Light on a Monday morning; fall begins

Snug Cove a few hours ago, looking over the Queen Charlotte Channel to the east wall of Atl’katsem/Howe Sound. It’s a bright, warm September, and the light in the sound is softened by water vapour, condensing over the cold water. Humpbacks and seals are eating and resting and the birds are active, eating seeds and insects, preparing for, or stopping over on, their long migrations southward. Orb weavers are busy building their evening webs. Just Bowen Island things unfolding. This morning I stopped in for a routine blood test at the health centre, and our local technician, Kelly, had a live stream of the Vancouver Aquarium sea otter pool showing in his clinic room. He said it’s been the most successful calming presence he has ever had for his clients undergoing tests. His daughter suggested it two weeks ago. Now nobody can stop talking about it. I’m reading two books at the moment. In hardcover is Seamus Heaney’s incredible translation of Beowulf. The book itself was sitting in the…