Heavy overnight rainfall continued throughout this morning and into the afternoon hours. A dark day of perpetual dusk, overhead black clouds scudding over a landscape that would see no clearing this day. A day of leisure and the comfort of a warm, dry house, while outside raged the wind and the rain, the atmosphere cool and denying aspirations toward a tryst with nature in our nearby forest.

There is an undeniable beauty on such moody days. Looking out toward the house exterior into our gradually diminishing  garden, I'm grateful for the beautiful, still-fresh-in-appearance, hardy annuals that continue to bloom in our garden containers, insouciantly denying the season and oncoming frosts. Each time now, at this time of fall, when I glance out at our intimate landscape I'm thankful for this brief extension of summer's garden gifts. In the knowledge that their remaining time is brief.

We're absorbed by the news, watching footage through the Internet compulsively, listening to news releases, viewing debates and worrying, worrying with concern over outcomes. We speak quietly together, our voices betraying disquiet and concern. Jackie and Jillie are concerned about nothing but their creature comforts and we reflect those basic instincts ourselves. Unlike theirs, ours are tainted by the stain of ages-old experience.

We regularly update one another in sometimes terse passages of newly-acquired information. And then turn to musing over what underlying message there can be regarding events and statements by those close geographically to those events. The tragedy unfolding yet again seems too much to bear. Bear it we must. And look for comfort wherever it can be found in the outside world, finding instead that it is sparse, while the opposite is spirit-overwhelming.

Then finally the rain begins to lighten, though not the sky. Soon, in mid-afternoon we're able to get out with our puppies, albeit dressed for more rain, which will most certainly fall, given prevailing conditions. We're hoping a brief interval will allow us a short walk through drenched forest trails before the rain continues, and this is exactly what occurs.

We take precautions in balance on our initial descent into the ravine. Throughout the hours of heavy rainfall, much more foliage has descended to the forest floor. A kaleidoscope of colour is everywhere, beautifully varnished by the rain. Colour, despite the gloom of the dusky forest interior, is intensified. 

The creek is swollen with rainwater. It rumbles and burbles over cascades created by rock and fallen trunks and branches that temporarily interrupt its smooth but turbid flow. Carrying with it, fallen detritus, masses of spent foliage, and cloudy with particles of clay. A strange, and eerie light, common to such weather events, hangs over the landscape, further enhancing its beauty.

While our bodies are physically active, our minds are passively focused on watching Jackie and Jillie, and allowing our eyes to capture the beauty surrounding us. There is no intention, only a relaxed mode of contemplation even though the serenity of the place clears our minds. One other couple whom we're familiar with has braved the opportunity to briefly visit the forest. Their dog, far more familiar to us, takes its share of cookies, and we see no one else out this day.

When we return home we linger briefly in the garden. To look at the brilliant colours of the forever-blooming begonias that we plant so lovingly and expectantly in the spring, so many months ago, yet seemingly just yesterday. The flowers are lush and lovely, their colours scintillating with rain.

 

World events -- and the news they give vent to -- are dispiriting. Harmful to the inner spirit as the intellect attempts to make sense of it all. Catastrophic events that are nature's expressions that no one can do anything to mitigate and the world just reels and copes. And humanity's penchant for destabilizing entire continents in its never-ending agitations inspired by covetous greed and deliberate disinterest in the consequences of embarking on wholesale conflict engulfing the world in a morass of atrocious occurrences of human suffering.

 

Without the stability of a sound mind to begin with, and the foundation of an intimate relationship of long standing, people are vulnerable to the succession of events that impact both directly and indirectly on their emotions and their lives. Little wonder the incidence within society of growing evidence of mental illness pervading society is so stark.

 

 

Even well-adjusted people who lead comfortable, fairly worry-free lives are deleteriously impacted. They begin to shun the news knowing full well that there is, in fact, no escape from it. And those who cannot evade knowing of dire events and how others are faring feel the emotional connection and despair. 

 

Sometimes it feels, in scanning the newspapers, that the entire world that you care so deeply about has gone mad. That the lessons of past historical events teach no one anything. That there is no escape from nature's induced events that control our lives is a given. That no one can come away unaffected by events orchestrated by the global community's governments, rulers, autocrats, tyrant and dictators is not quite as well perceived.

 

 

As though to make a dismal prospect of a day when news seems so crushingly awful even worse, we've got a grey, wet and cold day. And so, no relief, no opportunity to clear one's mind in good, clean fresh air, one's limbs freely exploring the space we live in, sharing an opportunity to cleans the palate of the thought process.

