برّ شم الشيح

 An expression I learned in Tunisia, to get out and smell the sage (artemisia.)

It was a very nice smelling plant, 

In Canada perhaps it could also be to get out and smell the spruce.

Managed to get out for two hikes last couple weeks, and it was nice as always to smell some of the sweet smells of the aromatic plants of the foothills and eastern slopes mountains.

May 10

 

A special Day to remember my Dad, and a special day too, as its Mothers Day. Which is ironic and so fitting for me in so many ways. Been looking back on a lot of learning lessons lately.

I had maybe the best Lake Louise ski season in a while this year. The first few days going alone I was a bit nervous, but as the season went on and I returned for I think 4 or 5 weekend trips to ski and stay overnight at the hostel, The nervousness was slipping away. Of course it will always come back, probably, but at least I know a bit how the cycles go.

On the hill the amazing views, the feeling of flying through the air, flying over cliffs, flying over cornices, soaring over the beautiful white snow through the blue sky, climbing up mountains, standing on precipitous peaks, smiling and having fun, the birds chirping in the clean and fresh spring sky, laughing with me smiling with me, meeting sometimes people on the chairlift, having fun in the terrain park, trying some easy rails again flying off jumps soaring through the sky, even sharing a few runs with friends and family.

On my last run of the year when the chairs were all closed I stopped in the terrain park at a small S rail, and joined some other snowboarders who were hiking it up and down. Mt. Temple soaring up in the background, trying to ski and look up at the views at the same time,  gloves off jacket off, skiing in a red t-shirt, staff and riders coming down on their last runs of the year. Two little butterflies floating by. Maybe a message from Dad and Aunty Alice...

 "Then Adam received words from his Lord, for He Relented towards him, He is the Relenting and the Merciful"

فَتَلَقَّىٰٓ ءَادَمُ مِن رَّبِّهِۦ كَلِمَـٰتٍۢ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ

The photo is from two weeks before, close to where the base of the old Summit Platter used to be.

Updates from Lake Louise

A nice few days at Lake Louise this winter, and some at Fernie around Christmas. 

Nice to be feeling good on my skis.

I still have a bunch of old trip journals and memories I need to upload, too, and a some photos hopefully. I have started working on something else, too, following an order of Surahs based assonance, content and mean verse length. (Nicolia Sinai worked it out, a German guy I believe, but hey it works for me!) 

https://corpuscoranicum.de/en/commentary

What Dreams May Come

 

Wednesday September 3

Waiting for the Metro Bus

Newfoundland accents at the bus stop

and new comers from around the world

Rode past farms and schools

Through neighborhoods untill everyone got off

Turning around at the very end of the route

'You want to get off here?' The driver asks.

Old Shoal Bay road, 

Pavement ends

Cross a river

Up a hill

Look down the other side 

I can see the ocean

6.4 km to the shore

Another river comes and goes

It flows down the road for a while

Easiest path to the sea

We pass through mossy wooded glens

Still pools reflecting on stones

Suddenly I'm at Raymonds Gulch

Up-swelling clean sweet smelling air

Blueberries I can pick fistfulls at a time

Basalt bolders and ferns birch trees and fir

An eagle jumps out of a tree

So close I hear its wings flapping

and I jump backwards, too

I come to the footprint of an old living space

One or two homes in a clearing by the sea

The kettle's still here, and the top of an old rake

Raspery bushes and blowing green grass

I pass Miners Point, a once copper mine,

Now here theres blueberry bushes

The coastline horizine fading into the clean air in the south

I climb up a Headland 

onto green feilds in the sky

Seagulls below me flying under the cliffs

I lay in the grass, and the moss

The sea far below

I've been taking photos all day

every five steps at least

(But my cameras just a trick, it hasn't been saving)

I lay on my stomach for a close up

a Pitcher plant, we both smile

I pass through a feild of bolders and grass

Slowly I come back down to the level

I surprise two big grey seals laying on a rock

The dive and dissapear

Poking up now and again to examine me

The sun starts going down

I approach Petty Harbour, a small town

Its like Im waking up from a dream

I knock of the door of a closing-up resteraunt

Fish and chips in a paper bag to go,

To go sit on a bench in the twighlight

Strings of lights reflecting on the water

Where the Grass Starts to Grow

 

Beyond the Baldan Highlands,

I prayed today on the heather 

overlooking the ocean,

and lay down in the sun

where I enjoyed the cool breeze

and seagulls flying by, and a kittiwake

and the waves down below tall granite cliffs

terraced with fir trees gold in the sun.

It's a long walk back to the harbor where

I saw a young man sitting just past the houses

where the grass starts to grow.

His golden retriever looked happy

looking at the seaguls in the water below.

I used to enjoy sitting there 

and a breeze was in the grass

and a sunset light was on the rocks.

I made to say hello

and suddenly felt shy, 

but he offered me to pet his dog.

Its just on the edge of the Atlantic

and just on the edge of town.

Dressing and Gravy

 

Officialy back in St John's!

First stop, Chess's Fish and Chips, got to try the fries with dressing and gravy.

First first stop though, even just moving from the plane to the terminal, I can smell and feel the ocean air. It is a rainy ish evening, maybe that adds to the salt and humidity in the air, and its breezy, too. 

Taking deep deep breathes, as I was walking home from the Fish and Chips, I was enjoying the sweet air. Phmmmm,  Aaaahhh, going deep into my lungs. Nothing quite like it.

Excuse Me, Can You Please Cheer Me On?

 They say it is harder for guys to ask for directions. 

I was at the climbing gym today, and a particular guy caught my eye. I wanted to watch him climb, and yet not seem weird. I continued with my climbing routine, but kind of kept stealing glances, and I think maybe he noticed. The gym is in the shape of a circle.

My routine is to go around the circle. Near the end of my routine, I happened upon a route that my man and the lady he was with were sitting close to, So, I asked them to watch out ere I would fall and crash upon them. They politely moved to the other pad, though I never fell.

After that we shared some Beta. So to say, I had further made his acquaintance discussing a V.5 we were both working on, and another climber with a tuque and a grey beard- a long one and very full-  offered some advice as well.

Then, they climbed one and I climbed another. Therewith, I suggested that we all go look at a steep V.4. I had been working on it for a few weeks and I was hoping, perhaps, they could enlighten me on how to finally ascend it. However, after looking at it they decided not to try it, despite the favorable grade. Therefore, I could gather no clues from their endeavors. 

Alas, I jumped forward to try it at once with them both looking on. Lo and behold, their audience helped me to give my best effort yet, however not quite to the top could I ascend. They consolidated me with some encouraging remarks, and I was glad for their company.  

Hence I realized, I could simply have asked from the outset, 'Excuse me, can you please cheer me on?'