MonkeyButton

Seymour Arm continues to be a place of peace and purposelessness...

We finally made our way up the road a bit to visit the Seymour River falls ---- they're much more spectacular than the video implies but... I'm just excited to have figured out how to embed videos on this blog (look out!)



At the end of July it was time to fly down to San Diego & celebrate the births of my brother (40!) and SaoMai, the MonkeyButton (365 days old!)

We visited San Diego's zoo and petted goats and watched floating turtles & hippos and all kindsa striped (and smelly!) animals....

Sao Mai especially loved the underwater tone poems being danced, interpretively, by the zoo's hippo (video below)!

She's sooooooo close to being able to walk & I tried my best to encourage it. ....

And now it'll be back to Seymour Arm for most of the remainder of the summer. Tim spends his days putting together these crazy-big beach houses and I spend my days, um...., 'not' putting together crazy beach houses.

See More Arms

The tree fell down.

My dad came to visit and, while hanging out at the creek, he looked at our leaning tree and asked, "when's that thing going to fall down?"

It fell down the next morning.




My dad & I took a roadtrip north to visit Tim & Walter up at their worksite in Seymour Arm --- or, as my dad calls it: "See More Arms"

Shaggy's parked snuggly beside Walter's lovely log cabin. Everyday, Tim & Walter head down to the lake and piece together posts and beams and decks and other parts of the houses they're building. When it gets too hot, they head ten feet south & hit the beach.

I'm looking forward to spending an Okanagan summer at this quiet bend in the Shuswap.... it's a mellow place to hang out & stand still like a hummingbird.....

Wabi Sabi Snobby

Recent Canadian activities have included...
1) high mountain logging in waist-high snow .... an extremely aerobic activity!

2) artistic endeavours around Allison -- like Tim's new decorating of his "King's Perch"....

3) Re-placement of various wabi-sabi artifacts around the property --- inspiration drawn from the book shown and some wacky-headed former students who actually created this crazy piece....

Tim says we have to be careful not to follow the book's "rules" too closely or we'll become.... wabi sabi snobby !!

Starts with a "C" and ends with an "A"

C aliforni A ..... C anad A ...
California Canada
Californiacanada


They both start with a "C" and end with an "A"... they're both known primarily for their weather but remembered for their people.... they're both home to my family (and parts of my heart).... but, otherwise, I can't think of too many similarities....

Oh lovely Palm Springs --- land of bright blue swimming pools and clear aquamarine skies. Land of hippie-shop-heaven and endless summers and easy breezy sneezy ....uh... cheesy Canadians who are just happy to be away from SNOW!!

Outdoor markets abound (sigh) in the land o' palms. After years of visiting this desert oasis, I'm still discovering things --- just recently discovered the outdoor market at the College of the Desert. . . . so full of artisans and mellow people that it even inspired little 6+ month old Sao Mai to whistle while she shopped!!

24 Hour Poetry People

Feeling inspired by my Daily Poem, while also searching for a possible antidote to my seriously queasy holiday angst, I hosted a "Poetry Party"!!

These fine humans (pictured throughout), came together (many even brought their own Thinking Caps!!).... and we cut and pasted and colored and created the craziest poems, some of which are shared herein.....

I sorta don't think we'll be submitting any of them to any poetry journals or anthologies, but... my living room suffered no more damage than it usually does after an evening of wackiness AND, in the end, I have a bunch of cool poems to get me through these awful holidays. Christmas has become so fully & completely yucky but.... poetry seems to be a qualifying medication for noel-induced nausea.... Maybe I'll send some of these along to Canada's new Parliamentary Poet....

The Dog Days of Winter

Inspired by our first big snow this year, Kiya sat on the bridge at the creek and made up a poem...

Nobody knows
how much it snows
on a Husky's nose
Until it's froze

Lotsa snow brings out the Huskier side of Kiya and she was leaping around at the creek and inspiring Baileys to become a sled dog, too!










Baileys, however, is a red dog --- known more for her pensiveness and dedication than ... well .... for her outdoor survival skills.

She sure poses nicely for a camera, tho!

Old People's Weekend

Spent the weekend at.... The Cove Lakeside !

No... not our unit yet (still isn't finished but, apparently it might be ready by Christmas).

It was Timmy's treat for my post-birthday weekend and it gave us a chance to pre-check a few things so that we know what to look for & ask about when it comes time to go through our suite.








Took nice autumn walks through the "nut farm" --- man, there's cool trees there...

And I got the collector's edition of the BBC series "Pride & Prejudice" plus collector's set of "Fight Club" --- probably two of the most opposingly different movies imaginable!

At the end of the weekend we went home & picked squash before the coming frost kills 'em all.