北岸/North Shore

北温哥華  · North Vancouver

那段青澀如草酸味的日子, 大哥哥愛攝影, 在淺水灣火紅熾熱的英雄樹下, 在動植物公園兩棵交差而生的棕櫚樹前, 在山頂鬱綠陰涼的小徑上, 都留下她瘦怯怯的的身影。

後來也沒發生過什麼事, 大哥哥說做人要有多點學識, 要多見世面才好, 於是她去了紐約, 多倫多, 倫敦, 巴黎, 阿姆斯特丹, 三藩市, 蒙特利爾... 繞了地球一個圈子, 四年後, 她帶著個學位回來, 可是大哥哥不見了, 只有天星碼頭前五支旗桿在等她。

他當了政府官員, 身旁有個愛穿改良旗袍的她, 他倆齊齊出席適當的場合, 結交適當的人物, 交流適當的對話, 恆生指數, 房屋價格, 港姐選美, 回家途中, 秘書會通知他, 記得週末和副政司打球, 和孩子坐船出海, 太太娘家有宴會... 他什麼都記得, 只是記不起她。

悄悄的回來, 也悄悄的回去, 平常的生活, 平常的工作, 偶然在中文報紙看到他, 又升了三級, 在鏡頭前展露他官方式笑容, 他意氣風發, 她不認識他。

若干年後, 聽說他帶了另外一個她來了温哥華, 在北温區買了房子, 孩子在名校上學, 閒時愛駕著他軋新的寶馬去市中心 Fairmont Hotel 喝下午茶, 她沒有見過他。

.................

春寒重, 深院靜, 看著北岸群山叠叠, 山沒有變, 她瘦怯怯的身形沒有變, 變的那個是他。

Is Hong Kong a Police State?

 

香港/LuLu Island II

It's been a full year now since we moved into this art unit. And as I sit by the window in the morning haze, listening to the seagulls and watching the recycling truck picking up the bins, the sun twinkling on the windows across the street, cup of coffee by me, John is asleep in our bed, I realize that in the face of this pandemic, the rest of it takes a back seat. There is no time for holding grudges, for vituperative behaviour, for regret, our only job now is to hold each other, to be kind to each other, and to move on, together. 

In the peak of COVID-19…

I don't hate people… I just feel better when they're not around.

—A public health emergency was declared in British Columbia on March 17 and come to the end at June 30, 2021.

Like Thoreau, I'd gone to the woods...

Lynn Valley

Rice Lake

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...”  —Henry David Thoreau

I spent two hours in a forest yesterday and I should have spent longer. Soft, pine needle ground underfoot makes you feel as if you could just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I want to be alone in the woods for a long, long time. It's a place to escape and a place to release, to breathe out, to get rid of the angst that builds when one doesn't do enough, what? life? I can feel it inside but it's not always there. Usually there is beneficence....

Granville Street

Sitting in a cafe in Granville Street minding my own business while the music is blasting mix in the background. By chance, the program switched to a "Mozart Clarinet Quintet", for a moment turning the cafe into an antechamber of Paradise. People fell silent, there were looks of bafflement, all stop their networking, reading, writing and whatever they were doing….. 

Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A Major KV581 - 1/4

https://youtu.be/-K1g4y6xigU

My favourite colour is Autumn