Wednesday, June 19, 2013

summertime

It's summertime. When it isn't raining, the sun is hot. Alberta is such a funny place -- we live always between two extremes. Those long winters where the cold settles right down into your bones and doesn't leave for months, and these short, blazing summers where the sun seems almost never to set.

Lately it's been muggy. Threatening to thunderstorm. Warnings of tornados break into our radio broadcasts and we find ourselves sitting on the floor in the basement laundry room, our dog, whining, on a leash. The rain will pour down for an hour and then the sun comes out and all that water comes out of the fields in a mist, all at once. Steam curls off our tin roof.

I would spend more time outside if it weren't for the mosquitos. They're everywhere, in clouds, and they're insatiable.

Lately I've been working on a project for work that enables me to spend time during the day photographing our horses. I have loved how each of their personalities becomes so evident on film. The silly ones are silly, the grouchy ones grouchy. The ones who know how pretty they are stand tall, ears pricked forward, eyes bright on some imaginary point beyond the lens. How do they know how to do that?

Tomorrow night I'm going on a trip with my friends (we do it every year). I'm only about a quarter of the way packed; the rest of my clothes are currently drying on the rack in the laundry room. Part of me feels guilty for taking time off work. But the rest of me is thinking about laughing in the car and wandering through wilderness and drinking wine outside. And wondering what wildlife I'll see.

When I get back, true summer will begin. I might not come up for air until September.


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