Luther Marsh

[vaneramos]

Farmland near Monticello, Ontario, on the edge of Luther Marsh, April 10







Luther Marsh


Yesterday I drove to Luther Marsh, one of Ontario's most significant wetlands and wildlife areas. I had never been there before. It's an hour north of Guelph, near Grand Valley. Fifteen duck species have nested there and I expected to see them arriving.

I've been depressed. A busy month has caught up to me. I need to honour my need for solitude more. Otherwise I burn out, then isolate, a dangerous pendulum swing. I'm struggling this week. Mornings are the worst. It's hard to answer emails. It's hard to pour a glass of juice. But I'm doing it: writing, walking, and driving to Luther Marsh.

The lake was still frozen. There were no ducks. Atop an observation tower a woman stood gazing through binoculars.

"Anything out there to see?" I asked.

She pointed to a distant island and two monolithic shadows. It was the ruins of a farmhouse her grandfather built. Her family had to move in 1952 to make way for the dam.

The pictures have a strange fisheye quality about them, as if the too-big sky were trying to pry my camera open.

Instead of migrating waterfowl I followed the violent Grand River downstream through Fergus and Elora.







The Grand River, Elora dam


More pictures posted elsewhere:

• iamthelorax: Trees in Luther Marsh
  
• texture: orange lichen on a tree and fence
  
• rural_ruin: a burned out farmhouse