It's full summer in Saskatchewan. We're in Saskatoon, at my sister's home, until we buy our own house, and I am enjoying the summer holiday, reading, for the most part, in the backyard sunshine. I have completed works by educator Parker J. Palmer, and am reading one of Steven Pinker's books on language. Perhaps I'll pick up some fiction soon. I bought The Wal-Mart Effect for my husband and at Value Village yesterday, Andrea and I stocked up on teaching books for our respective assignments this fall. I will be teaching English, Social Studies, and Health/Guidance to Grades 7-9, and she will have a grade 3/4 classroom. A change for both of us...but it should be fun to try newer things, in my case in a smaller school and in her case at only one school.

I will soon load new photos and post a couple, both from our journey and from the past few months in British Columbia with other extended family members. A lot of them get put on Facebook!

For those unfamiliar with Saskatchewan, it's incredibly beautiful in summertime. The license plates call it "Land of Living Skies" and the school board I'll be working for is called "Living Sky" and both names are appropriate. The long summer evenings yield to sundowns you can watch for an hour or more as the sky lights up in every possible colour and vista. The prairie is awash with colour: multiple shades of green, brown, and golds, punctuated with flowers everywhere. The canola fields are just coming into bloom and if you haven't seen these acres and acres of golden flower, you've really missed one of farming's beauties. I like watching the birds, too, over and on the sloughs, and the glimpses of redwing blackbirds make me happy.

I have begun to write poetry again. I must be happy.