Rural Routes, Blog Version

It was almost officially summer before the strip of grass in the common property behind our condo was mowed for the first time this year. Truth to tell, the grass had not grown much, but the weeds were tall and straggly. I do admire the resiliency of weeds.

Finally, a summer student came with a push mower and cut them down. Almost immediately what grass there was turned brown. Intense heat and lack of rain does that to green things.

On the plus side, our little stretch of brown lawn is neat and tidy.

I have been watering my plants by hand several times a day, but I swear that the annuals I planted a month ago have not grown a millimeter since then. They are alive, but suffering

A few of the perennials and potted plants have bloomed and seeing them takes me to a happy place.

Walking the dog, however, takes me to a sadder place. The hillocks on the former golf course where we walk every day are brown and crusty. Dusty in places where the ground has been tamped down by footprints. Hundreds of grasshoppers fly up with every step.

My husband and I are retired farmers, and we are thankful that we do not have the stress of looking to the skies daily for some hint of moisture. But we have family and friends who are still farming and, since the farm is never going to leave us completely, we share their worry.

When I was growing up and for some decades later, my home community celebrated July 1 with a Sports Day – a pancake breakfast, parade, 4-H achievement program, ball games, bingo games, cold plate suppers and an evening dance. I could not begin to count the number of times that the event was threatened or even cancelled by rain. No matter how dry it had been and might be afterwards, rain was almost guaranteed on Canada Day.

Not this year.

HAPPY PLACES

Someone told me recently that they are in their happy place when they are making soup.

I can understand why – soup is warm and wholesome, healthy, and tied to family traditions – but it is not one of my happy places.

One of my happy places is a gravel road I see in memory; when I daydream, I can see it easily. I turn at a three-corner intersection onto another gravel road. The ground ripples underneath my vehicle, the washboard effect of braking school buses. Grain fields stretch to my left and to my right.  Ahead of me I see two clumps of bush. On the right is the bush that hides my parents’ house and yard. My grandmother lives behind the bush on the left in the actual farmyard.

I am driving home, just for a visit. The visit always includes at least one cup of coffee.

My parents and grandmother are no longer with us. And the house that I grew up in is no longer owned by family members. Driving that road these days is bittersweet.

But in my daydreams, the drive is a respite from whatever ails the world that day.

PUZZLED

When the COVID lockdowns began, the Winnipeg Free Press began offering a weekly full-page crossword puzzle.  I completed one that Easter weekend, but never attempted another one until this past Canada Day.

It seemed an appropriate task when we were being asked to reflect on our history and when a heat wave was keeping us indoors anyway.

In keeping with the date, the puzzle featured many historical clues. For example, what portable media player launched on July 1, 1979? The Sony Walkman.

What first of a kind event occurred on July 1, 1881, between St. Stephen, NB and Calais, Maine? The first telephone call.

What famous race first started on July 1, 1903? The Tour de France.

Along with those came a handful of celebrities who were born on the first day of July – Margaux Hemingway, Jamie Farr, Olivia De Havilland, Charles Laughton, Karl Malden, Dan Aykroyd, Estee Lauder – and some who died on that day – Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum.

It occurs to me that younger folk may not know those names, or not many of them. When it comes to crossword puzzles, at least, there are benefits to age.

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