August in the backyard

The back garden seems to be thriving despite the fact that I've been away for more than half of August.  Alex and Karl kept it watered in our absence.

The Henry clematis suffered a mishap a few years ago, so I planted two replacements last season. The replacements seem to have evaporated, while Henry I has rebounded.

The native bunchberries I planted in the spring are also showing off white flowers with a pinkish tinge. Small and delicate, they seem to be liking their new home near the cedar.

This is the first year I've actually seen berries on the Jack-in-the-Pulpit. I hope this beauty stays healthy and grows a colony!
 

berries on Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Griskit contemplates

Little Baha

The last few times we've been out we've visited 'Little Baha,' just off the spit for a night at anchor.

When facing away from the city skyline it feels like we are far away from a metropolis, but then with a little swing of the hook you see the CN Tower and the bright lights of the financial district in the distance.

There have been 7 or 8 boats overnight, but no noisy partiers. It is quiet enough to hear crickets.

We've taken Griskit on these short excursions, trying to get her more accustomed to the boat. She tolerates it during the day, but we can see her become more alert and at ease when it gets dark, and she prowls the upper deck. She's good company when we're anchored, but definitely prefers a flat lake.

2 minutes before getting seasick (waves 1 meter)

Super moon - August 2015

The Full Sturgeon Moon on August 29th is the first of three super moons in 2015.

I wonder if it would be a good night for fishing?

order the T-shirt at Design by Humans

Stephen King: On Writing

On Writing is part memoir and part advice on writing (and reading).

This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit. 

- Second Foreward

I've gained a better appreciation for King over the years as I've heard of his support and advice to young writers.

His popular success has also been a bit of a curse, as critics dismiss his work from the category of 'literature". I love his short stories and ability to hold a reader's attention.

The memoir portions of the book come across as honest. He makes no apologies about his working class background, or about his struggles with alcohol and addiction. He also cautions against deliberately turning toward a genre simply to make money. "It's morally wonky, for one thing - the job of fiction is to find the truth inside the story's web of lies, not to commit intellectual dishonesty in the hunt for the buck. Also, brothers and sisters, it doesn't work."

Stephen King recounts in vivid detail when he was struck by a car in '99 and seriously injured. "It occurs to me that I have very nearly been killed by a character right out of one of my own novels. It is almost funny."

Frank, direct, and full of great advice.

One of his first editors advised, "When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story... When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story." Or, as King rephrased, "write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open."

King says he takes a book with him wherever he goes, "The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows. Waiting rooms are made for books - of course! But so are theatre lobbies before the show, long and boring checkout lines, and everyone's favourite, the john."

The first edition ended with a recommendation of 100 books, the second edition with another 80. I was pleased to see Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake), Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants) and Yann Martel (Life of Pi).

Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Last Days of Ptolemny Grey, by Walter Mosley is told from the perspective of an old black man suffering Alzheimer's, fading in and out of memory and consciousness.

Ptolemny is given drugs to help him recover memory, with the foreknowledge the gift will likely shorten his life. Still, he makes his deal with the Devil. The altered consciousness doesn't change who Ptolemny is at his core, but his improved mental capabilities help him execute his sense of justice.

Characters from Ptolemny's past become visions and in lucid sdreams he rewrites history. Waking life becomes dreamlike, an odyssey where he uncovers fragments as though a detective in his own life. It is a treasure hunt that will benefit future generations.

It is also a love story, told with a yearning that he was forty years younger and Robyn twenty years older.

Samuel Jackson is working to help bring the book to screen through HBO, but there's nothing on imdb just yet.