When I am at Tiny House Ontario, life is very simple and slow paced. I find that I take the time to stop and look when I see something beautiful. I even take the time to return just to look again when I think places are wonderful.
This is just a little post to share some moments that I took the time to notice yesterday. I hope that you take the day slowly enough that you can also see.
I awaken. The sun has not yet pushed the darkness to the forest floor. There is a noise. I quickly realize is Minnie, whose trachea is collapsing and she is terrified trying to find her airway. I do the only thing that I can do for her, which is to calm her. I pet her from her head down her back to her tail, slowly, over and over. I calmly reassure her. “You are OK Minnie. Sweet little Min. Pretty little Mosie. Baby Button Face. Good little Minner. It is OK good girl.” I lay next to her, diagonally across the bed in the loft of Tiny House Ontario with my head in the window. When it is just the dogs and I here, I very often sleep like this, so I can watch the forest shadows dance through the night. Minnie finally starts to breath normally and when she does she turns to look right at my eyes. She does this for a long while, big saucer eyes with her giant ears laying back flat on her head still, she looks relieved. I am sure she is thanking me for my help.
It is a terrifying illness to which we lost a beautiful little boy, Klein, last February. Minnie has a very mild case when compared to his. Thankfully. We do not medicate her at all or keep phenobarbital on hand for her. Hers is simply not severe enough to warrant this drastic medical interference. Klein was on the stuff nearly the whole of his short life. He sounded like a train when he walked and if we brought him into public people stopped to stare. He really loved people. He was sick and he grew fat though we watched his diet closely, he was Stealth. He would always make it into the dining room with the children when they were small and was what our vet calls “an easy keeper” which means that he did not need much food to live. In human beings we call this a slow metabolism. The only thing that made Klein angry was wasabi peas. He was a great wasabi warrior.
I look at my watch. It is 5:12 am. Minnie and I look out the window together. The sky is brighter now but the forest is still all shadows. The black has turned to grey with hues of green now. It will incrementally change according to the neighboring rooster and the thousands of songbirds who help the sun chase the shadows down into the ground so that the sun may nourish the forest with its light.
Minnie cuddles herself down into the bed for a nap and I join her. The wind and the birds are our lullaby.
I have loved ones buried at the Sandhill cemetery on Montreal Street North of Kingston. I go there to visit their graves very frequently. I can’t forget them. As a matter of fact, I want to remember them, and miss talking with them so I go frequently and catch my people up with the community news. I am not sure if the dead can hear, but what I am sure of is that the dead and their visitors are treated daily to glorious skies. The cemetery is built high and the view from there is always beautiful.
I have come to feel that our late loved ones were given the best spot in the province. Even most locals do not know that part of the property was donated to the community from an immigrant named George Masoud who came to Canada from Mount Lebanon in Syria. This area is the Christian Heartland of the currently troubled country.
When Mr. Masoud lived in Syria the area of Mt. Lebanon would have looked somewhat like this. (The photo is from 1914 where he donated the property to our community a few years before this.)
This is what he left to us and relatively, this is an ordinary sunset from Sandhill. Our graveyard is a beautiful spot to be alive. Wouldn’t you agree?
For the most part, I think we all leave behind something beautiful when we die. I hope, when my time comes, that I will be no exception.
It is filling in around Tiny House Ontario quite a lot more since we put the garden in. I guess I will have to pull out some of the surrounding plants.
From just about fifteen feet away one can hardly find the raised garden.
Can you find it?
The last few hours at Tiny House Ontario have been eventful because of the high winds and rain. I know that we needed the rain but I am glad that it is over. I braved the wind on Baby because I had to get to town to deal with my B list. Bitter, Beef, Blog, Bread -n- Butter
The first two items on the list are for the dogs, while the beef is probably obvious as dog food, the bitter is for the garbage cans because one of the dogs has decided that she really likes to get into the garbage.
Can you guess which one before I show her guilty little face?
Minnie! Three times in one day with her nose in the muck! I am hoping a little bitter apple will fix up this problem. It is funny that she started doing this at 7 years old I think. Lucky for her she is so cute!
Blog… well this is obvious because here I am…
Bread -n- Butter – I have to go to Glenbernie Grocery so that I can get the bread I like (which is Rudolf’s whole grain Bavarian) and Organic Meadows butter. When I became vegetarian I gave up all animal products except the organic items from this Ontario dairy.
So, that is the B list. Just to wreck my B theme though, I might just get some tomatoes too, but only if the greenhouse has fresh ones.
Tiny House Ontario 