gaylie-girl

Yesterday was a pretty great day overall. We only have two set plans for Saturdays – tea/coffee and groceries. The rest kind of just happens.

1. On our way to Saxe Point, where Vince and I like to go and have our tea/coffee on a Saturday mornings, we were stopped at the light at Esquimalt and Tyee. At almost exactly the same time we noticed a tree (sapling?) on the hill at the Bayview condos was moving…following the tree down to the ground, what do we see? A buck scratching it’s head. It had quite the rack of antlers too. Anyway, most impressed and awed. I know that the urban deer are being touted as too many in quantity and the farms up the Saanich peninsula would like a cull because of crop damage/complete destruction this year. Despite that, I can’t help but smile at the sight of a deer.
2. At Saxe Point we always see something – one time it was a couple porpoises going by, other times I’ve seen Pacific loons, Common murres, Northern flickers, etc. Saxe Point is a common place to find Anna’s hummingbirds. And yesterday, it was Anna’s that caught my attention, only because the male was doing a ritual mating dive. It is the coolest thing to witness – he goes up, up, up and then plummets straight down, pulling up to zoom past the female, known as a “U” dive. The cool part is what happens as he zooms past the female; there is a little whistle sound. I watched a documentary on hummingbirds and learned that the sound is produced by the tail feathers, not a chirp/call from the bird. This little fellow repeated the process four times before they flew off together.
3.  On a leisurely meander along the beach drive, we stopped at the lookout over Trial Islands and noticed a few boats in the same area. Hauling out the binoculars, we realized they were stopped for a pod of orcas – though from a distance, it was a thrill to watch their fins through the water and watch them blow as they surfaced. We watched for quite a while, until the pod moved off more to the middle of the Juan de Fuca Strait.
4. And finally, to end the day, we decided to go to one of the local recreation centres and go for a swim. I haven’t been swimming in probably 20+ years. And one of the things holding me back was my lack of bathing suit top since my mastectomy. Well, I solved that problem by going to my favourite local dance and fitness store: www.ellswear.com. This is the place that designed my special bra top for me. Sure enough, Wendy said “not a problem”. They took the top design from my bra top and added length (by taking a pattern from another design of top) and voilá, I had me a swim top. Vince and I chose to go for the ‘Adult’ swim 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. But we were there for 1.5 hours only. It was enough to do about 15 laps of the pool for me. On climbing out of the pool, GRAVITY sure kicked in. I’d like to go at least twice a week, but cost is always a factor.

It was one of those unplanned days, not sluggish by the description of a slug, and it was pretty awesome.

Live Strong