Keri and I were having a discussion about this month’s theme and realized that we have frequently written about the “Outdoors” as a topic. Going back to childhood, we have our individual memories of places close to home winding into the countryside. Places where we spent most of our childhoods, on our own in nature. I also spent a lot of time in books apart from being outside. This is not an unusual combination. We met a former gardening columnist at the newspaper’s volunteer appreciation pizza night. She told Keri and me about her combined love of plants and language, having earned degrees in botany and French.

There was a point in time before major technology, when the outdoors was a larger part of what we thought about and dealt with. The basic differences about city living after country living, changes with the the times. The farm was thirty-plus years ago, before the internet and various associated devices absorbed human attention. The telephone was attached to a wall in the house and the idea of carrying around a device that can always find me would have struck me sinister. It still does a little, and I still don’t have a device to keep track of my movements outdoors.

Living in Edmonton, in this neighbourhood, puts us within walking distance to the River Valley. I have lived in and around Winnipeg before moving to Alberta. The Manitoba capital is based at the juncture of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. Sound impressive? The use of the word “valley” in this location would be for technicality – the Red River Valley “Dip” would not have a favourable ring to it. I lived within a half a block of the “Valley” and that’s what it comes out to on the Prairies. I was located by a bridge in a scenic area leading the Osbourne Village neighbourhood and its Country Style Donuts franchise circa 1990-91.

I have been enjoying the outdoors recently as the winter dust is washed down and the wet snow has become rain. Things are budding and you can start to smell it on the air. These things will be occurring in cities and farms in Alberta and Manitoba and places like Inuvik and Texas, all in their own fashion that leads to springtime.

We have to love the outdoors. It’s the best choice the Earth offers to us residing on the planetary surface.

Reinhardt lives in Boyle Street with his wife, Keri Breckenridge.