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2021

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Aftermath

I am still sometimes caught out by the differences that I find living in a new land. Mostly such surprises are positive, but in times of stress and difficulty they may be less so.

When it comes to sudden and excessive rainfall (and any concomitant flooding and damage) you might think that a native of Great Britain would be pretty much inured to any eventuality. We are all too familiar with the possible outcomes and take such things in our stride. Further,  Canada is a huge country which is full of outsized natural features. There is a sense of solidity that suggests that the land (and its people) can handle anything that is thrown at it. Looks can sometimes be deceptive.

I was taken aback by just how quickly and easily Vancouver and other parts of BC were sundered from the remainder of the country by the Atmospheric River in which we have of late bathed. Other implications did not register at all.

When I set off for College last Wednesday – after the rains had ceased – I idly noted that I would need to get some petrol (gas) on the way home. As I drove down the peninsula on the Pat Bay Highway I found myself wondering why there was such a long queue of cars on the opposite carriageway tailing back from the first gas station there. Following a comedy cartoon moment the truth landed like a lead balloon. They were panic buying!

Sure enough it rapidly became clear that the only gas stations not to be inundated by desperate motorists were those that had already run out of gas. It turns out that all of Victoria’s petrol arrives by tanker down the Trans Canada Highway from the direction of Nanaimo – or it did until half of the Malahat Drive was washed away. I was forced to call upon The Girl to meet me after my class and to bring me the jerry can that we keep full of gas for our lawn mower, so that I could make it safely home.

The next problem was – of course – how to get some more petrol over the next few days. The police quickly started escorting convoys of tankers across the remaining Malahat carriageway after  the road was closed for the evening repairs, so we had to keep an ear to the ground as to where deliveries were being made. One station in Sidney had a delivery but by the time I got there there was already a queue of more than a hundred cars.

I swapped into The Girl’s Mazda to go shopping but as I reached our local grocery store I saw another tanker pulling up at the adjacent station. I scurried back home to get the Lexus and – after a relatively brief wait in the queue – came away with a tankful; the which should last for couple of weeks…

…which is a good thing because gas stations are now rationing gas, limiting motorists to thirty litres on any fill up.

We are hearing reports of shortages of other essential goods and foodstuffs also, though thus far we have not been inconvenienced. The forecasts are for further heavy rains in days to come, however, so we must continue to be on our toes.

Never a dull moment here in the ‘new’ world!

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Weather update

Monday’s post – whilst touching on a serious subject – did so in a manner which might, on reflection, seem to some to be a little on the flippant side.

When I wrote that post I had certainly been looking at some of the images from the interior of BC and checking in on the news coverage – but there had at that stage been no reports of injuries and certain none of fatalities.

A day and more later the situation is slowly becoming clearer and the extent of the flooding and damage to property and to the transport infrastructure is becoming more apparent.

There have also – of course – now been the first reports of fatalities and of missing persons. The tone of this post is accordingly considerably more sombre and our thoughts and best wishes go out to those affected.

British Columbia has come in for yet another climate related battering. Mud slides and washouts on major routes have effectively shut Vancouver off from anywhere further east in Canada. We watched the news reports come in as each of the major routes was cut one by one. Some of the damage is significant and will take many months to repair.

The lower Fraser valley at Abbotsford is badly flooded and there have been many evacuations in that area. On Monday the entire town of Merritt was evacuated as the flood waters rose. Those who are familiar with Merritt will understand entirely how this happened. Merritt lies in a bowl surrounded by mountains and the runoff from two days of rain had nowhere else to go.

Victoria was cut off from the rest of Vancouver Island on Monday as the Highway 1 route over the Malahat mountain was flooded. A single lane has since been reopened but it will take a week of night-time closures for the damage to the formation to be repaired sufficient to re-open the whole road.

We are blessed here on the peninsula. There had been no shortage of surface water in our neck of the woods (it runs off Mount Newton behind us) but the water cascades down the slopes in all directions and into the sea – so within 24 hours most local routes were once again navigable.

For these small mercies we are infinitely grateful.

 

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Weird weather

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidIs it really – I wonder – an inevitable effect of apparently unavoidable climate change… or does the west coast of Canada just suffer from wacky weather as a matter of course?

I ask because – as gentle readers may (or may not) recall – back in the summer we here in British Columbia suffered the most unpleasant and tragic effects of a ‘Heat Dome‘.

I will be completely honest here – I had never heard of a Heat Dome. As a climatic phenomenon it was a complete unknown. As it turned out I would have been happy to have made it through this existence without ever having encountered such a beast.

Why do I bring this up now? Because as I write we are heading towards (hopefully) the tail end of another weather phenomenon of which I have never heard. This one is called an ‘Atmospheric River’.

A what!?!

What the heck is an Atmospheric River? Well – Wikipedia can, of course, give us all the details – and here they be! To be honest, however, you will not really need to read up on this unpleasantness to have a good guess at what such a thing entails. It is wet… very wet… and it is in the atmosphere – until it falls on your head!

