Throw open the windows!
Today was brilliantly sunny and the temperature rose to 24c. For the first time this year it was warmer outside than in, so I threw open the windows in the afternoon. But it's still dry. The established trees and shrubs are fine, but I have watered things I planted last year twice already.
Miriam and I had a good walk along the Grey Canal above Bellavista this morning. The hills were decorated with bouquets of bright yellow Arrowleaf Balsam Root.
On Monday and Thursday I went bike riding with the VOC in Lake Country. A woman on one of the rides told me that it's the fastest growing industrial and residential area in Canada. I can believe it. When we visited Jim's parents in Kelowna in the 80s and 90s, it was called Winfield and the only reason Jules drove the single lane highway there was to buy the cheapest gas in the Okanagan. Now there's a two and in places three lane highway between Kelowna and Vernon, and right in the middle is Lake Country with a huge industrial park, hundreds of big new homes and many thriving wineries. The industrial park is fascinating to bike through, if you like looking at construction sites, the preparation of marijuana growing and processing plants and work sites in general, which I do. All this is hardly visible from the new highway which gives spectacular views of Wood Lake, Kal Lake, vineyards, orchards, hills and the whole north end of the Okanagan Valley.
One of the impressive works of Indigenous art that have been installed along the Rail Trail that circles Wood Lake.
Life for me in Covid times is revolving into a predictable round of doing physiotherapy exercises, walking, biking, reading, writing, practicing a bit of Spanish and trying to perfect a recipe for real juice and gelatine gummies that my neighbors' little girls will like and that I can eat to build up my bones so that I will pass the bone density test that I hope I will be able to get soon. My chances are slim, but I am trying to avoid having to take osteoporosis medication. This pandemic limits so much (travel, social life, work, play) that life seems almost static day to day. But there seems to be a lot happening (socially,environmentally and politically) that is going to lead to real change on this planet. I'm inclined to wonder if it will be for the better, but that's probably because I'm too old to do much about it. Youth always seems to be able to take the world it's given and to have the energy to do whatever it deems necessary to grow and develop there. That has been the challenge for youth in every age, but (again it might be just because I'm old) the unconscionable gap between rich and poor people and countries, the inescapable threat of largely man made climate change and now the pandemic mean that young people today are going to have to swim against a current that is stronger than the one I was launched into. Everything springs into action each year and generation, but as you age and become more of a spectator in the great play it's hard to imagine where the energy comes from. One thing I'm pretty sure of is that it won't be from fossil fuels in the future. 🤪
