Hazy, smoky air

This morning was beautiful, sunny, brilliant sky, very mild breeze. Toward noon I looked up from the sewing I was doing and saw a haze in the air. Last Sunday when I walked on the beach there was a thicker haze at the ocean's horizon and in the late afternoon it was visibly rolling in -- clouds of mist, rather romantic looking.

I did not know until I went to the store and heard others talking that the haze is not fog, it is smoke from wild fires in central Quebec. Since I do not have a TV and do not, therefore, watch weather on TV, nor listen to news either, I did not know there were wildfires in Canada. I do not remember ever hearing of wildfires there before. I am not without news. I read the NY Times, online during the week, and my AOL home page has capsules of news. But I'm feeling very out of touch.

On the other hand I'm wondering if Americans ignore what's going on in Canada -- until the smoke begins drifting our way. The fires have been blazing a while but there was not a word in this morning's Times and nothing on AOL's news. I know Canadians sometimes feel like the forgotten people of North America. If that is because they are a peaceful, law abiding [for the most part] quiet people good for them. Since I have no respiratory problems the haze is just a visual matter for me. But I like to keep up with the news. I certainly know about the BP oil spill in the gulf, and about the violent tropical storm -- maybe not actually a hurricane but much like one -- in Guatemala. I much prefer news about such things even if they don't affect me in any direct way, than about which television actress is having a baby or getting divorced.