Prairie Blues
I’m feeling on the blue side this evening, owing to some changes in the air, literal and social.
For one thing, it was a really windy day and the September wind had a bite. When the sky clouded over in the afternoon it was downright cold. Reality blowing in; summer’s gone. 😦 This evening the wind has died down, but the weatherman is predicting frost tonight: -1C should finish off most of our lovely blooms. I’m not rushing out to cover anything, as they’ve been looking straggly for awhile now. They seem to know their season is over.
Here's a poem I wrote long ago about the September Wind: Damp September wind whistles through an early August day, chilling our summer-browned bodies. Ever the schoolyard bully, it cuffs us with an almost icy hand. "Remember!" It mocks our shivers, our calendar consultations. Dismayed, we grab for hours as they bounce away, August days slipping out of our lives forever. With sighs we hunt for sweaters, check the pockets of our coats, while we’re at it, wash our gloves. © Christine Goodnough, August 2012
My husband tells me that, as of tomorrow, here in SK we’re back to wearing masks when we go shopping and to gatherings. THAT is disappointing! When you wear two back-of-the-ear hearing aids, as I do, the last thing you need is elastic getting tangled with the hearing aid’s plastic tubes. But so many people haven’t gotten their COVID vaccination that our province is experiencing another surge in COVID cases.
After a couple of months mask-free, this feels like a giant step backwards. There’s to be a wedding reception Saturday at our church and it just won’t be the same with everyone masked. Another rule will be that you have to provide proof of vaccination before you can dine in a restaurant.
That said, we enjoyed a nice visit with friends from Quebec who came for lunch and stayed awhile this afternoon. And tonight we have a blazing sunset, with a brilliant ring of fire in the west and southwest to brighten up our world for half an hour before dark.
I spent four hours yesterday, give or take, painting another picture; today I submitted it to the Artist’s Atelier on Malcolm Dewey’s website and got some valuable suggestions for improvement. I started doing all my pictures on canvas, but these days I like to paint a “trial run” on watercolor paper and see how it comes out. I always find some changes and improvements I want to make before committing the final picture to canvas.
Well, enough griping. Wishing you a great weekend, everyone.
Christine's Collection 
Today did feel like the wind was mocking us and reminding us of what’s to come.
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Definitely!
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The post I read immediately before yours was from a woman whose partner is fully vaccinated but who caught covid anyhow. So don’t be too sure that the spread is due to unvaccinated people.
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The stats published today were that, of the cases lately where people were hospitalized for COVID, 73% were un-vaccinated. So there were still a quarter of the cases of vaccinated folks getting it, including a couple we know who caught it from their grandkids. Hopefully their case won’t be as severe.
It’s hard to know, IF all adults in SK had been vaccinated, whether these 27% would have caught it anyway. Thanks for your comment.
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ah, but walking around with covid, possibly spreading it around, and being hospitalised because of it are two different things.
They do not publish the numberrs here between vaccinated/unvaccinated cases – I wonder why? I think the efficacy of these jabs is far less than they claim.
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A valid question. Perhaps they aren’t. I’d rather be safe than sorry, but if we catch it anyway, I guess we haven’t lost anything by being vaccinated. Hopefully we won’t have as severe a case if we do get it. Thanks for your comments.
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I suspect it might be an age thing. We would jump one way but perhaps a teen would think differently.
It’s interesting here because they have announced vaccines for children, but the children themselves have the final say. I know a lot of children refused even to be tested because they did not want a swab up their nose, so I can’t help feeling they’ll balk at a needle.
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Probably they would. I would, too, for that matter. 🙂
For us the crossing of provincial and international borders my influence how willing young people are to be immunized.
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True
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Christine, down here we can enjoy a lovely fall and Indian. summer well into November, although there is a gradual change you notice more in the evening. January and February are our worst months, IMO, because of the wet cold, biting winds, dripping misery. I don’t look forward to that! But right now, things are temperate. Rain today, but it’s not cold out there yet 🙂
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Well it did freeze last night, but this time of year, when the afternoon sun shines down on us it can still get quite warm.
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PS–because of a movie I watched recently, I’ve just renewed an interest in the poetry of Robert Service. Was wondering if you are familiar?
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Yes, I am. We read some of his in school and I’ve posted a couple on my blogs. Have you seen this one?
A Rusty Nail
I ran a nail into my hand,
The wound was hard to heal;
So bitter was the pain to stand
I thought how it would feel,
To have spikes thrust through hands and feet,
Impaled by hammer beat.
Then hoisted on a cross of oak
Against the sullen sky,
With all about the jeering folk
Who joyed to see me die;
Die hardly in insensate heat,
With bleeding hands and feet.
Yet was it not that day of Fate,
Of cruelty insane,
Climaxing centuries of hate
That woke our souls to pain?
And are we not the living seed
Of those who did the deed!
Of course, with thankful heart I know
We are not fiends as then;
And in a thousand years or so
We may be gentle men.
But it has cost a poisoned hand,
And pain beyond a cry,
To make me strangely understand
A Cross against the sky.
Robert William Service
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I have, but I don’t think it’s possible to read it too often. I’ve been enjoying his work very much.
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Love your poem, Christine. We haven’t had quite the cold smack you have (yet) and for the next week we are hovering in the mid to high 20’s.
As for masks, we still haven’t had a respite so it’s hard to feel sorry for you 😉 Did you ever try the masks that tie in back of your head (like the surgeons do?) It would be a heck of a lot less uncomfortable, I should think.
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Thanks for the comment on my verse. The thermometer at the Villa read -3 C, but I think our yard was maybe a bit sheltered because most of my outdoor plants are still hanging in there.
You probably don’t feel sorry for me, but I still think it’s hard having our “freedom” to go back again. We’ll live. 🙂
I have tried masks that tie in back, but I prefer the masks that are easy-on-easy-off. And strings may not be less of a problem messing with the hearing aids.
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🙂
Oh man… though I’m glad your plants are still hanging in there.
I know, it’s more of a pain to tie them (I have three that I never use) but it it causes less grief?
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