Cloud Bustin': A Meditation

We made it through the prairies and the Rockies to the gentler, more distant mountains of Kelowna. The week has been busy with moving Ms.Young DD, cleaning (new place and old), unpacking and keeping multiple cats and Morris separate. (It's working well: the cats are inside and pouting, while Morris has a big back yard to patrol as he supervises Mr. DD's handy work.) There have been trips to home suppliers, meetings with the neighbours and even a spa morning for Mother/Daughter pedicures. (Thanks, Young Ms. DD!) Outings must be planned more carefully; what was a ten minute walk downtown is now a forty minute bus trip one way, although it's a cheaper ride than home and a pleasant, scenic tour at that.

I've been the slacker of the bunch. Mr. DD is always happiest when he has projects on the go and Young Ms. DD wants to organize her own household, so I've continued to write and paint and read while I stay out of the way of the busy ones. Today, though, there is work for me. Level 4 of the Master Spinner Programme is a month away. I have supply orders to finalize and class plans to outline. There are changes to the Level 4 requirements which will be implemented this year; emails have been flying back and forth to reach consensus on that. So, here I sit at the computer, procrastinating - er, contemplating - before the work begins.

I think of our journey and the wonders of mountains and wildlife. There are flowers and shrubs and trees in bloom on every corner here. Roses are popular hedges of choice and the colours are spectacular - reds, and pinks and yellows, highlighted by fluorescent green-yellow bushes whose colour sears your eyes in the sunlight. I've spent every day watching the shifting skies. Days begin with clear blue; clouds build and billow and darken, bringing downpours and then rolling out again over the mountains. Photography doesn't quite capture the poetry of it all. I've turned instead to my tiny sketchbook and watercolour set to record my memories. The paintings are nothing much (and the photos of them are a step down from that), but they remind me that change is constant and, no matter what, change carries a beauty of its own:

We rolled across the prairies, watching the expanse of skies.

When stuck in traffic in the Rockie mountains, what better thing to do than record the scene?

Kelowna mountains remind me of the Qu'Appelle Valley back home.

Huge storm clouds build on the mountain tops.

By mid-day, the sun sears everything with a shimmering glow.

Namaste.