Day: November 9, 2013

Flat lands

Flat lands

Southwest Ontario is very, very flat. Some people can find the flatness boring, or, uninspiring, or depressing. It can be any an all of those.

I think the flatness can be inspiring, intriguing, mind-opening. You can see a very long way, for one thing. Our small town’s water tower is visible from ten miles away. Sunsets can be spectacular – the sun sinks below the horizon as flat as a calm lake, sea, ocean. Far-away thunderstorms are clearly visible. Bush scattered here are there is readily apparent.

Southwest Ontario is a good, ever-changing, intriguing place to live. One has to work a little mentally, visually, to find the beauty in the landscape. I like the challenge.

Lakers

Lakers

A cool thing about living near the Great Lakes, in the middle of North America, is seeing lake freighters large enough to be oceangoing ships steaming past.

The St. Clair River, linking Lakes Ontario and Erie with Huron, Michigan, and Superior, is a great place to see lakers. The channel is about a mile wide so you can get pretty close.

The 740-foot-long Baie Comeau is a new addition, being commissioned last summer. Here she is downbound for Quebec City. I timed my lunch at work to take a few photos, including this one.