Extraordinary days

Such a change from one year ago.  On March 21st of last year, I wrote about the snowstorm sweeping over the City.  Today we bathed in mid-summer temperatures.  Sue and I ate supper on the front porch.  Will this glorious weather continue?  Probably not.  In fact, I hope that we get some cooler, rainy days, maybe even another blanket of snow; or we could be facing a second dry summer.

The warmth and blue skies had me thinking of other days, extraordinary days.  They come periodically, when everything aligns to create a day of wonder, adventure and beauty.  Sometimes they come with a premonition... a sense, a day or two ahead, that something might be building.  And they usually begin early, with dawn still little more than paling of the night sky.  I thought that this past Saturday might prove extraordinary, and it certainly brought much satisfaction.  But marred by the morning fog, my cold toes and the absence of any cranes, it never quite acheived the anticipated heights.

I remember a spring morning in Alberta, driving east from Edmonton into a turquoise sky, arriving at Beaverhill Lake as the sun rose.  The southern sky speckled with the arrival of tens of thousands of waterfowl at the end of their night's journey.  Later in the morning, heading west, watching and listening in awe as a flock of hundreds of sandhill cranes flew overhead.  And then in the afternoon, north of Edmonton, watching the courtship of a pair of red-tail hawks as they locked talons and spiraled toward earth.  All under a blue sky spreading from horizon to horizon.

On another summer day, I stood at the edge of the Red Deer River valley, looking down on a red tail hawk as it soared below in the canyon.  As I watched, two turkey vultures glided over the crest of the valley, just a few feet above my head.  Turning to watch them, I saw a pair of mule deer standing in a golden field of canola, ears perked and eyes gazing intently.  Following their eyes, I spotted the twitch of a tail, and then ears, and then the head of a coyote as it returned the gaze of the deer.  All this within a span of thirty seconds, at one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I hope for extraordinary days in this coming year.  To increase the odds, I've also set myself a new goal:  to visit and write about all of Ottawa's most interesting and outstanding natural areas.  Hopefully in a manner that will encourage other people to visit, to appreciate them, and to live their own extraordinary days.