230914 generations

September 14 2023 

Fox visits often and is becoming quite used to me. He loves to wander the meadow and forest and we find much to look at. We discovered a red salamander under a log and Fox was so gentle and respectful, not touching it, but looking closely. His mother has taught him to respect creatures, to not harm them, and not be afraid of them. 

Some turkeys visited the apple trees. Everyone comes for the apples! The birds feast on the bugs, the wasps love the mashed apples on the ground, one year a lone coyote came several mornings to munch on them. I gather them, bugs and all, and stew them with a little maple syrup, or with cranberries and a lot of syrup! We have several kinds of apple that grow about the place. 

Harbinger of winter, geese are gathering for their autumn exodus; I laughed to think of them waiting about in the departure lounge. (This is a farm field near us.)

*****

The information I can find on this lovely plant (photo below) is that it is the "broadleaf" arrowhead aquatic plant. Most other species have much broader leaves, so I am confused. This grows in the pond of the neighbouring estate, where grow several other species too. 

Also at the estate next door I found these spiralled orchids, the nodding lady's tresses. They smell like vanilla. They are relatively rare, and I have seen them before this only on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario. They like a particular sort of wet ground. These are perfect, tall specimens. I was surprised to learn that there are seventy-four species of orchid in Canada, with most living in the south of Ontario where the weather is most friendly. *

The delightfully named "butter-and-eggs" are not plentiful on the meadow, but there are a few groups. They have tiny snapdragon-like blossoms. 

Here is a rare colour: 

This is the web of a "funnel-web" spider. It is very hard to think of these creatures as unintelligent, when they can produce such excellent fine webs. There is a "tunnel" in the middle, where the spider hides in wait. We see bees and spiders, and so many other creatures as having "instinct" with which they create their various structures in nature. Then, I look at humans, how they build bridges, and highrises, which I think is amazing, and I imagine another being looking at this making, and deciding that these humans are building from an instinct, without intelligence or self-awareness. "Oh, these are not sentient beings, they kill each other and they are at the mercy of inclement weather, wildfire and disease. They breed with an intense drive to further their species." How self-aware are we, really? 

No segue, I am afraid. The weed-wacker person who comes to our place (we rent here, and the garden caretaking is provided) made me a path to the berry patch, I have mentioned before. I was up and down it a couple of times, before I noticed this large iron wagon, or tractor, wheel. I was thinking to scavenge it, when I looked closer and saw that it was covering an old well! Who knows how far down it goes, though it is filled with leaf matter. It is full of water too. I have walked by this a hundred times before the path was cut, and it is only because there is a small tree right beside it that I have not stepped onto or into it. It is spooky. I know almost nothing about wells, but I wonder if it could be made to be used again. I wonder how deep it is, if it still reaches some water reserve underground. 

There was a special moon at the end of August, a blue (being a second full moon in a calendar month) and a supermoon, which is what they call a full moon that is at or near perigee, the closest the moon comes to earth in its orbit. We did not see it at its fullest, as there were clouds, but here is it the night after.

*****

Saturday

I have been cleaning the house. During covid, I didn't clean the house much because no one was coming to see us! When I was younger, I had visitors regularly. As a La Leche League leader, I welcomed the group for meetings (gatherings, covens). People used to visit for coffee in the old days, do you remember? I have never been big on housework, of the cleaning sort, but I could do it, in a rampage, when social interaction required. I also have, and had, a respect for hygiene. Then, in my fifties I took a paying job as a senior care worker. For six or seven years, before I began to be more of a companion care-person, I cleaned homes for seniors. I cleaned eight or ten homes a week, "top to bottom" in the case of two and three floor houses with two or three bathrooms - I could do the whole thing in three hours. Ironic for someone who doesn't like cleaning. 

One client, bless her, was a perfect homemaker, turning or flipping the mattresses weekly, changing sheets, towels, cleaning everywhere, vacuuming in perfect straight lines on the broadloom, which I had to do as her helper. But I was good at all of it from the start, must have learned it somewhere. 

My mother was, I must call her, a "faithful" housekeeper. She changed half the beds each week, as there were seven of us, did the laundry on Monday and hung out the wash winter and summer, the groceries Thursday, sometimes went bowling with her friends on Wednesday afternoons, waxed and polished the hardwood throughout, and the kitchen floors were a bitch in those days. Every spring she and my father would "spring clean", something I have NOT learned, although I do switch out winter and summer wardrobes each year. Mother and Father used to clean or paint a room every year or two. WHAT? One of our rooms at #48 has never been painted in the 33 years we have been there and I have painted a room only twice on my own. The front room has been done twice and the kitchen once. This comes with some embarrassment on my part, as I was raised in a sixties middle class home. But really? My children survived and thrived.

