The kitchen view

 

This is the view from Corinne and Chris's dining table. It's expansive, of the front yard in the foreground and fields off in the distance. As we have been looking at this view for three and a half weeks, the changes have been slow and incremental.

Fields are ripening. Some in the far off distance are getting combined. The sun, shining deep red through the thick smoke that blankets the north. Our northern harrier hawk is ever present hunting for his or her dinner from sun up to sun down. A single bald eagle, soaring through on the way to its next hunting ground.

Changes, even small ones, are noticed immediately. The shape of a deer way off at the distant tree line. A new bale. A single moose, standing still, soaking in the morning sun.

Vesper sparrows, darting in and out of the canola field. Flickers watching the action from the vantage point of the power pole.

Watching this view is irresistible. 

When I wake up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because my leg muscles, the view is dimly lit by the blue moon that has been making headlines the last few days. Aside from the ambient lunar light, small pin pricks of illumination pepper the horizon, like ships at sea.