So – since sometime yesterday morning the rain has been hammering down pretty much constantly – and doing so with the sort of fierce determination that ‘gets things done’ (in this case flooding, mud slides, road closures, accidents and so forth). We have essentially been living on the inside of a cloud for the last forty eight hours and it is getting difficult to tell where the cloud ends and we begin. The situation is what might best be described as… wait for it… fluid!

Anyway – I have to drive down to College later to deliver a class and I am not really looking forward to that too much. it may be a bit of a hazardous journey.

Wish me luck!

 

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Lucky break

Even during the wettest autumns there usually comes the occasional bright interlude. An alternative to getting out into the garden to slog one’s way through the many outstanding tasks there is to go for a nice walk instead.

To Gowlland Tod for example:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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Final cut…

…of the year?

It is quite a responsibility – owning an expanse of lawn – and I am not at all sure that I am qualified for the job. Certainly I have discovered that I am far better at growing moss and mushrooms than I am at tending grass… and I am not sure that that is anything about which to brag.

This is a crucial time of the year for us lawn owners in the Pacific North West. If the grass is to get its best chance for next year then it must be tended correctly now. Nervous lawn guardians who lack the necessary knowledge (that would be me) naturally turn to the InterwebNet for advice and guidance.

The InterWebNet is agreed upon the following. Winter preparation involves a final close cut, clearance of leaves and other detritus, the addition of lime (almost always necessary here in the damp northwest where the firs and pines do their level best to swing the soil balance to the acid end of the spectrum) and then some slow-release fertilization to ensure that the grass has something on which to chew when it reawakens in the spring.

Most helpful – except that as soon as one tries to dig a little deeper – to get into the details – the advice becomes less certain.

When should one carry out the final cut? Some give vague guidance derived from the phases of the moon. The more down to earth say: “When the grass stops growing”. That’s all well and good in theory, but ascertaining that something is not happening is considerably more difficult than that it is. “What do you think? Has it stopped?” – “Dunno – looks like it might be about to have another spurt“.

Then there is the question of sequencing. Does one cut and clear before applying treatments? Should the liming occur before the fertilizing – or is it the other way around? Or can they be done at the same time? And if not, how long should one wait between treatments?

Apparently (according to the InterWebNet) the answer to all of these question is “Yes“… or “No“… or even “Maybe!“…  Or – most helpfully of all – “It depends!“…

None of this would matter too much except that this is wet season on the west coast of Canada. It is also ‘First storms of the winter‘ season. It is also ‘The sun’s shining – better get out in the garden – what shall we do first – oh no! too late – here comes the next downpour!‘ season.

It is little wonder that some years some of this stuff simply doesn’t get done. I’m not doing too badly this year. The lawn has had two final cuts already (“I hadn’t finished!“) and been limed. Autumn fertilizer awaits – as do other important garden tasks (clearing the gutters – cleaning up the last bunch of crap that was blown out of the trees) but at the moment the rain is mounting a major offensive. Who knows when next I will get the chance to venture forth onto the estate.

I will probably keep you posted…

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I made passing reference in my last post to an action taken very recently by the UK government that seemed to me – as it did to many others – to be fundamentally corrupt… and one which by its very nature would lead to a significant denigration of the UK’s much vaunted and centuries old democratic accountability.

As it turned out – however – the old saw about twenty four hours (other time measures available!) being a long time in politics proved most apt in this case.

It occurs to me that those outwith the UK might not be aware of this particular story. To that end I thought I might offer a quick catch up. Here we go:

  • Tory MP and ex-Northern Ireland secretary – Owen Paterson – was investigated by the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards after being accused of breaking the lobbying rules for MPs.
  • Paterson had been doing extremely well-remunerated consultancy work for several companies but had been accused of going further and actually lobbying government ministers on their behalf.
  • Following the investigation the commissioner found that Paterson had indeed been involved in a number of serious breaches of the code and recommended that parliament suspend the MP for 30 days – the which could have led to his being dropped by his constituency party, thus causing a by-election for his seat.
  • On the day that the case was to have been debated in the Commons the government did two highly contentious things: first – in an attack on the Commission for Parliamentary Standards – they proposed ditching that venerable body completely and replacing it with a new one that would actually be considerably less independent and would be chaired by a tory. Secondly – on the grounds that it would be unfair to judge Paterson before the new body had been instigated – the charges against him were to be set aside.
  • Prime Minister Johnson backed both motions heavily and spoke warmly in Paterson’s defence. A three-line whip was imposed on the vote which resulted in both measures being passed.
  • The opposition parties refused to have anything to do with the new body and even a good number of tories were horrified by this blatant attempt to change the rules retrospectively. One junior minister was sacked for abstaining rather than voting for the measures (though later re-instated).
  • That was the point at which I wrote my last post. What followed was much more encouraging – at least for those who are not supporters of the current regime in the UK.
  • The following morning there was a huge outcry and even the tory supporting press decided that things had gone too far. In the face of this wave of criticism it was announced in the house that the vote in favour of replacing the standards commission would be set aside after all.
  • Since there would now be no reason not to revert to the originally planned debate on Owen Paterson’s future Johnson did what he does best – betrayed his colleague and effectively threw Paterson under a bus – without even communicating the news of this abrupt U-turn to him. Paterson learned of the development through being asked a question by a reporter.
  • Having by this stage had enough Paterson finally did the decent thing and resigned

The entire episode spoke to sleaze and shoddy self-interest (Johnson himself is the subject of several inquiries by the commission) and I suspect this one will run for some time.

