Tuesday, October 4, 2011

New Colors

I live in Western Washington, so I'm accustomed to green. Grass, trees, mountainsides. I love green. It makes me feel cozy.

This week we're in Lethbridge, Alberta. It's prairie country. Outside the city, the crops have been harvested and the fields are yellow with stubble. When it's cloudy, the yellow is pale; when the sun breaks through, for a moment or an hour, the yellow is bright, vivid. "Amber waves of grain". Like the song.

Where I live the sky is blue sometimes. The evergreens reach skyward and the the hills also. So the sky, whether blue or gray, is accented by green, and it's a small sky.

Here in Alberta the sky is blue or gray also, but there are few trees and few hills. The sky is enormous, reaching from horizon to horizon. I feel like I'm under a vast bowl.

I've read poems about these skies and these hills, but there's nothing like seeing them. Every time I'm in a place like this - Alberta, Iowa, Nebraska were this year's places - I wish I could live here longer.

I won't, though. I like cozy green too much.

I'd like to trade houses with a prairie person for a month or two sometime. To see that sky, those fields, every day.


14 comments:

DJan said...

I love our lush green environment, Linda. But it's nice to know how beautiful it is in other places. Makes you appreciate diversity! :-)

Sandi said...

I am in agreement with DJan and you, Linda! Our Pacific Northwest is the best for full time living, but I love visiting other areas of the US. I haven't spent a lot of time on any prairies, but I remember the "stretching forever" of the sky, and the earth, when we were driving through.

Teresa Evangeline said...

I love prairies, too, but I don't think I would want to live there indefinitely. I like your idea of experiencing it for a month. It's fun to try different "terrain."

Sally Wessely said...

We are on the same wave length about wanting to experience new landscapes and skies for a short time. I loved visiting the landscapes and climates of New England these past few weeks, but when I got home and saw the big wide blue sky of Colorado, I was so happy to be home.

betty said...

Enjoy your trip!! It is good we have opportunities to go out and experience other places so we can appreciate them, but I think there is no place like home, where we are familiar with, and we do tend to like that landscape so very much. I grew up a lot around the ocean; I am always happy when I'm closer to it, though I've moved away from it many a time.

betty

Dr. Kathy McCoy said...

Hope you enjoy your trip! There's nothing like lush green! I really miss that. Even our home in Southern California was surrounded by trees, green lawns and the like that I took a bit for granted until we moved to Arizona! Now I look at the old pictures and just sigh!

wheels4me said...

For me to stay in a prairie place, I would have to nail the timing just right to stay between too cold, too hot and too windy. My best chances would be now, in early Autumn.

It was 91F in Omaha today. Bet it gets a lot colder by Novermber 4th!

Grandmother Mary said...

I've lived in Nebraska and in Maine, so I understand what you're describing. I've also done that house swapping thing with friends in Rome who wanted to be near the sea. It was such a great idea.

Olga said...

I know just what you mean about the big sky. Those of us who have been able to travel around this country are fortunate indeed.

Out on the prairie said...

There is a tranquility not everyone takes time to enjoy. I have found it in many places, but tioday I will think of you while I am out on the prairie.

Rita said...

I think that's why I felt lucky to have grown up in Minnesota--a perfect place for a variety lover like myself.
From Wikipedia:
Three of North America's biomes converge in Minnesota: prairie grasslands in the southwestern and western parts of the state, the Big Woods deciduous forest of the southeast, and the northern boreal forest.
I'm spoiled--LOL!

Arkansas Patti said...

Someday I hope to see that big sky you describe.
Each part of the country has treasures that need to be seen by a new eye.
Enjoy your trip.

Dee said...

In her comment, Rita talks about growing up in Minnesota and how it offers the best of all sorts of terrain.

I lived there for 38 years and I so miss the lakes and parks. The green of the North Woods and the yellow of the prairie in the southwestern part of the state.

Here is Missouri, however, we have the yellow stubble you wrote about, Linda, and green rolling hills. And right next door is Kansas and its prairies.

Nature gifts us with so much beauty.

Peace.

Tom said...

I, too, like your contrast between the small sky and the enormous sky. I live in a "small sky" area -- the Northeast with its hills and trees. The big sky is the first thing I notice when I go to Florida or Arizona.