ONLY HUMAN PLENTY OF TIMES

SALMON POOL'S TRAIL

“With the religious leader, the artist has the responsibility too of reminding us of the awe with which the handiwork of God is to be contemplated, so that we can perceive the spirituality manifest in the most ordinary human act or object.”
 Richard Demarco, Celtic Vision In Contemporary Thought    

JENNA AND BROWNIE BEAR ENJOYING THE HIKE

Last week, Vincent, Vincent’s daughter Jenna, Jenna’s teddy bear, whose name is Brownie Bear and I hiked on the Salmon Pool’s trail. We often hike this trail and usually stop at the little cabin for a drink and a snack.

It was a wet one so we all had to wear rain-coats. I dislike rain-coats. They cover up my fashion choices.

​During the break, Vincent made a tea for me to drink with my lunch. After lunch Jenna and Brownie Bear gave us a little puppet show.

PUPPET SHOW

The table in the cabin is covered in sheets that were torn out of one of those little calendar booklets. Each one has a riddle like, “What did one snowman say to the other snowman? Do you smell carrots?” Hahaha.

Anyway, the hikers who stop at the cabin, write their names, maybe a little note of appreciation for the beauty they are witnessing and where they are from.
So, after Vincent had boiled the water, I pulled out my mug, and Vincent poured hot water into it.

“I only have cream. Is that okay?” He said to me.
I said it was, but only because there wasn’t any milk. I drink my tea fairly weak and cream can be over-powering.

​After we ate our lunches which included the cookies that Jenna made, and after Jenna and Brownie Bear did their puppet show, we began to pack up.

HIKING ALONG CHETICAMP RIVER

Vincent, at one point, walked over and said, “Didn’t you use the tea bag I gave you?”

Well, in my defence, I have to say that the bag must have gotten buried under all the calendar jokes and then became unburied. So, there I had been, sipping merrily away, at my hot cream and water drink.

I was somewhat embarrassed, but then began to explain that it wasn’t age that made me do that, but it was just the way I was. I mean really now, half my creative efforts come about because I trip over the obvious and end up in a world that wasn’t contemplated by myself.

​“Oh yeah,” I said. “I was just as stupid when I was in my early twenties.”

VINCENT POINTING OUT SOMETHING OF INTEREST

For example, I had a date with a nursing student. I was about 21 years of age. She lived at a nursing residence in an Ontario city. I was nervous. 

​So, I was driving down the highway at a fairly fast clip when I noticed a sign which said I was only ten miles from the city. However, I realized that being ten miles from this city meant that I was sixty miles from the city I was supposed to be travelling to. I was heading west. I should’ve been heading east.

​That was our last date.

INVESTIGATING ALONG BROOK

One day when I was in my thirties, I came home from work. I wondered why the front door was open and my ex was inside. My question was, as I jumped out of the car of the kind fella who gave me a ride home from work, where the hell was our vehicle?

​I walked into the house and said to my wife, “Where is the car. Did something happen to it?”

“You took it to work this morning.”

So, I had to hitch-hike back to my place of work and drive the car back home. 

​She’s now an ex.

MY THINKING SPOT

OUR WEE POND

I’ll skip my forties and fifties, too much data.

One day when I was in my sixties, and in my defence, I was very tired as I had been doing a lot of driving, I made another error of sorts.

What happened is that I was at an outdoor party. Only a few days before I had bought a hamburger at a hamburger joint and found, maybe because my imagination was going a little wild, that I could actually taste the cow. I’m not sure which cow, but a cow.

However, the hamburger at this gathering had no cow taste to it. I complimented our host for her great hamburgers. Why they were so delicious and un-cow-like that I went back to the kitchen for another one.

It was while I was adding all the accoutrements to the bun that I had a eureka experience.

​When I did up the last hamburger I hadn’t added a meat patty. 

SECTION OF GRAND FALAISE

OUR SCREEN CHEWER

So you see, the hot cream and water drink was no big deal and I’ve got plenty more examples that are spotted throughout my illustrious tea-less-drink-life.

READING AND REAXING

​Last week, Torey and I hiked on the Le Chemin Du Buttereau Trail. It was a gorgeous day, but we should have brought a saw. Every few hundred feet we either had to climb over, under or through a windfall. One area was so thick with downed trees that I had to push some big logs over before we could work our way through. All the time trying not to get poked or prodded by sharp branches.

Torey working her way. through a wee blockade

Along the trail there are little signs that indicate that a homestead used to be at that spot. We noted that as in this age two children seem to be the norm, in those days ten or more were.

Lots of children

The view of the Cheticamp River entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence was spectacular. We could see, down below, people fishing and one person riding a horse along the beach.

​Oh and I did something rather stupid this day too, but I won’t go into any details.

​We are so blessed to be living in Cape Breton. A place where I have plenty of beautiful space to carry out my unorthodox behaviour.

PERFECT SPOT TO HANG OUT AFTER GETTING VACCINATION