Where were you when you fell in love with Nature?

Where was I when I fell in love with Nature?
I was playing in the woods down the leafy lane with my friends for hours on end.

Marine scientist and ocean advocate Wallace J. Nichols explores the neuroscience of our brains on nature, and posits that our love of the natural world holds the key to preserving it.
"Nature brings us deeper into ourselves, connects us more to it and our planet and each other... Nature is medicine."

Twelve Years of Camping & Canoeing

 

Year 1. Algonquin 

For the last dozen years at this time of year as the seasons turn, I’ve been camping and canoeing in southern Ontario parks with my pal David. We have been transported on two trips to Algonquin, two to Temagami, two to Massasauga, two to Kawartha Highlands, one to Haliburton Highlands, and three to the jewel in the crown, Killarney. 

Year 2. Algonquin

Year 3. Temagami 

We have witnessed the spectacular in sun-bleached skies and star-laden heavens, gales and downpours, frosty mornings and breezy afternoons. We have been awed by magnificent scenery in lakes and rivers, canyons and cascades, waterfalls and woodlands, marshes and mountains. We have encountered ravens who bid us welcome and loons who lull us to sleep.

 

Year 4. Kawartha Highlands 

 

Year 5. Temagami

Year 6. Massasagua

We have constructed and been toasted by roaring campfires long into the hours of darkness. We have eaten heartily and drunk merrily.  

 

 Year 7. Massasagua

 

 Year 8. Killarney

 

 Year 9. Killarney

We have mooted a lot of ideas, spouted a lot of drivel, and laughed our socks off. We have ruminated about the world we have temporarily left behind and pondered where it is headed. 

 Year 10. Kawartha Highlands

 Year 11. Killarney

It is a wonder to me to feel so enriched by Nature’s effusive embrace and reassured by the knowledge that this majestic land and lake scape will sustain itself for eons after we are dead and buried.

 Year 12. Haliburton Highlands

Happy Thanksgiving

On this glorious Thanksgiving morning,

Giving thanks for the family and friends we share, the land we inhabit, 

the community we share, the food we grow and eat, the gifts of love and life, 

and much more besides.