Mallards on the estuary

In the light of today's news: fire, floods, war, assassinations, wilful blindness: I almost feel guilty for living where the skies are blue and gentle, where the ducks chatter among the wet grasses and bathe in the blue.

Wish I could pass on some of this peace.

Viewing platform and blind, Campbell River estuary, high tide, three wigeons.

As I passed the couple with their toddler a few minutes later, the kid was calling out, "Duck! Duck! Duck!"

Mallards. These long grasses are never dry except in mid-summer.

I'm not sure what's underneath the grass; rocks, or more probably, small tree stumps. The little strip of land is not accessible except with hip waders, even at low tide. And except in mid-summer, the mallards sleep and rest here.

Mallards and wigeon.

Walking on water.

Itchy, itchy!

Another Skywatch post.

Too much

Sick at heart ...

Watching the news from the US. More school shootings. The ongoing tearing down of democracy. Abortion bills. Miscarriage bills! With an ectopic pregnancy rider. While children still cry in prison camps. Kindergarten active shooter drills. Health care - what little there was of it for all but the rich - erosion. Measles and whooping cough roaring back.

The daffodils bloom outside my door. The mock orange is covered with buds. The birds are singing.

It's no help. Not while children die. Not while a million species are at risk of extinction. Not while we spew poisons into our air and water.

I look at my photos - blue water, blue sky, blue butterflies, yellow-green spring leaves - and scroll away. I can't celebrate those, not for now. Later; it's important to document the beauty and mystery around us, even if much of it is doomed to be lost. Maybe because it is doomed.

I'm taking a short break. I'll be watching my tank, where the residents go about their happy little lives, oblivious to the struggling world beyond their walls. Watch the tank and hope for sanity somewhere, somehow.

Hermits teasing the pink-tipped green anemone.

I aten't ded

... but I've been mostly off-line for a few days.

Hurt my shoulders, tensing up trying to reduce the strain on a gimpy leg, hurt my hands carrying the camera trying to reduce the strain on my shoulders, ended up aching and frozen stiff all over, unable to sit up or to handle the mouse. Meanwhile, the computer crashed and ate all my recently processed photos.

Finally got back on-line, looked at the news briefly- disgusting! Will we never learn? Went back to bed, and pulled the blanket over my head.

But I aten't ded yet!

And I found and rescued a (photo of a) gull with a feather in his beak.

Tyee Spit

Ah, Tyee Spit on a sunny afternoon. Where families and friends amble peacefully along the paths, tiny children test out their training-wheeled bikes, someone throws a ball for a dog, an old man rests on a bench with his eyes closed, soaking in the warmth of the sun. Where a toddler runs towards the beach, yelling, "Crab! Crab! I find a crab!" Where the worst that may happen is a bit of childhood road rash. Or that the crab scuttles away too fast for tiny fingers.

Where the gulls squabble at water's edge, pigeons wheel from playground to hangar roof, and the eagle sits atop the tallest tree, keeping watch.

Why can't everywhere be like this?