Last week, I headed over to my parents’ house before my mom had come home. The house was so quiet… a very serene quiet. Not lonely, but comforting, nostalgic. As soon as I walked in the door it had that certain scent. You know, how every house smells like the people and things who live in it but you can never smell the one you live in. The entry is like a combination of my parents, the wood, the things they keep and the numerous and often fragrant plants that make the entry solarium a jungle when everything’s sprawling.
I helped myself to lunch just as Mom arrived with some fresh groceries. We caught up over hot soup and newspapers, and later headed out for a walk to our favourite park. She remarked emotionally that it really is her park (or their’s, including my dad), and I feel the same way. It’s rare that just the two of us go for a walk; perhaps the last time was Mother’s Day maybe a decade ago, during high tide when the ocean threatened to soak our shoes. (Burrard Inlet is tame anytime compared to the ruthless force of the Pacific Ocean at Long Beach during a storm.)
Continue reading Lichen »
December strolled in with an icy white cape.
“The Great White North” became a great white north, indeed, as Mother Nature dumped snow across the country. Here in Vancouver, the snow has nearly disappeared as quicky as it had shown up, in most areas. Where I live in Surrey now still had roughly 4 very wet inches this morning, out of the 6 or so that accumulated until snow changed to rain early yesterday evening.
Saturday afternoon I made my way to North Vancouver for a dentist appointment: a well-timed one, you could say. I ended up spending the night at the old roost and enjoyed the snowy weather from the indoors and out. It’s rather unusual that snow falls before I get the snowflakes up on the windows, but it made it all the more special the next morning! In typical Deep Cove fashion, we only collected about 2.5 inches. It was enough, however, to light up the darkness after midnight to the point where I could see the island and far shore out where streetlights don’t shine! My parents and I went “walking in a winter wonderland” in the park in the morning, which was magical. The best part of the day visually was driving home through one of Surrey’s parks. Amazing!
I’m hoping for a White Christmas — we’ll see about that unusual event — but in the meantime I have paper snowflakes to make.
Take a look at a few photos my mother posted.
11pm: It’s now raining harder than I can remember, blown on by the wind. I have a candle lit just in case! Yikes!
The regular Monday lunch blog was bumped due to an afternoon studio workshop.
Right away our facilitator asked what we’d be doing if we weren’t there in the meeting. I said I’d be writing my lunch blog, which is true, though it occurred to me later that if I didn’t have to work I’d still be on Vancouver Island with my folks.
Possibly the shortest trip I’ve ever made to the Island, I begged my parents to bring me along to visit some extended family and friends. It sure was a surprise to see how gorgeous the area is this time of year. All the fall colours were out in glorious, rich tones that we seldom see here, whether because of the different types of trees or even just the climate. (Victoria is generally warmer and drier than Vancouver; our leaves seem to mostly turn brown and sludgey.) The sun even popped out for a visit yesterday evening.
Continue reading Island Time »
The sun sets, silhouetted trees punctuate the sky
Just a quick post for today’s Monday Lunch Blog as I’m going to play frisbee in the park shortly.
Yesterday the whole family went to our favourite park, Cates Park, near the family home. We enjoyed swinging and sitting by the ocean, climbing on rocks and taking in the fresh air and sunshine. The leaves are slowly turning. I remembered the photos from last year and realised how much I love this time of year, even though I’m hanging on for dear life to the heat and freshness of the middle of summer. August is usually hotter than this but I’ve never liked sweltering heat anyway. We’ll enjoy the sunshine today and hopefully break some frisbee tossing records.
See you next week!
They creep in through a gap in the doorframe. They swiftly inch their way across the carpet, picking up whatever small bits of dust and dirt they might encounter. Some have been known to make it all the way across the room, only to perish; others make it only part of the way. The morning after a heavy rainshower, there may be five or six scattered around the room. If they’re lucky, one or two may survive the night.
