I recently returned from a 2-week trip to my home province of Alberta. When I try to describe this time away, I end up saying, “I did a lot of things I either hadn’t done for a long time or had never done.”
THE OLD – things I’d done before but hadn’t done in a long time
- After 11 years, I drove a car again. Luckily a lot of Alberta’s roads are flat and straight and (sometimes) not very busy, like in the picture below.
Growing up in the country means learning to drive if you want to go anywhere on your own. I got my learner’s permit when I was 14 and started driving on my own when I was 16. In my 20s, I drove regularly to get from my city job back to visit the farm. Now I live in a city with buses and taxi that could take me anywhere, but my main destinations (family, work, shops for essentials including the coffee shop) are all within walking distance.
- After 15 years, I visited the farm where I grew up (where I spent my first 18 years). Parts of the yard (like the barnyard view below) looked exactly the same.
But the house looked totally different. I think that’s the perfect mix of new and old. Everything can’t (and shouldn’t) stay the same, but it’s nice when some things do.
- After 30 years, I went to my friend’s family cabin that sits by a lake in a remote forest. For 3 days, I had no electricity, running water, or phone/internet service. I haven’t been offline since… Well, I can’t even guess since when! While offline, I did some new things.
THE NEW – things I’d never done before
- I rode on an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) or quad (four-wheeler bike).
- I picked wild blueberries and cranberries in the forest. I’ve picked a lot of other berries in my youth but those were mostly saskatoons, raspberries, and strawberries on the farm or along its fence lines.
THE OLD & NEW – things I did & didn’t do
- I had time to take photos of flowers. Nothing new there!
- I didn’t have time to write a word in my new story-in-progress. That’s new and not great for my deadline. But now it’s September and…
The weather feels like autumn and the students have gone back to school. It feels like it’s time for me to go back to school, to start working hard on my writing again. Completing a new story is exciting and daunting. So…what to do?
I’m doing an autumn writing binge!
Do you have plans for a September binge or autumn project?
I am happy to hear about your perspectives of your trip, because as it worked we didn’t get a lot of visiting time. My goodness, I didn’t know you had never picked wild blueberries. How did you miss doing that with Granny lol… She was famous for never wanting to leave the berry patch.
I don’t know how I missed picking wild blueberries with Granny or my mom, but I don’t remember the activity…but now I am having a memory of being very young and out in the bush with my mom and asking her “where would someone go to the toilet if someone had to out here?” I can’t remember if anyone else was with us or what we were doing. Seems logical now that it might have been blueberry picking…but all I can remember is trying to ask the question without appearing silly. Of course, I had to go to the toilet, but I didn’t want to admit it 🙂
September is always inspirational for me — throw back from school days– and Shannon Mayer’s workshop gave me some new ideas, so, head down, limping wip is going to get new racing shoes.
Great way to describe your inspirational drive, Alice! I’m eager to give my story-in-progress “new racing shoes” as well 🙂