inside out…

Late May, 2005

So, as to the light the moth is drawn, so were we to the field. Tim talked about having a back door that made that distinctive wheeeeee.......BANG as the spring stretched and then recoiled. We needed one here since the door opened so much. Partially I would want to recall that eeeeee.....BAM in the winter time. An auditory connection to the summer. Tim made a lower handle for the inside the kids could manage and I screwed a red bell on a string to the outside.

The cats, we had four, became curious and we had to watch ourselves as they would try to escape as well. Cruel of us really, if we could, why not them. They were city cats, indoor cats, had been all their lives. I'd heard stats on the life expectancy of cats indoors and outdoors. Up to 20 odd years indoors, 5 if they went outside. But quality of life should enter the equation. We might need to rethink our position on this but at this point the closest they got was a short leash tied to the porch or sniffing at the door.

We had a rough deck as you stepped out. It had peeling paint and old trellis for screening. I desperately wanted to tear it all down but the floor and have it open. Ideally with steps running all around so lots of people could sit on them and it would make it that much easier to get to the field. But at the time, Finnie was still not completely safe with open heights so we left it. Still the warm boards were inviting and we used it alot. Owen and I are looking out at the field and the beginnings of the flower garden beyond the arbour.

There were two red maples outside our dining room windows. They were in their glory. The young maple saplings mimicked them only in placement. Otherwise scrawny and dwarfed by these healthy red maples, they were what I hoped our silver maple babies would achieve with time. A clothesline had been attached to one how many years ago I could not tell but many as the blue cord had become embedded in the branch it was attached to. I couldn't get it out, couldn't free the limb from this leash for an immobile life.

Meanwhile, the energy applied during the winter to the inside of our house, to unpack, paint, put up lights, fill with stuff, too much stuff, was soon redirected to the exterior. The change was noticeable. Clutter, I should say, more clutter, amassed itself on flat surfaces. Decorating projects were left half done. I could not get interested in indoor projects but could happily tackle two or three simultaneous jobs outside. So be it. Winter could pick up the slack of the interior jobs. Summer was beckoning and I was listening.