Down from
Lake Erie flows the mighty Niagara River, bubbling and churning faster and
faster until it shoots out over a 165 foot cliff. Suddenly the scene seems to switch
into slow motion. Billions of water droplets sparkle in the sunshine. Do those
gazing on this scene also pause to wonder out of Whose treasury pours this
endless flow of diamonds? It is but a moment – and then the droplets are lost
in the mist, swallowed up by the dangerously angry river. The river wears
itself out with raging and swirling, and finally sleepily drifts past patient Fort
Niagara into Lake Ontario.
Diamonds
twinkle quietly as waves lap the shores near our home. We sit there by day,
watching kids play, or walk there by night, the lights of the cities across
lending their own interest and character to the view. As we look out over this
vast lake, if it were not for the curve of the earth, we could trace the shore
past the towers of one city after another, until they dwindled away and were
eventually replaced by towers of another sort: sand hills, silent giants on the
peninsula that is Prince Edward County. Beyond the peninsula, Lake Ontario
again, as it narrows and empties into the St. Lawrence River running down to
the sea.
The mouth
of the St. Lawrence is speckled with islands; rocky, mossy islands, where
humble cottages and pine trees stand sleepily in the sun. The river flows around
a thousand such islands, blue – blue – blue.
One humble cottage, on a similarly humble island, is so narrowly
encircled in blue, that its owners have just room enough to dock their boat in
back, while in front – well, they could take their dip or catch their morning’s
fish from the front door. Delightfully quaint – and a regular Patty’s Place
compared to the giant next door.
For just down
that blue river sparkling with diamonds, a grassy hill rises above another
rocky shore. And rising above the grassy hill are towering pine and oak. And rising
above the towering pine and oak… are the stony turrets of Boldt Castle.
There is
scope for the imagination here.
And I was
pretty sure the author of the Buddy Books would think so, too. (To be continued...)
