EARLY RISER

My days (and nights) here at Refuge Cove are full and abundant. There is always a corner or a task or an inspiration calling me. It's a bit like farm life...morning chores, planting, feeding the animals (and humans), an occasional trip to town (the dock) for socializing or the mail, heading out to the open waters to pull our prawn traps, a squeezed in session on the sewing machine, finding time for reading and spanish practice, and etc. etc. etc.! And of course the evening crib match with opponent Tom, one of my delicious dinner concoctions, and a movie in the new dvd player to entertain while I do handwork or the like. Phew!...I drop into bed and plummet into dreamland, only to cycle back into another day of early rising.

Roosters are not what wakes me. Chickens are not a part of my animal lot, but many friends and locals have them and we are the lucky recipients of the eggs. Lately I have been on a rooster/chicken (chickster!) focus for my fabric subjects becuase they are one of the ties that bind my Mexican and Canadian lives together. Perhaps chicksters are just one of those beings that take us back to our roots, back to the good old days, back to simplicity and earthiness. Also, I was so impressed and inspired by Linda's beautiful rooster, that I had to try one myself. First one, the "early riser", then the other - "on the run".

The animals I am responsible for feeding are numerous: 1 husband, 1 small dog, 10 goldfish, and about 500 hummingbirds! Now you may wonder how I have calculated this amazing number of buzzing, electric little avian generators. Julie told me one cup of syrup feeds 50, so yesterdays consumption of 2.5 quarts works out to about 500. The feeder is in my kitchen window, in front of me as I work away at the dirty dishes that pile up. They hover and watch as I fill an empty feeder at the sink, and when I hang it, I like to linger a moment or two with my hand at the base. With stillness I can attract them back to the feeder and my fingers just become another perch for them to get their sustenance. An awesome moment!

I bet you can't guess the subject of my next piece!

MOTHER NATURE RULES

It has been a long journey north. All went relatively well and in a timely fashion, but my most unfavorite time of the year (transitioning) stretched through latitudes and time and people and shifts of consciousness, culminating in the place we truly call home, where our spirits feel so connected with our natural surroundings.
It seems as though with each transition, some of my thoughts and ponderings focus on how things have changed. In Mazatlan, its a little like a detective game...putting the picture you remember in your head next to what you see in front of your eyes after being away for 6 months. Didn't that restaurant change names? Do you remember that building? I think there's a new store on the corner.
But coming north, to our tiny berg of Refuge Cove (with all of 17 people here at the moment), changes are a blatant force. They don't happen often, but when they do, everyone notices.
For me, each springtime return has a different feel to it. Last year it was a social thing....different dynamics cast an uncomfortable aura on the place and I felt disconnected for a few weeks. With the tourist season bringing hundreds of visitors, that feeling didn't last long. But this year, its the change of our environment. Mother Nature seems really pissed! Our arrival day of May 1st was dry to the bone, with the ground underfoot crunching along as I climbed the path to our home. My lovely garden was parched, flattened low to the ground from heavy snowfalls, and now, no water. My house was happily NOT littered with mouse poop, but did have a resident group of winged ants living in the roof. Water, typically dancing down the hillside creek, trickled along midst frequent "dock talk" of water shortages and fire danger. There are closures for rockfish, once thought of as a lowly "bottom fish" but now protected because of diminishing supply.
Now, a week later, we've had some rain, our water tank has been filled, and we've caught prawns rather than fish. We'll survive and life goes on. But the feeling that Mother Nature is one amazing and powerful spirit is lingering in my heart these days, and I certainly wish we all could figure out how to turn the tide for our planet....or at the very least, not piss her off anymore.