Sunrise

This morning I woke late. It was almost 8:30 a.m. when I finally opened my eyes. It is still dark where I live at 8:30 a.m. in the morning. But it is just starting to get light. I got up and came downstairs and looked out my window and had a cup of tea. While I was checking out the daily news online, I watched the approach of the sun as it lightened the sky and eventually came over the horizon. What a beautiful scene that lay before me. I had the presence of thought to jump up and grab the camera.



This is one of the reasons why I love to live in the North country. There is a different light here. In summer, when daylight lasts almost 24 hours, the light is rich with colour. It is like things are more brilliant.... like colour is trying to embed itself in our memories and it only has so much time. But as summer fades into fall and fall fades into winter, the colours are more subtle. Shades of grey are enhanced by soft pastel hues. The further south I go, the more intense colour is in the fall and winter and the less brilliant those colours are in the summer. I think it is addictive. The longer I live in the North, the more I want to live in the North. The longer that I've been away from the south the less I want to live in the south.

I believe that it was in Pride and Prejudice that Jane Austen coined the words "wildness and artifice are captured in the North country". I believe this to be true. My first experience of the North was a trip to the Yukon with Hubby before the Daughters were born some 15 yrs ago. We drove the Deace/Casier highway. I had never experienced such a wild unpopulated region of the earth in my life. If only there could be a part of the planet that has not known man. If only you could look up at the skies and not see the vapour trail of an airplane. If only you could walk the face of this planet and see no signs of people.

If I could choose anywhere on the earth to take a trip I would not choose the warmer climated regions of this planet I would pick the unconventional North. Further up and further in, as C. S. Lewis said. That to me is the place to be. Away where no one can see me and better still where I can see no one. Where I have unlimited time and opportunity to see raw nature. What a breath of fresh air.

But for the time being the pastel sky from my deck on a pleasant Sunday morning will have to do.