Oak and Maple Leaves

 

The sugar maple in our side yard.

 

 

Oak leaves from Taylor's Lane in Hillsborough, NB

Trees Changing in Albert County NB

 

 

 

 

 

The season of colour and hue,

subtle and not-so-subtle changes.

 

Autumn in New Brunswick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Protected area for waterfowl

in Hillsborough, New Brunswick,

on the "Lake Road"

Autumn Colours in Albert County NB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memories of Home

 

 

This afternoon, my mother and I went for a drive through the back roads of Albert County, revisiting old haunts and old memories.  One of the places we stopped was the house where we used to live in Stoney Creek.  It is a large farm style home with a cedar shingle woodshed. 

When I was a child, there were vast stretches of cleared fields and orchards of fruit trees carefully tended, vegetable gardens and a view all the way down the hilly acres to the Petitcodiac River.  It was a century old house, sturdy, comfortable, well cared for, a warm fire and a welcome shared with people we loved.  It was our home.

As we grew up, moved away, it was a challenge for my mother to keep it all by herself, so the homestead was sold.  The new owners wanted the woodlots, hundreds of acres of them and had a family member who wanted to live in the house.

Plans don't always go the way one expects.  Life interferes, forces changes.

Today the grapevine that used to curl a greeting at the back door has grown over the woodshed roof and down onto the ground, five feet into the driveway itself.  The cedars, the high-bush cranberries, the lilacs are untrimmed and wild, growing into flagpoles and well covers and porch walls.

Mum's crimson shrubs are overtaken by weeds and golden rod and tall pale grasses.  The apple orchard stands up to its shoulders in alders and weeds, is surrounded by deer paths.  The oaks are fighting for sky with choking vines.  Maples in oranges and reds are visible from the mid point up; the lower portions buried in whatever nature sends to reclaim the lawns and driveways and gardens when humans have left them unloved.

To visit our former home was a shock, made a lump in our throats, an ache in our chests.

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to go back.  Perhaps we should have held the memories and not searched out the reality.  But we didn't.

Still, we know, everywhere we've been, all the life we've lived remains within us, deep inside, held in memory.  Part of living is moving on; is letting go when the time comes to shed one place for another.

Sometimes looking back is painful because we want someone else to see the beauty and value in a home or a yard or a garden we have lived in and loved.  But everyone makes their own choices.  We do.  We did.  The new owners have.

We must let go, simply let go.

Mum and I spent the rest of the afternoon travelling back roads, enjoying the colours of the autumn leaves, acknowledging everything changes. 

That lives and homes have their seasons too.

Cape Enrage, Albert County NB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have relatives visiting from England and did a day tour of the Fundy area yesterday with them.  The weather was co-operative, balmy, great for photo captures of the Cape Enrage area. 

 

Usually, when we're at Cape Enrage the wind is blowing so hard all our photos look like we have starched our hair straight up.  Yesterday was calm.  Our relatives probably think we've been fibbing about the wind.

 

Calm or windy, Cape Enrage is a gorgeous place to spend an afternoon.

Albert County, NB

I'm writing, writing lots or rather re-writing, creating revisions.  To escape from hours of bum-in-the-chair, I switch to bum-in-the-car.  We take a drive through places in Albert County, we haven't been for months.

It's a delight to travel through the interior of Albert County in winter.  The mountains and old-growth forest (at least, those trees that haven't been hacked to the horizon by clear cutting) hang onto the snow longer than in urban areas.  Coming around curves on the bare road lead to surprises of hard-packed snow and ice build-up, evidence of the hidden spaces in the hills, where shadow rules and sun can't reach.

With leaves gone and winter here, the countryside displays different sides of itself.  Little River almost disappears under cover of snow, yet seams of open water tell of the river's presence.

At the crossroads where Parkindale Road separates Turkey Trail Road from Sugarbush Road , there are farms, fields and forests as far as we can see.  The vistas are huge, invite breathing large and melt tensions away.  There is a sense of ease, of space and rest between the seasons of reaping and sowing.

A homestead tucked into the forest at Meadow, with the wind-farm in the Kent Hills as backdrop, makes me yearn for country living.  I remember the days of my childhood when the nearest neighbour was over a mile away and the woods were our playground.

Even, the Pollett River is hidden in winter's cloak.  It idles as it waits for the freshets of spring to swallow its snow and ice.

When we come home, we promise ourselves to return in summer, with blanket and picnic lunch and wine to explore the snow-locked spots of serenity we've seen on our drive.  We hope we can find them again once the leaves are full.

For now, we hold the magic places in memory and words, these delights that are just minutes away.  We comfort ourselves by saying that if we can't find them, we'll find others.   Albert County offers beauty and wonder no matter the season.

Words and photos are mine.