A for Alive

ABC Wednesday begins a new round this week.  Thank you to the many volunteers who keep Mrs. Nesbitt's meme running so successfully. Energy words like alive, animated, alert, active, and agile came to mind as I went back over my photos yesterday and that theme took me to the word abiogenesis, found at the "unusual words that begin with a" site.  It was defined as the "spontaneous generation of living matter" and a bit more research taught me that that life grows out of non-living materials.  Well, it makes a great new word of the week, but the kind of life I was thinking about sprang more from beings that were very much alive.

Avian related

There were what seemed like 100's of bushtits in the tree outside our balcony yesterday.  Their high pitched twitter came through the windows and bounced off the fridge door and kitchen cupboards.  There is so much foliage that it was impossible to catch any shots, but this house sparrow did move to a branch where I could get a photo.  i think the sparrow was asking them what all the ado was about. 

 A young girl saw Tupper following me.. 

and told me about another seagull named Jimmy.  She pointed out that Jimmy always sits outside this window in the building where Bill and I live.  I looked up and caught a photo of him.  There is a story there that I hope to learn soon.  Who lives behind that window, and how have they come to know Jimmy?

A cormorant flew by as I sat by False Creek in the late afternoon.

Much later in the evening, while watching the highest tide we've seen this year, a cormorant struggled to subdue an eel-like fish that seems to be a staple in their diet.

Flower related

There were some flower-related words that were new to me as well:

1. anthesis - full bloom

2. anthophilous - loving flowers

3. anthomania - obsession with flowers. 
Everywhere one looks in Vancouver, flowers are in anthesis (full bloom).

 I tried to avoid signs of anthomania so I only took, or at least, am only posting..

two photos of these gorgeous lilies, spotted as we walked in the late afternoon.

There is no question that I have developed an anthophilous leaning since moving to Vancouver.  These are in a little garden.. 

beside our apartment building and they caught the sunlight beautifully yesterday.

Apartment and architecture related.  

In the late afternoon, the reflections of one building were caught in another, giving the 2nd building mirage-like qualities.

 I looked to the top of a 3rd building in the area and saw this:

Later in the evening, a drone hovered in front of nearby apartment windows. Drones are, Bill says, a "guy" thing.  I'm not fond of them.  

Never mind the privacy issue (we talked to one fellow who had a camera installed at the front of the drone), but I worry one of them will hit a child or bird or pet or other non-suspecting being and Bill echoed my fear that stricter laws related to the use of recreational drones may only come about after a tragedy.

Visual Arts related

I was lucky to be encouraged in two of the arts (literature and music) but my grade one teacher was quite pessimistic about my ability with respect to the visual arts.  That's probably why I get so much pleasure from photography.  It allows me to feel just a little bit like an artist.  Here are the results of a few minutes yesterday observing reflections in False Creek. 

I see a being on the left imparting life force energy.

I contemplated the power of the orange buoy reflections on the blues and whites. 

And, seconds later, a few ripples of wind energy formed an entirely new image.

Two parents and two toddlers were playing with soap bubbles, and they encouraged me to photograph the bubbles if I could.  I didn't catch many, but loved this one, with a silhouette of some leaves that took on a captain's profile staring in the direction of the bubble.

i took this photo without the girl's awareness, but when I showed it to her, she was happy to give me permission to post it.  Even though the girl is resting, I see "aliveness" in the image. 

Locomotion related
How humans and animals get from one place to the other is fascinating to me.  Bill and I travel about town very efficiently by bicycle (though we're relying on our legs a bit more in this heat spell).  We feel more alive when we ride than when we walk, though neither of us can fully explain that. Perhaps, it is simply a matter of a greater boost of adrenaline, but whatever the reason, we love our bikes.  Bill noticed this one yesterday.  It has only four spokes on the front wheel and no brakes.  We won't be trying that one out any time soon but I like the photo (with three modes of transportation documented) and I like the memory of studying the bike's design with Bill.

When I was in hospital after my bike accident, my room looked over the landing pad for the air ambulance.  Our apartment now looks directly across False Creek, and we hear the ambulance go out and return several times a day.  With my 500 mm lens, it is quite easy to catch photos of it.  

Every time I hear it, I think of someone whose life may hang in the balance and I make a silent wish..   

that they will be okay.

Life force from the atmosphere.
Last evening, the tide rose to 4.8 metres.  Unusually high tides over the past three days have made False Creek to be more than the quiet waterway we normally see.  People were taking pictures and talking to strangers and the atmosphere had an electric zing in it.

The lady in the photo below lives in my building.  Her name is Pearl.  She loves life and is so fully alive, her energy jumped right into our hearts last night.  Bill joked around, pretending he was going to push her over the edge of the steps, and she joked as well that she might jump over.  Then she said, "No.  I still have things to do."  She laughed but I thought about that.  (Sorry my photos are so dark.)

She walked in her sandals through the tidal water, and wondered why I didn't do the same. 

It didn't take a lot of convincing before I followed suit.  Black Jack loved it as well.. 

and Bill shared in the experience by recording the moment.

The sun sent a warm glow..

that followed Pearl as she talked to others along the walkway.

Pearl is alive;

her energy and..

contentment flow into those around her.  We were the richer, last evening, for our encounter.

And so, I think, were the others who took a moment to appreciate nature's life force.

Younger or older, 

many have been touched by the tide these past few days. It is good to be alive. Thanks for stopping by.  See you tomorrow :)