By Maryanna Gabriel
So like her. She swore in Liz Truss and knew her job was done. The death of Queen Elizabeth has been a shock. Maybe because she was just photographed standing with the new British prime minister.
I have been feeling Henry David Thoreauish in my log cabin. Or Annie Dilardish (without too much of the writing part). Some days I go down a wooded path to the lake below and have a delicious swim, the morning mists rising along with the trout. A squirrel torn in half lay on the path. The work of an owl? If I go too early I run into fishermen which I don't mind, fishermen being prone to silence as a general rule. I watched a mink slink through the underbrush along the shore and wondered if it was he who ate up the salmon somebody had trimmed and dumped ten feet out. We humans are such busy creatures. My hostess says there is sometimes a bear around but I have been brave and generally I come back from these expeditions feeling refreshed and happy. I have needed to be. My brain is very busy. Upon my return, the half body of the squirrel was gone. In an instant, everything can change.
I drove north to Whiffen Spit on Vancouver Island. It is a beautiful natural break in the Sooke Basin that historically was abundant with food for the T'Souke nation and later home to sawmills, fish-trap pilings, and other fishy type enterprises. Today, fortunately, it is a park. It was stunningly beautiful. I was trying to decide if I wanted to stay for a longer period in Sooke and if it could be home.
I did not get the call.
