During the weather-benign months of the year, this is a superb place of refuge, a heaven-on-Earth for nature lovers. The purity of the air, the casual prevalence of birds and animals, the lush growth of trees and the general atmosphere of surrounding nature entrances and rests the mind.

Our daughter bought a six-acre property there, on the edge of the Canadian Shield, six years ago. And there she has lived since then, with her daughter, and her countless domestic dependents. For, having the responsibility of taking care of ten dogs, two cats, eight rabbits, meant she could not legally live within the confines of an urban municipality where ownership of that number of animals is confined to those living on farms.

In the spring, the surrounding woods and wetland on her property come alive with green and with living creatures. The deer which can be seen throughout the winter months seem far more assured with the disappearance of the snow and they forage often directly beside her house. Which is a log building built originally as a schoolhouse, in 1864. Since modernized and considerably added to.

In the spring out come the turtles to lay their eggs, the watersnakes from her wetland to soak up the sun, the dragonflies to consume the mosquitoes and black flies, the deer, chipmunks, rabbits, raccoons, beaver and squirrels.

And a vast number of various bird species, the most delightful of which are the hummingbirds returning faithfully every spring, to the familiar terrain they are generationally accustomed to, with its myriad of well-hung glass feeders requiring constant filling.