 

With that 'extra', unused-by-recreational-pursuits time, there are always other things that beckon. Irving, for example, finally decided he would sit down and grapple with our tax returns. With that 'extra' time I finished cleaning out the kitchen cupboards. But spring cleaning isn't yet completed; there's plenty more yet to do, and I'll get around to it.

 

 

Jackie and Jillie went outside to the backyard only reluctantly today, and only when their bladders felt really full, and only when one of us led them accoutered in rainjackets, while the other rubbed them down with towels when they re-entered the house. No ravine hike today, but there's no way they would agree to skipping their after-hike salad. And while I was cutting up vegetables preparatory to preparing dinner, they insisted they were in dire need of even more vegetables.

 

Thus went the day. Not counting the hugs and kisses.

 

 

It's really difficult for most people to fathom the moral degradation of a world leader who makes a depraved decision to mount a military attack against another nation, a neighbouring country with which it has had a long association. It is even more difficult to understand how his decision could carry millions of his country's citizens to support that invasion. All the more so when there are so many Ukrainians domiciled in Russia. Even absent that fact, that Russians and Ukrainians, people of an ethnic Slavic union, should tolerate that level of disunity amongst themselves. 

While most of the world condemns Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine, creating utter chaos in the deaths of thousands of innocent people, destroying cities, reducing life to a scrabble for existence in the shortage of security and life-sustaining supplies, the man responds what conflict? Merely a 'special operation' to clear fascists and Nazis out of Ukraine, when by his very actions he demonstrates himself to be a fascist free of any moral underpinnings.

 

And here we are, living comfortable lives of security in a country known for its amiability and receptiveness to the presence of people from all over the world finding new lives as Canadians, escaping poverty, political instability, oppression, gang warfare and conflict. In most of Europe and North America and elsewhere in the civilized world people are free to live their lives without government trampling on their human rights. We are singularly fortunate. 

It is no easy matter for a population to rise in anger and disgust and rejection of corrupt, dangerous governments eager to sow international discord and to have the blood of innocent people on their hands. Particularly in a country that has always known a level of instability surrounding ideology and poverty. One despairs that the world at large will ever be peaceful, fair in judgement and equal opportunities to all its peoples.

 

We look at the news, one more tragedy to add to the oeuvre of humanity's misjudgements and manipulation for advantage one over the other. A sense of hopelessness descends and one becomes tired of knowing of and looking in at these human failures. The only remedy to facing reality is to deplore what occurs and get on with our lives, although thoughts of concern and offense at what is happening simmer in the background.

 

Our concerns are small and routine; that, above all, we remain healthy and get on with life. Taking each day as it comes and appreciating what it offers. Making the most of our surroundings and circumstances that we can in full appreciation of our good fortune. Yesterday afternoon Irving brought out his trusty old bread-making machine that he hasn't used in years. There was a time when he would bake bread regularly, experimenting with various kinds, and just enjoying doing it. I'd offer to bake bread for him in the conventional way by raising and kneading dough by hand, but he wanted to enjoy bread-making himself.

 

So yesterday he looked at his collection of recipe books and chose a simple French bread. It's all entirely mechanical and to him a bit of a miracle. I busied myself instead making dinner; spaghetti and meatballs accompanied by honeyed carrot coins. That satisfies both of us, and Jackie and Jillie as well.  As darkness fell last night, freezing rain began falling. Which turned at some point during the night to plain rain and continued on into the early afternoon when the sun made a brief presence

 

When I had finished all the laundry and Irving had spent several hours in his workshop with his latest stained glass production, we assured Jackie and Jillie that we would be able, after all, to get out for a hike through the soggy, icy ravine. And so we did. And unlike most of this week where we saw a paltry few others on the trails, and some days no one at all, there were a good number of dogs who sped their way over to us, led by Jackie and Jillie's usual full-throated announcements of their barking presence.

Despite the rain and the elevated temperature that pushed all the way up to 5C, the trails remain icy. We were a ble to get fairly good grips on the ice thanks to our cleats, but in some areas where the trails were glossy with ice, Jackie and Jillie, through they try to evade really slippery areas were doing a fair amount of slipping themselves. The sun was out for a short period while we were negotiating the trails, but soon left for the day.

 

Still, it was milder and the sight of the ravine's hillsides clearing themselves of snow is encouraging. We've seen a number of flocks of geese on their return migration, honking in a triumph of 'We're back!' in the past few days. Robins, cardinals and chickadees have been beside themselves with joy at the approach of spring, treating us with their bright and melodious spring songs.

Just one thing after another. We're coping with the novel coronavirus, taking steps we know should protect us from transmission. Our lives have been complicated. Nothing -- at least most things society takes for granted -- is quite the same any more. But this is Canada. Where case numbers are relatively low in comparison to many other parts of the world. Including our neighbour to the south, grappling to try to get a grip on their contagion and the overwhelming number of deaths caused by COVID-19.

