Heidi Greco's Blog, page 7

Here they come!

Another round of pruning the blackberries serves to remind me that the job is worth the effort. The branches are loaded with a burden of would-be berries. Bees are busy at work, pollinating the flowers. Some of the stems already bear miniature fruit. 

The timing seems right, as tomorrow will be Solstice. And even the weather seems to finally be in agreement, the sun's ray offering comfort and warmth. 

Now if only the rest of the world could display such harmony as this little patch of what most consider an invasive weed brings to my heart (and to folks along my laneway who get their own section for picking). 

Tide's out

...and so were we. Out on a small camping trip, though hardly what I'd call 'real' camping, as we don't sleep in a tent much anymore, but in the comfy protection of The Rattler, our beloved RV. 

It had been a busy time, with a visitor staying with us, along with several touristical trips (all interesting, beautiful and happy), but last week became our turn for complete rest and relaxation. 

A quick trip to the nearby Point Roberts and the campgrounds at Lighthouse Marine Park filled the bill. Except for the sounds of birdsong (and the occasional excitement of a small plane coming in on the grassy landing strip) it was wonderfully quiet, leaving us with nothing much to do beyond strolling on the beach. 

This time of year sees the broadest beach exposure, owing to the big tides that accompany the days around the Solstice. Official days of summer, coming soon. More excuses, I trust, to be lazy. 

Gone, gone, gone

I used to live in a house on a steep hill. It was so drastic a slant, the first few days of living there, I had flashes of vertigo when I looked out the dining room window. 

The house was torn down over a year ago, but the big tree on the boulevard was still standing--until very recently. 

Even though it was old (we counted over 80 distinct rings), it was healthy. Just look at all the fresh greenery on it. 

And oh, such a coincidence, the way it came down on a weekend when it seemed the bylaw folks had the day off. Naturally, no evidence of a permit on the property...

This is what White Rock accepts as 'progress'--nothing 'pro' about it in my mind. 

Let's just hope the tree wasn't all that was supporting that steep hillside. 

Fun while it lasted

There's something so special about those rare seasons when the Canucks make it into the Stanley Cup playoffs. And this year was no different. 

The buses ran 'Go Canucks Go' on their front banners. As you can see, the giant electronic sign at the ferry terminal (above) got into the spirit of cheering for the home team too. Even at the end of the last game when they lost, everyone in the arena stood and cheered and cheered and cheered. I loved the spirit of it. 

I remember the spring of 1982 when Vancouver made it into the 3rd round of the playoffs. I was working at an elementary school and we'd taken a bunch of middle-graders to a drama festival in Vancouver. Both ways, riding the school bus, everyone sang the song that had become that season's anthem, "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey-ey Goodbye." 

Tiresome as it was to hear the song repeated for the nearly hour-long ride, it's still a memory that makes me smile. 

Maybe next year, maybe next year...

Double whammy

This little blog has been silent for too long. I'll admit I've mostly been stuck in the doldrums. Partly, I can blame this on the fact that May has always (weirdly) been a hard month for me, despite the gorgeous blossoms everywhere. 
This time it's a situation well beyond my reach and hits like a double-whammy, boding badly for all of our futures. 
The first was the fact that the dreaded pipeline was declared 'open' -- and not for transport of water, the commodity we are going to be short of (and will need) not all that far down the road. Instead, the pipe will be filled with bitumen, a gooey and unpleasant substance that may well find its way into Burrard Inlet and beyond. 
The photo at the top of the page is from one of the protests that took place on Burnaby Mountain when many of us were speaking out in opposition to the project. I was one of many who not only stood in solidarity on that mountain, but who made a presentation to the government committee that crossed the country seeking feedback from citizens. The day I was there, I recall people speaking against it. And now I wonder, just how much did that series of hearings cost, and how did opinions weight out, pro and con? Seems like it was probably just another case of lip service, the powers-that-be pretending to appease the hoi-polloi while the wheels of the oil industry kept on churning. 
As for the double part of the whammy news for May, this month also marks the beginning of the end for farmland and sacred sites along the Peace River as the Site C damned dam is now complete. The resulting lake will be filled this autumn. This at a time when farmland just about everywhere seems threatened. Hmmm. The question our offspring may be facing might be 'where's the food?'

Time for listening

Once again, it's Earth Day, a time to celebrate the beauties of our planet--and, as the sign suggests, to hear (and really listen) to information scientists keep bringing us. As most of us know, their messages aren't good. 

