Day 308 June 8, 2011

stoneware tiles, reduction fired

These tiles remind me of the dry, wintery colours of California.  Brown, tan, more brown.  At this time of year though California is bursting with produce that feeds much of North America.  I love California avocados and nuts and still remember seeing my first walnut tree in Guerneville, California.  We are currently enjoying at home luscious navel oranges grown in California.  I remember being astounded in a grocery store in California; it was summer and the green peppers for sale were truly gigantic and cost hardly anything.  Peak season.  Watsonville, California is the heart of artichoke country.  Once as I drove the coastal route, I passed fields and fields of huge craggy looking artichoke plants that soared towards the sky.

So interestingly enough, as Denise longs for the wide blue skies of the Bay of Fundy and its pure, moist air, I dream of the lush fields and achingly beautiful coastline of California.  The water is pulling both of us.  North America is a beautiful continent.  And for a country woman, like myself, I feel so very fortunate to have crossed its width many times and seen its breath-taking beauty.  Now of course, Chicago and Los Angeles had air quality issues that dampened my spirits and the Great Salt Lake Desert was so hot I basically passed out in the car from the heat; the drive across that desert was just too much for me.  But the Rocky Mountains, and Alberta, Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia, the Prairies, the St. Lawrence River through Quebec, Shediac beach in New Brunswick, and of course, the captivating rawness of Cape Breton Island, all these places to just name a few, are evidence of the natural beauty of this continent.

What is the lesson here?  Sometimes we long for what we miss.  We need to embrace the natural beauty that is all around us.