Dispatches from the County XIV: Fond Farewell

Early morning walk up the lane to where the school bus stops, March 2021

The carp were spawning in our little inlet about a week ago, a real splashing flurry of activity, of sizeable fish getting busy, as it were. The turtles in that same pond hide most of the time. You can just spot their noses sticking out here and there, mainly near the one grassy end of our neighbour’s lot. If they’re getting busy, I haven’t seen it.

The most vocal are the bullfrogs who can be almost as still as the turtles. By the side of the water my son likes to throw twigs in to get the big frogs hopping. I like watching, After we’ll lie on the dock and spot for fish. I get him to try and summon up the turtles. But they’re usually too shy. The occasional sighting of a clump of them lazing on a log, like three or four, almost overlapped, always a treat.

On the dock I like looking out at the horizon with my daughter and talking spiritual together. We like discussing the big stuff. What it’s all about? This thing called life. Well that and pop music.

After dinner, when the kids gets to watch TV, my wife and I like to take a stroll, up the lane and then down to the dock where we stand or sit and have a chat. Catch up as the sun begins to set. And then stop talking, looking out, in wonder.

Fair to say we’ll all miss this place something fierce. But I should add that my friend, L, was off the mark when he suggested this seven-month experience, living in a cottage in nature, would change my children. I mean he was bang-on, of course, he just forgot to mention it would change the adult persons living there as well.

A fond farewell from a dream in West Lake, Ontario

xo