This is a word I recently heard during part of one of my favourite comedian’s standups…
He has a couple of Netflix specials !
In this particular routine he likens himself to a Sherpa for his elderly parents, “they’re following behind him as he leads them through their house so’s they don’t fall down…”
“Oh! Watch out, there’s a carpet coming up here…”
The Sherpa mentioned <here> was our Summer Camp Director…
He also happened to be a man known to me at time as Uncle Bruce – (my Dad’s cousin but ah…)
…he led us on an annual nature walk through the woods, then out onto the highway to White Lake. If we widen the scope of the lens, we’ll find ourselves in Whiteshell Provincial Park.
Along the way he stopped to show us lichen that clung to the granite rock under our feet… widen the len’s scope somewhat and you’ll see we are in what’s known as the Canadian Shield… or Boreal Forest….
…and we’d stop to pick Wild Blue Berries >
Unlike those you’ll find in rows and rows in places like the lower mainland of Vancouver, BC, they are barely above ground, and seemingly growing out of the granite rock! But really, it is from soil that time has played a part in creating there. Water from rainfall lay among the bare granite ridges long long ago… and in the winter froze, and caused fissures and crevices. As seasons and years come and go, the leaves from nearby trees settle in these, and compost into soil… birds having eaten blueberries elsewhere, have no flap in the back, so any activity emanating from under their tail feathers falls perhaps unwittingly on their part… to the ground below them. Some fall into this soil, and because this plant “likes” acidic soil, it flourishes and sprouts… and propagates… as time goes by their roots widen the cracks, and increase the places for soil to recurr…
The age of an area is partly seen in the amount of vegetation, and the type of vegetation. Lichen -> Berry bushes -> trees…
And here we are at the end of a very long tangent and you are still reading this! You are a rare bird!
Running Down Vimy 