All Day Rain… again.

On Monday I saw a red fox. He or she was a beautiful specimen, shiny red coat, perky trotting, head up. They were coming across our yard and heading for the bush across the neighbour’s yard. It has been years since I’ve spotted a fox here!

Yesterday what I believe to be Northern Flickers flew through the yard. They flew with rapidly flapping wings, shooting like bullets across my line of vision. The identification may be incorrect, but the Northern Flicker the closest species most resembling the four birds in flight that were observed.

On Tuesday it rained all day. Attila and I sat on the back porch watching the downpour, after he arrived home from work. We both observed that we had not seen an all day rain like this for years and years. The last few springs had presented themselves with drought like condition, our rain water tanks were dry and we had to resort to watering the garden with water from the hose, with water we pay to use. This spring we have had adequate rain for our garden, Attila has only needed to water a few times, and the rain water tanks are full. We have experienced a few brief heat waves, but for the most part the weather has been cool in the daytime, with night time temperatures slightly above average.

Tuesday was the day I chose to wash my laundry and hang it out to dry on the back porch, where little drying occurred as the rain poured down all day. The laundry was gathered up after supper, and hung on racks in the house to dry overnight.

On Wednesday, yesterday, the sun shone most of the day. What a glorious day it was! There were clouds, voluminous white ships sailing across the skies. The air was particularly fresh and fragant with scent of new life pushing into the light. I sat out on the porch for most of the day, occasionally wandering into the garden to do little things: pluck a few weeds from the strawberry patch, show a swaying clematis tendril where the arbour was located, marvel at the garden that Attila is creating from seeds and love.

Daylight arrived this morning shrouded with weeping clouds. It has rained off and on throughout the day. Iti is another day that I am grateful to have a porch to sit out on. I love verandas and porches. Attila built a small screen in porch at the Country House, where I spent many happy hours, and used as an outdoor kitchen in the hot weather. We had a deck, but seldom used it, and I’ve discovered I do not favour decks or patios. If we could afford to add any structure to Mist Cottage, I would choose to expand the porch.

Rabbits! Tuesday morning I spotted a young rabbit who had walked right through our chain link fence into the inner garden. Attila had not yet left for work, and he chased that rabbit around the yard until it broke through the barrier of bird netting at the fence line, and escaped. Lucky rabbit. So yesterday’s good weather was put to excellent use by Attila when he arrived home after a day at work. He used chicken wire to line that area of the fence, and to close gaps around the gates with stakes. So far so good, but we expect further incursions. The struggle continues.

Attila has begun to bring things in from the garden for my lunches, not every day, but often. Right now it is fresh organic spinach, and a wee bit of organic lovage, for noon time stir fries. He brought in the one ripe strawberry, which we shared, it was sweet and delicious. Our strawberries are not thriving, we need to get some straw for them, and keep them weeded. They need more attention than most of our other plants, and Attila feels they are mine to care for, but I am having trouble getting down on the ground to weed them. So we lost quite a few of the new-plants-from-runners over the winter. There are a few plants left though, so I am going to try to keep up with their care and build the bed up again from runners.

Everything from our garden is organic. No fertilizer,s or insecticides, or pesticides, are used other than a few natural products like aged manure and compost, peat moss, ground egg shells, Epsom, salt spray, and occasional spraying with a water and dish soap mixture. We have owned this property for twelve years now, so we know what it has been exposed to during that time.

I find it challenging to develop an exercise regime! The physiotherapy has been great, and I have experienced great improvements with my back pain. The original issue, the back pain and nausea, are still with me, whatever the root of the problem is, it continues to plague me. But the secondary issues I experienced with my back, as the original pain worked its magic, which resulted from an injury in 1995, are slowly but surely improving with the exercise program set out for me. The exercises are not easy, so I have some internal resistance to doing them every day. But every day I make myself do them, and they are beginning to seem easier. Eventually they will become body memory, and like remembering how to ride a bike, my body will just remember how to move in these ways, without the struggle to learn. I am in the very lucky circumstance to have adequate time to learn, in a pleasant environment, very lucky.

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Thu, Jun 9, 8:25 AM
13 °C
FEELS LIKE 13
Overcast
Wind 11 N km/h
Humidity 93 %
Visibility 18 km
Sunrise 5:24 AM
Wind gust 16 km/h
Pressure 100.5 kPa
Ceiling 2400 m
Sunset 8:50 PM

Quote

“We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
1926 – 2022

I feel it is primarily necessity that dictates taht we either become good at preparing to live, for if we do not attend to that we will suffer. Being alive but in a state of suffering is not a worthy goal. I feel the senitment the sadness of the sentiment in the quote is that human cultures have not developed to optimize opportunities to be alive in the present moment, and those larger societal issues are, I believe, primarily controlled by the powerful few, visibly and invisibly. The way I see it people’s ability to be present in the moment is compromised by our flawed social structures, and that individuals do their best in a world where the priority is profit and gain and progress, and not in developing quality of life.