To do list for the next half century

a few hours away
from something of a milestone
let's just say one degree north of the 49th parallel
i wondered what to do
to engage
commemorate
aside from a little bit teary
of what is here and dear and now
and what has come before
brushing some dents
petting some fur
unfolding a blanket and crawling beneath the sheets
a dog is busy barking
and i am busy
counting many blessings

Ochre twighlight

Walking home early this afternoon I passed beneath an oak tree shedding acorns
Some of them bounced and popped when they hit the street
I gathered up a few nuts to bring home for the squirrel
(Or squirrels) who clamber around and seem intent to burrow under our front porch

Later on I read about the air quality warning due to forest fires to the west and south
British Columbia and Washington

Making dinner tonight
Sunlight on the counter and remarkable memorable light
Filtered through future memories
Of where we find ourselves now

Mowing into memory

late August evening
a hazy day with smoke blowing in from forest fires
west and south of here
the sound of a lawn mower a few houses
yards away
catapulted me back many years and nestled into bed
the restless bed time when the clock says now
and the sun says not yet
the struggle with restlessness as you hear the neighbourhood around you
patter of older kids still out riding bikes
the party next door
the grass being shorn
how hard it was to roll over into the land of dreams
when so much was happening
unfolding
right outside the window

Who's calling?

Sometimes the call comes out and you just feel the need to respond
In the moment
And so you do
A dropped apple in the grocery store
A wayward sock in the laundry
An assisted walker about to board the bus

A few weeks ago assisting a man with his automated book checkout at the library
Or, as some of us like to call it, 'the liberry'
(And just for the record...it took three tries to override 'liberry' from 'liberty'...)

And sometimes you just nod in knowing that somewhere sometime someone
Will look out for you
When you're short a quarter for the bus and you haven't enabled your Tap function
And it's the last bus from downtown and after that you're more or less helpless
A bit Blanche DuBois dependent on the kindness of strangers

August 19th

the shadows cast by the rippling leaves
on the mountain ash are tinkly
and I will try to remember them in deep winter
when all the branches are bare
and I will remember this day in late summer
seeing robins 99 and 100 that flew in the yard with the adirondack chairs
nestled beneath the spruce boughs by the bus stop
and that this is an anniversary day
a sad one but one to be remembered all the same

oiseaux

blue jay in the aster pot
robins (97+98) bobbing in the yard
tiny ochre finch on a mountain ash branch
laden with burnished berries
hardly any last year and now abundant
beaks feathers
cycles

Incrementals

on the corner of 46th street and 107th avenue
is a street sign indicating that you have arrived
at the corner of 46th street and 107th avenue
it is about 12 feet high (i reckon) and made up of rebar:
steel with holes at intervals along the length

and in waiting for the bus today
(which stops just north of 46/107)
i noticed tall grass growing alon the sign along the rebar
but also something else

glimpsing into the hole in the steel a sliver of green
a blade of grass growing within
not all twelve feet but about my height
less than half of that...a little over 5...63 inches

and soon after the bus arrived
i boarded the 94 and wondered what else there would be on my route to discover
other things i hadn't seen before

navigating

a 2mm bug is making its way
across the computer screen
sooner or later
we're all just headed for home

red red robin

#95
perched high on a wire
blue blue electric blue
waves and spider skeins
in the sun
the world's on fire
but it's a lovely sunny day

go figure

Sea holly

eryngium
member of the carrot family
similar seeds
you wouldn't know it to see it at first
but maybe on closer inspection
frilly spiky foliage
very Dr Suess

a cluster booming
the colour of JJ's spheres
violet candies
my high school grad dress

nearly twenty years and a few transplants
would love to snip a sprig or two but daunted by hovering wasps
loving the sea holly
they love it too
one big old blooming nest of love

Lovely

lovely in the way that the sun comes streaming through late afternoon
after a grey day with lights on

lovely in the way that after slicing and stuffing tomatoes
fingertips smell pleasantly of garlic

lovely in the way that knowing returning a book to the library means
that someone somewhere soon will also soon enjoy it

lovely in the way a vocal and clambering kitty means
that still at sixteen he's still a force to be reckoned with

lovely in the way that realizing that somethings past are best left in the past
not so much buried as put to rest...at peace

lovely in the way that small sums make up summer
and every so often it is good to remember to tally

Dimanche

heirloom tomato sauce
musing on voyaging, ill gotten gains...narwhals
new dry kibbles for kitten
bistro dinner
short play readings
calliope tune + DMS accompaniment
awesome autocorrect:  'divan he'