shed be gone

Since my last post, five days had gone by since the first attempt to take the old shed away and

By Friday afternoon, Wally and his friend from work, Nick (whose father will take it away),

had regrouped to dismantle the old shed.

Upon further examination (and a succession of 2 dead screwdriver batteries and 2 hours)

Wally and Nick decided to meet up again after the weekend when Nick would return with his bigger batteried screwdriver

Worried that Wally would be disappointed after investing so much time, I turned and took this picture of my handsome Muji in the evening light and went to dish supper out.

Wally wasn't disappointed in the least. He is very philosophical about the time it takes to do things- especially preparatory work that always bores me to distraction.

When Nick returned last night (Monday) after both he and Wally had put in a full day's work,

they set to drilling through the rusted screws to release them.

Sometimes Wally had to hold a screw from spinning while Nick drilled.

Already the sliding doors are somewhat dismantled.

Determining how to lift the roof,

they decide to remove the doors first.

Then, dislodging the roof,

they raise the roof

and slide it over.

She's Off!

Maybe now is the time to tell you how sentimental I had begun to feel about losing this ugly old shed.

We have the original permit from May 1983. That's 34 years ago less 2 weeks.  Every time we remove a piece of the past I sense the dreams of the past. I will write more about this towards the end.

Nick and Wally move the roof out of the way.

Wally told me afterwards how very heavy it was.

Babu and Muji enjoy their after dinner show (on the one day I didn't make the bed)

I was surprised how relaxed Babu was who is usually terribly shy.

Muji soon lost interest with a full belly.

Next it was time to dismantle the walls.

the last wall to go

stacking it onto the pile with the other 2 walls

What remains, the old oil drum wood stove, the rotting wood floor, and of course

THE VIEW!

We have a week to remove all the debris if we're to take advantage of Big Pickup Day by the township. My sentiment for the entrenched past quickly dissolves as we get a slice of view that I've so missed, being surrounded by buildings. I think of Carolyn Myss's view:

"The dead past cannot give you life force."

Embracing the life we have today can be brought up short with gratitude.

There is more in place than is not. Let us remember to remember how lucky we are so we do not slide into false concepts. Carolyn Myss suggests that if we were to remove 3 words from our vocabulary they would be:

blame

deserve

entitlement

This is heavy stuff in a world where so many are, or feel they are, victimized. The trick to letting go of all the pain, "wounds" as she calls them is:

Forgiveness

This includes forgiving ourselves

I found this video particularly helpful in understanding Why People Don't Heal

thank you as always for caring to drop by.

I will have some artwork to share next time.

peace

5 cats 7 planets

What a balmy few days it's been- by winter standards that is.

The mist that moved in from the east dissipated in the light of day.

And I saw a robin!

I turned and was startled to find two cats in our great ash tree

a yellow eyed female

and a yellow eyed male

Our neighbour's cat, who seems to be in this basement window all the time, watched on.

The tomcat was too shy to put on his Cheshire cat smile

though he posed well for a Wonderland tale

In my naïveté I thought I'd be of help to the beleaguered female, but she was just as shy,

and out of the tree she was more vulnerable to him, hence the scream that drew me back outside, the hissing at him from the neighbour's front yard, and finally running away. I regretted I got involved.

I took a picture of our house from their driveway, and returned home

to find our sweet boys cuddled up together on Wally's office chair.

I teased them by opening the windows which was a treat for us all.

Next day:

This morning's sky was weird, but it promises to be an equally lovely spring day.

Muji kept me company with some thoughts of his own to mull over

a handsome boy in profile

please forgive another shot of my handsome boy

Meanwhile Babu did his best to harass me into an early breakfast

two hungry boys

I've been doing a bit of early spring cleaning, or rather tidying, so I will share these stained kitchen table doodlings

and the other side- obviously in a bunny sort of mood.

The writing says: "The light of a thousand stars all around you"

I don't know what was on my mind that day, but it is good to remember.

