Out of the City - A Birthday Party Treat

Qu'Appelle Valley
(Photo from Sept 21, 2016)

I don’t get out of the city very often. When I do, driving past harvested wheat fields, hay fields with giant rolled bales of hay and through autumn coloured hills open my heart to the land. However, the real treat was our destination.

With a good friend, we were attending a birthday party for a two year old boy. Family, friends, ice cream birthday cake, laughter, balloons and mounds of gifts filled the small living room. It was a noisy, lovely afternoon. Only solitude was in short supply.

“A society should be judged by how it treats its children.”

~ Owen Jones

On an Afternoon Walk ~ Flamboyant!

When leaves on the trees and on plants are crumbling and fading, my colours are still brilliant. 

I do like to show off! 

I know it will soon be my turn to fade, but until then I’ll just bask in the ooh and aah of passersby.

“Although I behave in a quite reserved way in my personal life, 

give me a stage and I’ll be as flamboyant as I can.”

~ Danny Boyle

On an Afternoon Walk - A Song for All Seasons

I have a ceramic story tree on my desk. J.R.R.Tolkein wrote of Treebeard, the oldest of the Ents, in Lord of the Rings. J.K.Rowling wrote of the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter. On the farm, I’d go in the grass between stunted prairie trees to read. In Victoria, B.C. the gnarled old Garry Oaks enchanted me and reminded me of our arching elms here in Regina. The swaths of pine and fir on the mountain sides are mysterious and mystical. 

To add some music to these forested memories, this 'singing tree' greets me on my walks to the grocery store. In spring, it welcomes sprouting branches, in summer displays these wonderful green leaves, in autumn bejewelled in yellow, orange and red and in winter wears a beard of snow. My friend is always changing and forever unchanged.

“Trees are the poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”

~ Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

Chapter Two, Episode 155 - Safe Zone - Situationally Theirs

“Really, Em! You can’t do that. You know nothing about farming. You barely know anything about how to run Michael’s estate or you wouldn’t be running out of money.” Emelina was stunned. Jeremy had never spoken to her like that before. If he was in a bad mood or tired from a bad shift, he might be a big snappy. He had always supported whatever she wanted to do until now. “I think I’d better go, Jeremy. I really thought you would be at least interested.” Putting her coat back on, she turned to leave. “I’ll be out at the Estate. If you want to know more about my new endeavour, you’ll know where to find me.” Her hand on the door, she turned back to him. “We can’t keep on like this. Every time I come in there is something bothering you. You won’t talk about it.” She looked at him, still wet from his shower, and sighed. “When you’re ready to talk….” She left their apartment, closed the door, stood still a moment before she went to the elevator. Whispering to herself she said “What will I tell the others?” Straightening her shoulders, she dried her eyes. 

~~~~~

It was Jeremy’s turn to be stunned. No one had ever walked out on him without slamming a door. “Tone of voice, Jeremy.” That’s what his grandfather would have said without interrupting whatever he’d been doing. He also knew that his wife could and would do anything she set her mind to since the pandemic. And he let her go out the door. He was tired of apologizing for his bad temper. This time he had just been mean, even after seeing the sparkle in her eyes when she started telling him the plans she and Dez had. “What the hell is wrong with me?! All I wanted was one evening without someone shouting at me to fix someone, write orders, speak to a family, do this, do that.” Standing in the middle of the open apartment, its emptiness frightened him. Water dribbled from his hair, he shivered and pulled his bathrobe tight. 

