The Back Alley

I don't understand why, when I was working this morning digging up the vegetable bed just outside the back door of our house to plant some late beetroot, I should be suddenly transported to Canada. The sensation was so real, so vivid, that I felt I must be there, standing....

....in the alley that runs along the back of our son's house in Edmonton.

There's nothing particularly special about the alley. The utilities, like gas, electricity and cable, come in from it, and....

....all the garages lead out onto it. Garages are far more important for keeping cars in than here in the UK where they tend to be store rooms or workshops. In winter, the garaged cars are hooked up to the mains so, when you're ready to drive out on a -40C day, you can stand in the house and press a key on the fob so the engine block and seats warm up.

It's a nice alley too because the wildlife in the ravine on the other side of it often come right up to it. It's a good place for hares and squirrels, and a great selection of birds from the ravine come into the garden to be fed.

This being Canada, where local authorities still have a bit of money, Edmonton City Council has developed the ravine below the alley into a skiing trail in the winter, with the different levels of difficulty clearly marked, and these trails can be followed for miles on foot in the warmer months.

So it's a really nice alley, but I still don't know why it arrived in my head this morning.