For as long as I can remember I have considered that the New Year begins in September not in January.

I have spent much of my life with the view that new beginnings coincided with the start of the school year. I realize this puts me out of step with the rest of the world and certainly the natural world, harvest time is hardly the time of new beginnings.

Never the less the Tuesday after Labour Day has been day one for me, this fact has been perpetuated in my life by marrying a school teacher and raising three children.

This year for the first time in memory the beginning of the school year did not directly impact our family.

Karen, my wife, has semi retired, Todd, our eldest, who is a school teacher is on sabbatical, (big word for goof off year), Jade, number one daughter, has graduated and Lindsay, the youngest is taking a year off to see the world.

My calendar had been thrown off, something was missing.

The kick start for this year came in the form of a canoe camping trip. For a number of years Karen and I have taken the senior class at her school to Algonquin Park for three days in the fall – this is what I mean by semi retirement, even though she is not teaching we are still leading this trip.

We just got back and what a fantastic trip it was. For the first time in recorded history it did not rain while I was in Algonquin. The weather was perfect, every day we swam, long lazy paddles on the Madawaska river with three young otters providing an impromptu show. This year’s class was small and the kids were great.

I was initially concerned when I heard that this group was eighty percent boys – ten and eleven year old boys can be a handful. With the hilarious exception of the endless fart noises followed by howls of laughter that came from their tents these guys were pretty well behaved.

This was a fun trip with an interesting cast of characters.

Now that I’ve had my September dose of students and school stuff my calendar has been realigned.

Let the year begin.