vaneramos | Poplar Bluff Beach

We just got in the door from a visit to my parents' home. Mom and Dad were away, so we had the run of the place. Visiting there in the summer is a rare treat for me.

The place where I grew up is called Poplar Bluff Beach, because of the tall cottonwoods...

and silver poplars...

and, of course, the beach on Lake Erie.

It's fair to say my childhood was privileged but lonely and unhappy. Nature surrounded me and provided consolation, but I never appreciated how rich my environment was, or emjoyed it as fully as I can now.

Lately I have felt a vague longing to reconnect with my roots. That was part of the reason for the trip.

During this visit to my parents' house, my hometown and one aunt, I realized it wasn't the community or my family I missed, but the land. The landscape there is different from where I live now. Extreme Southwestern Ontario is flat as the Prairies, but the surrounding Great Lakes make it humid, stormy and lush in summer. Since the last glacial age it spent some time on the bottom of a giant lake, so the soil is rich. It is one of Canada's best agricultural regions.

I haven't visited in summer for a few years. I took many photos. In fact I finally bought a larger memory card for my camera, so I can store at least 250 images now. I have much to show and tell over the next couple days.

Reconnecting was nice, and I hope to go back many more times. But I got a sense of how and why I need to move on. Although I hope to live at the cottage on Lake Fletcher part-time someday, chances are I'll never reside at Poplar Bluff again.