230530 the way home

May 31

 grandmother

I looked after Fox for the day. He was quite contented to hang out, eat food, play in the yard, and go for a stroller ride (which put him to sleep for his nap before he crashed from tiredness). He is delighted with the dogs. He did not cry until late, after supper, when his mother was expected, because he fell and was tired again, and wanted his mom. I am okay, but not solid ground for him. I sang and rocked him, but he only said, "no", he wasn't to be distracted from wanting mummy now. I was not sad; we had a very good day until then. While we explored the meadow, he took my hand on hilly places, and once or twice asked for it: "Hand." He talks a lot - he knows over a hundred words, and uses signs from American Sign Language, that he was taught long before he was ready to learn spoken words. We taught our own children signs as well, that's where Rain gets it. Fox makes sentences too, although I do not know all of his words; many of them sound like each other. But he gets that too, and was comparing two sound-alikes, saying them back to back with a subtle difference.

His mother calls Fox a "fruitbat", referring to his love of fruit. He eats a lot, preferring to eat them whole, than cut up in a bowl. Rain is conscientious about what he eats, offering a variety of whole foods, ensuring that he is getting a balanced diet, with sugar and processed foods rationed through the week. He is capable too, of using a spoon and drinking from a cup. He seems very grown-up to me, although perhaps I forget what my children were doing at twenty months. He is self-possessed too; he did not act anxious or lost while he was with me, even though he broke down after his fall. There too, I could see that he was not anxious so much as impatient to be back with mummy and sad, plain sad, because she was not there. I hope that he was not absolutely bereft! 

 

Asleep before I knew it:

*****

We were treated to a visit from Elf and Cricket this past weekend as well! Elf and her family live in Montreal, (was it is with children moving far away to live their lives?). She is busy with many projects but is a committed and capable parent to Cricket. He is six and has already travelled to Europe and the United States with Elf and Iz on some of their gigs. He hangs out with other tag-along children, often watching off-stage and learning performance skills from the artists. It is so valuable for children to see their parents and other adults pursuing their work, whether it be dance or, as I saw in Indonesia, women building a wall to hold back the beach. The toddlers ran about in only a t-shirt while their mothers shared the stonework and the parent watch. 

Daycare in the workplace has so many benefits and more learning time also might be spent in places of business. It might seem to slow down the work, but it would probably enhance productivity with happier workers and the creativity encouraged by the children's  presence. With your reason for having to bring home money tangible, how much better you might feel about your job, its worth and interest. The children see the adult world and begin to look for their place in it.

Cricket met his cousin, who is now a relatable toddler, and he big-brothered him a little, of course in the last fifteen minutes of their time together, running with him, drawing forth his smile. It was always of interest to us when my friends gathered with our little ones that the kids finally played together in the last few minutes of the meeting. It took that long to warm up to the idea, to feel a sense of safety. 

*****

on the hill

There is smoke in the hills today. It sinks into the valleys, slinks along like water finding a channel. Some must be here on our hillside, but I do not smell it or see it, except; is the sky a less intense blue for a sunny day? We live on such a small planet that the smoke from fires burning a long way away, we think, in Alberta, is heavy in the air here. This should raise awareness of the urgent need to clean up our human act, before we lose the planet to a new paleontological age, where humans and a lot of the other current life-forms are gone and the remainder repopulate the planet with perhaps giant cockroaches, or highly-developed rodent colonies. Or, dogs. It would be nice to think of a dog-centric world: would they miss humans? Would they keep humans around, who are now returned to a pre-civilized state, like untamed companion creatures who will light a fire at night for warmth and protection against predators, and bring home fresh kills from time to time? 

The smoke map:

*****

A "left turn" segue that may have influenced the previous paragraph was the article:https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/may/30/can-humans-ever-understand-how-animals-think which discusses the alternate intelligence of other earth beings. We cannot know, so we cannot judge, the intelligence of other species, or even plant species, or their "mental" processes. An example, from a Guardian article that I can no longer find, was that if you identify "finding one's way home without a map" as intelligence, then bees and dogs and a host of other species beat humans at the task, and we fail the intelligence scale. The extra sense of smell, which we do not use a lot, gives other creatures a whole layer of input, which informs about past and future events in the external world. Bees use, they said, the magnetic field of the earth, and I think that birds do too, but do we have any awareness of it? Could we access that awareness, if we were freed from our overwhelming, human senses of sight and hearing?

*****

Well, back to present matters: today is a cooking day. I cooked on Saturday, in preparation for Elf's visit, but we have eaten it all, a grain "porridge", a red lentil dahl, and a greens salad. Today it is cooked apples and cranberries, a brown rice pudding and a chickpea curry. Everything is in process, the apples have cooked and are cooling, the rice is ready for the addition of oat milk, nuts, and, if we had some, raisins. Perhaps some of the apple could be put in, instead. The chickpeas are soaking. All three dishes will have some maple syrup added. The cranberries are very sour, so the apple sauce will need more, but the rice will only need one or two tablespoons and the chickpea curry only a teaspoon. It is a good morning's work and will help keep us fed for a few days. 

I served the rice pudding with the apple sauce. Itwas delicious, a sort of apple crisp, without the extra sugar and butter, (and, well, not very crispy!)

*****

The farmer was up to check the cow fence the other day and said the cows would be up on Saturday or Sunday (they are brought up to graze for a week or two, several times a summer - they go to Rain's farm in the rotation), so I went to visit the meadow while I had the chance. The cows are not tame, they are beef cattle, a herd of females who have babies for the farmer to sell each year, and a resident bull. We cannot walk out on  the meadow while they are here. 

The bowl of the meadow below the house.

Fox and Rain watch the cows.

The apple blossoms: They are over, snowing down in a white-pink scattering, how short-lived, symbolic of life in general; we should take comfort, or strength, from the constant changing of the natural world instead of longing for permanence. Why is it that we seek respite, rest, to have things stay the same? It is related to our longing for tomorrows and yesterdays. You have to move on from blossoms and start making apples.

Go out and see the day! I hope the sun is shining where you are; it lifts the spirit. But rain nourishes the earth, and our souls as well. Be safe.

Mumma Yaga