From Mountain to Discovery Passage

 Spent some time with the mountain and the ocean the past couple of days. It's turning into spring  right before your eyes..............
"Close your eyes. Be still. Feel the sun upon your face. Hear the shrill of bird song. Rejoice in your senses. Rejoice in life. " (Pam Brown 1928)

                                      "Today is for itself enough." (Shelley 1792-1822)

 "If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoo in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live." (Lin Yutang 1895-1976)

         "Silence is deep as Eternity; speech shallow as Time." (Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

 "There is no calm like a quiet sea, a space of stillness under the width of sky." (Pam Brown 1928)

           "The morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence." (T.C. McLuhan)

                            "There never was night that had no morn." (D. M. Craik 1826-1887)

         "In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
                                         (A. Camus 1913-1960)

                             "Hopeful as the break of day." (T.B. Aldrich 1836-1907)

 "Keep on looking for the bright, bright skies; keep on hoping that the sun will rise; keep on singing when the whole world sighs, and you'll get there in the morning."  ( Song)

Spencer, Smokey, and Cordelia meet the Chickens

                     Spencer liked to sit on the fence. In the sun. And watch the chickens next door.
                                 They were fat and feathery and  made wonderful bawk bawk sounds.

                               Spencer liked to share his adventures. He would come to the door.

                                              To come get someone to go and see the chickens.

                                       He was most insistent. And put on his most charming expression.

                                                Smokey sat beside him and listened to the chickens.
                                                            He wasn't all that interested.
                                  Chickens pecked and clucked too much. He twitched his ears.

                        Cordelia, on the other hand. Was MOST interested in the chickens.
                                                    She was far prettier than any of them.
                                        But they DID sport the most wonderful feather coats.

                               She wouldn't mind a feather coat. Maybe it would make her prettier....
                                     But she dare not leave her sentry duty at the compost bin. Or could she?

                                   There they were. Spencer's chickens. Fat and happy.
                                                           
                                                     Bawk bawk bawk.  The chickens cackled at the cats.

                           Spencer thought: Yum.

                                Smokey thought: Yuck.

                        Cordelia thought: Yum, yum, yum, yum. Who needs a feather coat.
                                                       I'm STILL the prettiest in the land.

Rocking

 I was reminded this week that  we grow attached to things.I was reminded of this because of this little red maple rocker. It is quite old. From the 1950's. Scratched , yet sturdy. Dusty, in need of some care. So I took it outside, into the sun. To polish it's arms and legs. The neighbours' cat, Smokey, kept watch.

 Then I remembered that my grandmother sat in this very same rocking chair. I only have the photographs. I never met her. She was blind by the 50's. Years of copper treatments gone bad. She would sit for hours, outside with my dad and the dog. She would rock on the grass. And the dog would look on. Like Smokey.

 It is an unremarkable little rocker. It has a squeak. Yet the rocker carries a huge history. How many times had it sat outside. In the sun. And rocked. Today it drank in the Murphy's oil  and entertained the cats. Spencer came. And he watched.

                  Robert Frost said "We love the things we love for what they are." For the memories.
                                            For the people who have been attached.

 Worn on the edges, from about 60 years of use. I would never refurnish it. Never touch it. Because where it is worn, is where many hands have touched. The edges gone smooth by hands resting.

 My grandparents. My parents. And myself. We've all sat in that little rocker.
                  It's been loved and cherished all these years.  And the cats. Like the dog in the photo, still keep watch.

 The finish worn down  by the warmth of hands.


 The cats  peacefully watched me clean and polish that little maple rocker till it gleamed in the sun.

  Reminded me that years ago they sat outside. And rocked. Read the paper. Simple things.

 "When I'm 80, and sitting in a rocking chair, listening to the rolling Stones,

  ....there is no way I'm going to feel old............no way at all....

 ..........or forget my younger days." (Patty Duke) . I still remember the days my dad was alive and he rocked me in this little red maple chair. And it would squeak. And squeak. It still squeaks today. And I still remember......

February Then and Now

                                             "What's zat?" "What's zat?" Point. "Doggy."
  NOW:  February 15, 2015 down at Tyee Spit. Sun. Dogs taking their people out for a walk.
                Sun and warmth. In Campbell River, B.C. In February.  Bare heads.
        THEN: In 2014, Feb 21st looked something like this: Smokey, dusted with snow,  sitting on the porch surrounded by snow and ice. Mostly ice.

                                     THEN: Feb 1988, at 412 Murray Street. In Pembroke, Ontario......

                                   "The morning sun, the new sweet earth, and the great silence."
                                                               (T.C. McLuhan)

      NOW: February, 2015. The beach. Smelling of salt and kelp.
THEN: Feb 18th, 1992.  17 Hillside Drive, CFB Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.   Buried in snow. Again.
                                         And Again. Till we could dig out no longer.

 NOW: Maybe this is better: Balancing on beach logs in February.........
                                                                              these boots were made for walking.

 THEN: St Albert, Alberta. 1996. A mountain of snow on which to slide. So much snow, had to wait for the city to come, and cut away the packed snow into dump trucks, to be taken outside the city.         
 THEN: 2014 See the cat in the snow.
                                             See the Woodpecker. Finding the last apple . Feb, 2009.
                                       Red and crisp. Red as the woodpecker's cap.

                            NOW: February  15 2015. The shore  in the Passage. Seals just below the surface.

                            THEN:  White Rock, B.C. 2003. Cul de Sac  blanketed with snow.

THEN: A year ago. Snow upon snow. Breaking branches. Slopping over walls.

     THEN:  Snow and little snow men, sitting in a row 2008.  Complete with hats.
                                                            Carrots for noses.
                                
  NOW: Feb 15, 2015. Big sky. Stretching warm and wild in Campbell River.
                                      On a day that it reached 14 Celsius ( 57.2 F).
                           "The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)