Fernie: My special place

We have been coming to Fernie for a week or two every summer since Avery was two. She’s now 10 and the small B.C. mountain town has earned a special place in her heart. Here’s what she wrote about Fernie for a grade four school project earlier this year.

I sit on a rock and watch as a female moose slowly lifts her head from a bog. The sun is high on a hot summer day and I can hear the sweet sound of a robin chirping. I’m in Fernie, a small town nestled in the Rocky Mountains.

A drawing of Piper in a field in Fernie, B.C.

I see high mountain peaks and below them horses run free in wide open fields. A bald eagle soars across the murky blue river in search of a silver trout. As I look at the Saskatoon berry bushes I see magpies playing a game of chase.

I hear the sound of the train on the rusty railway tracks not far from where I am. My friends are running around in the field chasing after my barking dog. In the distance an elk call comes from the river.

The sweet smell of wildflowers floods my nose into my heart and gives me a feeling of happiness. I smell the mixed scent of dew drops on fresh lime green grass.

I feel the sandstone rock I’m sitting on; part of the old rock crumbles as I push my body off of it. My bare feet walk across the sharp green grass and it gives my body a tingly feeling.

I love being in Fernie where the wild animals run free. This is my special place!

— Avery Ford, grade four, age 10