Dreaming the World

A warm, hazy day with heat advisories for “feels like” temperatures around 106F. We’ve had rain so the landscape is green, interspersed by splashes of colour from flowers wild and tame.

We’ve had a WILD week. We had a full house over last week’s holiday weekend, which was delightful. The last night family was here our sewage backed up into the bathroom, resulting in an emergency plumber visit at nearly two in the morning. There was an instant repeat the next day but fortunately a crew was already scheduled to be here to deal with the issue. We went almost a week of having to shower and do laundry at Jennie’s mom’s house. Today the town and a private contractor are busily trying to find the pipe so they can fix the underlying problem.

Thursday night we were on a Zoom meeting when a thunder storm blew through, breaking branches and toppling trees, and cutting power to our part of town. The electricity came back on a about three Friday morning.

We were concerned for the osprey at the beach, so Friday morning we drove over to check on them. Over six years of watching this pair and their broods, they have begun to seem very much like family, so when we drove by the nest and realized it was gone, we were worried and sad. We turned around and drove back by the nest. This time the parents and a couple of chicks were visible! What a relief! The top of the nest was gone but clearly the metal rim that supports the nest had offered enough protection for the family to survive.

There is a much larger osprey nest on the harbour side of the peninsula which seemed unimpacted by the storm. Seeing this, I was reminded that I have often wondered why the beach osprey refuse to build a large, tall nest. Given how often we have intense wind on that relatively unprotected area near the beach, it seem the osprey are wise in their decision making.

There are more storms in the forecast for later today, and given the high humidly and temperature, any storms that form may well be severe. For the moment we are able to shower, do laundry, and run the dishwasher (not at the same time), so we will go about our day and wait to see what happens next.