I got up really early this morning as I often do and started off down the road for a walk. The birds were chirping and darting about. I quickly came across a couple of black bunnies, one after the other, and one of them ran across the road trying to get away from me but at least I caught him with my camera. The sun was dropping sparkles like fairy dust onto the water and when I looked behind me the soft, misty shades of blue were a Toni Onley painting by nature. No watercolour required.
I could hear bees and the only sounds were my footsteps on the pavement. When was the last time you heard only your own footsteps on pavement and the chirping of the birds? I stopped at the crooked tree to see if I could get a decent photo but I couldn't. I kept on and noticed a small white garage with a palm tree growing behind it up a dirt driveway. It reminded me of my favorite watercolour that I'd purchased in Hawaii in a little place called Volcano. The artist had named it "Old Style" for the kind of cottage that used to exist, deep in the bush almost covered by the huge fiddleheads and ferns.
It as as if I was the only person out of bed until a lone cyclist, a woman, passed me and said Good Morning. I continued on the way to Fernwood dock and as I came close I noticed a gate that would take me down to the beach on the side I rarely walk on. Once on the beach I observed the way the dock's reflection from this new side was different. It had a very Asian feel to it. Can you see that from the photo in the collage? Maybe not.
As I walked down the beach, and got closer to one of the Arbutus trees I could hear the humming of bees growing louder. I looked but couldn't see where they were. I don't like bees. I'm beginning to be obsessed by bees given the beautiful yellow trees that are near my cabin and seem like a Burning Man event for bees.
I continued under the dock and walked farther along the beach until I noticed a Blue Heron. I walked towards where it was but as soon as I got close it flew off. I followed it back towards the dock. I took a photo. Not the best photo but at least I got a shot of it.
I got up on the dock and walked to the end, looking across to Wallace Island. It's supposed to be beautiful there. You can camp there if you can kayak there. I wish I had my own kayak.
I started off back down the road. I passed the first house and it is the most immaculate little place. I passed other houses. I passed the tiniest little white cabin with a beautiful view that I thought couldn't possibly be selling for more than $370,000 but when I checked, the price tag was $490,000. It couldn't be more than 600 square feet inside if that. Sheesh! Location. Location. Location. It's being offered by Li Read, a realtor whom I met in the mid '90s when she must have been one of the first realtors to sign up as a student in the UBC Multimedia Studies program so that she could design her own website before most realtors were even thinking about that.
I passed a gate that had two signs saying Private Property. Keep out! What is it about that that just makes you want to see what's up there. Grow Op? I wondered.
Walking along the road I spotted a beautiful daisy and farther along, I liked the way the light made the grass so green against the base of some trees positioned at interesting angles to one another.
When I got back to near my lane, I looked up and my neighbour and her dog Maddy were coming down the road. I said hello to her and petted Maddy. Audrey said I could look around her garden. I went in and right away a beautiful Camelia tree with blush, red petals greets visitors. There's a little pond to the left with lily pads in it and my favorite purple-blue corn flowers their petals whispy as brush strokes and complementing the yellow daisies.
I also liked the little wooden bench she had under a gate. I could imagine sitting under it on a hot summer day drinking lime margaritas or Cuba libras.
Ahhhhh. It's almost summer again!