I cannot think of a more appropriate party to which this could happen.

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I had an odd experience this evening…

I had just returned – on a dismal and dank November Wednesday evening – from  three hours teaching on the trot at the College. It was almost dark when I reached home and I was the first one back.

I made myself a cup of coffee – as is my habit upon returning home – and settled down with my iDevice to scan the headlines, to bring myself up to date with the goings on in the world.

Now – I was pretty tired… which may explain some of this – and I am getting on a bit… which may explain more.

I was scrolling down through the BBC website and happened upon a list of the ‘Most Read‘ news stories of the day. One of the items was the announcement of the death of Sir Sean Connery. As I studied the tributes I was overcome by emotion and my eyes filled with tears. This was clearly the end of an era.

At this point The Girl arrived home and immediately recognised that something was troubling me. Worried that I had had some bad news she quizzed me gently. I hastened to explain and to reassure her.

It took me yet a while more before the – “Hold on a minute!” – moment struck. Sean Connery died last year. I wrote an entry to this journal at the time. What was I thinking?

I hastened back to the BBC. Sure enough – at number seven in the list of ‘Most Read‘ news stories today was the item from last year announcing Connery’s death.

At a time when the nations of the world are gathered at COP26 in Glasgow in a (perhaps hopeless) attempt to save the world from climate change… in a period when the global COVID-19 pandemic threatens to burst forth anew across the globe… on a day when the US electorate have apparently forgiven and forgotten the GOP’s appalling behaviour over the past five years – on a day when the tory party in the UK has brazenly declared open season for corruption and sleaze in UK politics…

…the seventh most read story of the day was about the death of a film icon a year ago!

Most interesting!

Mind you – given how the story managed to affect me all over again a year on, perhaps that should not come as such a surprise.

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I found that I had too many photographs of the Fall leaves in Centennial Park in Saanichton to fit into a single post…

…so here are the rest of them.

That is one serious bunch of leaves!

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.”

Oscar Wilde

Should there be any doubts as to why Autumn is known as Fall here in North America, these images may well satisfy them.

They also provide an interesting illustration of the fact that – even when one is apparently walking through a forest predominantly comprising mixed conifers – there are always more maples present than appears to be the case at first (or even second) sight.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work”

Emile Zola

I am currently reading “The Gift”, by the estimable Lewis Hyde. I shall have more to say about the book once I have finished it, but already all manner of fascinating thoughts and notions have been triggered thereby.

Sadly, as befits my increasingly elderly status, I cannot now recall exactly how I came to the book in the first place, though I feel certain that it must have been referenced in something else that I was investigating. That is normally the way these things happen – to me in any case. I do know that I was greatly attracted by this quote from the foreword by Canadian icon – Margaret Atwood:

[A] classic… If you want to write, paint, sing, compose, act or make films – read ‘The Gift’”

One motif from the book has already attracted my attention and formed itself into the outline of a song. I certainly did not set out with this in mind, but the muse – as we all surely know – works in wondrous and unexpected ways…

…as became all the more apparent late one night last week.

I find quite frequently that one of more elements of a new song will unfurl themselves relatively rapidly and without my having any real idea as to how this has happened. At this point I might well get stuck – with no idea how the piece will proceed from its temporary conclusion.

My normal procedure – with a view to jump-starting proceedings – is to play/sing repeatedly that which I have already written, in the hope that the next part of the composition will suddenly reveal itself to me by emerging organically from the elements that I already have. This sometimes has the desired effect but as often as not simply results in my straining way too hard for a result and ending up with nothing of any use.

Now I am a night owl. The Girl heads for bed reasonably early but I often get in a couple of hours work before I follow her. This I was doing the other night, in my search for a suitable chorus for the new track. I could feel that my efforts were going nowhere and – having an early start the following morning – I decided to call it a day.

I shut everything down in the studio – doused the lights and tip-toed upstairs in the dark. No sooner than I had emerged onto our main floor than the whole chorus arrived in my head – out of nowhere! Not only did I get the melody and the phrasing but also the harmonic progression and half of the words.

Now – how did that happen!

Of course – to ensure that my flash of inspiration was not lost to posterity I was obliged to scuttle back downstairs, to power everything up again and to rapidly commit this latest gift to my recording software – lest I should forget it again overnight…

What a wondrous thing is the creative process!

Thank you…!

 

 

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