Tik Tok

Dreamer’s Dawn. My new desk is in a room where I can display all my nautical trinkets and art. It has been a long-held dream. I love just sitting here and watching the harbour.
From whence comes the light. Looking out the window at dawn. Not bad I think!

Well shazbot and dinglebog! It is already one month since we started sleeping under this roof! We home! Time flies whether you’re having fun or not. I’ve pecked away at this blog despite illness and weariness. How the hell do you write about something as boring as moving into a new home? Well, I did! There’s a mountain of empty boxes downstairs ready for the next mission. Want ’em? Late summer has turned to mid-autumn and there was sleet in yesterday’s downpour. Any old how, we here ’cause we ain’t all there. Spring never seemed so far away. Life goes on.

Downtown Ladysmith on a sunny morning. Hunkered in the chilly shadows, as usual, God-botherers sit to hand out roadmaps to heaven. I keep my opinions to myself and just cross the street.
Charlie takes a dip. Cold sea water clearly does not bother him. He just likes swimming.

A grudging smear of grey begins to appear outside. Those glorious summer mornings of soft light and singing birds are over. It is an autumn dawn. Our Thanksgiving weekend is over. The emergency sirens down on the highway are quiet now, the carnage has ended for the moment. It was constant all weekend-long. There is a threat of rain and we know that, of course, it will be bucketing down on Friday, our moving day. That forecast hasn’t flickered. I am beseeching the weather gods otherwise.

Ayre, queen of all she surveys. Clearly I am smitten by my little dogs who are the real thing in every way.

We walk around in here sideways, between the stacks of boxes. Jill has done a magnificent job of extricating our possessions from under beds and out of cupboards and shelves. Each box even has a printed label which notes the destination room. We inherited our daughter’s belongings. She seemed to have a fetish for suitcases. I muttered this morning that we have more of those than a train station. They’re all bloody full! I swear that this will be the last move of my life and that I may as well try to enjoy it.

The control center. A place for everything and everything in its place. Uhuh! The pee-pad boxes proved to be perfect. Thank you Grace for sourcing those!
Dawn Patrol. Despite my contrary misgivings about Remebrance Day I always enjoy the fly-overs. This is a Chinese Yak 3 trainer.

A week later. We’re still walking sideways between the stacks of boxes but they are diminishing. I, of course, am finding things to repair and adjust. We’ve both had extremely nasty colds and there is little happiness in our new camp. But it will come and the dogs are thrilled. They seem to love the space, especially in the back yard. They race about as if they’ve grasped the notion that it is all theirs. There have been spectacular moon rises and I am sitting at my monstrous new free desk looking at my spectral image in the window’s reflection. It is nearly 7am and once again there is the faintest glimmer of grey dawn over the harbour. It will slowly evolve into an overcast morning but even that view is a huge treat to me. So long as I can see the water and boats going about, my world is endurable.

The days rumble past with an endless plethora of odd jobs and eternal unpacking. There is an occasional frantic about something misplaced but then it reappears. There are also a load of handyman jobs. I’ve been horribly ill for the past three weeks and every tiny effort is massive for me. The grudging dawns continue. I enjoy being up in the inky black pre-dawn and watching the sky lighten. There is what appears to be a large beautiful Krogen yacht anchored in Dunsmuir Bay. It has been there for several days. I can see its anchor light, a tiny speck in the blackness. How I wish that was me out there. Life without a boat is terribly dry but I do have this wonderful new office, something I’ve dreamed about for years.

Today is finally the one when we are promised to learn the outcome of our Provincial Election.

Who won? I’m outta here! Tides and the seasons may come and go but no matter what colour the hat the politcal game never really changes.

