back yard vacation

I am heading home tomorrow for the holidays. This means that I shall only make sporadic forays on the computer. There is still only dial-up where I live and i haven't bothered to subscribe. The photo came from a page of Geez, a magazine. It will enlarge if you click it. Have a sunny summer - if you are in the Northern Hemisphere.

rainy day

They didn't even ask to go out this morning. They've cashed in their chips and turned in. Now they have moved and are lying around beside me. There seems to be no end to the rain.
Rain: Rain is liquid precipitation. On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into drops heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface. Rain is the primary source of fresh water for most areas of the world, providing suitable conditions for diverse ecosystems, as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation. (Wikipedia)

"Rain" Shameka Jones
rain
rain, rain, rain heal my heart that is broken apart
rain, rain, rain up above from the skies
rain, rain, rain pour here and clean my soul
rain, rain, rain there will be rain here, there will be rain there
rain, rain, rain wash away my pain
rain, rain, rain wash away my debts to pay
rain, rain, rain so tired i felt wash away my guilt
rain, rain i will do anything for you to cover my tears of shame

There, I think I've outdone my self in the rain department. Fortunately I had a book that I had to finish today.

watching football

Watching football (soccer) on the porch this afternoon: Brazil 3/USA 2. It's the beautiful game.

strawberries

I arrived home close to midnight a couple of nights ago. I opened my refridgerator to find these strawberries waiting for me along with some cream. What a friend! It turned out that they were my strawberries all hulled and prepared. The next day I picked more and she made strawberry shortbread for a pot luck down the road. Today I picked some to bring back to New Brunswick with me. The plants were given to me last year. Although I wept inside I did take off all the flowers so they would be strong this year, and I have been rewarded. We eat more strawberries in Nova Scotia than in any other province. It's no wonder.

true purple

I work with a inexpensive Kodak camera - I think that it is their digital version of the old Brownie, and with borrowed laptops. So I am dependent on whatever photo program is loaded. This is the worse one yet. These iris were a deep and lovely purple. On the camera they were a deep and lovely purple. On the computer they came out blue and there are no colour fixings. I tried to take them twice. Once after a rain and later the next day. So I am frustrated. Seeing purple, I remain...

cafe

I often go to the cafe for lunch - because the soup is made there - this time it was carrot ginger, the sandwiches have real cheese and real bread, and there is always a salad. Besides I like to go to places that are not franchises, and the eating is far healthier. Today there were scads of people in front of me so I settled in and read theology: Sallie McFague, "A New Climate for Theology". She referred to the often quoted lines of Gerald Manley Hopkins that come at the end of "God's Grandeur" written in 1877. When I reread the sonnet I was astonished of how it now relates to the environmental situation at this point in time.
Here it is:

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

And how about: "the last lights off the black West went"?

But then it does not end in despair, and neither should we.

As I sat waiting I desperately wanted to take a picture of the man sitting nearby. He was a dead ringer for Super Mario, complete with cap.

Instead here are two taken at the table and one of a ball cap.

falling

Too soon the petals fall, and summer races by. The season is so short and here we are in the third day of summer. The rain has not stopped and it's cool, very cool. Here here is the baseball cap in the garden.

time warp

I went to Maine for a visit, and whilst there we stepped into this time warp from the seventies. Here's the place, the publican, whose name was Linda, and a ball cap.

ancient blunder

On Friday I stoped at a point of land just south of Calais in Maine. On an island, just off shore, Sieur de Monts and Champlain arrived with the first settlers. They chose to set up on the island, but it was a cold winter, there was no water on the island, for months they couldn't reach the shore, and many died of scurvy. In the spring they pulled up stakes (literally)and built Port Royal on the Annapolis Basin, not that far from where I live. Sometimes I look out to sea and imagine the French ships sailing by. One picture shows the island just off shore, and the other shows that their ghosts are with us yet.

entering Canada

So I went for an overnight trip to the States and returned through Calais/Saint Stephen. It took over an hour an a half to inch through Calais. After about an hour a Trans Am beater from Georgia driven by a young man cut in front of me. I would have had to ram him to keep him out.I forgot being and resting in the moment. In fact it was momentary road rage. I lost him when we finally got to the lines at customs. But I do hope that the agents had enough sense to get him out of the car and rip that car apart inch by inch and put him in a small dark room for quite some time. Otherwise I wish him the best and welcome to Canada.

quiet spot

Whilst in New Brunswick I live in a small apartment. So I cannot have a separate room to meditate. And it is so important that you don't sit facing a bed or a dressing table. So I face out the window - still not ideal - but I look into a maple tree and I place something on the window seat. This time it was a vase of spirea. So the seat becomes the altar. It is not ideal, but it does work. To sit in quiet in presence is to gain the whole world.

