A Rainbow at the End of September

Photo Credit: Moiya Wood

Moiya sent me these pictures. 

It goes without saying that she has a view of the world that I do not see – in this case she is seeing a rainbow, while I am out walking the gravel roads and taking in the closer view, the slopes of the hills now peppered with white berries.

Inside my house, I had an even closer view of the world. 

My friends, Allison and Dave Williams, came for a socially distant visit, them on one side of the room and Bonnie and I on the other. 

I wonder how long it will take until I don’t have to signal that we are keeping the BC’s Dr. Bonnie Henry’s protocols of keeping bubbles of contact small and social visits few. 

I do notice the movies are now making me uncomfortable when people get too close to each other.

In this case, my peopled world, Allison and Dave brought a welcome visit.

When they were gone, hurrying to pick up a specially ordered pie at Salmon Arm’s Pie Company, I looked at Bonnie and said, “I can’t believe they were just here and we didn’t get a picture of them, I didn’t get to show them my kitchen experiment (albeit an unintentional one), he asked for my blog address and I didn’t think to hand it to him right then, and we didn’t even show him the artisan face masks we have been producing.

Photo Credit: Moiya Wood

While they were here, the four of us talked a bit about near death experiences. 

Dave had his during COVID-times, though unrelated to the virus. 

He had sepsis in his leg and was 3 days unconscious in the hospital and 8 days total there, until he could leave and go back home – not the kind of medical experience he might have wanted. 

Having had my own experience with looking ahead to the future I asked him about his, and his thoughts in case it had turned out to be bleak. 

He said, I now have ephemeral long term plans for the rest of my life, and a short term plan of retiring in 2 years. Two years will make him closing in on 60 – a young retirement, I think to myself, except, knowing Dave there will be no retirement, just a change of plans.

Alison stopped commercial gardening in late August. I say that for she was doing paid work, unlike me whose joy is in the task, though that joy is always greatly enhanced when conjoined with money. She just gets her joy doubled.

Photo Credit: Moiya Wood

She was the one who initiated the visit to Bonnie and me, only looking for information: when would I be back in Calgary so we could take walks together. 

That would be good enough reason to go back home. 

But I am planning on a long fall and a bit of winter here at the Shuswap nand then transferring to Victoria, for late winter here in Annis Bay is early spring with the first flowers blooming on the Island.

So good to have such company drop by – though I can’t figure out why we didn’t visit outside with all four of us way more interested in the larger world than the one of our living room.

Next time – the outside.

Arta