Category Archives: The Life and Times of …

Widdershins and The Wunder-Lusters

I’ve been through some evolutions in my life. Some of ’em I’ve mentioned in passing on my ‘About Me’ page, and a whole lot more of ’em are in ‘Prelude’ (which is half shaman-y Journeys and half autobiography)  but, apart from two highlights, (my motorcycle accident, and emigrating here to Canada from Australia) nothing comes close to what I, (along with Mrs Widds, of course) am about to undertake.

Our story begins in the back-yard of a cottage, on an island, in the middle of a lake.

(Note to self: remember that line for when Hollywood comes a-knocking to make a star-studded movie … no, a star-studded movie franchise, outta this!)

So, The Wunder-Lusters …

For the new kids in town, and I seem to get about half a dozen new subscribers every week, and for some unknowable reason, even more when I go through ‘dry spells’ where I don’t publish anything, (like the gap that was half of January and February) The Wunder-Lusters will be the name of our YouTube channel where we’ll be documenting our adventures … going from our little cottage, (on an island, in the middle of a lake) to living in our travel-trailer full-time, exploring the length and breadth of British Columbia, nay, the length and breadth of Canada, (we’ll see how far we get) whilst keeping a weather-eye out for our forever home, our Sanctuary.

That’s the big picture. The smaller picture is … smaller … so, we return to our back-yard.

It’s a small back-yard and at this time of the year the very tall fir-trees along our southern fence line leave their shadows across it all day long. Because we’re going to make some fairly significant modifications to our (8M/25′) trailer so that two women, who like their spaaaace, can live in it full-time and not kill each other, we needed a place to work that was protected from the elements.

We have a patio attached to the house that’s just a roof, so we covered the three exposed sides with plastic. (unfortunately we rent so we can’t do any major, nor obvious, nor permanent, renovations)

We knocked together a minimalist framework …

Minimalist framework (night-time photos because I forgot to take them during the day)

Minimalist framework (night-time photos because I forgot to take them during the day)

Then we duct-taped the edges of our plastic sheeting and stapled the lot to the framework, creating wide doors, for the goings-ins and the coming-outs of various projects in various states of completion …

Wide door #1 and assorted 'stuff'

Wide door #1 and assorted ‘stuff’

The other door - with slightly less stuff

The other door – with slightly less stuff

The patio has always had a few leaks so Mrs Widds scooted up the ladder onto the roof and took care of the ones we could find, but like typos, there’s always one that escapes even the sternest scrutiny.

Our next task was to create a workbench … out of … well, we didn’t have enough bits of timber left, but luckily I found this underneath a pile of junk a previous tenant had left behind …

As punishment for putting all those staples IN the plastic I now had to pull gazillions of the little buggers OUT of the frame

As punishment for putting all those staples IN the plastic I now had to pull gazillions of the little buggers OUT of the frame

Once the frame had dried out – this was during the four months of rain we had from November 2019 to … now really, (with assorted sunny bits of late) we plonked it down on a couple of bookshelves we ‘liberated’ from my books, threw a slab of plywood on top, and voilá …

Instant workbench - fully loaded with a pot of tea (for me) and mug of coffee. (for Mrs Widds)

Instant workbench – fully loaded with a pot of tea (for me) and mug of coffee. (for Mrs Widds)

And that’s where we’re currently at.

Our first official project involves this interesting little sketch I made. Lets see if you can guess what it is …

In the meantime – I continue to learn about the making of, and editing, videos, whilst being regularly startled at how broad my Aussie accent is. Just goes to show, you can take the woman out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the woman, even after nearly sixteen years … mind you, I also occasionally shift to a strange hybrid English accent as well, sometimes in the same sentence.

Ready for the toasting of toes, boiling of kettles, and relaxing of bones into chairs

Ready for the toasting of toes, boiling of kettles, and relaxing of bones into chairs

Not About Wunder-Lusters, But Important Stuff To Know About SARS-CoV-2 (virus)/COVID-19 (disease)

Before I get to the Wunder-Lusters info post, I decided it’s about time I mentioned this bloke from England, John Campbell. He posts daily informed, well-researched, NON-sensationalist/alarmist, updates on the SARS-CoV-2 (virus)/COVID-19 (disease) outbreak that’s currently poised to be called a pandemic. (given that there are confirmed cases in at least 30 countries – according to the interactive info-graphic from Johns Hopkins University as of today, 20th February 2020)

Here’s a LINK to the infographic.

John is the best source of across-the-board information I’ve come across. He makes things easy to comprehend without dumbing-down or, as I mentioned, sensationalising, the information. Here’s his update for today …

He has lots of other really fascinating health/medical stuff too … I now understand the biological mechanics of how a fever actually works. If nothing else he’s a great research resource for those of us who find doing our research almost, almost, the best thing about being a writer.

