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Trees waiting to run |
Hey Easter Bunny! Don’t
fret. We know how to search for chocolate eggs under the snow. So please keep
‘em coming.
Mind you, I still long
for warmer Easter days, the kind where you can see and feel green ground poking
out from the snow. On those days, in the city, you can take a bicycle out for a
spin on sandy pavement watching out for a puddle or two instead of dodging ice
chunks. In the bush you can sit beside an outdoor fire and feel the warm sun on
your face while a pot of sap boils itself into sweet, sweet syrup. For those
who crave the water it is all about sliding canoe or kayak over snow into the
open lake to silently slip through silky smooth water. For those who ply Lake
Superior in the freighters or tugs, it is that glorious feeling as you leave the
St Mary’s River and head up the lake for another year.
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Ice walkers three |
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Will this sun set? |
However, we are not in
control of any season, nor can we predict anymore what is about to happen when.
Take our sugar bush stats for example. In 2004, just because we could, we made
some syrup on Feb 29. In 2010 there was
a warm spring and our first boil was on March 10th. The next year,
2011, things had cooled off quite a bit and we had our first boil on April 2.
Then came that crazy 2012. Our first boil was March 15th and the snow was all gone by March 18th!
That’s the year we were worried about lighting an outdoor fire because the bush
was so dry. In 2013 the season seemed rather normal and we made our first batch
of syrup on March 28th .
The following winter?
KAPOW! We got hit by 2014’s polar vortex. Our first boil was April 7th.
And this year, this 2015? As you all know, we got another upper cut to the
chin, another whack from the freezies. Oh well. Changes are everywhere.
The environmental changes
sometimes affect how we relate to the world, especially if there is a deep
desire to experience nature. When some folks can’t get that needed nourishment,
drastic things happen to their souls. For centuries this strong sense of abandonment
and deprivation has been the subject of poetry, music and other art forms. A
new film, a documentary called Lament for
the Land blends voices of Labrador Inuit with stunning scenery and
illustrates such loss. Researcher Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo Willox interviewed people
from five communities in Nunatsiavut, Labrador. That part of Canada is under
the influence of a warming trend and the ice is melting along the North
Labrador coast. The lack of dependable ice is creating environmental, emotional
and cultural impacts on the lives of everyone there. They are unable to get to
their traditional hunting and fishing cabins because the sea ice is so
unpredictable. Depressed about not being able to get out on the land, the
people are experiencing strong emotional reactions – grief, mourning, anger,
frustration and sadness. In a 2014 CBC Quirks and Quarks interview with Bob
MacDonald, Cunsolo Willox said, “People describe themselves as land people, as
people of the snow and the ice and would say that going out on the land and
hunting and trapping and fishing is as much a part of their life as breathing.”
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Wind ripped snow |
That kind of breath is
almost sacred. Sometimes you can get a whiff of it when you are walking out on
the ice. The sky is a brilliant blue, the ice is humming under your feet and
the day is at peace. On a windless day, when the sun is shining and you are out
on the frozen lake it is as a friend said, “There’s nothing like it in the
whole world. Why would you want anything else?”
Anyone who has
experienced the simplicity of nature in such a way can understand the need to
seek the bush, to connect with the land. I feel sorry for those who are waiting
for word about the ACR passenger train. That traditional means of getting to
the bush is in jeopardy. If the train ceases to run for them, ceases to take
them into the wonderful wild, what will they do? Depression, frustration,
anger? Or as one of the voices in the Lament
for the Land film stated, “Guess we are going to have to find another way.”
Ah, ‘tis the nature of
life, finding another way. Hey, I’ll bet the Easter Bunny can help. There’s got
to be lots of goodies in that basket.