Oh Lisa, I have Wintering on my BTR list. So many books, so few shelves, and a desire to read them all! Blue skies make my heart sing, especially after multiple days of grey, colorless skies. Our winters in Texas sound similar to Australia. Never exceedingly cold, blues skies, and just enough grey days to make you appreciate the brilliant blue. Hoping you have more blue skies.
Ohhh! I can’t wait to share thoughts when you’ve finished Wintering!! 💚
I’ve never been to Texas but I’ve lately been longing for big sky & desert - I didn’t grow up in desert exactly but it was pretty flat, dry & desert looking. Funny how environments stay with you!
Love this piece Lisa...we are spirit sisters I think. Love the blue, the grey, the white & everything in between 💖 Roll on springtime in Ireland 🇮🇪 Great to be connected & a lovely piece of writing 🫶
You can add Canada to the list of subscribers you have. I enjoy your newsletter, your poetry and your photography. I added Wintering to our One Mind book list.
Thanks Karen! I’m happy to have Canada on my list of subscribers 🇨🇦 Did you know I lived in Edmonton for 2 years as a child? I sounded so very Canadian when we returned to Australia 😀 I’ll definitely return someday!
One time on a January business trip to Calgary, somebody drove down for the meeting from Edmonton. That night at dinner he described his addiction to chocolate, which he claimed was triggered by the long winter nights. I know that sounds hard to believe, but he was quite sincere. Since then, whenever I think of either place, one of the first things that comes into my head is chocolate.
That is highly possible!! Chocolate is yummy and releases nice feeling hormones in our body so perhaps it was a bit of a Pavlov’s dog response?! I wonder if they have their own chocolate brand in Edmonton?!
To my American ear, people in Alberta sounded more like people in Montana than, say, Ontario. Montana and Alberta are big-sky cowboy country, rangeland, sugar beets, mineral extraction, lots of tourism in the Rockies.
Historical settlement patterns may also account for some of how they sound. I believe Montana and Alberta are sort of the westernmost territory settled by Scandinavians in the late 19th century, a stretch which includes the northern parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota, as well as the southern reaches of the Canadian prairie. So you hear a little of the accent that was played up so well in Fargo.
But some people from that stretch don’t sound like that at all. For example, Joel and Ethan Coen, who made Fargo and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Bob Dylan, from much farther north in Hibbing, don’t have that accent. Possibly it’s because they came out of Jewish families with roots in, say, in Russia, rather than Scandinavia. Or maybe they just adjusted their voices over the years.
Edmonton is pretty far north, but maybe you sounded just a wee bit like Marge in Fargo:
Compared to an Aussie, I sounded American I guess - I was only 5! It was certainly different to everyone around me, that’s for sure. It didn’t last long but I have a good ear for accents now - maybe because I spent time there as a kid?
I grew up in Michigan, where we got three or four months of overcast, gray skies every winter. It was depressing. At age 36, I moved to North Carolina, where the skies are often blue in the much milder winters.
Sounds like a good move, Mark! The first winter I was here we had so much sun. Totally not normal 😂 One winter since then we had 15 minutes sun in 2 and a half months - that was tough!
And your latest post’s title was cool because I’d just been thinking about writing something about silence, not being golden but something else and remembered a poem I wrote called Silence is Silver and Gold!! Freaky!
Oh Lisa, I have Wintering on my BTR list. So many books, so few shelves, and a desire to read them all! Blue skies make my heart sing, especially after multiple days of grey, colorless skies. Our winters in Texas sound similar to Australia. Never exceedingly cold, blues skies, and just enough grey days to make you appreciate the brilliant blue. Hoping you have more blue skies.
Ohhh! I can’t wait to share thoughts when you’ve finished Wintering!! 💚
I’ve never been to Texas but I’ve lately been longing for big sky & desert - I didn’t grow up in desert exactly but it was pretty flat, dry & desert looking. Funny how environments stay with you!
And thank you 🙏🏼 fingers crossed for more blue! 💙
I'm sure Arizona might be appealing to you as well! :).
Love this piece Lisa...we are spirit sisters I think. Love the blue, the grey, the white & everything in between 💖 Roll on springtime in Ireland 🇮🇪 Great to be connected & a lovely piece of writing 🫶
Thanks Louise! I felt the same when I read your recent pieces. I haven’t been to Ireland yet but it’s on my list!!
I didn’t know that. As large as Canada is, I’ve never been to Edmonton myself.
It’s like Australia I guess - very big, and diverse in its nature!
You can add Canada to the list of subscribers you have. I enjoy your newsletter, your poetry and your photography. I added Wintering to our One Mind book list.
Thanks Karen! I’m happy to have Canada on my list of subscribers 🇨🇦 Did you know I lived in Edmonton for 2 years as a child? I sounded so very Canadian when we returned to Australia 😀 I’ll definitely return someday!
One time on a January business trip to Calgary, somebody drove down for the meeting from Edmonton. That night at dinner he described his addiction to chocolate, which he claimed was triggered by the long winter nights. I know that sounds hard to believe, but he was quite sincere. Since then, whenever I think of either place, one of the first things that comes into my head is chocolate.
That is highly possible!! Chocolate is yummy and releases nice feeling hormones in our body so perhaps it was a bit of a Pavlov’s dog response?! I wonder if they have their own chocolate brand in Edmonton?!
To my American ear, people in Alberta sounded more like people in Montana than, say, Ontario. Montana and Alberta are big-sky cowboy country, rangeland, sugar beets, mineral extraction, lots of tourism in the Rockies.
Historical settlement patterns may also account for some of how they sound. I believe Montana and Alberta are sort of the westernmost territory settled by Scandinavians in the late 19th century, a stretch which includes the northern parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota, as well as the southern reaches of the Canadian prairie. So you hear a little of the accent that was played up so well in Fargo.
But some people from that stretch don’t sound like that at all. For example, Joel and Ethan Coen, who made Fargo and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Bob Dylan, from much farther north in Hibbing, don’t have that accent. Possibly it’s because they came out of Jewish families with roots in, say, in Russia, rather than Scandinavia. Or maybe they just adjusted their voices over the years.
Edmonton is pretty far north, but maybe you sounded just a wee bit like Marge in Fargo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPHbIyDTPHU
Compared to an Aussie, I sounded American I guess - I was only 5! It was certainly different to everyone around me, that’s for sure. It didn’t last long but I have a good ear for accents now - maybe because I spent time there as a kid?
Thanks for the history! I like accents ✨
I grew up in Michigan, where we got three or four months of overcast, gray skies every winter. It was depressing. At age 36, I moved to North Carolina, where the skies are often blue in the much milder winters.
Sounds like a good move, Mark! The first winter I was here we had so much sun. Totally not normal 😂 One winter since then we had 15 minutes sun in 2 and a half months - that was tough!
And your latest post’s title was cool because I’d just been thinking about writing something about silence, not being golden but something else and remembered a poem I wrote called Silence is Silver and Gold!! Freaky!