The view across the gravel road on past Canada Day mornings

My father's home town: Meota, Sask.: 30 km north of North Battleford

I am very fortunate to be able to picture things quite clearly in my mind’s eye. And if you don’t mind I want to share how I shared so many July 1 mornings in Meota, Sask. with my parents in their retirement home overlooking Jackfish Lake. It started with my mother making pancakes and serving them on a tick oak table. We chatted for close to an hour and drank countless cups of coffee.

...the deck where I spent hours

I wheeled myself onto a freshly-stained — Dad stained it, I think, every month. The deck was raised over the lawn where tall popular trees towered. A gravel road was right in front of the lawn where cars drove slowly. Across the road stood another bank of trees before the land took a steep dip down to the lake. We couldn’t see the shoreline from the deck, but the rest of the view certainly makes up for it.

And that’s the view I looked at for hours. Jackfish Lake is 18 kms wide: you can barely see the other side of it. My wind often got washed up in the water of the lake: on those quiet days when it looked like glass, and those times when a storm was coming in from the north, and the lake was choppy — even a little angry.

....the view we had of the lake, across the gravel road

I share such images with you in hopes Canada Day morning is filled with every person and every thing you hope to see.