It's a hot weekend in a cleared-out city, but I'm more at ease with the weather than previous years. Still, cold drinks and shady breaks are very much the order when these heatwaves hit.
Yesterday, I started rereading The Story of Lucy Gault and its vivid imagery of the sea also helps my mind stay cool too. If you haven't read this book, I recommend it or anything really by William Trevor. Gosh, he can use his words.
And while that book transports me to Ireland, front of mind this month is the fact I mark nine years since I first arrived in Canada. I've always felt Toronto greets newcomers with benign indifference. Maybe that was just me. Or maybe it's real and a function of the sheer number of people who land in this city every year. I struggled with it when I first arrived... I guess I really wanted a big welcome hug.
But there's an upside to this indifference and now it's what I love most about Canada. When I go back to Ireland, I feel it pressing in on me from all sides. After years of being here, more than anything I hate feeling smothered by a place or by people. I also really believe that, in myself, I've been able to do things here that I could not have done elsewhere... precisely because of this open-concept sense of space I feel here. I can't imagine being anywhere else now.
So, Happy Canada Day, fellow Canadians! And happy July too!
Products: The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor | Edith A. Miller Nessa Dress from Steven Alan | Gucci Straw boat hat from Net-a-Porter | Elderflower Still from Belvoir Fruit Farms | Multi Lotus bracelet from Me&Ro | Endless Summer Tote from Fieldguided | Grey blue tennis shoes from Bensimon
happy Canada day Jane.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you used the colour blue in a subtle way.
and I'm very happy that you like living in Canada, its important to live in a place you love.
Thanks Sabine! Happy Canada Day!
DeleteLove this post. I like the opportunity to do whatever I want in a new place. You're completely anonymous when you're new or a stranger. (No doubt some of that is psychological and I could do it at home, too.) Anonymity isn't valued much by our society, but I like it.
ReplyDeleteNew York clears out in the summer, too. I like it. My haunts are less crowded and I feel like I can linger longer.
(Love the blue of that dress, too.)
Me too - I always feel like a place can't possibly "change" me... but it changes my ability to be myself in some ways.
DeleteI love the idea of you loitering in your favourite haunts for a little longer. Those quieter city weekends have a lovely sense of time spreading out in front of you!
I so associate with appreciating that sense of space and room—and maybe even anonymity—to just breathe and stretch out and let your guard down and find yourself (without the neighbors watching!) Sigh, I envy you spending your Sunday with the powerful Lucy Gault. Enjoy and happy Canada Day!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jacinta - Happy Canada Day to you too!
DeleteWhew, can I identify with this post. Seems we have something in common: I have lived on this tiny island for nine (sometimes lonely, sometimes smothered) years. Although I wouldn't want to move back to where I came from, I do feel the need to take much deeper breaths than just the sea air around this rock...beautiful and pure as it may be. Besides taking the ferry to *America,* reading helps. I will check out Lucy Gault. I'm due for a new reprieve ;>}}
ReplyDeleteI bet! Island living can be smothering for sure, beautiful as it can be too. I hope you like Lucy Gault!
DeleteI also loved Lucy Gault - one of my top 5 books and agree with you about William Trevor's way with words.
ReplyDeleteDo hope you will comment when you have finished reading the book - have you read Love and Summer - also beautifully written.
Thank you for your always interesting post.
Colleen
I've already read it - am rereading. And, yup, I've read all his work and posted about him many times.
DeleteIt's so strange reading about the heatwave you guys are having while experiencing the polar opposite. I'm sitting here in Western Australia, freezing. Although I'm not complaining because our summers are so long, I make the most out of cold weather.
ReplyDeleteAustralia also has that concept of open space associated with it - both figuratively and literally. I remember how odd it felt when we first moved here from Israel - everything felt like it was expanding. It's strange to go back to visit family in Israel, because I can relate to what you're saying about this enclosed, 'smothered' feeling, but at the same time, it still feels like home even if I know I won't realistically ever live there again.
I love any written word that touches on sea imagery, so thanks for the recommendation!
Yes - I very much imagine Australia having that open concept feel about it too...
DeleteYes, you might definitely check out William Trevor. He is among the greatest short story writers - up there with Alice Munro.
Happy Canada day!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteHappy Canada Day! Hope it was a lovely holiday. I love all the blue and the little Elderflower drink- those make me so happy:)
ReplyDeleteThank Chelsea! Yes I love them too!
DeleteI understand what you mean. It's akin to living in a small town where you feel like living your life in a fishbowl and going to the big city where everyone is a stranger and indifferent, which gives you somehow lots of spaces to live life freely.
ReplyDeleteHappy Canada Day!