No Rain After All

Friday was sunny and it was wonderfully warm in the sunshine, but there was also a cool breeze making it cool in the shade. My laundry dried readily on the line as I watered all the backyard beds. Many of my poor babies were rather desperate for water. In mid-September, I must water every day! I can’t believe it.

We walked with our friends in the morning. That is always joyful. Then I came home to do the watering, and it was easy and pleasant work on so beautiful a day. I had a brief nap in the sunshine after finishing the backyard and after lunch. I love naps in the sunshine. I don’t really sleep, but I get lost in my thoughts while wonderfully warm.

Watering the edible garden, trees and front garden beds went rather quickly, and while I watered, I ate the last of the unpicked blueberries. What a year of berries I’ve had! And then Her Highness and I went walking in Elder Cedar. It’s such a beautiful time of year. I was high on nature as we walked.

By the time we got home, it was dinner time. I entered the pleasure zone.

I’m worried about Winter. I hope I can stand reading, otherwise I feel like I’ll go mad. I’ve been outside much of ever day since early May. I love doing easy work and even watering is something to do outside. I’m going to miss being outdoors. I’m really going to miss it.

I tried doing some drawing, but I get vicious cramps in my fingers, and it becomes too frustrating to do very quickly. I keep reminding myself that I have very comfortably transitioned to indoor living all my life. Besides, it’s only mid-September, and it can stay mild, and we can have lots of sunny days until the end of October.

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I knew it. I knew it would happen. There’s no rain predicted for tomorrow now. Environment Canada has changed their forecast. Instead, rain is now not predicted until next Friday, so I’ll have to water tomorrow on My Day, and this change means that we’ve had almost five months of sunshine and dry weather (except for three days)!

I grew up in West Vancouver which climbs the slope of Hollyburn Mountain. It was often called Wet Vancouver in jokes, and Vancouver was famous across Canada as part of the Wet Coast. How things have changed.

I’ll be puttering around the garden today and taking short walks. If I’m ever going to free myself of this painful tendonitis in my Achilles tendon, I’m going to have to stay off my feet more.

Now that I have an iPhone, I’ve been taking the odd photo, so here are some recent shots by me instead of images by other people. 

I love the symmetry of this Mountain Ash tree that I
saw at Silva Bay Marina. Look at those beautiful red
berries! It's a gorgeous tree!

A beautiful Pileated Woodpecker on my fence.
I am visited by many of these beauties.

Ethel (left) and Fred love to sleep on my bed 
where i make a nest of blankets for them.

A huge Arbutus tree was rotting in Drumbeg, so it was felled.
It was an enormous beauty I often admired because the bench
you can see there is where I like to picnic.

Drumbeg is gorgeous in Summer but the water
is really cold. 

Her Highness and I love to walk on the sheets of sandstone
that are part of many of our beaches on Gabriola.

There's beauty here even when the grass is brown. This is part
of Drumbeg Park.

 I cannot believe how gorgeous it is to look out the French
doors by my desk. I've planted everything you see growing
except the trees behind the studio.

I never tire at admiring the beauty of the understory in Elder
Cedar Park. The ferns cover every inch of land.