Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
the caren range
as the day dims outside, the greyish dusk that fills my living room is like smoke – i have to turn on the lights to assure myself it is only a trick of shadows and nothing more. this is something i have forgotten while living in the city, how nuanced natural light can be when there are no artifical bulbs cluttering the nightscape. when darkness comes and i turn the lights on in my living room, i can see the wide pool of daytime they cast over my front yard and, loathe to disturb the beings out there with this need, there are urges to burn candles instead. how much space does one being need to take up? i know that this being already takes up too much.
one of the oldest forests in north america exists here on the sunshine coast – with yellow cedars reported to be as old as 1800-2000 years. they have found the oldest known tree to have existed in canada by counting the rings on trees already felled by industry. they speculate that possibly an older tree than that still stands in that small grove now protected from the fellerbunchers and self-involved businessmen – but this has not been proven. it is like a hope that slips from the imaginations of conservationists – we have not destroyed all the elders yet, we have not yet killed all tumbling endlessly down steep slopes and into the faraway sea.
saturday in the creek
today was canning, going to the post office to get mail, walking in the forest up the road from my house. saturday slow finally taking a pause from breathless weeks standing in front of rooms and driving long highways. this house is respite – quiet and non-toxic – a chance to fill my lungs with air not saturated with the effluent of fashion and industry.
clove oil and codeine
a terrible toothache has been keeping me in a constant low-level state of annoyance over the past two days – this compounded by the fact i stayed in the city last night due to work commitments in these last few days of working for the union.
i think impacted wisdom teeth are causing the intensive aching in the right side of my jaw. i’ve seen the x-rays of them, and there is no doubt they are growing in all sideways which pushes against the other teeth. last night at jess’s place i was in so much pain that she went out and got me clove oil and codeine which is the only combination working to keep the pain manageable. the last time i talked to my dentist about them he said to leave them alone until they really started to bother and then he would refer me to an oral surgeon (apparently they are too much of a mess for my dentist to deal with). i’m thinking that now might be the time – except we’re about to go on strike….
looking up
I have been working on some new desktop images for the new machine – am hoping to do a series of “tree” desks – using shots and textures from my collection. Here are the first two for download (1024 x 768)
border-crossings
road trip statistics
from/to: vancouver, bc to tonasket, wa to grand forks, bc returning through tonasket
total distance: 1557 kilometres
fuel used: 123 litres (approx)
highways travelled: 1, 3 (CrowsNest), I-97, WA-20
small towns visited: tonasket, chesaw, grand forks, greenwood, osoyoos, keremeos, princeton, hope
number of border stations crossed: 2 (at osoyoos 3 times and at grand forks once)
roadkill encountered: 1 deer, 2 skunks, 1 coyote, a kitten and innumerable squirrels, chipmunks and other unidentifiable rodents
roadtrip booty: 2 large bunches of mountain sage, 25 pounds of field tomatoes, 25 pounds of apples (spartans and golden delicious), 3 field cucumbers, 1 bag of hot hungarian peppers, 1 bag of sweet banana peppers and six ears of fresh corn
Red Cedar 