When I was a child walking home from school one day, I sang to myself, “Don’t step on the wormiiiees…” la dee da. I recalled it again walking home one recent evening when I could barely tell the difference between worms and bits of sticks on the black asphalt, surrounded by grass on either side, its wet surface gleaming occasionally under the white soccer field lights nearby. “Don’t step on the wormies.” I tried my best not to while I wondered whether the person a distance ahead of me was thinking the same thing.
Continue reading Worm graveyard: death by carpet »
I’m going to be creating another blog as part of my grad project. It will be at https://www.erikarathje.ca/tomatoes/ I think. Don’t go there yet because it’s the hideous default stylesheet with no content! Anyway, I’m planning on calling it “Tomatoes don’t grow on trees”, and it will feature articles and my own commentary on my food and nutrition-related experiences.
Basically my grad project topic is exploring the role of industry & politics in determining nutrition & health. Ever wonder why eating a tomato feels like eating a pencil crayon, knowing the pencil crayon would have more flavour?
Speaking of trees and fruits, my 11.5-year-old Macintosh/Spartan apple tree finally bore fruit that I picked and sampled this afternoon. I don’t think they were quite ripe, or at least the small one that I happily ate, but it was DELICIOUS, tart but sweet, and crunchy! I’ve never liked those apples so I’m glad I enjoyed it. I touched and thanked the tree, and graciously said goodbye to its browning, leaning grandeur as it may not survive the winter. My mother gave it a good shook at some point (trying to push it over, I was informed today!), which she says shocked it into bearing fruit. (You can also give a wisteria a death threat that will make it bloom.) It gave 5 or 6 and I ended up with 3 in the end. Mom says that it’s a sign it’s going to die. 🙁 But, I planted it from seed, and it was a good tree. It gave me its final (parting) gifts. Thank you, old friend.
I don’t think I can bear the picture and thought of my dad taking a chainsaw to it and slicing its trunk and limbs. I think that… I should like a piece of it made into something, even if it’s just a 1″-thick ring that I can put on the wall or something. I think, though, that that would make me very sad… knowing it was part of a living tree once, MY tree. If we can use its branches and trunk as much as we can and make something from it, grant it some honour, I’ll be grateful.
Walking home on Friday, I spotted some incredible clouds stretching across the sky. It’s pretty flat where I live — god, I miss the mountains! — which makes the sky all the more fascinating. By the time I got home, took some shots in the back yard, and decided it was still worth it to capture the sky from where I’d been walking, the clouds had drifted over quite a bit. They were overhead before, which made it all the more majestic. Anyway, here’s what I got…
On the way back, I saw some more interesting, wispy clouds and stopped to take a photo. I figured I should probably stand in the shade, so in the shadow of “my” house, I looked up to the left of my target and saw something amazing! I guess if I’d tried I might have seen a halo, but oh well.
Stepping back for a sunlit shot, blindly!
It’s a good thing I didn’t save Part II for pictures of clouds for today because there aren’t any, that I can see! There is a temptation for another walk this evening.
I love Labour Day. Why? Because it postpones back-to-school one more day! This year, I’m getting a little lucky as my first class isn’t until Thursday, but it’s a long day. My first day ever at Emily Carr involved a class from 9 – 12, and then another from 6 – 9pm. Harsh! When you don’t know anybody, that time can be pretty lonely, so I spent it reading my art history text and enjoying the lovely weather from my perch on a swing. Ahh, the perks to school on Granville Island: playgrounds, shops, cafes, the ocean, and plenty of warm spots to relax. If I end up waiting around for procedural events tomorrow, I imagine I’ll indulge in some swinging.
The sun is creating a delightful glow in my kitchen, which looks a little something like this:
This evening I went for a short walk in the neighbourhood. I didn’t want to go inside when I got back sooner than expected, so I admired some clouds and decided to take photos.
Continue reading Transient skies of summer, Part I »
