Usually at this time of year I listen to everyone complain about summer ending - back to work, back to school, back to jeans, back to the slow trek towards winter - and I nod along, all the while thinking "I CAN'T WAIT!". I am a hardcore autumn addict. The trees slowly sloughing off their leaves, the smell of the leaves in the air, the colour of the leaves.. wait there's got to be more that I like than leaves... those bluest of blue skies, wearing my riding boots and favourite suede coat again, and the crispness in the air that typically I've missed all summer long. I'm also bidding GOOD RIDDANCE to field season, usually, which has (usually) tortured me with at least 15-20 full days of murderously hot fieldwork where I feel like there is a hot towel over my face I'm being forced to breathe through, where I slurp my camelback to completion well before the day is over (those are thirsty days, lemme tell ya) and where I have to choose all my clothes and undergarments super carefully due to the inevitable chafing that comes from working in field clothes drenched in SWEAT! I have entire groups of clothing set aside to prevent "rubbies" lol. Usually by this point all the skin on my feet has melted off (I'm sure you wanted to know that) from too many days in sweat-filled rubber boots and I've spent one too many days under a blazing hot sun being eaten alive by mosquitoes or roasting under full spray gear in 35C feels like 40C weather. I am having extremely vivid flashbacks and some PSTD-like shaking due to remembering the past couple of years and how ready I was for summer to be done. Plus, summer means a return to a semi-normal office life. This year I'll be inside as early as October 1st with just a small detour to the field otherwise in late Oct.. wow! My earliest break in a few years. :) I love coming inside, coming home, and really getting a chance to get back into fitness, cooking, house projects and most importantly time with Jeff, Bailey, friends and family.
But cold summer has really done a number on me. It's September and I feel like I've totally hit my stride with fieldwork. I was splashing around in Georgian Bay on Friday mapping Phragmites (invasive grass) populations with the biggest smile on my face. I was facing a 3 hour drive home down the 400 on a Friday afternoon and was knee deep in freezing cold water, but it was almost like I didn't WANT to leave! I was having too much FUN! And cold July and cold August were really the greatest allies ever - sooooo lucky to have such coooold weather for such ridiculously grueling work! I couldn't believe the luck I had - every day that was hot and sticky was either spent at home (with a/c), in the office (with a fan) or with fieldwork being cancelled due to thunderstorms. I basically got off scot free, in the summer in which I did more fieldwork than I've ever done before! In addition, I'm such a pro at packing for trips I can do it in under 20 minutes, and I'm such a pro at unpacking that when I'm home I am HOME and Jeff and Bailey may not have even noticed I was gone.
So really - things are going swimmingly in terms of the fieldwork and travel part of my life... so why all of a sudden is it September? Now instead of all things senescing leaves and riding boots all I can see is winter (which in my mind looks like a big angry cloud with a gaping mouth with teeth, breathing cold snow all over me) peering around the corner and I'm thinking: "no! don't!!! I can't DO IT AGAIN!!!". Time has never moved as quickly as it did between last winter and now, probably because this summer was so fab, and I just can't believe it's a month ending with R because at the end of this sequence is DECEMBER, followed by the 2 most depressing months in the world. Don't do it summer!!! Don't end!!!!!!!!!!!
But I've gotta get back to reality here, right? I'll dream of baking apple crisp and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving... drinking hot apple cider... pumpkin muffins from Starbucks (with that core of sweetened cream cheese? OH MAN are they good!)... anniversary hikes (wedding = 3 years; together = 7 years!).. both our birthdays (so fun to spoil each other)... 2 great concerts coming up (Riotfest and Alt-j). Not to mention coming inside, my last week of killing invasives (4 days to go this week then I get to stop killing things!) and the return to regular life where someone says "are you free for x?" and instead of saying "I have no free time until October" or "sorry, out of town again" I can say "yes! see you there!". Phew.. ok.. breathing again... fall is lovely.
And the truth is, humidity in the 30s this week; 4 straight days of fieldwork after the world's laziest long weekend (I'm sick, in my defense!), 2 major work events, a conference, multiple meetings, working 1 Sunday and at least 5 more days of fieldwork this month means I'm probably going to be REALLY ready to say adios come October 1.... but before I go gettin' all angry at summer, I will revel in some of the things that I love so dearly about it and will miss ever so much over the next 8 months..
- birkenstocks/flip flops/slingbacks. My feet feel so constricted, and sad, all summer long about constantly being shoved inside hot boots and never being able to slip comfortably into open-toed, free-wheelin', floppy footwear
- early morning Bailey walks in a t-shirt and shorts. In the winter, early morning Bailey walks consist of no less than 10 articles of clothing (seriously - hat, scarf, shirt, sweater, jacket, mittens, long johns, snow pants, boots, etc. etc.) and I end up feeling like Ralphie from a Christmas story by the time it's time to leave the house
- sitting on my back deck - the trees, the birds, the sunshine.. it's all freaking good. The backyard is just not somewhere you want to be in the winter - other than filling the bird feeders, we basically abandon it from November - April.. so sad!
- swimming.. water. There is nothing more refreshing and awesome than swimming in nature and this year I got to do it at lots of different places including Sturgeon Lake in Fenelon Falls, the Ottawa River in Quebec, Lake Cecebe, Guelph Lake, and probably some I'm forgetting! Nothing better than diving into that cool, sweet real live water :)
- being a normal temperature instead of a freezing popsicle of a woman every single day and night.. my toes are cold ALL WINTER LONG!!!
Ah, summer. We'll see how I feel in another month, but for right now I wouldn't mind if you stuck around forever!!!
Sorry no pics with this one. Big week of fieldwork coming up, gotta get to bed! :)
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