Woolthing

… Or the loft.

This week has been very hot so we’ve had the doors wide open and fans going to make it bearable.    Well last night we were sitting around simmering when a small dark shape flitted past us a couple of times and we heard an unusual sound.  We thought something had come in and gone out again.  Then we looked up to the cathedral ceiling in our space and low and behold there was a small, very silent shape circling.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen we had a bat in our apartment.

Now, I’m not one to freak out very easily, but this kind of freaked me out.  Yes, I pulled my feet up and covered my head for an instant, until common sense kicked in.

We have seen bats flitting around outside and I think it’s kind of cool.  But I didn’t want one to fly into our place.  My concern was what we would do if it couldn’t get out and it did circle for a while.  Then I thought about the nature of a bat.  We turned off the lights.  Turned off the fan and moved it away from the door and silently watched and waited.  The bat circled several times getting a little bit lower every time and then it flew out the door and did not return.  Makes sense, of course, since they do live in small tight places.  I would hope they could get out of a big cave like our apartment.  Now a bird would never have figured it out.

It makes me think of all the things that we are afraid of.  Snakes, spiders, bats … all from the stories and fairy tales of our childhood.  Those cautionary tales kept us safe in a way but they also made us fear things, perfectly innocent things, because they’re not pretty.  We put our guard down when something is pretty or cute but I suspect more people are injured from dog bites than snake bites.   Far too often we judge by appearance alone.  But I still don’t want a bat staying with me.

My trip to Ontario to be with my Mom on her 80th birthday was great.  The plane ride was uneventful, which is just what you want.  The plane was only partially full both ways so there was an empty seat beside me and that was great.  I usually end up with some large man sitting beside me.  When a man sits beside a woman he almost always takes the arm rest leaving her to primly fold her hands in her lap.  What is that about?

My Mom had four of her sisters, a brother and a brother in law visiting from the Netherlands as well as my sister and her husband.  It was a crowded, happy, noisy houseful.  I got a lot of Dutch and I think I need to go to Holland for a few months and get fluent with it.  My sister and I heard and spoke Dutch until we went to school.  We don’t speak it anymore but we understand it a bit and my aunts and uncles have a hard time speaking English but they understand it a bit.  So they would often talk to us in Dutch and then we’d answer in English and they’d answer back in Dutch.  Sometimes it all broke down but I was understanding a lot better after just a few days.

Her birthday weather was great, a bit cloudy which kept it from getting too hot.

All too soon it was over and I was back home.

I’ll miss her flowers.

We had a thunderstorm one night and it was great.  We rarely get them here in Vancouver and I miss them.

My Mom and Dad have bird feeders all over the place and I’ll miss watching them.

They’ve got some nice birds.  I’ll miss watching the little brown wren feeding her babies.

I had to be very patient to get those photos.

I’ll miss all the good fresh food and most of all I’ll miss my family.  I didn’t get much knitting or spinning done but that’s just fine.

What I won’t miss is the mosquitoes but don’t worry they left me some reminders.  It’ll probably be a week before the bites are gone.

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I’m partial to flowers.  I like roses …

And I’m pretty impressed by peonies.

You might guess that I pretty much into pink and you’d be right.

But when I took the camera for a walk I decided that I wanted to take some interesting pictures as opposed to pretty pictures so here is some of what I saw today.

This part of the  river used to be a major centre for water trade but all that is left is rusted bits and rotting wood.  This is now a place where you will often see homeless sitting and sleeping and the occasional drug deal go down.

For some reason, maybe the openness of the place, I’ve never really felt unsafe here.  I do, however, walk wide of some people.  They are doing a complete remodeling of the market area and I hope they give this guy, who is the largest tin soldier in the world, a new coat of paint.  He is looking quite shabby.

As I continued along I ran into some poppies that decided to start growing on the wrong side of the fence.  They’re wild but still pretty.

I suppose it’s human nature to look for the bright colours and the pleasing images but there’s so much more out there.

Like bridges …

And logs and aged lumber.  Running water and so many other things.

And an old boat repair warehouse.

I can appreciate it all but I hope it’s okay if I still like the pretty.

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I have reopened my etsy store.  I had to decide if I wanted to keep it up but I enjoy making batts and I have so much fibre that soon I’ll be buried in it.  And once I got back into it I realized that I do enjoy it.  I had traded all my batts so I had to start over which is actually good.

This is what I’ve done in the last few days with way more working their way through my brain.

It looks like I might have a bit of spring on my mind.  I will admit that it has been a cold and grey winter and I need to see some fresh bright colours.

Of course I’ve also been affected by the colours I’ve seen outdoors as the flowers are in bloom.

I have no idea where that green came from.

So on my walk today I went to Queen’s Park where there is petting zoo.  It seems a good place for children but I feel a bit sorry for the animals there.  Yes, they get fed but being chased around all day by little ones would not be my idea of good time if I were a goat.

And have you ever noticed that we are able to focus on one thing while ignoring the other things around us.  For example I was so focused on getting a shot of this duck that I didn’t even realize that his buddy was mooning me.

So those ducks were behind a fence in the petting zoo and domesticated.

I think these ducks that are free to come and go and live in another park are far more attractive, as is the setting.

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I went for a walk by the water yesterday and it was beautiful.   The flowers glowed in the sun.  I saw a little red headed woodpecker and the wind was brisk.  That was yesterday.  It will never come again.

I went for a walk by the water today and it was beautiful.  It had just rained, so when the sun shone, it lit up the raindrops as though they were little glass beads nesting on their beds or ready to drop to the ground.

There were swallows swirling around with the sun showing off their iridescence, impossible to photograph, only there for those with eyes wide open.

The flowers were there still, some already fading …

But beautiful still, all be it in different way, kind of like me, I hope.

And then there were many flowers and leaves in the full of their youth.

So many,  in almost every colour of the rainbow, and all will be gone in a few days time.

Which leads me to something that I’ve been thinking about lately.  I’m trying to change my attitude about what I’m to do with my life.  I’ve spent most of my life thinking that I need to leave a mark.  You know create something that will last far beyond my own lifespan.  A book, a piece of art or something, anything.  But why?

We are the only animal that does more than eat, sleep and have babies.  We build things.  Things we hope will last.  But if everyone who has ever been born had to create a monument of some sort, the world would be full of monuments and there wouldn’t be room for us.  And, isn’t that what’s happening now.

On my walk I choose to look at the flowers and the river but on the other side of me were towering high rises, with several more being built.  They are a necessary part of city living but these monuments are not so beautiful as the soft pinks and yellows that will last but a few hours or days.  Perhaps more beautiful because they are so short lived.

So, what is wrong with simply living, eating, working, and having babies and living our lives with kindness being our only footprint.

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