One Thing

Slept in Sunday morning. Hey, winter mornings are dark! And there was a great movie on TV last night -- final part of The Lord of the Rings. Even with blipping to another channel during the spider attacks, it still kept me awake late. So it was nice to get up a little later than usual.
Pulled my parka on and walked the landlady's dogs. In my neighbourhood it's okay to wear pyjamas while walking dogs, especially if the pjs kinda look like yoga gear instead of being the flannel type with Snoopy dog patterns.
While walking dogs I saw the weather was great for November -- cold but no wind or rain. Yay! So you can bet that ten minutes later I was walking through the park again, but this time without dogs and with a rec kayak on my shoulder.
It's been windy too many days lately! We've been making do with kayaking videos instead of going out in the boats. High tide and slack current made it a great day to be on the water.
So nice to go out and do the loop along the beach, along the rocky shore, then out and around Flower Island and back. There were gaps in the cloud cover, and the sun glared down, bright but not hot. It was wonderful to see the water all clear again! In summer, the bay's water grows cloudy. Now, I could even see white sea anemones on the rocks underwater at the rocky shoreline. I turned and swirled, practising some of the extended-reach moves shown in the kayaking videos. Cormorants took off and gave me some room to move.
There were otters tumbling inside the line of bull kelp, so I paddled outside the tangles and managed not to disturb them too. The otters are good neighbours, as far as I can tell. The one that galloped through our front yard this summer was a big friendly fella.
Birds galore floated or flew past. It always amazes me how ducks' wings whistle as they take off or land. Even those little ducky birds called surf scoters. I made note of the black and white wings of one little flock of birds, to look up in bird books.
As I rounded Flower, I went to Evans Rock. Looking one way, there was Mount Rainier, dim but showing through the patchy clouds. Looking another, there was Mount Baker, bright with fresh snow. It was a two-volcano day! So I pressed the OK button on my SPOT and sent a message with a link showing my location.
The air was so clean. There wasn't any current in the little channel as I paddled past the rock that looks like a crouching cat. "Just give me one thing I can hold onto/ to believe in..." really gotta learn all the words to that song.
An eagle soared past, and a kingfisher darted by. There's a coffee shop in the neighbourhood, and up high on one of the walls is written:
Hopping out of bed and thinking about the one thing
Then a splash distracted me. The otters were still tumbling inside the line of bull kelp along the shore. I guessed there must still be herring or some other schools of fish gathering in that place. Trying to give them lots of room, I headed farther off-shore, but the otters came up in front of me and ducked down again. One popped up again, close enough that I could see the fish caught in his jaws. Way to go, otter!
Back along the shore, avoiding dogs swimming for tennis balls. Then back to the Beach House with the kayak on my shoulder. Made medlar jelly, and sealed it in mason jars. Wrote and wrote while the wind picked up as the day ended. What a day!