Cottage Lane - Red Fox

In my early years, the most important place for my summer holidays was our family cottage in Haliburton County, Ontario. The area combines lakes and forests with a pleasant blend of marginal farms which have seen better days. The farms were active when I was young, but they gradually had to be abandoned because of soil depletion and changing markets. We used to play cowboys and Indians on rough, sheep-grazed hills. This open pasture is returning to forests now that the sheep, are gone.

The first species to come in are, of course, the taller grasses and meadow flowers. These are followed by bushes, sumac and wild cherry trees. The scene I have shown in my painting is of this later stage of plant succession. The summer colours have started to turn to autumn colours and the cherry leaves are showing signs of following suit. There is the golden glow of a late summer evening backlighting the delicate northern grasses. A very old sign made by my father back in the 1950's has almost completely fallen apart. A fox is at the edge of the cover, suspiciously looking down the lane for signs of life around our cottage.