The Waking  by Theodore Roethke 

Great Nature has another thing to do

To you and me; so take the lively air, 

And, lovely, learn by going where to go .

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go. 

This poem often comes into my mind. Although I don't fully understand the whole thing, parts of it seem to be closer than I will ever get to expressing me. 

Today I eventually got out of bed around nine with no idea what I would do. While eating breakfast I remembered thinking the other evening as I watered the grape vines that the white grapes looked pretty sparse but the purple ones seemed to be full. So when I finished eating I went outside to wander around the yard. I tasted the grapes. They were ripe, so l picked them all. The rest of the morning evolved around this. I now have 3 jars of grape cordial concentrate, some clean, plump bunches of purple grapes and a few spindly strings of green grapes. 

When I taught, I really enjoyed Wednesdays, my day off. I was alone and free to organize the hours as I chose. Although the options were limited to school work, house work, cooking and the near outdoors, they were mine to organize and I was perfectly happy with that. It was liberating enough for a Wednesday. I have always felt most free when labouring under the delusion that I am inventing the wheel. When cooking I rarely follow a recipe strictly. Baking is another matter. I do toe the line there, at least the first time I try a recipe. As a teacher, my subject was English in a French Lycée where every lesson in every department was structured strictly according to edicts emanating directly from Paris, except for the English department.  We were left alone to create our own curriculum. 

Now that I'm retired and living alone, weekends are what Wednesdays were.  The work and play that now make up my life I do on week days in groups that I have joined so that I keep moving and thus a bit balanced. They involve activities that usually require getting up, dressed in some kind of gear and out of the house early. So it's on the weekends that,

"I learn by going where I have to go."

Some of my grapes. It's the first real crop I've had since I planted the vines two years ago.  

Some of the Monday biking gang gathering at Polson Park

My tattoo is cursed. First, I cut myself shaving in preparation for getting it. Second, on Thursday I wrapped my leg in gauze before going biking, fortunately, because as Priscilla and I climbed around looking for a good place to have lunch by the river, I got scratched by a branch. That doesn't show in the picture Mo took today. Luckily it is on the other side of my leg along the edge of where the bandage was. Third, this morning as we biked through a quiet suburban area of Coldstream, the Kanata of Vernon, I was thrown off my bike by a fluffy, white standard poodle/? cross that bounced out from behind a cedar hedge right into me. I banged my head a bit, but as I was wearing a helmet it seems fine. The only part that shows any signs of damage is my lower left leg, right where my new tattoo is. It swelled up and is a bit bruised and scratched. The man whose dog it was felt so badly he drove me home, and I spent the afternoon reading with ice on the leg. It was a blistering hot day, so I was happy to be inside. And as I was reading, I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian doctor's recounting in detail of the unimaginable frustrations and deprivations of living in the prison that is Gaza, I certainly didn't feel sorry for myself. The curse must be broken after three.

Mike and Nick

This week I have been thankful for the fact that before returning to Korea Jay put me in touch with two young men, Nick M. and Mike V., that he got to know while he lived in Vernon. 

On Wednesday, after the usual sauna, swim and coffee with Lusia, I walked to Five Fathoms Tattoo at noon for my appointment with Nick. I liked the sketch he had made of my photo of the driftwood bird I had seen in Victoria, so he began the tattoo. As usual when I'm nervous or excited, I began by babbling. But he so obviously knew what he was doing that I soon calmed down and we had a good conversation while he worked. I now know why Jay liked him so much. He's a real professional and a humane person. The place where he put my tattoo is not one of the more painful parts of the body, but it did hurt, and by the time he was finished I was glad it was over. It only took about an hour, so now I have an idea how Jay must have felt after some of his 3 or more hour sessions on tender parts like inside the bend of the elbow. My tattoo is still a bit swollen, red and painful. I had to cover it with a gauze bandage yesterday on the bike ride because we were on dusty back roads. 

I covered it again today because I was working in the yard, cutting all the old yellowed iris leaves and the sprawling new branches of the mullet maple. I gathered them up and filled the back of the Mazda with them. As I backed out of my parking space on the way to the  new compost drop off at City Hall, I knew something was wrong. The car was clunking and bouncing, so l immediately pulled into the church parking lot across the street. The front tire on the passenger side was FLAT. The hub cap was on the asphalt. For the second time in 2019, I called BCAA. To think I had thought of not renewing my membership last year because I had never used it since I moved here in 2010. I waited about an hour for the tow truck to arrive, but when it did all went well. The little spare that had been lying under its mat since it was put there in the Mazda factory looked so cute when it was in its place on the car. It was like a newly hatched chick except that instead of having bits of shell stuck to its feathers it had little feathery bits of the yellow felt it had been lying on stuck to its bright, black rubber. I didn't want to drive far on such a delicate thing, so I went  right over to Mike V's Garage. He worked on Jay's Toyota Tacoma, and Jay thought I should start taking my Mazda to him since it's ten years old and should be weaned from the Mazda dealership in Kelowna. Thank goodness he did because Mike has already helped me a couple of times and today they found the problem, a staple in the tire, removed it, replaced the tire and charged me nothing.  He's another professional and considerate person. I was so exhilarated by their competence and generosity that as I drove home, I let two cars into the endless stream of traffic that is the main drag of Vernon in summer. It's especially frantic on the August long weekend when everyone rushes to the Okanagan to use the expensive summer toys they've been paying off and storing for months. 

After dumping my yard waste, I am now sitting drinking a glass of cold white wine with a fan blowing on me and feeling thankful.

My tattoo with a red scab under it that I made myself when I shaved my legs in preparation for getting the tattoo 

Colette,Shirley, Priscilla and me biking on the Rail Trail on Monday

Jay playing with his nephew