Moments of beauty

[vaneramos]

This morning as I was walking up Carden Street, I noticed a small feather blowing ahead of me. There was only the lightest breeze, but it hovered just a few paces ahead of me for an entire block. It finally landed at the corner. I picked it up. It was a smallish feather, innocuous grey with a streak of black and some white down. I saw another one nearby, suggesting a raptor had snatched a pigeon in the neighbourhood, so the moment of beauty had a violent undertone. I carried the feather for two blocks, then released it on a fresh breeze in St. George's Square, where it promptly landed on the ground.

This is posted in response to rfmcdpei's inquiry about moments of unexpected beauty.

This has been an eventful weekend.

Yesterday Jon and Bill got married. Jon has been an important friend over the years, and I've mentioned him many times in this journal, though we haven't spent as much time together since he and Bill got a place together in Mississauga several years ago. The wedding was joyful and energetic. They had asked guests to dress "summer smart" with a twist of colour, so it was a vivid congregation. The grooms exchanged leis of colourful live carnations. The Rainbow Chorus sang "Starlight". After the vows, Jon surprised Bill by singing a song I didn't know. Jon has a lovely tenor voice and precise tuning, so it came off very well. Many chorus members were in tears. Jon's Mom is a frail but sweet lady. When I went up to her, she raved about what a lovely ceremony it had been. The speeches were brief because Bill wanted dancing to start by 9 p.m. Dancing is very important to both of them, as singing is to Jon.

Today the library committee conducted its first annual inventory of resources at Out On The Shelf. Afterward I met Sarah at the Red Brick Café and wrote for two hours.

Yesterday morning I ran into a problem in the weaving project. While threading the reed, I discovered I had missed putting two consecutive threads through the heddles. If I had missed only one thread, I would have caught the problem immediately, but two did not disrupt the sequence of threads through the lease sticks. It must be corrected. This will set progress back at least two hours. Since discovering the error I have taken a little break. Maybe I'll tackle it again tonight.