Life offers many joys. One just has to stop and notice they are here even in the saddest times, under grey clouds and personal strife. She shuffles reflecting on her solitude wistfully aiming for the city park.
Crossing the bridge, she looks out the window of the bus and sees most of the ice has liquefied…a patch here and there as a reminder winter kept a stronghold on nature. What an imposing fellow Mister Winter can be sometimes!
last of ice patches
smaller boats trawl the waters
fish fear cunning bait
Ah the freshness of rebirth in Spring weather and she dreams of blossoms in April and Stanley Park in Vancouver.
budding promise on the Pacific coast cherry trees sway
Yet east of the country in Québec weather has its highs and lows…white as it may be, fluffy and unique in each detail, these snowflakes but still, SNOW is a four letter word!
She loves the daisy, her favourite of all flowers. Each petal represents the multiplicity of her personality…ever changing and growing throughout life.
F is for Fed up of the Mister Winter raining on her spring!!! Rain, snow, ice pellets, sunshine and drizzle and last night she walks home with blowing snow and snow building on the ground. She’d heard of the forecast and thought little of it since she was sure the snow would melt hitting the streets of the city. Not so! Late that night, walking home from work, she cut across her short-cut to get to the Métro, avoiding her usual longer walk on the slippery streets and sidewalks. Walk was slow but arriving home, she notices someone waits with anticipation.
(c) Clr’16
emerald eyes look out
snow flurries blur her vision
a loyal friend waits
E is for Emerald and my mom’s favourite colour was green makes this post all the more meaningful. When I think of the word “emerald” however, I also think of Emerald City in the land of Oz which was the famous dream of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I was quite surprised when I read that this children`s book was published in 1900, written by Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. If you look at the illustrations, you can see the characters in the movie (1939) were pretty darn close.
Every October the movie played on television when I was growing up and my father would call my sister and me to come watch the movie with him and my mother. It was a tradition, sort of like The Sound of Music was with my children and other holiday classics.
Ah that Emerald City was the place where Dorothy would get all her problems resolved and get home to Kansas. How I loved her red patent leather shoes!! And the famous phrase was on the lips of many after a long trip, “There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home.”
No matter how many times I saw the movie, each time I would still fear that wicked old witch and her soldiers and those trees too!!! Oh, my goodness!!
I never realized how much that movie became a part of me until I was a young adult and read The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and every night I was so scared of the devil (being Catholic we actually feared being possessed!) for three months after reading this book, I would cross my arms over my chest and repeat “I don’t believe in the power of the devil, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t” I became the Lion that lacked courage at 20 years old! I never could see the movie…if ever it was television and I turned the channel on that movie by mistake, just a few seconds hearing a deep voice coming out of that little girl, I would have nightmares for days! Yep, that’s how scared I was.
Emerald City was such a place to be and I loved the part where Dorothy is getting all prettied up ( my mother being a hairdresser made it even more meaningful). My mother loved Judy Garland (who played Dorothy) and even when her dementia was very advanced, I would sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow and her eyes came back to life.
Photo: Cheryl-Lynn Dec 2013, Montreal on my way home to the Métro
Interestingly as I was looking for a word synonymous with never forgotten, I heard the voice of Nat King Cole crooning “unforgettable” in my mind, and just knew, Mom was near me at this very moment.
If ever there was a month to be described as cruel, November should be the one. The colours of amber, gold and red have fallen to their death. The rains are cold and the winds penetrate through overcoats. It is so difficult finding a way to stay warm.
November 1st, All Saints’ Day follows Halloween which is a colourful, albeit scary at times, day. But the eve of November is filled with sweets, dancing, parties, dressing up for all ages and feeling youthful.
She used to love to dress up walking her children to trick or treat giving the excuse she didn’t want anyone to recognize her and give more to her children…hogwash! she was just taking care of her inner child and loved the dressing up and disguising her face as much as the children did.
And then, the month of November followed…dark too early moving back to regular time…why the heck did they advance it to begin with? Saskatchewan is one province that makes sense with keeping regular time all year round; the shock would not be so bad!! It is so cruel from one day to the next the sun sets two hours earlier!! The days are shorter, and rarely snow on the ground until end of the month or December making it dark, damp and depressing…there you go, 3D’s = cruel month.
5-3-5
nature’s cruel charade November teatime in the dark
Tournesol dans un Jardin 