So far:

Cherry Grenade

Kite Fight

Shut Up and Drive

Twisted Evergreen

Dragonfly Summer

Firebug

Chocolate Kiss

Goth Doll

Spiky Black Boot

…now it’s just getting ridiculous…

I used to try to find the names and titles for things before I wrote whatever it was I wanted to write, like the words associated with the title would spark the idea and everything would unfold from there. Spent a lot of time thinking up titles and names instead of writing anything significant.

Now I write and I can’t think of titles. Or I think of one that just sounds cool and isn’t related to what I am saying.

It’s march: wild, windy, muddy, unexpectedly sweet and then freezing cold, slick with filthy melted snow, dirty cars, salty, grimy streets, setting for a film noir or a hard boiled detective story, or a practical romance.

You know, she’s wearing something ordinary, but there’s a glimpse of unexpected black lace when she draws near. That’s march for you; little zephyrs and icy puddles.

Actually it was always there at the back of my mind, but I ran out of time.

Poor pumpkin, it’s still waiting to be carved.

Might do a Christmas Theme on it or something, just for fun, I dunno.

Sad to have an unused pumpkin, so I’ll have to do something with it.

…Could I make a giant pie?

For Hallowe’en, we watched b movies with friends, always good times.

Heathers is surreal and a great parody; so many ways to light cigarettes, so much angst, and who plays croquet? I mean really.

Those old horror flicks from the 7o’s go straight to the point. The dialog is so cheesy and obvious, it’s like they’re just waiting to be killed. It was easy to see someone outside the group of friends was the killer. But. Awesome cheesy music. You knew when the teenagers were in trouble because you got the dramatic minor chord.

Hopefully it won’t be too cold for ultimate Frisbee.

Planning on carving a pumpkin sometime today or tomorrow.

Pumpkin guts and fresh pumpkin smell all over. The best part is when you cut off the top and put your hand into the epic squishiness for the first time.

When I was little, I used to scrape the pumpkin insides out with pottery tools, and the inner walls  got nice and thin, which made it easy to carve, and also gave it a fabulous eerie glow when it was lit.

I had a serrated knife with with a red plastic handle and my name etched into it. The end of the handle was a grinning Jack O’ Lantern.

There always seems to be someone who carves epic pumpkins, either making realistic sculptures,  faces peeled back from the pumpkin, monsters reaching for you, or creative use of negative space, or stenciled shapes. Dunno what I’ll do this year, though I usually end up doing demonic faces. I don’t care about the shape of the pumpkin. This year I decided I’d like a round one, but skinny, oblong or bizarrely shaped pumpkins can make appealing Jack O’ Lanterns too. I have made ghoul faces, lost souls wailing, angry animals, evil monkeys.

My friend carved a fish into a pumpkin once, and it looked fabulous-zombie fish on the prowl.

Ages ago I carved a pumpkin on a whim when I was meandering the quadrangle, roughly sort of between classes, but really looking for something to do, and won a prize from the Power Plant. I carved a  cat face, snarling fangs and skinny, crooked whiskers.

…Aaaand I dunno where to put it either. Maybe I’ll write a screen play for it-little lost pumpkin looking for a window ledge and a house to defend.

It’s sunny and bright right now, which is not a great atmosphere for carving scary faces into pumpkins. It should be gloomy, misty or frosty. I’ll have to light some candles and put on eerie music to get into the right mood to carve a scary j-o-l.

It was a very colourful dawn-rich colours almost like a sunset. A few days ago the dawn swept in like blazing molten gold fire. I like how the sky and the weather changes all the time here.

Would have been nice to have more time, though, of course, that’s always the way it is.

I enjoy the whole process of traveling by ferry.  The views, the salt, the cold wind, the warm food, the weak coffee, the gift shops, the tourists, grinning, taking pictures, laughing, the puzzles and books, coats and music people bring to pass the time. I love watching the  dozers and dreamers, drowsing under the sun, and I love the boom of the whistle that announces the sailing, even though it used to frighten me when I was very little. I love the thrum thrum underneath me, that deep, industrial vibration, as the ferry nudges into port, the clang as it docks.   I love the stillness in the car anticipating, festive,  until we rumble off, and the adventure begins.

Salt Spring Island is full of wineries, gorgeous scenery, artists, potters and craftspeople, apples  and picturesque little towns. We stayed near Ganges, which looked all romantic against the golden late afternoon light, and got lost, but that’s alright, we were tourists. Thought it would be a great place to have a studio and explore personal creativity.

They also had no fish and chips shop on the docks where we had a 2 hour wait for the Victoria ferry, only a virulent vegan bakery, that offered (actually delicious) apricot-spelt bread, organic milk for coffee, but strangely no organic cream…

We did find a little restaurant that had unique, local art for sale on the walls, and coloured glass panels, as well as views of the  harbour, bobbing sailing boats and the docks where the ferry comes in. And the food was amazing.

Also learned about Golden Plovers, and how they journey from all over the world to a paradise in the Arctic, on one of the ferries, though I can’t remember if t hat was on the way back to Vancouver or on the way to Vancouver Island.

And in Jasper, we found this amazing shallow, sandy beach, with warm water. Everyone was stopping for a paddle at this unexpected treat. Mostly the water in the Rockies is frigid, as it’s glacier-fed, however, to make up for it,  the water also usually has a striking turqouise, green, or sparkling clear blue colour to it.

We also saw goats,  just chilling, and 1 elk, but the way the traffic was snarling and everyone was piling out, taking pictures, I thought there had been a naccident.

