(feeding backyard birds and squirrels 365 days a year)
(many backyard flower favorites: Martha Washingtons, irises, begonias, celosia, coleuses, different kinds of lillies going back to these childhood favs above)
(quiet, weekend walks all-year-round– the university delights with its seasonal changes and affects, particularly in fall)
(the mountain-lake grandeur of the Banff-Jasper route)
(Victoria–it’s all about Butchart Gardens even in spring)
(Vancouver’s cherry blossoms everywhere in April)
(travelling elsewhere: facsimile of Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond, Mass., visited twice in the fall)
About half the year I hear squirrels and birds between 3 and 6 am. through my slightly open bedroom window. In the morning, 365 days a year, I usually head out five yards into the backyard to feed the birds and squirrels. My bird food bill would boggle some people’s minds, but for me it is small payment to have and keep some of Nature’s creatures around daily.
The money invested in May on flower-planting is another expense many people don’t have, but I’d rather have beautiful flowers in front and back to look at from May to Sept. Every day is a colorful day with interesting non-stop changes going on. Daily watering is a pleasure; it is also a deep pleasure to be that connected with Nature right down to the days of overnight frost-cover-up in fall. Many’s the year, the fleurs have continued into October here for that reason.
And, of course, there are those trips to the University on weekends and the river valley and parks, sometimes in winter, too. A mountain trip a year is pretty much de rigeur as is a trip to either Vancouver or Victoria every other year to get enough Nature to lift/refresh the spirit or to bring deep soulful peace.