A soft blue sky kisses the rich earth. From horizon to horizon fields of fresh green and deep brown stretch, rolling over knolls and dipping through valleys. Big sky surrounds the land, the atmosphere is like a dome. Blue cloudless sky, grey lonely clouds or the starry blanket of a clear night, our Aroostook County sky stretches all around us.
Rumbling giants with huge muddy tires and tall smoking stacks roll down the road. Farm equipment is a familiar sight to see in the fields or chugging past our homes. With this year’s crop safely laid in the ground, we are starting to see little leafy heads poke their way up through the soil. Soon the land will be adorned with white blossoms so beautiful they call for a festival in their honor.
Life moves at a slower pace until the calendar turns to September and October. Harvest brings bragging leaves who show off their brilliant hues while the dust flies in the fields. Long days filled with hard work bring in the bounty. Soon the sweet scent of fresh dirt and new potatoes fills barns and buildings for storage.
Then we wait. For unending months it sometimes seems, our beautiful world lay under a thick quilt of snow. The sight of massive snow plows replace old tractors on the road. Farmers abandon their fields and flee to their storage houses to take care of their precious crop now harvested. The tree farmers business picks up, helping happy holiday shoppers pick out just the right evergreen to grace their home.
At the time when the cold winter seems to become bitter and unbearable, we feel the warm sun again. Mud season comes making mothers annoyed at the footprints on a clean floor. But oh how sweet the smell of the thawing earth! Hope of new life arises.
In Aroostook we experience the peak of each season. This land we simply call home is unlike any other. Open and wide, big sky and fresh air, a unique heritage we claim as our own. Often we overlook the beauty of this land we live in. It’s easy to go through life without realizing how blessed we are. May we take moments now and then to reflect on this life we lead in northern Maine, that distinctive area north of Bangor.
Ingrid Braley, of Mapleton, is a 2006 Presque Isle High School graduate. In each column of Rural Reflections, she hopes to bring readers back to the simple pleasures of the County and the country way of life.
