Tuesday: Nosegay

My Tuesday walks were two: one around town in the morning doing errands and the other in the late afternoon walking from Wreck Beach to 4th and Alma. The highlight of my day was the smorgasbord of smells I enjoyed.

Our sense of smell is a wondrous thing; it is such a powerful force in memory. Certain fragrances that wafted into my brain today—carnations, stock, clover and cut grass—zoom me back to some of my earliest memories and I almost feel like I am five years old. Long-forgotten memories are so vivid when these smells bring them to my foreground.

I enjoyed a mid-day lunch with friends Tom and Liz from London between my walks and then, as soon as lunch was over, I cabbed to Wreck Beach because it was just so gloriously hot and sunny. I had a lovely hour and a half just taking in the view and then walked much of the way back home but I was tired. I have been doing a lot of walking.

Wreck Beach is my beach because it has so many places where one can disappear and be alone and down there, below the cliffs, there is no sound of man. And it is far away. There are lots of beaches mere minutes from my house, but they are full of people and I like to be undisturbed by city noise, pets, kids, cell phones and loud people.

A side effect of walking I am enjoying, is getting more sleep. I recently read in the New Yorker that scientists have discovered a specific gene that people share who exist on for or five hours of sleep and I have wondered since if I am one of those people. I'd like to think I am so that I can stop feeling guilty about sleeping so little. I wake up, normally, at four int he morning. When I walk a lot, I sleep until five.

 My morning errands took my past the former Sun Tower where my father worked for the few years we were a "normal" family; before mother's collapse began. I watched my uncle set hot lead type here and befriended many journalism and photojournalism stars here in the 1950s.

 Can you see the shattered glass? It is summer in Vancouver and all the addicts are busy. You see evidence of B&Es everywhere.

Above are two of four Paperback Maples that form a small grove on the grounds of Totem Park at UBc. They are a favourite tree of mine.

Above and below is  the massive meadow on North West Marine Drive that I just love. It is used, but only by one or two people.

In the Endowment Lands, you pass many homes of the 1%.