Canadians buy gasoline for about one dollar a liter. But they talk about fuel efficiency in miles-per-gallon. If you ask an old-timer for the distance to somewhere, he’s just as likely to give it in miles as in kilometers, sometimes adding with a smile, “I’m from the old school.” All the signs show distances in kilometers, save the occasional advertising sign that tries to seem old.Farmers talk of wheat yields in bushels per acre—100 on average. When they get $1.60 per bushel, as it seems they will, they complain that fertilizer costs $100 per acre. Farmland sells for $50 to $100 per acre, an impossibly high price if buying it for wheat crops.
I entered the prairie at elevation 900 meters above sea level on June 11. Twenty-two days later I am near its edge at elevation 200 meters in the richest farmland the Canadian prairie offers. Many different crops grace the fields here, even corn, that commonest of grain, but the first I’ve seen of it in Canada. You can see in the picture that it will not be ready for the Fourth of July, like mine was in Tennessee, if I planned right and was lucky. Grain has built the lifestyle of this prairie, mostly wheat,
mostly spring wheat. Grain has driven the economy for many years.And the hub of Grain is Winnipeg. I felt sucked into the city on the only road you can take eastward through eastern Manitoba—the Trans-Canada Highway; and even it has a gravel shoulder. Imagine the I-10 Freeway having a gravel shoulder. I avoided it where possible by taking some frontage road or riding on the left side if that shoulder was paved. But mostly I trudged ahead, drawn to the edge of a prairie and a lifestyle.
I felt drawn out of normal life as the city closed in around me, into a place where the order of things has changed. It’s still my life and I recognize it, but people and places have changed. Big businesses live here—car dealerships, computer stores, office buildings—things that seem strangely foreign, even tho
ugh I used to walk by them almost every day. Drivers honk at each other when annoyed, something you never hear in a small town; he could be your coffee-mate tomorrow morning. Their horns sound like people screaming at each other.Refined young women flaunt their sophisticated nonchalance. I understand refinement as a point of view but have been away from it so long it irks my sensibilities. I feel like a shoot of spring wheat, insignificant in a field of millions, all just the same. In small towns, people stand taller than wheat shoots.
I will stay in Winnipeg until Tuesday when I fly home.
The ubiquitous raven lives in Winnipeg too
Love that raven, he looks like he's got the best view, and akin to yours... remember what/where you are coming come to... I don't think it is either of those places... small town or sophisticate city. Not the circle you come home to... here is a center of down to earth culture... where science, poetry, art and music rub shoulders some gravely some smooth, but this is life at its best, in my view, come home to the Poets Salon, like nowhere else on earth! We miss you!
ReplyDeleteSharon, I have been touched by your observations, of both the external & internal landscapes. Mary Oliver wrote,
ReplyDelete"To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go."
Good job, pilgrim.
Sharon R
A few of the photos are grainy; but the last one is birdy.
ReplyDeleteYes Kath, I look forward to coming home to good things, to home, art and friends. But you've got to imagine how it feels to emerge into a city like Pasadena after so long in the wheat.
ReplyDeleteSharon, I have learned some of what it is to love what is mortal, to feel the life and death of the farmland, and to know the lonely prospect of dying alone, as we all must, somewhere in the hugeness of a wheatfield, which seems so endless, yet is insignificant in the earth, which is insignificant in the cosmos. I come away less important and more connected.
Steven, at first, I thought you meant my pictures are distorted, but now I think they just show grain. Darned songwriters and poets, can’t be trusted. Thanks for following these missives and for commenting so often along the grainy way.
Michael, thanks for updating the map and showing all my locations up to Winnipeg. I hope anyone reading this will zoom in on Michael's map (link above)and see the routes I have followed in either satellite view or map view.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the big city ! After being out in the rural part of the world it is certainly a very RUDE awakening. It doesn't feel normal, sometimes it doesn't feel right as well. I think I prefer life more on the prairie, where life is slower, and people take the time to take the time. But oh well, we have choices in life, fortunately, and so we forge ahead. I will miss reading your daily blog posts about life, and I look forward to seeing you in person once you get back home.
ReplyDelete