Returning from the Cottage Bakery on Fairfield Road with pastries for breakfast, you see the most beautiful patch of miner’s lettuce by the trunk of a tree, much more lush than the clumps you took down from the mountain a month ago and planted in your garden.
Enough for salads, enough for pizza (the succulent leaves hold up well to heat). But (oh, there’s always a but…) you also see the many dogs being walked along Fairfield Road on this bright Monday morning and yes, they are peeing against trees. Even this one.
And you also notice yourself walking ahead, as though the woman that small girl who walked this road more than 5 decades ago has become is still slightly out of reach, walking a little too fast to catch up to.
...Theresa Kishkan 
I laughed at the miner’s lettuce (my first thought was: dogs!) And cried a little at the me you evoked, same number of decades ago as you, growing up in a then shabby but oh-so-lovely old neighbourhood of south Vancouver. That neighbourhood has changed almost beyond recognition now, perhaps unlike yours of Fairfield. We meet ghosts of ourselves from time to time. Thank you for continuing to blog when so many have given it up. Your reflective thoughts and beautiful writing are a welcome part of my day.
Thank you, Violet, from Ladysmith…