AS I GROW OLDER - February 5, 2018

When I was a young mother, gardening was my 'me' time, usually a stolen hour or so while the children napped. As they grew, it became something we did together; harvesting fruits, vegetables and flowers from our city lot as the young me had learned myself by following my father's instruction. My Dad moved away to British Columbia when he retired, but each year on February 5th he would telephone from Kelowna BC and say one of three things; "I mowed the grass today", "I thatched the lawn this week" or "I'm finished pruning my fruit trees now". Invariably Thunder Bay would be experiencing minus double digit temperatures and be expecting snow and blowing snow. Most years I could not reasonably hope to be out in the garden for three more months. My father died in February, so on that birthday I was at his bedside in Kelowna. I experienced for the first time a month without the tradition of winter that I was accustomed to and I revelled in it. I shed my winter coat and boots, took long walks day and night clad in no more than a sweater and cross trainers, and each sunny day I took time to sit outside and bask in the warmth. Kelowna, however, can't hold a candle to the climate of the west coast. Somehow the almost daily rain softens the air so that the wind has no bite to it just as summer humidity makes the temperature feel warmer. For the most part, the overcast skies seem luminous like a day with sea mist and often the grimmest afternoon ends with the sun dropping out of the clouds to fall into the sea at sunset. I hope that if I never pass this way again, I shall always remember the feeling of waking on my birthday to the "here...pretty, pretty" spring song of the chickadee, the song sparrow's three clear opening notes and the fluting solo of a male purple finch. May I never forget the freedom of wearing short sleeves and sandals to a Super Bowl party and walking the dog afterwards at ten in the evening at ten degrees Celsius. Life is filled with little pleasures!