Our economy is in shatters, many people are unemployed, food banks require more help than ever to give assistance to people in dire straits. We are reminded daily of how delicately balanced our life on this planet can be. But, again this is Canada. We're well sheltered from the disasters that strike elsewhere. As in countries in conflict, countries threatened by natural disasters causing earthquakes, floods, volcanic action.

Lebanon yesterday, was put to another kind of test when its deep-sea port at Beirut was shattered by several explosions. There are people from all over the world who migrated from their countries of birth to emigrate to Canada to become citizens and raise their families here. But they remain lovingly loyal to the country of their heritage, returning there often to touch back with families still living there. "There are no words to describe what's happening now. It's horrific. I've never seen Lebanon like this in my life. It's worse than it was during the civil war", said Ahmad Arajil, president of the Lebanese Club of Ottawa.

"Most of my family is in Lebanon. Some of them were affected directly, their windows were shattered and their kids hospitalized. The hospitals aren't even able to take in the insane amount of wounded people. It's horrible." Yes, it is horrible. A country in a financial crisis, desperately trying to deal with a pandemic, an unstable government, the major governing share of which is an actual terrorist group outlawed by Western society and some countries in the Middle East. Lebanon has become Hezbollah.

That is the kind of insane instability that millions of people are forced to live with. A country that imports 80 percent of its food from abroad, and when an entirely avoidable catastrophe occurred with an explosion at a warehouse holding ammonium nitrate, buildings were levelled, a hundred people died, thousands wounded, and a storage unit containing 85 percent of the nation's wheat was destroyed.

For us, life though complicated by the everpresent threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, goes on. Predictable, familiar, and comforting. We are faced with innumerable little challenges throughout the course of every day and transcend them. Never or rarely are we confronted by a multiplicity of life-threatening circumstances coming at us from all directions.

The direction we took this morning was to take our usual morning passage into routine, led by Jackie and Jillie, our two little companion dogs, making our way into the forest for a leisurely ramble through woodland trails. The rain so recently stopped that it was continually falling from the foliage surrounding us. Thimbleberries picked as per usual, to whet our puppies' appetite for their breakfast that would follow on our return back home.

The copious rain from the frequent, unrelenting rainstorms and thunderstorms have stimulated the growth of various fungi and moulds, appearing now with greater frequency on tree trunks and decomposing, fallen trunks littering the forest floor. Some are colourful, looking like discarded orange peel, others are strangely architectural and grow in colonies. And there are the other fungi that come up as perfect mushrooms, beautifully shaped and multi-coloured.

Everything green looked as though it had been freshly lacquered. The forest was dark and it was still, but for the beautiful melodic notes of a cardinal . Every leaf emphasized its presence, dark, bright green and slicked with rain. And to our surprise, we came across a red baneberry shrub with most of its ripe red berries intact; a rarity this year in the woods where usually there are so many.

We passed by a familiar figure walking his black Lab, a dog that we never, ever see without his favourite bright orange stick held firmly in his mouth, no matter how long they're out, how far they delve into the forest. And finally, we wound up our circuit for the morning and headed back to street level to make our way home to the bright colourful welcome of our garden. Safe. Secure.

Excerpt, Richard Hakluyt Voyages and Discoveries : 1589

Voyages and Discoveries : Hakluyt : The Principal Navigations Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation

A discourse written by one Miles Philips Englishman

put on shore in t he West Indies by Mr. John Hawkins

1568

Upon Monday the second of October 1457 the weather being reasonable fair, our general Mr.John Hawkins, having commanded all his captains and masters to be in readiness to make sail with him, he himself being embarked in the Jesus, hoisted sail, and departed from Plymouth upon his intended voyage for the parts of Africa, and America, being accompanied with five other sail of ships, as namely the Minion, the William and John, the Judith, in whom was captain Mr.Francis Drake afterwards knight, the Angel, and the Swallow.

Coming to the Island of Gomera being one of the islands of the Canaries, where according to an order before appointed, we met with all our ships which were before dispersed, we than took fresh water and upon the eighteenth day of the same month we came to an anchor upon the coast of Africa, at Cape Verde in twelve fathom water; and  here our general landed certain of our men, to the number of 160 or thereabout, seeking to take some negroes. And they going up into the country for the space of six miles, were encountered with a great number of the negroes : who with their envenomed arrows did hurt a great number of our men, so that they were enforced to retire to the ships, in which conflict they recovered but a few negroes, and of our men there died seven or eight in very strange manner, with their mouths shut, so that we were forced to put sticks into their mouths to keep them open.

