Sunday, March 18, 2012

'haunt' can be a noun and a verb

Spiderwebs surface like a river current from under snow-melt. I saw this sea of spiderwebs rippling under the conifer trees atop the Wilson St. headland, that part of the downtown waterfront which has been renamed after its transformation, the Spirit Garden .

We've had a few incredibly warm -- unseasonably mild  --days, and the sun has quickly melted the mounds of snow. There's the odd dirty pile of snow, but I still can't believe that we have such spring-like days in mid-March. I am all confused about it. I even saw a small red-bellied spider creeping on the outside of my window. What?! Where had this spider been hiding all winter? And so suddenly appearing .

Because the air is so warm (high teens and low twenties in Celsius), yet the lake is still frozen in the harbour and the water beyond it ice cold, when the warm air mass hits the water, an alchemy of mist and fog emerges.

"Oh, my," I said as I peeked out of the window this morning. A soft heavy fog had rolled up to my front steps.The waters of the lake had come to greet me, inviting me to walk into the water. That is, walk into its shape-shifting, walk into the haunt. I didn't have to walk along the water this morning as the line between land and water would blur today.  


I am no longer taking a walk with Tassu along the waterfront. It's too far for her to walk. Her back hip and right leg have gotten worse since the day her legs gave way. I had to flag down an early morning driver and plead for help. He was so nice. He drove off to get help and then we managed to put Tassu on a blanket and carry her into the back of his hatchback and bring her home.

Now, she's dragging her hind leg even worse so she is mostly walking on only three legs. When I went to see her this morning, to see if she was up for a walk, she got so excited when she saw me that her back legs slipped out and she flopped onto the porch. "Calm down, calm down," I begged her, running to hug her big head so that she would stop trying to jump up on me. We went for a very short walk, me with my heart in my throat the whole way, Tassu with her tongue hanging out and a big smile inside her eyes."I can do this!" she told me.

Then, I put her back on the porch, gave her some scraps, and left for a run.

2 comments:

Katja Maki said...

Yes I noticed those spiderwebs in our backyard today too. Do spiders hide under the snow knitting their spiderwebs? Poor Tassu. She does have a lot of sisu though! Thanks for your haunting thoughts!

Merche Pallarés said...

It was about time, dear Taina!!! I've been wanting to know what happened to Tassu since your last very moving post when she was stuck in the snow... Glad to know she's OK although her legs are failing, poor thing, but that's what old age is all about, my dear, everything starts to fail... Grrrr... Hugs, M.