A Change of Season

Nick’s home for Thanksgiving weekend and we’re in the this-is-the-last-time phase of moving – the last Thanksgiving we’ll spend in this house, the last backyard bonfire, the last family walk through the greenbelt. I was pregnant with Nick when we moved in here so it’s a strange feeling. The house is mostly purged and we’re at the “where’s the….oh damn, we already packed it” stage of packing.

I remember leaving Sweden after three and a half years at Stockholm University – saying goodbye to my friends, the final look at my student residence, the last time walking across campus, the sad bus ride to the airport, only to be told at check-in that my flight had just been cancelled. I had to get back on the bus and go through all the same drama the next day, which just felt foolish and anticlimactic the second time around.

I’ve been feeling nostalgic as our move date creeps closer and thinking of all the goodbyes over the years – leaving Winnipeg to move to Ontario, leaving Georgetown to move to Kelowna, leaving Kelowna to move back to Georgetown, leaving home for university in Toronto, leaving for Stockholm, leaving Stockholm, leaving Ottawa to move to England and leaving England to move back to Ottawa. Each goodbye along the way has been sad, but they’ve always been followed by new friendships and adventures.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

Seneca

It’s hard to see that when the new friends and experiences are mostly hypothetical and the ones we’re leaving behind are very real. This house is home and the new one is still someone else’s house. I was very sad when we sold our family home in Georgetown, but now when we go back there (because Ray’s mom lives on the same street), it’s just a house, a house that holds many happy memories, but it’s the people inside that make it a home.

But just as the summer turns into fall, the end of our time in Ottawa marks the beginning of a new season. That analogy would work better if we weren’t headed into a cold, dark Canadian winter, but it fits with the theme of the post’s photos so let’s just go with it.

Not much to say this time really, and I seem to be rambling on, so I’ll finish with a few pics from Thanksgiving weekend. And a belated Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

So many colours…so many leaves to be raked.

These gulls were very entertaining to watch as they played a Darwinian version of musical chairs. Weakest bird goes into the water.

Juno’s very happy to have her playmate home, though she thinks he spends far too much time at his desk doing schoolwork (or maybe I’m projecting).

We decided we should get a ‘last’ family photo on our property before the move. (Photo credit to Ha.)

A more spontaneous and ‘natural’ photo with Ray in work pants, Nick in jeans and hoodie, me with my ponytail and no makeup and Juno full of the joy of life. (Photo credit to a random woman on the trail who turned out to be a professional family photographer out scouting locations for her next shoot.)