Rainy Sunday Afternoon

[intertext]

One learns to be flexible; many of my plans for this weekend have been thwarted or disrupted in one way or another. I thought I was meeting someone I'm beginning to know quite well from work last night for dinner and she thought we were meeting next Saturday, which resulted in one of those episodes that you hope won't happen of waiting at a restaurant for quite a long time until you realize that the other person isn't going to show up. I guessed what had happened, and she was very apologetic, and we're going to meet on Tuesday night instead. Then my friend kp, who was supposed to be coming for Easter dinner tonight, phoned to say she had a "pg" (paying guest - she runs a holiday rental place) arriving at an inopportune time and could we make it Monday instead. All this was somewhat compensated for by my cousin Marty phoning and our having a lovely long talk about family and photography and life, which was great (and which I would have missed if my dinner date had been as planned).

However, I had a nice lazy morning this morning with my papers and a luxurious breakfast of Italian bakery hot cross bun (the best in the world - soft, fragrant, spicy, just wonderful) and some berries and creme fraiche. Then I cleaned my house before lunch.

I had hoped to go on a hike in search of wildflowers to photograph this weekend but after Friday it's been grey and today actually raining. The d's and I went up to Playfair park this afternoon, where I did see wildflowers - there's a restored Gary Oak meadow there, and there were early cammas, shooting stars, erythroniums, satin flowers, and even a couple of chocolate lilies blooming. That park shows you how it is possible for a small multiple-use park to function, without all the hysteria about dogs trampling the flowers or biting children. Dogs are allowed there off leash, yet there is this quite large protected area where the wild-flowers grow, and on one long side of the park there is a spectacular cultivated herbacious border. Opposite that, there is a beautiful rhododendron planting, and in the center there is a children's playground. All coexist quite happily, as far as I can tell, in a really quite small area.

So now the boys are snoozing in their baskets as I write this. I'm thinking of scanning some of my old film photos, or maybe some more of my China slides and uploading them into Flickr. Then I have baked chicken breast and asparagus for dinner and an episode of Angel to watch this evening. I started reading Cormac McArthy's The Road last night and am desperate to get back to it - it's compulsive reading. This weekend has been so long and delightful!

Comments

[lidocafe.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your plans being thwarted--the restaurant thing sounds . . . ugh.

Have you, mayhaps, your own copy of The Road, and if so, might I borrow it when you're done? I promise to keep it tidy. It's just that the library list was quite long last time I checked. I'll check it again, though.

Which one is Playfair Park? I was at Summit this aft (beach excursion cancelled). Isn't it gorgeous up there?

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Yes, I just picked up a copy of The Road at SaveOnFoods, so you're welcome to borrow it when I'm finished it, which won't be long - it IS very compulsive! Playfair is up near where Barb lives, off Tattersall. Summit Park is lovely - I used to play there when I was a teenager and it wasn't a park, just the "reservoir" - but is one of the places where people get very silly about "preserving garry oak meadows" and not allowing dogs and all that sort of thing... I used to walk my terrier cross up there when we lived at Quadra Villa, and my girlfriend and I used to climb the oak trees and gossip for hours - it was great.