Prairie skies

This evening my son and I went on our first spring adventure by car, stopping at KFC to pick up supper and then heading straight south from Regina.

The last time we travelled along this route, we stopped often to take pictures. It was harvest time and the fields looked like burnished gold that went on forever, just like the picture here. Tonight these same fields were covered mostly in snow, with patches of stubble showing through.

Spring is definitely on its way though. The days are lengthening. The sun is higher overhead during the days. And best of all, the temperatures are warming … finally!

While we were driving, I realized how there is something about a prairie sky that makes my heart sing. When I lived in Ottawa, this is what I longed for – endless, luminous skies and truly spell-binding prairie sunsets. Funny then how I minimized the long, cold winters and the much shorter growing season.

This is what Sandra Birdsell, a well-known Regina writer once had to say about prairie skies :

When you are a prairie writer, you’re always aware of the sky and the horizon as images of freedom and opening up.

And with spring’s seeming arrival, my son and I are looking forward to more impromptu adventures by car as we continue to explore the backroads of this vast beautiful province.