Ten days after the polls closed, some ridings are within a handful of votes between the two parties, it is that close. I, for one, am happy it’s turning out like this, political arrogance cannot continue to run this wonderful province into the ground. Either the NDP or the Conservatives will be just as bad. So long as they get on with the business of government instead of throwing poo pies at each other, we’ll be all right. At least, for once, there was an enthusiastic voter turnout. The teeter-totter of democracy was tipped by twenty-seven individual votes in our provincial election. Getting out to cast your ballot does make a difference. Imagine the T-Rumping coming up in a few days south of the border. I can’t comment on Amurican politics, I don’t even understand Canadian politi-games. One way or the other, we’ve some interesting times ahead.

Wasn’t that a party? End of a salmon run. But, there are more on the way. Life goes on.
Life continues in the woods, cold and damp as it is.
Soon gone.
Nobody home.

And that’s it for October. I’m now sitting at my desk and making faces at the reflection in my black, black window. I went to bed too early. Time has just tripped over midnight and fallen into November. It is tweak the clocks back weekend. Wasn’t it bend them ahead time just a few weeks ago?

First thing on a Saturday morning another small forest is delivered to the local log booming grounds.
Later that same day, the barge was empty and gone for more. As we sleep our industries goe on.
  1. Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’” – Lao Tzu

Tik Toc

A view from my new office, Nov. 5th. It sure beats the white stucco wall I stared at from my last desk.
If in fear or in doubt,
flap your ass and
get the hell out.

A grudging smear of grey begins to appear outside. Those glorious summer mornings of soft light and singing birds are over. It is an autumn dawn. Our Thanksgiving weekend is over. The emergency sirens down on the highway are quiet now, the carnage has ended for the moment. It was constant all weekend-long. There is a threat of rain and we know that, of course, it will be bucketing down on Friday, our moving day. That forecast hasn’t flickered. I am beseeching the weather gods otherwise.

The control center, Uhuh!

We walk around in here sideways, between the stacks of boxes. Jill has done a magnificent job of extricating our possessions from under beds and out of cupboards and shelves. Each box even has a printed label which notes the destination room. We inherited our daughter’s belongings. She seemed to have a fetish for suitcases. I muttered this morning that we have more of those than a train station. They’re all bloody full! I swear that this will be the last move of my life and that I may as well try to enjoy it.

In Chemainus, our neighbour community, I discovered this. For a moment I was back in Foshan, PRC
Downtown full moon. Itis called the greasy lens effect.
Clearer now?
Dunrovin? Why someone burned a backpack has got to be a good story.

A week later. We’re still walking sideways between the stacks of boxes but they are diminishing. I, of course, am finding things to repair and adjust. We’ve both had extremely nasty colds and there is little happiness in our new camp. But it will come and the dogs are thrilled. They seem to love the space, especially in the back yard. They race about as if they’ve grasped the notion that it is all theirs. There have been spectacular moon rises and I am sitting at my monstrous new free desk looking at my spectral image in the window’s reflection. It is nearly 7am and once again there is the faintest glimmer of grey dawn over the harbour. It will slowly evolve into an overcast morning but even that view is a huge treat to me. So long as I can see the water and boats going about, my world is fine.

At the end of October, beds of these beauties still bloom as they first appeared in August.
The last California Poppy
Another type of California Poppy. It is often called the ‘Fried Egg’ flower.
Moving Day. This single shot says it all. We did have a fantastic moving crew from the “Take A Load Off” company. Thet certainly impressed this old grump.

The days rumble past with an endless plethora of odd jobs and eternal unpacking. There is an occasional frantic about something misplaced but then it reappears. There are also a load of handyman jobs. I’ve been horribly ill for the past three weeks and every tiny effort is massive for me. The grudging dawns continue. I enjoy being up in the inky black pre-dawn and watching the sky lighten. There is what appears to be a large beautiful Krogen yacht anchored in Dunsmuir Bay. It has been there for several days. I can see its anchor light, a tiny speck in the blackness. How I wish that was me out there. Life without a boat is terribly dry but I do have this wonderful new office, something I’ve dreamed about for years.

Today is finally the one when we are promised to learn the outcome of our Provincial Election.