The words in the photo are, as they appear, images frozen into ice. They're part of a longtime exhibit on display in the lobby area of the Surrey Arts Centre. Like the ice in our polar regions, those letters too appear to be melting. 

Despite what our governments are (and aren't) doing, there seem to be a number of solutions, probably starting with making sure our tax monies don't go to supporting oil extraction. The time for subsidizing these economic giants is gone. Even the banks are beginning to divest their investments in oil companies. Other jurisdictions have taken similar steps, and continue encouraging people to invest in alternate energy sources. In California, solar panels on roofs have proven to be too successful (!) with the power company experiencing a glut of its resources because folks are no longer reliant on them. 

Even beyond what we think of as the 'traditional' alternatives--solar and wind--there are other, sometimes controversial solutions being proposed. 

I do like that the word 'hear' shares enough letters with our planet's name to make me think it's appropriate for Earth Day. Besides, it's always a good idea to listen, whether that means hearing the variety of birdsongs in the air during these spring days, or doing our best to listen to everyone we meet, even if their point-of-view doesn't complete jibe with our own. After all, that's our only hope for creating meaningful communities, and communities are what it will take to keep our planet habitable. 

It's official

Among other truths about this date, it's official that the Titanic indeed sank on this date. Looking back, it seems obvious that the need to get to New York City in record time was an error, as it saw the great ship travelling much too fast through the notorious 'Iceberg Alley' off the coast of Newfoundland. While I can vouch for that area being a gorgeous place to visit during the spring, I can't say that I'd want to be out on the ocean there. Viewing from the land is plenty inspiring. 

Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax is where a number of the bodies were buried. Others are elsewhere, as far south as New York. 

When we visited the area in Fairview that's dedicated to these graves, it was hard not to get teary-eyed, as many of the markers bore only a single name--sometimes a surname, sometimes a given one--or worse, only a number indicating the order in which their remains had been found. Grim. 

As for a much cheerier news item: Last Monday, Surrey's City Council made it official by proclaiming National Poetry Month in Surrey. Hurrah!

And if you're scratching your head over the photo posted above, the 'iceberg' is part of the many chunks I had to pull out when I defrosted our big freezer. As for the building resting in it, well, it seemed to be the closest thing I could find to a currently sinking ship. 

Half-heartbroke

That's sort of how I'm feeling for not having been able to see yesterday's total eclipse of the sun. I've known for months that it would be totality in Ontario and had planned in my mind to go. Only as things worked out, that just wasn't to be. 
Sure, as you can see, the images on tv were pretty amazing, but the experience certainly isn't the same as seeing one live. 
My first one was when I was about five, though I'm not finding much in the way of corroborating evidence. I know I was with my mother and that we went to local lakeside and had to hold up eye protection to be safe. Bizarrely, I think that may have consisted of doubled-up negative sheets from then-common rolls of film. For all I know, that might be when my eyes faded from supposedly dark brown to the more hazel they now are. 
The only thing I know for sure is that I plan to get myself into the path of the next one. Spain is sounding pretty tempting. I even have my old glasses from the one here in 2017 ready and waiting. 

For Easter

Beyond the obvious, that today is when many people around the world celebrate Easter, I don't have much to say. 

Instead, just a photo of the kitchen counter, crowded with some of life's simple pleasures, one I call "Still Life with Eggs" perhaps in the mode of how my inspiration, Maude, titled her paintings.  

The moon comes announcing Easter

Kind of an eerie photo from the other night, but one I thought captured some of the mystery of the full moon. 

This one, which technically arrived just after midnight (here in the Pacific Zone) on Monday, is apparently called the Worm Moon, something I would never have known without all the crazy information here on the internet. 

It's also the full moon that determines the date for Easter. This celebration, one that I mostly celebrate with coloured eggs and chocolate (mmmm...), takes place the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This formula was apparently one of the matters determined in the year 325 by the Council of Nicaea. From what I can tell, the folks who gathered at this meeting made decisions about nearly all the tenets that form the basis of Christian beliefs. 

The other event I managed to miss the other night when that full moon was official was a partial lunar eclipse, an occurrence that this time serves as a kind of warm-up act for next month's solar eclipse. But then, I'm not on the track where that will be visible so I'll have to be satisfied watching it (as it sometimes seems I spend so much of my life) online. Still, pretty miraculous.