~~~~~

Em knew her husband was right. She didn’t know anything about farming and she barely knew how to run the Estate. She drove out of the city and turned onto the highway towards home. That didn’t mean she couldn’t learn, and he did know that. At first she had felt beaten down and wrong. Now she was angry. What right did he have to assume that she hadn’t given the farm a lot of thought. And where was he when she wanted to discuss it days ago! Sure he was a doctor and worked in a hospital. She’d heard all the sob stories about lousy shifts, other doctors mistakes, poor report from nurses but that didn’t give him the right to treat her like she was one of them. As she settled into the short drive home, her anger softened. She’d need to talk with Dez about it. Maybe tonight. Maybe she’d keep it all to herself and just go home to bed.

~~~~~

Dez could see headlights, the car was turning down the lane. “Wonder who that could be? Matt’s gone to his orchard, Martha and James are home having supper, Samuel’s still working in the garden and Cook has gone to get him for their supper, Em’s gone in to spend a couple of nights with Jeremy. But that looks like the vehicle Em took…….it is Em!” Her sister’s lights shone on Dez where she was sorting out where a Farmgate Stand could be. She pulled to the side of the lane, put it in park took her hands off the wheel. White knuckles, her hands sore, she stretched her fingers out. Dez knocked on the window, worried when she saw her sister’s red, wet face. “Em. Open the door! What’s wrong! Is it Jeremy? Is he hurt? Why are you back so soon?” Em did open the door and practically tumbled into her sister's arms. Sobbing, she just let her sister hold her. Dez glanced in both directions for any other vehicles coming. “Let’s get you sitting down, Em. Here, we’ve put a bench here where we think the Stand might be. Do you want to go home?” All her sister could do was shake her head. “But we can’t stay out here, it’s almost dark as it is and it’s pretty damp tonight. Why don’t I take you to my place and get you some hot tea. You can stay with me tonight. You don’t have to talk about any of it until you’re ready. Just let me know that Jeremy is ok.” Em nodded her head. Her voice low she said ‘He’s all right. I just don’t want to see him right now.” Dez had no idea what was going on, but she did know her sister needed her help. “Ok, come back to your car. I’ll drive and get you to my place.” Her sister looked up at her “Please don’t tell anybody any of this. It’s probably just me. Maybe he’ll come out and apologize.” She gave Dez her cell phone. “If he calls don’t answer it. If he calls your phone, just let him know I’m ok, if he wants to know.”

~~~~~

Jeremy had no close family or friends. His friends were the doctors and nurses he worked with but only at work. He didn’t know any of them outside work. Could he call James? Never. That would be crossing some kind of a line. Giles? He hardly knew him at all. Samuel? He wasn’t ready to hear some of his old time-y stories. He definitely couldn’t call Dez, that was really too close to home. Besides that Em would need her sister and he didn’t want to put Dez in the middle. That only left Matt. They were about the same age. Maybe they could meet for coffee. It wasn’t all that late, so he’d give it a try. Satisfied, he found his number and called. After the fourth ring, Matt answered. 

~~~~~

“Every couple needs to argue now and then. Just to prove 

that the relationship is strong enough to survive. 

Long-term relationships, the ones that matter 

are all about weathering the peaks and the valleys.’

~ Nicholas Sparks, Safe Haven

A Meeting of Minds ~ 3

They were having a serious discussion. Two young men coming home from school stopped because of Tommy “It’s a duck. Now let’s go.” Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he started to walk away. 

“That’s dumb. It’s just a cloud.” Jimmy didn’t believe all that stuff about clouds. His mom was always seeing bunny rabbits or elephants. He couldn’t tell her she was being dumb unless he wanted to get in trouble.

Neither of them wanted any trouble. Tommy always went to his friend’s house after school. His parents didn’t get home from work until supper. His big sister had basketball practice or was just hanging out with her friends. “Mom’s baking day today. Hope you’re hungry.” 

“Sure am. Last one to your house is a rotten egg!!”

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

~ Pablo Picasso

On an Afternoon Walk - On the Street Where We Lived

My afternoon walks always have a purpose. Buying groceries, business at the bank, my regular visit to the dentist’s office, around the lake, maybe a hair appointment, or just to see the seasonal changes but always to see the city at sidewalk level. There was time when a walk was just a walk. I really didn’t like them much because they had no purpose. Many would disagree. Walking for the sake of walking should be enough. Today my purpose was to get cat food at the Vet Clinic, a 30 minute walk away. It’s along the way that my purpose is filled with autumn leaves, warm sun, a bench to sit on with my book, and an ice cream store. 

To get to the Vet Clinic, one street I always walk down is the street where we raised our sons. We were only there for seven years, but I love that street. Many of the houses have been refreshed, an apartment block nestles halfway down the street. Yards are full of plants going dormant and piles of composting leaves tucked over and around tender perennials, the trees are old elms that cover the ground and sidewalk with crisp gold under my feet. My inner child wanted to kick through them but this too mature adult warned of tripping hazards beneath. So I behaved myself and just enjoyed the crunch beneath my steady walk there and back.

“How quick and rushing life can sometimes seem, 

when at the same time it’s so slow and sweet and everlasting,”

~ Graham Swift, Tomorrow

Coffee Break

A view from my table inside 
13th Ave. Food and Coffee House

Which is more important? The coffee or the break? The coffee must be dark and milky rich, to ease me into my next book. Of course a salad and a cookie rounds it out just right. The music familiar and toe tapping. I was fortunate to share the space with only one or two others. After a day of heavy lifting of words and ideas, I came to this favourite spot for respite and to read.

At the front door of 13th Ave
Food and Coffee House

“When you rest, you catch your breath and it holds you up, like water wings…”

~ Anne Lamott

13th Ave Food and Coffee House

3136 13th Ave.

Regina, Sk.   S4T 1P3

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