mother's day

overheard conversations with a five year old on a ferry, specifically in the bathroom stall: being explained to that when one swings a bucket of liquid around really fast, it doesn't come out, explainging that this is centrifigal force and relating it to getting spun around by uncles and playground devices, sounding out the word minimum, explaining what it means in two languages, explaining that no one lives on this boat all the time, explaining what a captain is and what the crew are, explaining that no, there aren't any pirates roaming these waters, being explained to that said child had seen a pirate in town one day, and the theory was that the pirate was in powell river looking for a crew for his ship. The pirate was wearing a tie dye headband and blundstones. a little wooden shelf was installed above the little children's bed which used to be mine, on the shelf are a trilobite fossil, a horse's tooth, a horse's chestnut, a cracked open geode,a 4 inch length of bamboo, various blue, gold, and pink gemstones and a large quartz crystal. There is a beauty and balance to the way he arranged everything, and it's a beautiful glimpse into his inner workings and maybe his future self. There's another shelf, a small treasure cabinet with two little glass doors that open out. This one is arranged in browns and blacks: a skeleton key on a string necklace, a gold coloured pocket watch, aviator sunglasses missing the arms, an old leather encased german made light meter, Toby the Tram who's at least 50 years old, various red and brown and green gemstones and his 90 year old folding bellows camera. Everything is placed just so, with clarity and order and balance. I love gardening but I do wonder why sometimes. Today I felt truly as though I was being made a fool of by the plants I slave for. I spend so many hours at this and am mediocre in my results and really could be out hiking or restoring the cedar strip canoe, or doing geneology work, buy into a CSA instead. It's truly a relentless naive optimism that prevails over me, thinking that maybe this year my lettuce or carrots or strawberries will do great. I do have some luck - the kale is kind to me, feeding me and my clients month after month. The red currant bush is overwhelmingly packed, and the herbs and apples really take care of themselves. I really can't bring myself to buy and eat the supermarket veggies though, and hunting and fishing isn't taking place, so gardening it is. the contents of our car coming home from a day on texada, early May pleasures, armloads of lilacs in all shades, a new to felix bike bell scavenged off a rusting tricycle, black slabs of texada rock for the path, palestinian flags, bags of fresh lettuce, soaked clothes from watergun fights, dregs of hibiscus ginger mint ice tea in mason jars, mother's day rosemary plants, some corn starts, corn flowers, a tired boy. My movie star sunglasses and my grandmother's summer dress from the 50's.