Ten days after the polls closed, some ridings are within a handful of votes between the two parties, it is that close. I, for one, am happy it’s turning out like this, political arrogance cannot continue to run this wonderful province into the ground. Either the NDP or the Conservatives will be just as bad. So long as they get on with the business of government instead of throwing poo pies, we’ll be all right. At least, for once, there was an enthusiastic voter turnout. The teeter-todder of democracy was tipped with twenty-seven votes in our provincial election. Getting out to cast your ballot does make a difference. Then, on November fourth, an uncounted ballot box has been discovered!

Imagine the T-Rumping coming up south of the border.

Hallowistmas. I’m sure the Easter Bunny is lurking somewhere in there. Nothing is sacred!
Our resident stinkbug.
The house spider. This wee cutey was about two inches long.

And that’s it for October. I’m now sitting at my desk and making faces at the reflection in my black, black window. I went to bed too early. Time has just tripped over midnight and fallen into November. It is tweak the clocks back weekend. Wasn’t it bend them ahead time just a few weeks ago?

THIS is what time it is!
A river runs through. It is always uplifting to see the annual drama of the salmon.
A bouquet of morts. Salmon soon expire after they spawn. The cycle of life is done, a new one begun. Their remains enrich the streams and forest. A dubious aroma fills the damp autumn air.
My two splendid wee nurses. What amazing friends!
Dawn at the writer’s desk.

Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’” – Lao Tzu

Tricks And Treats

Your funnel’s rusty. Detail of an old steam locomotive in Nearby Duncan.

I watched part of the televised Provincial political leader’s debate. Ho hum! Frankly if those characters are the best we can do for leadership, we’re screwed. I shut off the television in despair. Cream may rise to the top, so does scum. What more is there to say? Life goes on regardless of who is in the saddle. I am not at all politically astute but I’ve been watching the game for a lifetime. I’ve learned that seldom does a candidate get elected. It is usually about someone being voted out. I have also come to believe that it is usually those who do not vote who decide our political future.

Other countries have massive violent protests for the basic right to vote freely and without intimidation or corruption. They die for that freedom. We live in such a broad comfort zone that many of us can’t even be bothered to participate in the democratic process. Today is the first chance to vote in the advanced poll. I’ll be there, if only to renew my license to bitch.

You’re scaring me! So tempting but I just can’t be sure which is safe.
I’m sure that some readers have had enough fungal photos. They fascinate me obviously and are within my range at the moment.
Crusing the fast fungus food strip.

It is moving time. The burly men will arrive in a week. We’ve busy packing boxes until the place is stacked nearly to the ceiling. Where the hell did we have it all squirrelled away? What did we use it for? Do we need it? Why are we determined to hang onto to crap we didn’t even know we had? I’ve written essays about owning “stuff” and here we are hard at it. I’ve been busy building fences for our dogs at the new home. I’ve also been hauling over ancillary possessions that can sit out in the rain. Fortunately the previous owner has graciously allowed me to do that and also given me access to the workshop to store the tools I need.

I’ve been fighting issues with chronic fatigue so I’m most grateful to have this opportunity to do important things, but at my speed. There is no way we’d have accomplished the change of nests within the tiny time window allowed before we had to be completely moved out. I watch the evening TV news and realize that a Palestinian or a Ukrainian would love to have my problems. There are millions out there who can’t even imagine a conundrum such as I have. A place to crawl under a tarp and a drink of water for their children is a high hope. And I’m pissed off that at two in the morning I can’t sleep.

A half-inch wide ball of wonder.
New blooms in October.

I did go and vote today. The line of voters was long, apparently all day. It kept moving and more kept coming. What a wonderful thing to see such communal enthusiasm! It is said that change only occurs when the fear of the future is exceeded by the pain of the moment. Has the price of living here finally got our wheels turning? We’ll soon know. At these words a volley of fireworks has just broken out on the street. It’s the revolution!

