Fred Washes His Balls

See Fred. See Fred’s hairy shiny ball. See the pot on the stove. See Fred wash his ball in the pot on the stove. Fred washes his ball holding it in his mouth. Then Fred washes his ball holding it in his paw. Isn’t Fred funny?

See Chris. See Chris throw the ball for Fred. See Fred run. See Fred fetch the ball and bring it back to Chris. See Chris throw the ball again. What fun for Chris and Fred.

See Chris’s little flashlight. See it shine a red dot. Look: Chris makes the red dot go all over the house. Look again: Fred and Ethel go crazy chasing Chris’ red light.

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My desk is at the west end of my big central multi-purpose room and right in front of it is the window through which I look all day to see beautiful forest, the decorated fence (in progress) and my bird feeders. On my left, just two meters from me, is a set of double doors. It is my “back door.” I use them almost exclusively.

I spend most of my time awake right now at my desk and Sheba has learned to scratch on the door when she wants out. I don’t need a dog door.

I put a box of "shade" over the lamp and my computer
screen in this photo because they were so bright and in
doing so you can see the details of the tree better.

To the right of my desk, in a corner, is my Arbutus Tree. It looks like crap in the photo above — like an ugly art installation called Severed Limbs. It may become a way for the cats to climb to the loft but they’ve shown absolutely no interest in doing that thus far.

But I love the tree. It wasn’t murdered for me to have; it was culled because it had blight. I live surrounded by forest and I take pride in having part of that forest in my house, serving like a shrine. I added a large branch to the trunk I’d installed and it looks much better.

I’ve long loved trees. When I was four, the Tyrells moved from Dunbar to West Vancouver and Don kindly asked me what I wanted as a gift to help me look forward to the move. I asked for — and got — an Almond Tree.

When I started having seizures and found myself alone and outside, I always went to a tree to hang onto it with both hands. Touching nature’s pillars of strength gives me a feeling of support and security. And when I moved here and built the fence that would keep the Deer out of the yard, I celebrated by planting five Maple trees and two Apple trees.

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I felt okay about going to Vancouver yesterday. And all went well. I met Bruce and Mary-Lou for breakfast, got some soft dried turkey and the red dot light for the pets and a healthy supply of chocolate from Xoxola for me.

Then I went to see Dr. S. and afterwards made a beeline for the seaplane. Once back on the island I raced home to be reunited with the pets. It felt so good to get home and to know I had two weeks before I have to go it again. I love just being at home all day every day.

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Without a doubt, Sheba’s favorite (and inconvenient) place to be is under my desk. Equally imperative is the cats’ predilection for Mertz Manor. They sleep and play in it all the time. Their other favourite place is on the windowsill in front of my desk. It’s the best view of dinner the birds.

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Today I have wood stacking to do, I’ll do some work on Mertz Manor and at some point I hope to see Paula T. She’s bought a place here and we go way back in theatre together so I’m excited to see her. And for fun, I may fetch some posters I have in the loft and put them up in the studio to make the place look less sterile and line mine. Yes!