“If you’ve never been, the south of Saskatchewan is so flat the horizon is perceptibly round.  Above you, during the day, lords an immense dome of sky so empty it feels like a fullness, with clouds the size of mountains, the sun but a small disk, and a depth of colour that is often chalk blue, oh so chalk blue.  At night this reassuring curtain of blue is pulled away and you realize where you really are: at infinity’s doorstep.  A plain is what a mountain aims to be: the closest you can come to being in outer space while yet having your feet on this planet.

The language of the plain is the wind. It carries sweetness and fragrance, the wealth of the earth. It is a soothsayer, herald of storm and change of season. And the wind speaks. When you walk in a plain, gusts of words blow through your head, words that have travelled over the surface of the planet. “
- Yann Martel, Self

Yann Martel (author of the well known Life of Pi) is an intriguing writer who, by the way, is currently living in Saskatoon. He describes places as if he has really been there. I don’t know if that is true of all the different countries that appear in Self, but I know he has been to the prairies and the way he describes Saskatchewan in that passage fills me with the good feelings you get when you are really home.