My father also did the garden with thorough regularity. He could repair many things, and sharpened our skates himself. [Skating: We lived across the road from a park where two rinks were prepared each year. They seemed to be frozen and skateable for much of the winter. Is that my child's memory, or were the winters different? My father was raised on the Canadian prairie, Biggar, Saskatchewan, to be exact, where they know winter, and mother was a British immigrant and LOVED everything that was real winter - snow and ice and cold and skiing.]

Back to work: I like a clean house. It seems grossly unfair, however, that we don't "see" clean! but we see dirty. I expect the clean enters our awareness subconsciously and we have a better experience which we do not examine. 

All this is because we have had visitors lately, and I am expecting Elf and her child, Cricket, tomorrow. Here again, covid has changed our normal behavior. Living so close to each other (Montreal and Mansonville) we would, [pre-covid) have seen each other often., But it has been rare and different these three years,. 

*****

I have finished the "ménage"! The place looks amazing and welcoming. 

I have gone to town for groceries, and put those away, and been to Rain's farm for flowers, corn, kale, and tomatoes. I have an hour until dinner has to be on the table. "Has to" is only my own designation; I like to eat at regular times. I believe it helps my body to keep up. A long time ago, I did not regard schedules, they seemed arbitrary and unnecessary, but as I matured and, perhaps, got softer, schedules began to be more meaningful. All the best books on sleep recommend a schedule, at least a "getting up" regular time, and I find that works for me. Alas for my children, they were the victims of my notion of "unscheduled", or maybe they benefited, I don't know. I now find that some regularity works for sleeping and eating. It fits with the notion of intermittent fasting, and I know that it works to have a regular "getting up" hour, My body does not seem to mind if I have slept less, it is ready for the day at 5:30 in the morning, more or less. I love this time of the day. I have a couple of hours, before the larger world is ready, before stores are open, and anything needs doing, when I can "see the day", have coffee, read the news, check email and facebook, perhaps get my french work in. 

We had a marvelous storm last night! Lightning and thunder and sudden, fierce wind. It is a measure of our wealth that a storm can be marvelous, and not devastating and destructive. We do not live in an impoverished country in a desert or a tropical storm's path, and we have a roof over our heads and a safe and dry bed to sleep in. 

Sunday:

THEY CAME and are visiting! Rain and Fox were here and I watched, a little out of the circle, while she and Elf talked and their children played. I began to feel that the new generation had taken up life, and that I was no longer needed. And it felt okay to be outside, and, perhaps, free? It was not a sad feeling. It was, rather, an epiphany of sorts, seeing the shift, how these young people are wise and capable; it is their world now. These two women, sisters, share a family history, and yet they return to each other from vastly different places of learning to exchange knowledge. 

I cooked food all day. and looked after K a little bit. He was mostly left to his own devices. [What an interesting expression. "devices" . An astrolabe, laptop?]

*****

Cricket was very interested in the Blue Cave! We worked together on it for a while. I realize that I have too much material for the cave and am going to need another base to use it on. I have a blue mountain vase except it is green, and we are in the green mountains. So it might become "green mountain". I have to wash it and the mastic and grout will have to hold it together, because it is crackled at least, and perhaps cracked. There is also the shrine vase upstairs and I might do something with that except I want to cut it into a shrine shape. It was one of the pieces I bought to use for the shrine I made in February, 22.

The grandkids are playing together like old friends. Cousins do this, perhaps any kids who are brought together by their parents for a gathering. They just take it for granted that these are friends. These two found so much in each other: Cricket was a big brother, indeed these meetings in a "family space" require no preface - no "pre - face". They start in the middle, open and free. Fox is a duck in water, identifies in Cricket a playmate, a brand-new world of another child. They recognize something.

In good grandmotherly fashion, I provided a little tent for Fox, and he was thrilled to be sharing it with his cousin. My house is (I think!) quite nice for children. There are toys, unusual and eclectic, to play with, a room full of mosaic stock to examine without reserve, interesting bits of nature, places to walk and see. I can conjure up a pool-noodle fire hose, a makeshift stove top of cardboard on which to cook playdough potatoes, and there are bubbles, toads and salamanders. I also have on hand water shoes for Cricket, hats and kid-sized jackets as needed, and a raincoat for Elf. 

Fox likes my baked beans. The ultimate success! Thank you for visiting. Thank you to Elf and Cricket for visiting too! Keep safe and well. 

Mumma Yaga

All photos by MY. Because someone asked about one. 

* https://canadianorchidcongress.ca/

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