You’re new in town. Nice textures!
Shroomy way.
A mid-fifties Studebaker coupe. So ugly it’s beautiful.
Trent River, Vancouver Island. No salmon just yet. Maybe one more rain will swing the deciision.

So, it’s a Halloween election. Trick or treat?

I was impressed. Halloween fun at the Duncan Logging Museum.

“Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.” Keith Ellison

A Perfect Morning

Blooming in the rain. Blackberry blossom in late September.
A souvenir, but I drank it.
Thai apple drink in a Creston restaurant.
It was good.
Pub special. Chicken breast in buttermilk batter on a candied dougnut with fries.
Bluuurph!

I was out the door and walking across the parking lot when I realized I had no limp. Wow! First time since my knee surgery three months ago. Funny what happens when you’re distracted from your problems. Swimming some lengths in the local pool fixed that limp; it’s back. I drove home from the pool into a cloudless sunrise. On the corner an old man with a lab pup signalled which way he was going so as to keep me from waiting for nothing. A considerate citizen! He got a thumbs up from me. My morning medication routine produced a blood sugar reading which was lowest ever. Incredible! A perfect morning.

Decisions.
They’re back! Sept. 21st. First day of autumn.
These beauties always appear at the end of summer.
Arbutus trees, a favourite of mine.
He was the black toadstool of the family.

We’re deep within the rushing current and back eddies of selling and buying homes. A building inspectors is coming in a few minutes to look at our present abode, Monday repeats the process on the new one. Well, it IS 67 years old. Properly built with old growth full dimension wood, (A2x4 is actually a full 2” by 4”). Floors are built with diagonally-nailed planks. Nothing but solid lumber everywhere.

I prefer that to the new slap-dash houses which are built entirely from OSB board, stapled together in the pouring rain and then put up for sale at an unbelievably high price. When we arrived on Vancouver Island forty years ago, houses sold at an average price of $40,000. Now the number has risen to $750,000. Has our money become worth that much less? I guess there is no point in asking questions that have no clear answers. The people we’re told to trust can’t, or won’t, answer them either. I still choose to believe we live in one of the best places on the planet. We’re still free to leave. Nobody is shooting at us yet.

A fashion statement? I have little idea of which fungi are safely edible, so I don’t.
Munch brunch. Before the slug came, a deer has taken a few bites. Interestingly they never eat the whole thing, choosing to take a sample of each. It must be nature’s way of leaving the fungi to survive.
Another peek at the huge microscopic world of the forest floor. There is always plenty going on.
Change of season in a domestic garden.

This morning the rain is hammering down. Someone must be building a house out there. Haar! The moving process goes on with one more thing and then one more thing. The tedium builds. There are a few more days until both the sale and the purchase “close” and the agreements are inscribed in stone. Then we sit and wait until moving day when “possession” occurs and we then have a few hours to move our stuff from beneath one roof to beneath another. In the meantime boxes of stuff rise. We’re moving about three blocks. It is as much work as moving across the country. Bets on which day it will rain?

There was a time when all I owned fit in my backpack. Then it got to be the back of a pickup truck and half of that was tools. We’re like crows sitting on a wire. Too busy looking for something else shiny to peck at, we’re completely unaware that fifty thousand volts are running between our toes.

From whence we come.
It’s still a jungle out there.
A solid union.

Finally the macrame trail of paper work is complete. I’m now sitting at my desk in someone else’s home. My house is now around the corner and down the street. It is still almost a month until we can make the move. Hurry up and wait. Somewhere in that time there is an election but there is no-one I want to vote for. But I will, if only to renew my bitching license.

Both deals are now fully completed. “SOLD” stickers are on the For Sale signs out on the street. Let the packing begin. What’ve we been keeping these for? Stuff!

Truffle hounds. Hey, what’s a truffle?
Ever get the feeling that you’re being watched?

Home is where the heart is…even if you can’t remember which box you packed it in.