Moon-gazing

My dear friend Sara, who writes a travel blog about China for about.com (look right, see the blogroll) has just complained to the weather gods. Once again, apparently, the clouds were out in full force over Shanghai and so, for , zhong qie jie (Mid-Autumn Festival) on Monday night, it was impossible to engage in the traditional activity of moon-gazing. (As I recall, we had this problem last year, too.)

So, not to rub it in or anything, I thought I would send a photo I took a couple of minutes ago here where I am, which happens to be absolutely alone on a lake in northern Ontario. (Remember we are 12 hours behind.)

Why do they call it Mid-Autumn Festival anyhow? Isnt autumn just beginning today? Not that you would know that here. A cold front is due tonight and by Wednesday the temperature will range from 4 11 degrees (thats 40-51 F). Since the cottage has only a small fireplace for heat, and no insulation, thats enough to send me packing along with the hummingbirds and sandhill cranes who have made their exit and the bluejays who are flocking (!) and geese who wake me in the morning with all their honking as they fly over.

Goodbye solitude, goodbye small cottage, goodbye lake, flat and with whitecaps, goodbye kingfisher who blinks at me from the other end of the dock. Goodbye trees and goodbye silence. And goodbye moon. See you next year.

Back to Shanghai, I. Ill write again when Im safely back in the lane in the city of 23 million people.