We live on the Ottawa River and walking into our home is kind of like being aboard a ship – because as you enter you look straight through a wall of glass to water and sky. After six months of moody gray skies and white frozen river, to see blue movement above and below again is wonderful! This morning I wandered in to the kitchen and the whole sky was washed with pink. There were flocks of geese all over the bay, and a loon calling directly in front. Wow is such an inadequate word except when it really does describe the view and the feeling.Spring is an incredible time of year – my favourite actually. I love that the whole earth seems pregnant with possibility. Birds chasing each other round the yard, otter’s antics on the river, even sleepy dumb flies waking up and trying to figure out how to avoid a swat. Not that I like house flies, but that first warm day that brings them out? That’sa nice.
I love the smell of the damp earth, the ice receding, the snow melting – the changes that are constant and make each spring day fresh and new.Way back in grade four science I remember learning about humus. Not the food (which I just reconfirmed is spelled with two ems, thank you dictionary) but the decomposing soil variety that you shouldn’t eat unless you like worms. What I love about humus is its smell. It may be decaying plant material but it has a richness about it that evokes ghostly memories of winter, fall and summer and the feet that walked upon it. It’s all so ripe and fertile! And I only seem to smell it on lovely spring days like today, when the sun has warmth, and everyone you see is strolling, trying to prolong the getting there for a change.
These are the days to linger and think dirty thoughts.
