Tag: nature

Happy birthday, Dylan Thomas!

This Friday, October 27, would have been Dylan Thomas’ 109th birthday, and although the Welsh poet lived barely 39 of those years, his words and spirit changed my life. I was not even born when he died in New York in November 1953 under mysterious circumstances. He’s still with me, such as in the Spring when the trees and flowers come to life, and these words emerge:

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.

… Continue reading

Swimming With Otters

Evening swims off our little beach on South Pender are among my greatest joys.

Summer and early Fall evenings are sweet for solitary swims. The water’s placid, and the air is still. Swallows dip and dive, and a few seagulls call in the distance. The sky, with its soft colours, reflects off the water’s surface. The golden hour.… Continue reading

The Great Laugh

Laugh until the rock thoughts crack and snap off ...
Wave after wave of laughter!

Have you ever had one of those fits of uncontrollable laughter, so contagious and overpowering that you have no idea what started it in the first place? Once it gets going, everything someone says, every look, every facial tick sets off a new round of hilarity, shrieking, sore stomach muscles, shaken bladders.… Continue reading

Couldn’t We Enjoy Winter a Little Longer?

Happy Spring!

After a long, wet winter, spring’s light and warmth are a welcome relief. But, for me, it’s also a mixed blessing. A stirring time of year when the earth’s renewal is no longer a mere promise but something tangible.

There’s a different cast of light now. That patina of green you see around the trees and brush is a sign that the sap is stirring, that the weather is warming.… Continue reading