Incidentally, Wally told me last night that SEVEN Earth-sized "exo planets" (meaning outside our solar system), 3 of which may be inhabitable, have been discovered just under 40 light years (235 trillion miles) in the Aquarius Constellation. I had to laugh, obviously in a "how does this affect me" state of mind. We talked about how long it would take us to get there by present modes of travel. LifetimeSSS! Yet, truly it is a fascinating thought that one could stand on one of these new planets and see a sister planet as close as our moon, sometimes closer.

It turns out, having gone to NASA's site, that there is are several discoveries of other possibilities of inhabitable planets. Still, the bigger trick, as I see it, would be to see us evolve into the enlightenment such a gift would warrant.

peace on earth

Deer in the Hayfield

It's not always noise and dust around here.

One evening Wally called me out from the kitchen to see the deer in the back field.

While my little camera couldn't capture them up close

here are the best blow-ups I could get of a doe and what appear to be 2 fawns

It pleases me to see them safe and

so far from our garden

Mom retreats her little family back into the ravine

and I turn to come in, capturing the old shingles that Wally removed from the other side of

Forget-Me-Not Cabin's roof

while Muji waits patiently for my return

The next morning I capture Babu in the Roma tomato box

(or, rather, he put himself there)

after freezing most of the tomatoes for this winter's use.

After a particularly hot week here in the Annapolis Valley,

wishing you a particularly pleasant weekend.

(I can't help but laugh to myself these days when I use the word "weekend" in this public forum, assuming everyone knows what I mean when there was a world, once, that didn't...)

this quintessential quote by the  Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith)

from "Downton Abbey"

Slipping into Autumn

So here we are in September. How could a summer go so fast?

There has been some change in the maple trees, always the first to show their colours.

The nights are colder and energy seems to be in a state of flux as the harvest swings into higher gear.

The first local apples- MacIntosh- are in the stores and the produce is coming so thick and furious that we are lucking in to some incredible sales like a case of corn in their husks for 99 cents. We counted 17 ears, all fresh and sweet!

Towards the end of last week, I wandered into the garden

capturing the clematis festooning the composter with their resplendence

The garden is getting away on us, but we still manage to use what has bolted in our juicing

The peaches had to be rescued from marauding blue jays

It helped the slim pliant trunk that we relieved it of some of its weight

after taking a few appreciative pictures. The fruit is luscious.

The cucumbers bailed on us, getting fatter and fatter, so Wally picked them too.

We're managing to keep up with the cherry tomatoes

Here, from left to right, are chard, carrots, beets, and kale

with broccoli bolting in the back

We still make the most of our broccoli by juicing it along with a big bowl of other veggies:

Cucumber

Carrots

Celery

Beet

Ginger

Lemon

and always Cilantro

Many other things make it in from time to time like:

Kohlrabi

Romaine Lettuce ends

Parsley stems

Kale stems

well, you get the idea

Here a busy Bumblebee works on a Broccoli Flower

Note the Pollen Sac that appears to sit on its abdomen, looking like a pale egg.

(The pollen basket or corbicula is part of the tibia on the hind legs of certain species of bees. They use the structure in harvesting pollen and returning it to the nest or hive.)

The Bumblebee has to be the friendliest of all the bees

for they allow you to get quite close

Here is a lovely Kale amidst the bolting Broccolis

Our Harelsons are not doing too well this year, most of them dropping from the tree,

infested because we don't spray for the infamous Codling Moth

Here is the beginning of Wally's concrete patio tile path that he has laid with weeping tile beneath to help deflect the spring run-off from melting snow. A Nine Bark bush seems to be taking over.

On the back deck, the cherry tomatoes are doing well as they loom over the potted cilantro

In the vestibule, Babu and Muji are settling in

for a nap

Yesterday I scanned the street during a quiet spell and found this manhole

on the other side of our frontage. I can hear it clanging already with future traffic.

A pile of sand to its left

A stack of water pipes waiting to be laid sit on my neighbours frontage

and on it goes....

and now, for no reason in particular except that I've been humming this tune lately,

here is a fabulous early recording of Alice Faye from 1936- that's 80 years ago.

have a lovely slide into autumn