Friday, September 21, 2012

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I look at the date on today’s paper and think . .yegads .. my birthday is next week!  And for that I am glad.  Remembering when I was little and thinking “I am 8 and the year ends in 8” (I won’t say which decade though, ha ha ha) .. followed by subsequent years of “I’m 12 and the year ends in 2” … guess I’ve fallen out of the rhythm, cause my next number ends in 4 and the year ends in 2!

Guess its high time to start a new birthday saying, heh?

Besides the sometimes complimentary birthday drink I receive (depending on the restaurant) .. I find that each birthday feels to me like New Years Day .. a fresh slate, as it were.  A fresh new year starting.

Now, I will create new habits, new routines, finish what I’ve started, and start new things.  Oh, it is so nice to have these dreams!

Today I’m posting the balance of pictures taken a few days ago, when my pal D and I went out for a day of adventure and discovery.

We’d started the day at Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary.  Planned to meet in the Nature House, arriving within a few minutes of each other .. and then, each waiting for the other, we made little forays outside and thus kept missing each other.

I had a few conversations with someone who worked there and then made a few visits to my car.  She, in turn, would exit the building and go looking for me.  So, in hindsight, we must have looked kind of cute, like one of those little cartoons, where 2 people don’t exist in the same space at the same time.  However, eventually the time continuum stopped playing around with us and we met up at the entrance!
And, good friend that she is, D fully understood how I was sad at the loss of our little Youbou and gave me this very lovely card, a Beth Logan work of art .. that caught the essence of little Y.  He did have that quizzical air about him as he went through his daily life with us.  And how appropriate, as it turns out, that he was on a boat, nearing or approaching a harbour … to the next stage of his lovely little soul’s journey.

And again, how appropriate, as it turns out .. that the card had a nautical air .. as D and I later on were exploring around the ocean’s edge at Saxe Point!

So I had a little sniffle session, reminiscing about little Y –  and carefully placed this beautiful, thoughtful acknowledgement of little Y’s presence on this earth in my car for safekeeping.

And we began our day’s outing.

Such fun, scrambling along the rocks, discovering paths and rockeries.  Beautiful gardens.  A lovely abandoned house that had belonged to the caretaker, now empty, how sad.  Imagined how wonderful it would be to live in a house like that and to live in such beautiful surroundings, with such amazing views of the ocean.  Heaven, indeed.

It was a weekday, summer was over and so not many people at the park on that lovely sunny day.   Felt carefree and worry-free .. with no appointments, work timelines.  Such a good feeling.

We found some crystalized salt areas and many uniformly shaped string like sections … D did some detective work and concluded that these were actually sections of sea-lettuce, the green colour removed by the salt and then dried by the sun.

So we spent a few hours wandering around, exploring, discovering … and enjoying the priceless beauty of the surrounding waters.

Another lovely day .. and all within the confines of our lovely city.

There are many many more such treasures and we will find them when we strike out on our discovery walks, now that the gardening season is slowing down.  And look forward to another pal from the past who will be retiring in another month and she will join our wanderings .. then we can really make trips of discovery!  Such fun ….and .. Gadzooks .. we will even try to travel to the Mainland (Vancouver) for a time or too.

And perhaps a gulf island day trip … now won’t that be fun!

But there is so very much here to discover on the island and in the city of Victoria .. we are so very lucky, don’t you think?

So .. on with this lovely day.