November morning

 

Exciting to wake up to sunshine instead of rain again this morning (that’s two days in a row here on the wet coast!). The view from my kitchen window inspired a quick haiku:

mist weaves through tree trunks

as houses warm this morning

sunlight holds last leaves

 

And another image from this morning:

I have yet to see a coyote since we moved beside the ravine, but I’m keeping my eyes open (especially late at night when I let the dog out to pee before bed — and hoping the dog won’t give chase if we spy one).

As for writing, I’m actually back working on my neglected novel (yeah! I was getting a bit worried I’d forgotten how to write), but progress on unpacking boxes and setting up my office seems to have stalled.

As the sun sets today…

waves of home-bound crows

crest over tops of fir trees

struggling in the wind

 

The sky is still orange as I type this, so these may be the most immediate images I’ve ever posted! I was concerned that my sunset view might not be as good at my new place as it was at my old. I needn’t have worried. (By the way, it was the crows that were struggling in the wind, not the trees.)

New room, new view

In the spring (just short of our first anniversary in our new place) our landlord dropped the bombshell that he was putting our house up for sale. After the initial shock and depression (we liked where we lived and were not looking forward to having to move for a third time in one year), we began to get excited about the possibility of actually being able to buy a house of our own (thanks to low interest rates) and finally break free of the whims of landlords. It turns out that looking for a house is all consuming (hence the neglect of this blog –and my other writing). We looked seriously at over thirty houses, put unsuccessful offers on five, and just when we were losing optomism… we found the perfect house. At first we thought it was more than we could afford, and with so much competition for houses in our neighbourhood and so many unsuccessful tries at other houses, we didn’t think it would be possible for us to get the house we liked more than all the others. But somehow circumstances, the planets, karma…everything aligned, and here we are in our wonderful new house!

We’re in the middle of the city, but here is the view from my bedroom window:

Perhaps other buyers were scared off by the closeness of the neighbouring ravine (our old landlord said we’d made a mistake buying a house so close to a “jungle”). Of course, we love it!

Here is the my first haiku written at the new house:

yellow autumn leaves
light a glowing pathway
through rain darkened trees