I am here for the weekend. In the university town where I taught in 2005-06. I have several family members here, as well as some friends from that year of working here. I chose the dates for this visit badly, because not one of the friends I have in this city is actually here this weekend. So it's been a quiet weekend for R and I, staying at my favourite aunt's house with Mr. K. It's been blustery, rainy, and cold. The picture above shows me taking advantage, on Friday afternoon, of a wee patch of sunlight before the storm clouds moved in...I had a glorious swim off the rocks in the warm, shallow water. (This house is jaw-droppingly situated...)
Being here reminds me that being rooted, as I wrote about the other day, is many-layered. It's not just about Home City, it's about Home Region, too. The wilder landscapes that I've visited all my life - the ones that surround and to a certain extent feed off the city. I know landscape differently from the way I know cityscape. But I take a certain comfort in being able to map a region, I realize.
That's why I wanted to come here just before I leave for Scary City...I wanted to feel this landscape again, so that I could hold it with me over there. There is not the same kind of grief about leaving the region that I feel at leaving the city - and I feel excited about the region surrounding Scary City - but it's very nourishing to be here.
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A back update: Things are finally looking up on that front. I drove the several hours to get here on Thursday, and that sure as hell didn't help matters. When my aunt saw me hobble out of the car and immediately lie on the floor, there was talk of "shooting me through the CT scanner" (her husband is a doctor, a radiologist). But she gave me a bottle of Celebrex. Oh my goodness, I heart Celebrex. It appears to have worked a small miracle, and now I'm very much on the mend. Drugs Are Good.
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