Desert and Blue Moon Baseball

Two Sundays ago, the 26th my friend Mary & I went to Osoyoos for the day.  She has parents & two brothers in the cemetery on the hill and we put flowers on the graves.  Mary & I have an understanding based on over 30 years of friendship - we don't have to talk about some things.  We just know to stay positive, like having a picnic at the beach there, stopping at fruitstands for cherries, peaches and nectarines, and fishing at a small lake on the way home at sunset.  No fish caught, but lots of fun!  Here's a photo of our view from cemetery hill in Osoyoos, in the heart of B.C.'s pocket desert territory.  Irrigation is necessary in all vineyards and orchards.

The Labour Day weekend I went with my Mom to bordertown GF and we met up with some people there to watch the baseball tournament for a few days & nights in a row.  We went to a relative's cabin at Christina Lake, I swam (water is warmer than my lake!), visited some folks we know and headed back to the games.  The weekend was great!  Lewiston Truckers of Idaho won the tournament for the 4th time out of 5 years I believe, not absolutely sure on the stats.  Our timing was rather interesting - out of the 6 games I attended, we saw 4 Lewiston games...and they are an amazing team to watch.  They work at it, don't make major mistakes and they're a really solid strong team.  One game they made some mistakes though, and they lost.  That game was a rollercoaster and highly entertaining although cringeworthy at times.  Here's a photo of a night game around the time of our full blue moon, and the Truckers are in blue.

This area in the foreground is the 'beer bleachers' where my cousin & I spent some time - quite drunk up there although I sat with my can of ice tea!  It was fun.  We had a great weekend...and I hope to go again next year...not just be there once in a blue moon!

Here's a piece I wrote on the beach mid August.  Now we have the end of long summer days and warm evenings here in B.C.  September is a different story always....

Indigo Verbena

My answer to the color purple

And shapes of things -

Everything is just surfaces

It's all geometry

Nothing is yielding and fluid -

Curvaceous and flowing

Beneath, unless perceived as so.

Rivers don't run, sweetly meandering

Until each drop moves ahead

And each drop tumbles

To the stones.

I won't go to you 

Until every thought tumbles

One into the other ahead of me.

And you won't see me

Until this starred verbena in my hand

Is seen for what it is -

An indigo umbrella, ruffled and fancy

For garden creatures who gather 

Our sacred thoughts

In drops of water

In a warm and quiet August night

With illusions of softness

And a gold dappled highway

Above us in directions invisible.

A lovely photo I was happy to take outside my Uncle's place where we stayed in GF.