Yup, that’s my theme for this visit to Victoria. KISS.
Today was no exception. Began with cupcakes and tea with my friend, Claire and her little boy Ati. We ate at Crumsby’s. A cupcake cafe. A chalkboard over the counter. Pale blue walls. Scuffed floors from many little feet.
It’s a place for moms, mostly, to gather and have a coffee, something sweet and chat while their children explore the part of the café filled with toys. I love that the little kids are given small tea cups for their drinks (though clearly certain adults will sip from those cups as well) and that it’s a safe place for kids to play.
It’s amazing to watch how little kids interact with each other. One little girl mothered a smaller girl, protecting her, supporting her, making sure she didn’t fall. One little kid refused to come out from under the table. One stuffed pretty much every toy he had into his mouth. One tried valiantly to show other children how the toys worked only to have them run back to mommy.
It’s just not something I can do all by myself. I can’t sit in a café, eat a cupcake and watch little kids play. It’s kinda sad that that is the world we live in but so be it. It was fun to do while chatting with Claire.
Then to the beach with my doggies in tow, little Ati in his rain slicker and Claire bundled up in her red leather coat against the wind.
For the dogs, it’s chance to run around in the sand, to find a good stick to chew and to splash in the cold sea. For Ati, it’s a world filled with driftwood forts, all sorts of cool pieces of wood that look like guns or swords or skulls. It’s a world filled with sand to be moved, molded or to bury things in. It’s a world of shiny stones that need to be rubbed and looked at.
For Claire, it’s a world where she ends up carrying and armload of driftwood, has her pockets stuffed with beach stones and her camera filled with neat memories.
For me, it’s an opportunity to chase down recycling blown away by the hurricane winds, to get my new shoes filled with sand and watch my doggies and Claire and Ati at play. Simple, uncomplicated play.
Simply wonderful.
After that, a lovely chat with a friend (at Starbucks in Oak Bay) about her novel . It’s fun to be a part of the creative process while the sun is still out and the coffee shop is filled with people chatting, no one who’s sitting in a rush, everyone taking a long moment to take a pause in their day.
I return to Bill and Thora’s for supper and to take a quick trip to Margot’s Space. There are new flower beds in Margot’s Space now, the earth black and fresh, the plants newly planted and green and growing. Her tree has doubled in height since last year and green buds are just beginning to form on the branches. This place is always a reminder of the life I had, the loss I feel everyday but like the tree, my new life begins to grow. Joe 2.0. Green buds on an empty branch.
Dinner is a totally Joe-meal of steak and potatoes and asparagus and fresh pineapple for dessert. The conversation flows from topic to topic effortlessly, and, after supper, the dogs settle down to snore, we put on Jeopardy and I see if I can answer a single question in time.
Not life on the edge. No skydiving. No running with the bulls. No explosions or car chases or gun battles.
Just a simple life. Joe 2.0