My Fickle Heart
There is a saying "home is where the heart is". If that is true then I think perhaps my home should be somewhere along the Bruce Peninsula.
I feel like a bit of a traitor even saying such a thing since I grew up in Muskoka. I always thought that the Muskoka pine tree and the deep dark lakes surrounded by the granite rocks of the Canadian Shield would forever hold my heart. Apparently I am fickle.
It was about 15 years ago now that I had my first trip straight up the middle (Hwy. 6) of the Bruce Peninsula. I have to admit that that first drive did not impress me with it's flat landscape of mostly farmland (not that I have anything against farms) and sporadic "forests" of scraggly cedars and larch.
However, once we reached the point at Tobermory, I was sold. The tip of the Bruce is a beautiful sight with it's crystal clear turquoise water, majestic outcroppings of the Niagara Escarpment, and thick forests of ancient cedars. Since that year I have been a regular visitor to the area and one day will make it to the end of the Bruce Trail in Tobermory on foot.
In every season the Bruce Peninsula is beautiful and very unlike what I had grown up with in Muskoka. The cedars looking rough and bedraggled compared to the sweeping stature of the pine; the lakes looking and feeling more like the ocean, often rough and cold; and the rocks flat and dull unlike the sparkling variations found in the granite in Muskoka. Even with all that, little by little the Bruce has captured my heart.
I now long for the view of the open expanse of clear water surrounded by cedars. I love to explore along the rocky shorelines for fossil rocks and clay and the small and tough "alpine" flowers that grow out of the cracks in the rock.
I am smitten and I hope that at some point I can follow my heart and call the Bruce home.
I feel like a bit of a traitor even saying such a thing since I grew up in Muskoka. I always thought that the Muskoka pine tree and the deep dark lakes surrounded by the granite rocks of the Canadian Shield would forever hold my heart. Apparently I am fickle.
It was about 15 years ago now that I had my first trip straight up the middle (Hwy. 6) of the Bruce Peninsula. I have to admit that that first drive did not impress me with it's flat landscape of mostly farmland (not that I have anything against farms) and sporadic "forests" of scraggly cedars and larch.
However, once we reached the point at Tobermory, I was sold. The tip of the Bruce is a beautiful sight with it's crystal clear turquoise water, majestic outcroppings of the Niagara Escarpment, and thick forests of ancient cedars. Since that year I have been a regular visitor to the area and one day will make it to the end of the Bruce Trail in Tobermory on foot.
In every season the Bruce Peninsula is beautiful and very unlike what I had grown up with in Muskoka. The cedars looking rough and bedraggled compared to the sweeping stature of the pine; the lakes looking and feeling more like the ocean, often rough and cold; and the rocks flat and dull unlike the sparkling variations found in the granite in Muskoka. Even with all that, little by little the Bruce has captured my heart.
I now long for the view of the open expanse of clear water surrounded by cedars. I love to explore along the rocky shorelines for fossil rocks and clay and the small and tough "alpine" flowers that grow out of the cracks in the rock.
I am smitten and I hope that at some point I can follow my heart and call the Bruce home.
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