Upon the coast of Guinea, we obtained 150 negroes. There was a negro sent as an ambassador to our general, from a king of the negroes, which was oppressed with other kings his bordering neighbours, desiring our general to grant him succour and aid against those his enemies, which our general granted unto, and went himself in person a land, with the number of two hundred of our men, and the king which had requested our aid, did join his force with ours, so that thereby our general assaulted, and set fire upon a town in which there was at least the number of eight or ten thousand negroes, and they perceiving that they were not able to make any resistance sought by flight to save themselves, in which their flight there were taken prisoners to the number of eight or nine hundred, which our general ought  to have had for his share : howbeit the negro king falsifying his word and promise, secretly in the night conveyed himself away with as many prisoners as he had in his custody : but our general notwithstanding finding himself to have now very near the number of 500 negroes thought it best to depart with them, and such merchandise as he had from the coast of Africa, towards the West Indies and therefore commanded with all diligence to take in fresh water and fuel, and so with speed to prepare to depart. In a storm we lost one of our ships the William and John, of which ship and of her people, we heard no tidings.

*************************************

We are bombarded with constant updates on the novel coronovirus as it storms its way across the globe. Those countries which have not yet been touched by the outbreak of the global pandemic have good reason to be apprehensive, for more join the ranks of the affected nations each day. It begins with one individual diagnosed with the dread COVID-19 who had travelled abroad where the virus has affected many, bringing that nasty souvenir home with them.

Ironically, while China advises the outside world that the number of cases have dwindled markedly there, Chinese travellers who had gone abroad for the Chinese New Year, some undoubtedly taking the virus with them, have returned bringing back with them the virus acquired in Europe, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. And the returning vacationers have as well initiated a second phase of the virus in Singapore and Hong Kong whose immediate clamp-down on their population had succeeded in minimizing contact and contagion.

Of course, it's difficult to really credit anything that comes out of official China when they claim to have conquered the virus that they will not have referred to as Wuhan coronavirus, claiming that to be racist, though the virus emerged there, as a result of cultural dining habits which themselves have done much to radically reduce the numbers of endangered wildlife. China, after all, instead of putting a preventive clamp on the virus to control it, denied at first that there was any such viral threat. The virus is nature's way of hitting back on presumptuously entitled humanity for thinking they could ravage nature's other creatures without consequences.

It's not too far a stretch to imagine that there are few people who go to bed at night feeling calm and relaxed. Most people would be haunted by the fear of contracting the coronavirus, and with good reason. The parlous situation in Italy is a case in point, where so many cases have developed that the health care system has come to the conclusion that there must be sacrifices for the greater good of the entire population, to conserve hospital space and equipment. That limited medical equipment and increasing numbers of medical personnel themselves falling victim must result in a decision not to admit the elderly and health-compromised -- the most vulnerable of all people -- to extensive care.

There are many people everywhere worldwide where hygiene required to help stave off the virus is not available and they will fall. Even in the developed world, where people in crowded living arrangements like apartment complexes make it difficult to maintain a social distance there will see dreadful fallout. Panic has long since set in among many people acting quite unreasonably allowing their fears to set aside their common sense, by stockpiling food, hygiene products and pharmaceuticals, taking far more than they need, and in the process leaving little for others.

The mental health declines in world populations desperate to evade the doom of oblivion in the face of a zoonotic coronavirus, variously referred to as the SARS novel coronavirus, will live long after science has somehow managed to quell the emergency. People are urged to self-isolate voluntarily for the good of society and for their own health, and feelings of fear, boredom and misery will take their toll, to be long remembered and inevitably affecting the psyches of much of the population worldwide.

We engaged in our own positive mental health option this afternoon, bowing both to routine and to necessity, by heading out to the ravine with Jackie and Jillie on a heavily overcast, 4C, windless day. The creek in the ravine is still running full with meltwater, and it will be increased this evening when overnight rain falls, as expected. The absence of bright, spring sun has slowed down the melt, but there are some areas adjacent the forest trails where we can already see snow-absent patches of mud and green revealing themselves on the forest floor.

The newly-revealed underlayers of snow and ice hold endless fascination for Jackie and Jillie, as new smells rise up and entice them to keep their scent-sensitive little noses down and sniffing wildly. That, and the embarrassment of riches they find in revealed twigs and branches offering chewing delights keeps them busy now on our outdoor ventures. It's much harder to make our way uphill now, since the thick layers of alternating ice and snow are becoming soft and slippery when it's mild like today and hard and icy on cooler days, so we trudge uphill and fall backward in a spring ritual that can be exhausting making our way up the many hills in the ravine.