So…. barring unforeseen circumstances, Wunder-Lusters is indeed, next.

The Unmotivation Singularity

Sounds like a great title for a science fiction story, doesn’t it?

But first, a picture of some blue sky… because I haven’t seen any for far too long, and there might not be any tomorrow …

Be still, my beating heart

Be still, my beating heart

We’re actually between two rain-storms dropping enormous amounts of rain on already sodden ground. Landslides and flooding abound … Interesting Times.

Back yard - because you can't have too much blue sky ... with sunbeams!

Back yard – because you can’t have too much blue sky … with sunbeams!

Back to this singularity …

Good old Vernor Vinge,  (he of the great ‘Vernor’s Law’ (for writers)  which states that ‘all scenes need to accomplish at least 2 of 3 things: 1 – Provide background information, 2 – Develop the Characters, and 3 – Advance the plot’) first popularised the concept of ‘the singularity’ in a 1993 essay, (definitely worth a read if you’re interested in such things) wherein he posited that it signaled the end of the human or ‘Anthropocene’ era where human interaction with technology advances far enough that what we currently understand as ‘being human’ will cease to exist. (I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it)

My singularity was a little less … hmm .. grandiloquent. I have been singularly unmotivated to do anything, writing, blogging (just look at the last date I posted anything here) working on the Wunder-Lusters, cook, clean, or, on occasions, get out of bed.

I’m blaming it on the weather. Rain, to be precise. Four  months of unrelenting rain, broken only by momentary spells of not-rain.

See that photo of the Winter Tree at the top of this post? All that green stuff isn’t just grass, it’s grass sitting on top of ankle deep mud just waiting to suck down the unwary into it’s watery, sludgy depths.

As much as my intellect understands that living through extreme weather events is now an irreversible fact, my ability to engage with their subtler consequences dug in its heels and refused to budge.

My world became smaller and smaller, old habits, old expectations, based on decades, generations even, of ‘knowing’ what the weather was supposed to be like at this time of year, clung to me even as they were being scoured away by abrasive realities.

It didn’t help, of course, that what we’re planning to do with the Wunder-Lusters will turn just about every single aspect of our lives upside down as well. There was some serious digging in of heels there, let me tell you.

So there I was, circling the drain of ennui, inertia, and false expectations. Slowly, inexorably moving toward that point, that unmotivation singularity, where I’d … well, to put it bluntly, disappear up my own bum.

I didn’t, thankfully. And it wasn’t as though I was struck by some magical mystical bolt of cosmic goo, or a great revelation lit up the inside of my skull.

It was just… a moment, in time … that stayed with me for no longer that a single breath … and then, I was on the other side.

More blue sky, from the end of our road, and SNOW (If only we were three or four hundred meters higher - le sigh)

More blue sky, from the end of our road, and SNOW (If only we were three or four hundred meters higher – le sigh)

Upon re-reading, I see that I’ve confabulated my past and present tenses (bad writer) but really, it’s the singularity’s fault.

P,S, I’ll be waffling on, with more detail, about what we’re up to with the Wunder-Lusters in my next post.

That Was Winter

Whirlwinds of ice crystals racing each other along the snow-covered road…

Long and snowy road

Long and snowy road

Shoveling the driveway clear and salting the footpath. Crisp whiteness, icicle cold air to breathe …

Wintertree - up to her knees in the white stuff

Wintertree – up to her knees in the white stuff

A halcyon time, seven days long …

Widderlake - frozen over

Widderlake – frozen over

… and now?

… it’s raining … again.

Someone Deserves A Raise

This, from The Bluebird of Bitterness …

The owner did say to leave the package on the sidewalk, but the delivery guy insisted.

Finally

After torturing me with well over two months of UN-RE-LENT-ING rain, the temperature finally dropped low enough for this to happen …

Our backyard - the bean pyramid, our newly enclosed patio, and falling snow

Our backyard – the bean pyramid, our newly enclosed patio, and falling snow

It’s not much, just a handful of centimeters, but there’s more in the forecast.

Will we, or nil we, the Seasons turn … The Summer Tree takes on new foliage and becomes the Winter Tree …

Wet snow drapes the windsock low

Wet snow drapes the windsock low

Australia Is Burning

melina-ilustrates (Australia is burning)

melina-ilustrates (Australia is burning)

‘Melina who is Greek Australian painted this heartbreaking image.  It seems to have touched many people and her post is going viral.  She has given permission for the image to be shared but asks that a donation be made to one of the many charities set up to deal with the crisis.  Her website on face book is called Melina illustrates – if you would like to follow the thread and see the photo /comments/ links to donation sites.‘ – quote from Sue Llewellyn’s post, ‘Australia is Burning’