Today it is extremely (for the prairies) humid because of a huge amount of rain, while also somehow being smoky enough that I’ve battened the hatches and the light is dim and orange, and to top it all off we are also in the midst of a mosquitopocalypse. Open the door and instantly there are 30-50 mosquitoes in the house. Walk through the grass only if you have a death wish.
Let us turn our eyes and hearts to a better time (~3 weeks ago) when I came home from a mosquito-free walk and said to my husband “the vibe of the neighborhood right now is very ‘quiet English village at the beginning of a cozy murder mystery’ in the best way possible.” This proclamation was partially motivated by finding my daughter’s water bottle left in an easily visible spot on the playground the day after we lost it AND her hat left on a neighbour’s front yard bench (set by the sidewalk so you can take a rest if you need one) when I didn’t even realize we’d misplaced it. It takes a village (to maintain our water bottle and hat collection)!!!!!
I also felt the “the village fete simply must go off without a hitch this year, and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen” of it all because the lilacs were blooming and the smell was wafting in our open windows, I was keeping an eye on my spruce tree for making spruce tip syrup, a new geocache was placed in a flowering ornamental cherry, everything was coming up rose. On one of my walks, while I was giving my Merlin bird id app the workout of its life (clay coloured sparrows! chipping sparrows! A PINE SISKIN!), I spied with my little eye a northern flicker acting somewhat sus, and stopped to observe, and turns out there is a pair of flickers nesting in the roof of the Anglican church. Self same church as has a community garden and little free library and raspberry bushes available to all.
Another evening took me past the community hall, and I saw a fella get out of his car and pull a huge broadsword? out of the trunk of his car? and then go into the hall? At which point I noted the sounds of swords clashing and clanging? Turns out there’s a medieval swordsmanship club that meets locally*! They, obviously, will be a red herring in the second act of the mystery, obviously none of them is the villain.
A friend told me she had it on good authority that a beaver had set up shop (lodge) in the neighborhood ravine, and had dammed up a culvert. She came over with some other pals and we took a walk down into the ravine and found the beaver, and we got to see the beaver slap the water with her tail. I certainly felt warned away! (Read: enthralled by nature).
At some point there’s going to be some kind of ominous chekov’s revolver type of incident and all these rural idyll-coded events will take on a more sinister tone (was there special significance to that overheard conversation? is the local grocer wearing a fake beard? why did the housekeeper up at the big house buy so much rat poison?) but until then, I’ll regard it all with quaint fondness.
And I didn’t even MENTION the MULTIPLE huge flocks of sandhill cranes that we saw flying overhead earlier in the spring! It’s been an absolute wealth of wildlife sightings, including the dragonfly I just saw in the backyard thank GOD may she consume a thousand mosquitoes amen and amen so has it been written so mote it be.
*…….should I join…..?
ggllyynniiss 
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