Legends of the Fall

I’ve spent my entire life waiting for winter, mostly waiting for it to be over. Growing up in Saskatchewan, the brief part of each year not directly participating in winter was occasionally spoiled knowing another one was waiting just around the corner. Twenty years in Calgary did little to change that mindset. Winter has never been my favourite season for the most obvious reason. It's cold. For those of you supporters of winter, I’d like to ask which other seasons can serve up a death sentence for losing your keys, or running out of gas.  Let’s be clear: I don’t mind skiing on a -20c day, or a pleasant drive through a blizzard from time to time. I simply have a preference for warm sunny days and the activities related to them.  OK, where am I going with this? Give me a minute. Oh, yes: the Aquitaine is not like Saskatchewan or Alberta.

I suppose I could just leave it there and save everyone some time, but that is not in my nature.


Last week we were driving … somewhere, in the country, and the drizzle was steady on the windshield as the last light of day strained to get through the dark low clouds. Many Novembers in western Canada prepared me for those raindrops to begin developing an icy texture.  “Here it comes”, I thought to myself, at least until I looked at the thermometer which joyfully reported 17c. What the hell? It looks cold, but the air temperature remains toasty by Canadian autumn standards. All of my instincts are telling me not to get too far from shelter as a major snowstorm is inevitable, while the small rose bush out front continues to produce fresh blooms in spite of the diminishing daylight.

Today I put a coat on to go into the grocery store although I wasn’t cold. I’ve begun to be self-conscious about being obviously under-dressed.  Today’s high reached a mere 16c but I would have been quite comfortable wearing shorts and a light sweater. Compare that to the winter coats and scarves being worn by the locals. This is at 16c:

My brain is struggling to deal with the inconsistency between what I see and what I feel. I hope the pharmaceutical industry is working on a pill-based solution to this malady (I no longer rely on viniculture to resolve these problems for me – my liver is tired).









And just down the beach from the apparent cold front, I thought I'd capture the water sports in action (clearly sailboats are out of season):

Damon - this is for you

And just as I was leaving, the clouds parted for something a bit more spectacular:

Sometimes its fun just to be near the beach.

Last weekend Ann decided to get us involved in a ‘fun’ mountain bike expedition. Since there are no hills around here, barring oversized sand dunes (decidedly not conducive to enjoyable cycling), we were required to hit the road, as it were. There are some gentle rolling hills northeast of Bordeaux, which generally mean vineyards and that's where we ended up. How Ann finds these activities continues to be a mystery to me. Perri was exempt, owing to her extraordinary ability to whine for hours at a time during any fitness-related activities. Clever strategy.
In this case, a local bike club had marked out a number of walking and biking trails through the rural landscape, just for the day. For five euro, we would be entitled to thirty kilometers of unbridled biking shenanigans, plus some nibblies afterwards. Sounds good right? I’m sure it would have been exactly as advertised, if Ann, me, and our good friend Andrea had arrived on time and finished on time.  Arriving a few minutes after the registration closed did not deter us.  I conveniently forgot my real camera but phones have cameras so…

I grudgingly admit we had a good day although the promised nibblies were somewhat lacking when we finally finished. The trails were well-marked and only an idiot could miss them (I only missed one). Again, we were the only cyclists we saw wearing shorts although the high of the day was 18c (and sunny).

Perri and her Spanish class are being deported to Madrid for a week as part of a school trip.  Once again, Ann has designs on a short road trip to the Pyrenees or Spain this weekend. Perhaps some hiking will be involved. Perhaps some wine tasting. Stay tuned.