tower

Humans build towers. Given a few blocks a child will build a tower. When bored I have stacked creamers. We built the Tower of Babel and we haven't stopped yet. We build towers and then think of some reason to justify it. Halifax has a tower - the reason: to celebrate the beginnings of democracy in Nova Scotia, I think. And of course we had to climb it. That what you do with towers.

prom night

I was heading out to the money machine at the bank when I came upon these lovelies in the apartment's parking lot. I wonder when they will wear these frocks next? I had sons,and we had Uncle Joe's cashmere tuxedo dating from Chicago in the twenties. Styles hadn't changed much. It saved us some moolah.

freeloaders

These freeloaders, being fed by grandchildren,spend their days on the Frog Pond at a Halifax park on the North West Arm: The Sir Stanford Fleming Park. Surely you know who he is. You can't quite remember. How about http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/ref/Sandford.html
There, now you know.

to market

To market, to market, jiggedy jig ... This is the Saturday Halifax Market. They are going to move it down to one of the piers on the docks, but now it is in an old brewery, up and down and in all the rooms. It's an absolute delight. I only took a couple of pictures outside. In one section the wineries and distillery have tasting. I went away with a bottle. I always yield to temptation.

wet

Yesterday I drove through heavy rain and then fog and then more rain to Halifax. I parked the car. Beside the street were these lovely columbines. This had been a shady patch of weedy grass between the sidewalk and the street. Now it is a place of delight for eveyone who comes by. I witnessed the planting a couple of years ago, but I never dreamt that it would be such a transformation.

the Bay

My sister sent me this link. My Nova Scotia home is on this wonderful bay. I first came here to live when I was a few weeks old. We stayed for over a year. I returned about fifty years later. It just draws me, allures me; it tells me that this is home.

hosta

Once I regarded Hostas with disdain. No longer - especially at this time of year when they are fresh with newness - before time and weather and slugs and deer. So perhaps the appreciation of Hostas comes with maturity. This one grows on the apartment's front walk.

Everest picturres

Here are my sons, Alec and Terre on the plane on the way to Nepal, and then a picture of Terre and Nathalie, and then here are all of Terre's pictures: http://picasaweb.google.ca/irbahtan/Nepal#.
I am glad that everyone is back and excited about the adventure.

Thomas Berry RIP

Thomas Berry, a Passionist Priest, died this past week. This is an interview. He has been very influential in the ecological movement. I lead an Ecological Christianity study group on Monday evenings. This evening it began with folks discussing a radio tribute that they had heard the day before: "God's Green Earth: Religion and Ecology" at: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?newsandcurrent#tapestry. We are the richer for Thomas Berry's life. Now we need to take seriously his message.

first harvest

What else but radishes, little radishes that we ate au natural as we drank red wine and considered how good life was/is.

bistro table and chairs

I am just back from a day and a half at home in Nova Scotia at which time I put two coats of paint on a wall, primed and painted trim in Chewy Caramel, planted the last square in the potager and weeded and weeded and weeded. My Cruising Partner came over and weeded with me. That's my kind of friend! (Cruising Partner means that we cruise oceans together - not cruising bars - which we probably could do as well, but haven't.) So then we inaugurated the new bistro set. It works very well.

forget-me-nots

An expanse of heavenly blue - I am off home for a couple of nights so there will be the usual black out - but don't forget me.

the gardener

On my way to work I stopped to speak to Harley who was spreading good composted muck on his garden.
Today is my birthday.

lilacs

I have been sitting in my apartment living room and the scent of lilacs has been wafting up from the trees below. The gardens of the town are filled with lilacs. The scent is everywhere.

the deal

I was off early this morning checking on the price of lawn mowers. I wanted something that wasn't gasoline fueled, for practical reasons as well as ecological. I have no out buildings so I have to store it in the house. The property is too long for an electrical cord. The battery powered ones are expensive and there are still some kinks in the design to work out, so I thought that I would buy a push mower. They are vastly improved over the old metal clunkers and I need to walk. Of course I would walk with all the others, too. But I can just pick this up and put it in the house. But at one hardware there was this bistro set that I had my eye on, and they knocked a third off the price for me, so I took it and the mower. They gave me assembled chairs because they said that the chairs were difficult to put together. The bistro set will be a fine welcoming addition to my front deck. It is my purchase for my summer holidays. Here it is in the back of my car and I shall drive around with it until I return home to Nova Scotia on Thursday evening.