, in between the rain drops.  Even if all we do is admire it through a pane of glass, cup of tea steaming in hand, fire glowing in the grate and cat curled luxuriously asleep in his nest.  Then we have to put on the clothes, and take the dog, who is enthusiastic about ALL weather provided she can romp in it, and get out there again. And that, too, has merit...

It is a beautiful world, in all its seasons. This rain will help recharge ground water supplies -- there are places around the country that are still in long term drought and would welcome this. Until we can figure out how to share it, we might as well figure out how to exist with it.

Happy Weather, everyone!