Walk about

  “It took me less than half a lifetime to realize that regret is one of the few guaranteed certainties. Sooner or later everything is touched by it, despite our naive and senseless hope that just this time we will be spared its cold hand on our heart.” 

Jonathan Carroll

Venice Sept 2019

Anyone who follows this blog knows how much Helen and I love Venice. So we are quite sad to see that after problems with terrible flooding, the coronavirus has now emptied the city of tourists. We have met many wonderful people who rely on tourists for their livelihood in our trips to the city. We can only hope things will improve for them. Guy and Helen

"and you were the sound of the serenade
being sung outside for me, the words
of which, I know now, are of freedom
cast in stone forever."

from Stone Bird

Pattiann Rogers

House Sparrows

  Still a bit sad here. I think the other dogs seem a bit subdued as well. We are still coming to appreciate what a towering presence and forceful personality Shaun had, despite his size. Our weather as been quite good, especially by comparison with the rest of the country and world. We have been around zero without a lot of snow. It is snowing today however and it made for a slippery walk where it covered the ice. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when we had blue skies and a lot of sun. We have been getting lots of sparrows, drawn by the seed, suet and water. At one point it seemed that there were fewer sparrows and more house finches but the ration seems to have changed again. Although they are common, oft overlooked birds, a close look in good light does reveal their beautiful colours and delicate markings. 

'The only sparrows I heard

I was told were the ones

other people had brought"

"the sparrows said one thing

but only to themselves

and each other"

"over and over they said

here here 

yes here"

from Only Sparrows

by W.S. Merwin

Shaun 2002 - Feb. 28, 2020

"I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief." Wendell Berry

Shaun and Wendolene came into our lives in May of 2006 from the Calgary Humane Society. Wendolene would have been around 7 and Shaun 4. They had to be taken as a pair which is something we wanted anyway. We lost Wendolene in Oct of 2012.

https://thatsjustthewildwood.blogspot.com/2012/10/in-may-2006-we-wanted-to-adopt-couple.html

https://sunisaxeman.blogspot.com/2012/11/blog-post.html

Today we had to say goodbye to Shaun. He had been coughing for 3 weeks but was good enough to go for a walk around the nearby cresent Sunday. But time caught up with him this week and this morning we had to make a difficult decision.

 

He was very old for a Shih Tzu but in very good shape and able to keep up with the younger dogs on walks. Last night at the vets may have been the first night he spent without either Wendolene or Whateley by his side. He was a black hole for blankets pulling them all into his orbit and then shuttling either Helen or I uncovered to the edge of the bed. Most days on the couch he would come for a chest rub, first licking (once or twice) nipping my nose and then sneezing in my face before growling ferociously the entire time. As we both grew older and greyer I used to joke that if we wore hats you could not tell us apart.  He loved pasta appearing in the kitchen whenever he suspected it was on the menu often eating spaghetti like an unnamed movie icon. 

He normally accepted the changes in his life stoically whether it was his new friend Max...,

or the younger more energetic playmate Whateley who would keep Shaun's face clean for the rest of  his life. And they could both rock the sweaters Rigmor made them.

Although he generally was not one for outfits

.


This walk did inspire a poem.
https://sunisaxeman.blogspot.com/2011/04/ice-once-you-folded-entire-continents.html

Shaun's reaction to the cabin was funny. The first year we stayed two weeks. We had a couple lawn chairs and some cheap lanterns. He was quite put out. When the somewhat tacky Brick sofa showed up he was somewhat mollified. He also hated that nettles grew on the newly plowed lane. Even in Calgary a fairly soft spruce needle was cause to be carried some distance. But eventually he became quite the explorer although the couch was best. In the last few years I have begun to suffer from insomnia and so get up at night to read or putz around. But eventually Shaun would appear, if the bedroom door was closed he would demand that it be opened so he could find me and bring me back to bed to unite the family. Because family was everything to him. You will always be loved, always be missed little man.

Shaun feels I have gone on long enough so let's end with something short.

https://sunisaxeman.blogspot.com/2011/08/summers-hot-breath-small-dog-pants.html

Illuminated Manuscript Convent of San Marco Museo del Convento di San Marco

“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.

How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the

moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood

is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores

over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. “

                                      

Vita Sackville-West

Yesterday I saw a magpie flying by with a stick. Yet again the renos continue.

Venice, Oltre il Giardino

“One of the saddest realities is that we never know when our lives are at their peak. Only after it is over and we have some kind of perspective do we realize how good we had it a day, a month, five years ago. ”
― Jonathan Carroll

This week I heard a noise on the porch, luckily the dogs were having a nap with Helen. When I looked out the window a black squirrel was walking along the porch railing with a huge mouth/armful of grass before leaping into the spruce. So renos are in the air. 

Florence and Dante

       "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain"

       Rutger Hauer

This weekend Helen and I went to the Wallace Gallery to see a Toni Onley Exhibition. The watercolours were quite good and the collages were a revelation. We love this gallery, we can have breakfast at Gruman's Deli and then walk over to see wonderful Canadian art. 

https://wallacegalleries.com/exhibitions/toni-onley

http://grumans.ca/home (potato latkes my favourite)