…You know, we should have visited the Merrydale Cidery, when we were on the Island and brought back a treat for the winter. Oh well, next time. It was good to see the old haunts, and eat Noodle Box. I had Barenaked Ladies “This is Where We Used to Live” echoing in my head…

Nova is a sweet-faced dog, but badly trained. I find it ironic that she is called Nova, as she is one of the meekest dogs I have ever known, and she thinks she is a lapdog, even though she is a big border-collie-blue-heeler cross. She has a long nose and short fur, tho she has the colourings of a collie.

I loved the way the apple tree burst into frothy white flowers a month or so ago. Bees were humming everywhere, and there were lacy white apple trees all up and down the street, as well as lacy white cherries. I can see where the flowers will turn into apples-maybe I will make a pie again, like I did late last summer. It rained on the weekend, big fat wet splashy rain, the best kind of soaker. I wandered the streets and splashed in the puddles like a big happy kid,under the night’s quiet summer chill.

There has been a parade of flowers: Tulips like fire; fruit trees in showy summer dresses; wine-dark purple irises; delicate chives; fragrant lilacs. The summer has started beautifully. There was some heavy wind in May, but the weather seems to have calmed down. (Watch, because I said this, it will be stormy and bitter tomorrow.)

They have turned the fountains on in City Hall, and at the Legislature. Saturday there was a colourful gay pride parade in the square, and the Saturday before that there was City Chase, and then Zumba. Everyone was so good-natured.

Maybe Edmonton is relaxing a little, or maybe, I have changed enough and healed enough that I can appreciate it a little better now.  I intend to do as much as possible this summer, and see as much as I can, and get out more often than not. Devon is wonderful company, and we are trying to plan some little summer adventures and roadtrips, mini breaks and weekends away.

1. a spinning green top

2. a bone from an ancient rite

3. a piece of the new moon

4. a lost tabby cat with yellow eyes.

…If you can spot them all in less than 30 seconds, give yourself an extra point.

Clear day, not too cold, and they’ve finally ploughed the streets. Huge chunks of compressed snow and ice windrow up and down both sides, broken dirty igloo pieces. One lonely silver car hides behind this makeshift snow fort til spring. (You can see one of its wing mirrors sticking up feebly, like its saying “notice meeeee, I’m still heerrreeee…”)

It’s already February, and soon it will be spring. On Vancouver Island, I can imagine the  sakura is already starting to bloom in pink profusion. Froths of petals on the streets, their snow, though they don’t need bobcats and giant snow ploughs to move it.

Haven’t yet seen the sandcastle competition in Parksville yet, but the summer is still young.

I like the fact that this blog is both Dev’s and mine-we can each say what we want, and it’s cool.

Went wandering, and you should try ice wine gelato! Delicious stuff, made with real ice-wine.

We stumbled onto fresh fruit sorbets in 1/2 fruit shells when we were grocery shopping once,  and they’ve become one of our favourite treats. They’re so refreshing. I want to throw a party and have those fruit sorbets for a light lovely summery treat. I like them all but I think the lemon sorbet in the lemon 1/2 shell is one of my favourites.

We saw one also, before, when we were playing Go on the peninsula. It was silent and smaller than I thought it would be. I almost missed seeing it because I thought it was a gull, there are so many that fly around, but it was darker, so then I thought it was a hawk, but then I saw its unmistakable “bald” head. Tres cool, because I’d heard there were a lot of them on the island, I mean, they even have a sightseeing package where you can walk along their known flight paths, but I hadn’t actually seen one prior to that. Reminded me of the vivid azure Peregrine Falcons that live on the roofs of some businesses in downtown Edmonton…not many people know THEY exist either.

On the UVic campus, they have all these domestic-looking and really cute bunnies, but I found myself comparing these adorable nibblers to the wild, long eared, long legged hares that range over Edmonton, and for some unfathomable reason I prefer those rangy boxing Alberta hares to the cute BC bunnies. I twitch whenever I think of that. Summer is ripening. May 1st was technically the first day of summer, we had no maypole, but there was no snow here;  we had strawberry milkshake pink and white cherry snow and  starry drifts of white daisies, and shocking electric purple violets clinging to drab cliffs. Now, the darker wild pink roses are starting to bloom, and hot orange and yellow flowers I have no name for, burning mini suns everywhere, and the leaves are turning a graphic glossy green, and all summer the blackberries will ripen and swell until they burst into crow-black, juicy berries to stain any mouth or stray fingers in the fall.

Storytellers have value. If they have the courage to use their voice, they really can change the world.

Every musician whose lyrics you never listened to, because you were caught in the beat, in  the cheery rhythms, every incomprehensible poem, abstract art piece, cubist painting, every dance, all these things matter. They are all stories, all songs, all art pieces, and performances and showcases, and lovely larger than life warm sustaining things; even the crazy hippy wailers, strumming their one string guitars in the rain and mist, wearing  bright colours and lovebeads, and wonderful hats, they have something to say too.

I can hardly believe that once, I used to try to make myself to be nothing, small, insignificant, when that’s so clearly just not where my heart lies.

Been a year since we moved here and we’ve both come so far and been through so much. I think there is much still to go though as we let go of the shackles of our old lives and see that we are stronger for it.

My view is full of green and fresh scents and flowers and beautiful sky. I can see layers of blue hills in the distance, I can smell the sea.

I’m enjoying this easy life with Dev, walking along a beach, or down the throat of the Goose, or just meandering wherever the road takes us, it’s good we have each other.