Two years ago this week...

....we were vacationing in the Canadian Rockies, feasting our eyes on glacier lakes, scrambling up remote mountainsides and pigging out on burgers and beer at night. The days were long, the weather perfect, and the scenery, vibrant and green.

This year we're roasting at home where the vegetation is withered and yellowed. The grass crunches underfoot. The raspberries and black raspberries have shriveled into knot-hard lumps. The apple trees are dying and everything is covered in a fine layer of dust. It's dry and hot, and now it's humid.

Instead of coping with the farm and baking in the heat, I'd rather hop a plane and escape here again...