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...a glimpse into life on Vancouver Island, needle felting, photography, food, gardening, etcetera...etcetera
"Happiness always looks small when you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and at once you learn how big and precious it is."
Maxim Gorky

Saturday, March 24, 2012

pelicano's

In the mornings on the beach outside our hotel,
the local fishermen would take their boats out early...
...coming back with their catch for the day...
There were the usual birds on the beach...
But there are a few 'special' ones hanging around...
...two young pelicans, not yet fledged, quite comfortable around people.
It's because their poor mom has a broken wing and has the smarts to know
that this is a safe place where these youngsters will get some food...
She hobbles about with her damaged wing, waiting for the morning scraps from
the cleaning of the fish...
These birds are magnificent to watch as they glide inches above the waves
and even more impressive to see them go from high above the water,
folding themselves into a perfect dart and diving in for fish.
But on the ground they are slightly gawky and awkward...
 ...not yet knowing the finer points of closing their wings back up again
and preening their new pinfeathers by the minute...
Sometimes if you were walking on the beach with flip flops in hand
the young pelicans would mistake your footwear for fish and give chase!
Lucky for these young ones, that their mother knows a place where
people will feed her babies until they are old enough to find their way.
I'm hoping somehow they'll learn to fish and as for mom...I don't
know what will become of her.
A pelican that can't fly, can't fish but maybe once the babies are gone
the locals will keep feeding her or get her some help for her wing.



Friday, March 23, 2012

Song for Friday...for St Paddy's day past...

On St Patrick's Day we were in transit and I think it's the first 
time in many years that I wasn't sitting with a pint of Guiness in front of me.
So today's song is my little cheers to the day...
This song was featured in the film 'Margarets Museum' and 
is one of my favorites.
 Erin Go Bragh my friends...

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

A different sun...

I thought I would welcome the spring with thoughts on the sun...
the more southern sun...the Mexican sun...
The feel of it on our faces as we step off the plane onto the tarmac.
A warmth we haven't felt since last summer.
The wind is warm too.
This is the reason Northerners make the pilgrimage 'down south',
exiting from the rain, snow and greyness.
For my nieces, it's a foreign land they've never seen.
Unfamiliar signs in an unknown language...thoughts of Dora the Explorer.
The ride to the hotel...through the old streets...past palm trees,
blooming bougenvillia, skinny stray dogs...
Exotic birds...
The adventure begins.
This week they are the explorers.


Monday, March 19, 2012

Hola!

Back from sunny Mexico...
I have many many photos to tell some stories with
but for now I have to readjust my horizontal with my vertical
and warm up by the fire.
Here's a taste though...