The city had withdrawn into itself And left at last the country to the country

-- Robert Frost

Frost’s satisfaction at the withdrawal of the city from the country is comprehensible only to those who either live permanently in the country or regularly witness the exodus of travellers and summer-house dwellers at the outset of winters. Think North Pakistan, where summer brings with it a new vitality every year -- and no one complains because it brings with it investment and tourism. Winters there are spent hibernating and awaiting a pleasant summer ahead.

Visiting the Thousand Islands in winters is like seeing the leftovers of the previous summer. Driving around the islands, you wish you were here in a warmer, friendlier weather.

When we decided to go to the Thousand Islands for the weekend, everyone living in Canada thought it was a joke -- "Thousand Island? In this weather?"

Turns out, they were right. But not exactly.

A place like the Thousand Islands is described by some frequent visitors around us as the best retreat or the most beautiful place in Canada, in summers. Not many would disagree. But any place where summers are all about people and families, winters have this to offer too -- like serenity that life in the cities has made an impossibility. This you can appreciate only if you are a Jane Austen fan.

Looking at the deserted roads and hotels, even restaurants of Gananoque around 10 miles from the US border, it seems no one likes winters except Frost. It is a small town with a population of just 5,000. Probably one of those places where everyone knows everyone. 

"There’s a lot to do here," my waitress told me when asked about the possibilities, "these days, nothing."

Pauline, a mother of two, told me how her 14 year old came home crying when she had to wait for the school bus in this cold. She wasn’t the only one. Record-breaking cold in Canada and eastern parts of the US left life paralysed this year, forcing people to practically suspend their lives for days, and taste a third-world life with no power and at the mercy of the elements.

Going to the Thousand Island in winters for vacations is like going to Sibbi in summers. The islands are not exactly a thousand in number. The exact number is 1,867, according to official statistics. To qualify for an island, the patch of land has to be above water for 365 days and support a living tree. While in summers, these islands are surrounded by water, winters are a different story -- because you don’t need a boat to get home. Some of these islands are as small as a boat. Although it’s impossible to count all or even half of these islands in snow, a drive along them makes it easy to identify some of them. Surrounded by pure white all around, these deserted-looking houses would be impossible to recognise in summers. In summer, they actually look like islands while in winters they look like specks of land on an otherwise perfect snowy plain. No wonder the Thousand Islands are called a photographer’s heaven.

With an annual migration of visitors from the islands, I asked 40-year-old Jacob, what does the winter hold for the locals? "Well, we get fat," he chuckled.

The economy of the Islands, he said, runs on property leasing in summers and almost everyone manages to get a good deal on rooms and houses. But winters "become a sort of a personal thing here and although there’s little to do outdoors unlike bigger cities, I think, people tend to become more aware of each other." Like any small community would.

In winters, the population also goes through an annual ritual of sentience where the local community comes together when the outsiders are gone. The town hall becomes the centre of activities and local festivals and the locals get to make the Thousand Island their home again, something probably every such place experiences.

An investor’s paradise, the islands are private-owned properties of mostly Ontario residents who have their summer houses here, according to Jacob. These summer houses, to an outsider like us, look deserted now but family get-togethers are quite imaginable -- the summer bliss they bring to their owners.

Thousand Islands has a lot to offer to a tourist -- it is beautiful and comes with the festivity and energy one requires for a break. If, however, you find yourself in the middle of a Canadian winter,  experience the ghostliness which can only be seen in scary movies. Its beauty in winters has a character, something a tourist would miss in summers. If you live in Canada, or plan to visit soon, summer is the time. But winters, even if it is not your thing, is not a bad idea either.