It’s minus twenty outside, and a white, blustery rage is rattling my windows; I am under siege by a monster: the depths of winter.
Luckily, I’m tucked away in my warm study where I can ignore this white threat and daydream about summer: those past and those yet to come.
This photograph, for me, typifies my summer dream. Here, a carefree woman in her 1967 red Impala convertible, cruises a picturesque Quebec country road with the top down; her hair trailing like a banner in the warm breeze. Her bare shoulders and long hippy dress are lovingly embraced by the bright sun as she stops at the General Store, for an ice cream cone.
But Summer is not only about women. Another exemplifying picture is of a man on an orange, sporty, Suzuki V-Strom motorcycle; cruising the quiet back-country roads, his shirt open and his arms exposed, grinning from ear to ear as he smells the scenery, and looks out for panoramic vistas and quaint country scenes to photograph.
As nice as these two images are separate, it is their confluence that for me, epitomizes the heights of summer; and these heights are the only bulwark, the only light at the end of the tunnel strong enough, to keep at bay the monster: the depths of winter.
Author’s note: You can find this General store at the corner of Chemin de St-Armand & Chemin Bradley in St-Armand, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.