200919 chilly stars blue jays sweet water
(sept 18)
It was chilly all day with the wind from the north. Last night the dew froze on the deck table. But tonight it is calm and warm. The passing cars, the headlights and the rush, are people coming to a weekend haven, heaven, somehow comforting.
I am waiting for some stars to come out. Can't tell just yet if there's a haze of clouds or it's too early. In the city I miss the stars.The "lots" of stars (miriad?), the black dimensions that resolve, the Milky Way a ferris wheel spinning. How I have missed this. [I keep remembering a marvelous book that addresses the disappearance of stars, called Nightfall, written by Asimov and Silverberg, two of the great early sci-fi writers. I cannot find an e-copy, but there may be paper copies out there.] Our host, Luc, has kindly provided slanty-back lawnchairs, "gravity chairs" that you can recline like a lazy-boy to see the sky. We also enjoy the day chairs with cushions, and a glass-top table. (the frozen dew.)
I met with our neighbour of the wood delivery, and his wife, to see around their rental chalet, which is right next door to Luc's. It used to be their residence. It is charming and homey, an open kitchen/living room with a heating wood stove opposite the kitchen. They are a lovely couple. Just like us, retired, they had to buy the bigger house across the road so that their 3 children (avec spouses) and 7 grandchildren could visit.
The birds: we see vultures in ones and threes on their way south. Maybe they are mostly gone from here. They are probably still gathering in clumps and departing, in Ontario. Watch for them over Toronto and along the QEW west towards Lake Erie, circling twenty or thirty together. Northern (yellow-shafted) Flickers everywhere, their white rumps a giveaway. Do they migrate? Jays, with their raucous caw* and their watery trill, bold chickadees and one Hairy Woodpecker obviously well-fed, judging by his leisurely flitting tree to tree, feasting at the fifth or sixth on several juicy somethings plucked from under the bark. A pair of Kestrels hunting, and Wild Turkeys standing about in a field like they are waiting for a bus, with pink bare faces and black overcoats.
The water from the tap in the chalet is almost sweet. I don't know if it is town water or a well. It probably has healing properties! It seems a waste to make it into tea!
Masks are here! They are our new make-up, new hat, new public personal statement! It is delightful. Our voice and eyes express what we cannot behind the mask, but the mask tells you about the wearer. It is a whole new form of expression!
Sun Dogs, mirages of suns and rainbows spinning out from the real sun are well known in Alberta but I see them often in Toronto too, mostly in winter in the morning or late afternoon sky. Tuesday morning there were two extra suns, carried along by clouds under the mumma sun.
* ee cummings:
crazy jay blue)
demon laughshriek
ing at me
your scorn of easily
hatred of timid
& loathing for(dull all
regular righteous
comfortable)unworlds
thief crook cynic
(swimfloatdrifting
fragment of heaven)
trickstervillain
raucous rogue &
vivid voltaire
you beautiful anarchist
(i salute thee
Glad you came! Keep safe.
Mumma Yaga
Comments
Post a Comment