It's A Non-refundable World

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. Henry David Thoreau

EARTH DAY is coming and I’ve been thinking about the billions-of-years-old blue marble we call home. It’s clear that in this current wink of time humankind is the biggest biological threat to all life on the planet. Ravaging resources and hooked on cheaply made products, polluting chemicals, fast fashions and throwaway plastics, it’s a disposable mentality in a non-refundable world. We are literally choking on our own over-consumption, compromising the very air and water that make existence possible. If we keep it up, sooner rather than later, Earth could be as barren and oxygen deprived as the moon or Mars. A serious mind-shift needs to happen where there is value in having less and treasuring more of what we already have. Are we up for the task? Can we reverse damage done? I wonder as I go for my walks and catalog the fragile beauty. Some say those who concern themselves with such matters are Chicken Little crying, “The sky is falling.” I say hat’s off to the environmentalists/scientists and common folk who pursue ways to turn things around. Even if a reusable bag at the grocery store seems like spit on a battleship … a whole lot of similar small steps can result in a heap of difference and extend this magical moment in time.

I heart this planet is what the (above) art at the bottom of 1001 Steps in Ocean Park seems to say. Traces of humanity are everywhere.

On bright breezy days kites share the sky with the birds.

Several little known stairways lead to the beach in the South Surrey area.

The stairs over the train track at the end of 24th Avenue are covered in mesh.

Couples attach padlocks there to insure their relationships, perhaps imagining they're in Paris where there are so many love-locks attached to bridges that they're banned now in some places.

Mysterious pools form at low tide. They come and go without making a splash.

When the sun peeks through the clouds the ocean sparkles like fairy dust.

Shells are collected off the beach floor. Some creatures leave their homes unwittingly while others dig in. Some never leave, yet willingly make their homes uninhabitable, even when it's the only home they've got.

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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms

Rewinding

CURLING UP by a fence post is a fine way for a local raccoon to relax but for me unwinding means rewinding and untangling my thoughts with a walk in a world where unexpected bliss or misfortune lurks around any corner.

On good and bad newsdays it's reassuring to see that cozy cottages still reside beside big old trees in some places.

Babies still enjoy fresh air from their buggies near the grayish-blue sea.

Puppies like the Golden Retriever (below) still draw oohs and ahhs from adoring crowds and ...

mysterious paths still invite walkers to explore each twist of the pebbly sand.

On good and bad newsdays birds still sing and build nests in most places ...

and weeping willows, not yet green, still dance in the breeze.

Dreams still transform into reality with mortar and stone.

Smiles still greet each new day and there's plenty of joy to be found.

A leaky basket of woes also rolls around but as children's author Judy Blume once said, "Life goes on if you're one of the lucky ones."

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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms

Walk Into Spring With My Magic Umbrella

LUSCIOUS drops splattered onto our new umbrella. It was a comfy cover over my husband's shoulders as he walked down the seaside path.

The rain magically transformed white butterflies into rainbow shades.

My husband took a picture of me standing under the umbrella while I watched a bird that is common to the Crescent Beach area.

The heron, often drawn to the same spot, settled comfortably on the rock as if it had just landed in its favorite easy chair.

When the rain stopped, the umbrella dried and its rainbow colors faded.

I wondered how the process worked and learned that hydrochromic white ink or paint is applied over previously painted art that remains hidden until the ink covering gets wet. See how it is done HERE.

Rain not only revealed hidden hues in the umbrella, it trickled life into the barest of trees and nudged the spring in me that needed reviving.

Blooms were materializing throughout the neighborhoods of southwest BC. Some looked fragile ... their petals already dropping.

Winter, like hydrochromic ink, can make all the brightest colors disappear. But the blossoms were back now, wearing pink frilly skirts puffed out like popcorn.

These buttery yellow blooms attracted insects.

A splashy spring needs plenty of rain ...

but sunny daffodils reminded me that the rays are also needed.

