Life as a duck

Andrea and I were taking a wonderful Spring walk last night.

To Government House British Columbia – camera in hand (Canon EOS-30D) with one of their many fine lenses.

Click on the link for the B.C. Government House (if you would be so kind…) and then come back to this page.

If this were an episode of Star Trek, B.C. Government House would be that floating city on a cloud – where all is joyous and peaceful… and the Earth below is one of misery and despair. Think Earthquakes, typhoons, global warming (or not) and a spiraling consumer price index.

Click on the photo above (when prompted below) to reveal the true nature of this peaceful creature.

And yet yesterday, on one of Victoria B.C.‘s hottest days of the year, walking through this Provincial Government residence (little more than one KM from home)… it was as if nothing else really mattered. Or that everything mattered. And we were both acutely aware of the cataclysmic events unfurling around the globe – a planet experiencing its own paroxysm of physical rage – with heart-breaking consequences leveled against tens of thousands of fellow humans… ostensibly and ironically less than a heartbeat away; 12 hours by jet and a microsecond at the speed of light.

We do what we can. One one hand we give freely to the Red Cross and know that thousands of Canadians are doing the same thing – and this benefits the Chinese recovery and many other worthy campaigns.

But what of Myanmar (Burma)? A stubborn military dictatorship is standing between the World (and its desire to help) and the victims. A million people could die in the next couple of weeks.

And yet – here we walk – amidst hundreds of native plants (and some not so native) with dozens of wild birds and ducks… families of Mallard Ducks and air thick with every imaginable fragrance. The Government House also has a herb and vegetable garden… open to the general public. And if you are stuck for chives, parsley, mustard, basil or one of dozens of herbs – in the preparation of your salad or pasta… well, help yourself courtesy of the Provincial Government of British Columbia!

Back to the duck (above) for a moment. If you can take in every bad (or good) thing that has happened to the Planet Earth in the last week or so… (do it now…)
Now take a good long luck at the Duck (click for the blow-up) and see if you can guess what it is thinking about our plight. See it? Yea.

Exactly.