July 2, 2019 Walking up the hill to the grove, I breathed in the wonderful scent of cedar and fir, and felt the age of the trees. On Canada Day (July 1), Greg and I took Tom and Sugi to a park I had recently discovered while riding my bike. Clark Park is the second…
Tuesday afternoon, Nov 8, 2016: “There’s a crow that’s been trapped in the school since yesterday, perched atop the media gallery.” The email was from Matt Stephanson, a technician at Emily Carr University. The US election day was already filled with anxiety, and this message added a sense of urgency. I headed to the school….
July 4 Lesson from crow mother: We help our babies leave the nest. Fledgling crow says, “I can fly!” Yesterday morning there was a lot of crow activity on the corner of Woodland Park diagonally across the street from us. I could hear the adult crows—the ones who built their nest in the nearby tree—and their two off-spring from last summer. The adult crows called with excitement….
Nov 25 Lesson from Sugi: Even dog bowls can be “shibui” Sugi says, “I enjoy a lovely piece of pottery from which to sip water” In the summer of 2012, Greg, Tom and Sugi and I were enjoying our camping holiday on Saltspring Island touring the studios of local potters. We had visited Meg Buckley, known for…
This post is Inspired by Robert Carter’s and Graham Parkes’ writing on Zen aesthetics specifically the role of rocks in Zen landscape design. Nov 12 Lesson from Tom: Dogs like rock energy Tom says, “I love to jump from rock to rock and run on the uneven surface” Living on the Westcoast, one can’t help but appreciate the power of mineral world:…