If blossoms could talk, the little poem below by author A.A. Milne expresses what they might have said during our walk:

“She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
"Winter is dead.”

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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms

Beneath The Full Moon

BENEATH the wires, roofs and trees I felt small marveling at the full moon recently. Darkening clouds veiled the moon as it hovered over the street like a sleepy eye looking dreamy in the nighttime sky.

See more skies from around the globe at Skywatch.

Postscript, 26/02/2016:
I belatedly dedicate this post to Ontario blogger Tina, also known as East Gwillimbury CameraGirl. I am sad to say that she and her husband, Tom, passed away suddenly in an automobile accident on February 22nd.

EG brought light, beauty and “glitz” to every scene with her words and pictures. I will miss her presence dearly.

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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms

Secret Whisperings From Our Gardens

The Secret Garden movie that I watched earlier that day replayed in my mind as I photographed flowers in my backyard.

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden," the young heroine said in the story.

Music (play video below) from the movie sent me adrift into mysterious realms.

If you look just the right way past the misty veil, you might catch glimpses of different realities.

Even the most fleeting spark of intuition or smudge of scientific study suggests nothing is quite as it appears to the human senses.

When a breeze whispers into the lobe of a leaf or a storm roars like an angry beast, it is clear there is much more to know about our garden home.

The true nature of existence and how life began is the world's greatest secret, sprouting multiple theories.

I liked how the author of the original story, Frances Hodgson Burnett, focused on the wizardry of it all when she brilliantly wrote:

"Sometimes since I've been in the garden I've looked up through the trees at the sky and I have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden - in all the places.”

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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms

2015 Starts Off Like A New Pair Of Shoes

THE NEW YEAR stretches before us like 365 bright pennies twinkling with promise of good days ahead. The symbolism of newly minted coins (in Canada, no longer pennies), spotless calendars and reinvigorated resolutions is as buoyant as a new pair of shoes destined to flatten with wear.

Even if hardships and disappointments from 2014 have not faded, hope is often at its peak when life grants us a fresh calendar year. That is when we are more likely to see the world anew as if through the eyes of a child. The picture (above) shows a slushy day brightly conveyed by 15-year-old artist Kyra. Her painting was in a calendar given to me after paying our yearly car insurance fee at the Automobile Association (BCAA). Each month shows a different child’s drawing making it one of the year’s most charming calendars in my view.

Surveying the skies, I spotted these two characters (above) during my New Year's Eve morning walk.

The crows were oblivious to human joy and suffering or the need for footwear.

Each species perceives the world differently, which makes existence deeply fascinating and a tangled mystery seemingly impossible to unravel.

In the evening, I went for another walk to find 2014 coming to a close beautifully and peacefully at Kwomais Point Park.


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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms

Hooked On "Ethical Addiction"

WHAT IS an antique meat hook doing in a clothing store? It is just one of the eclectic artifacts mingling with the t-shirts in a new apparel store that has just opened up in the neighborhood.

Curious about the huge stuffed teddy bear sitting on an electric motorcycle and ancient Viking helmet showcased on a shelf, I learned that the local owner is not only a collector of unusual things but also incorporated a significant green theme to the family run business.

You can learn more about the company on their facebook page HERE.

Amid a reminder that electric run vehicles are viable, I found home decor, sports accessories and racks of clothing made from bamboo organic cotton. A film about bamboo The Wise Man's Timber shows its many usages HERE.

I like the idea of getting addicted to things that are positive for the planet and consequently ourselves and hope that this business flourishes.

Local businesses need community support and face great challenges with mammoth chain stores around every corner.

Ethical Addiction, with its passion for the natural, I suspect will be left standing years from now.

I thought of the store later when photographing evergreens at nearby Kwomais Point Park that survived a recent wild windstorm. Somewhere in the midst of the towering trees is smaller growth no less worthy of our attention.

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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms