Eramosa transition

[vaneramos]

Recently leafshimmer asked whether my walks along the Eramosa River have become a thing of the past. It is not without reason I call this the Eramosa River Journal, or that my user name is vaneramos. His is such an essential question that I'm revising my reply slightly and reposting it here.

Not a thing of the past, but definitely a rarity. Actually those walks have been dwindling for quite some time, ever since I started keeping myself busier with volunteer work more than a year ago. Did you catch my "toad song" post a couple days ago? That was my first visit to the river since March.

But I'm finding my drive to and from work, half an hour each way through quiet countryside, to be a comparatively profound experience. At least it is bringing me in touch with other aspects of the land I so love. I was thinking on the way home today: I am one who wants to get to know a place well, in all its seasons, humours and qualities of light. For this season of my life, Wellington County Road 29 has somewhat replaced the Eramosa River, but the two are cousins. Each morning I cross from land that feeds the Eramosa to land that feeds the Speed River, and each afternoon I return. My ways are moving outward. It is an adventure.

By now this farm might be growing familiar to readers. It's one landmark that I find particularly fascinating along the way. I left home a few minutes early this morning to try photographing that long avenue of maples with their leaves just emerging, but I was greeted and distracted by this ambiguous, enigmatic sky. This is Eramosa Township on a May morning groping toward summer. This is not an atmosphere I consider typical of Southwestern Ontario in the spring. It is peculiar, but therefore also characteristic.