Park Making

Look at those faces! That’s my kitty porn shot from yesterday.

I love these cats but they are independent and aloof. They do not like to be cuddled. They purr readily and are warm and friendly but they reserve their intimacy for each other. This morning I leaned in close to one of them as I always did with Leon and got no response and it made me weep, missing the “kisses” I used to get returned. And what happened? Sheba was at my feet and very cuddly instead of wanting to bite.

I picked her up and she nuzzled right into my neck. She’s intimate like Leon was, thank God; I’d be devastated if she too was emotionally aloof. I feel a very strong bond with her already. Sheba is family and Fred and Ethel are super wonderful neighbours.

They are sleeping in the living room now though and not in “their own” (guest) room and I like that.

And look at those gates! Jane calls my place The Ponderosa; with these Cedar gates it earns the name. Darrel designed and built them. They are beautiful and simple; I’m extremely happy with them. Once installed, I’ll have an enclosed backyard. Yesterday I put old logs, rocks and large firebricks in front of the fence where Sheba might try to tunnel underneath. She’s a digger.

The Ponderosa, however, didn’t have a sunroom and it was a bunkhouse — all male. Being a home that’s gender balanced, I need a neutral name and I’ve had one in mind since I bought the place and learned deer don’t eat Lavender. I’ve already planted some fifteen lavender plants and more are coming, so my home is La Lavande and it’s getting a sunroom.

I’ve contacted a company in Nanaimo about turning part of my deck into a sunroom. It will allow me to come in and out without worrying about the cats escaping, it will provide me with a place to grow herbs and flowers and it will be an excellent winter hot tub warming/cooling room.

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This good boy deserves pie.

I went to Nanaimo yesterday for some supplies. (Okay, it was Diet Coke because there is none on the island.)

The 7:35 ferry was too full – commuters. The 8:50 was no good because the best sailing back is reserved for hazardous goods on Wednesdays and that would have meant spending three hours in Nanaimo. By default I took the 10:05 sailing.

While I was waiting to go, it was sunny so Sheba and I did yard work. That’s how I earned yesterday’s pie.  I attacked the old pile of rotting wood left in my backyard by the previous owner. I didn’t finish all the work — there are still some old palettes to remove — but I will today and what a delight it is to see the exposed tree trunks and no junk.

Next I’ve to remove the putrid compost. Then my backyard will look and feel like my own little park. And if I love it this much in winter, I’ll be crazy excited about it come Spring.

Today two more cords of wood come. I’ve a heavy day of stacking ahead of me (and more pie); calories in, calories out.

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I’m very excited about the sunroom. I’d originally thought of having a screened porch. It’s cheaper and it would be another feature to remind me of times past. I wanted a screen door and one of those snap-closed door closers that I saw in countless movies during my childhood. But a glassed in sunroom is far more practical.

When it and the studio are done, I’ll have so many different indoor “micro climates” in which to play and work.

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Yesterday was a day without wounds. Sheba and I are learning how to safely coexist.

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In two weeks, I turn seventy. I’ll begin a new decade in the final setting of my life. And what a setting it is: A log cabin (with a fireplace) that is luxurious to me, with three new family members, a hot tub, a large and comfy purpose-built studio and half an acre of parkland in which to live and plant. Paradise.