á↗︎ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ also, @softercomputing & @island → o ° scroll down for chat.burbles ° o ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ in the small nest box ░░ ░░ nuthatches rest quietly ░░ ▒▒ after a long day ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ /~> <~\ ▒▒ ▒▒ (((((()))))) ▒▒ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 5.10.26 on Wednesday, @wingy, Cedric, and i visited Dev & Rek on the Pino for sweet, thoughtful chats and laughs. we had a chance to flip through some of their zine collection and worked on a few collaborative doodles together. an inspiring and wholesome time. we also met Little Ninj, and were starstruck! we're hoping to stop by again to see them before they set sail for the summer. it'd also be so cool to collaborate on a softer computing event when they're back in town in autumn. Thursday was the final day for The Library of Death pop-up at The Ministry of Casual Living, and it was bittersweet, but i'm feeling ready to shift gears for the season ahead. Kate and Anna graciously volunteered to host the latter half of the final shift, and did an amazing job packing up while i attended a storytelling event at Nova Arts Hub. deep gratitude. at Nova, i reconnected with Sabrina who runs climate resilience events, and who might collaborate with me on a climate & death event at some point. i was also delighted to hear that Ignacio, who i'd met at the maskmaking workshop, had been astonished to see a ballooning spider. this story was carried by Mo, whose graphic recordings i'd previously seen around. i recommended that everyone read Charlotte's Web. on Friday, our friend Shane in Leitrim invited others to take a nature stroll in honour of David Attenborough's birthday, so Kate and i looped through míqәn (Beacon Hill Park) and had many joyful encounters along the way. we later watched Project Hail Mary (against my brother's advice) and most of my emotional connection to the film revolved around the spiderlike alien, who reminded me of my spider friends. i didn't care for the added voice though. i've been recently reconnecting with my past life at Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co by rewatching Contact and Interstellar with Kate. back in the day, these films were foundational to me, and revisiting them rekindled a sense of cosmic perspective that i used to contemplate daily. meanwhile, back on Earth, we had also forgotten to buy tickets to the second listening event at Burrow, and were feeling super tired. zonked hard that night. Saturday, wingy scruffhead performed at a plant sale while i joined my friend Keira's community garage sale, and ended up picking up a great monitor to use for softer computing stuff. i also got to meet an artist named Kelsey, who had visited The Library of Death on a day that i wasn't there and was selling a cute little $2 handmade fairy house that i couldn't resist. after returning to pick up Kate at the plant sale, i visited the Green Muse booth, where Anna introduced me to Leanne, a former death companion turned adventurer. Kate also introduced me to Liz from the Bug Zoo, who told me about how chestnut flowers change colours depending on whether or not they still have nectar to offer to bees! we headed off to míqәn for the World Migratory Bird Day celebration, where Kate entered the Scream Like A Gull competition. personally, i think she had the most authentic gull impression both last year and this year, but the judges seem to have a bias towards screechier contestants... anyway, she still got a great commemorative enamel pin for the occasion. she also got interviewed by a few news outlets as well as Trenton & Jameson from Special Bird Service, who are always such a warm, funny pair. meanwhile, i connected with Teale, who works with our local Placemaking Network and maps out the Little Free Libraries in the area. may collaborate to set up a Little Free Library of Death later this year. he's also on the board with the public library system here, who i've also been considering collaborating with in some way or another for Library of Death stuff. we'll see... 5.5.26 Tuesday was Jaden's last day at Birds & Mammals before she moves to Nevada, and we had one last Wingspan with the Tuesday crew (minus ~wingy, who was in Vancouver) in the Learning & Engagement area, thanks to Chris' invitation to upgrade. it was a fun session, but with a layer of sadness underneath as we prepared to say farewell to our dear friend - & amidst the imminent end of such a sweet era at RBCM. all good things ⌛️ then on Wednesday evening, i attended a rehearsal for The Comeuppance - a play narrated by Death, which i've been invited to advise on (re: personification of death). i had previously read most of the script, but decided to leave the ending as a surprise. suffice it to say that i very much enjoyed the performance and felt a surreal sense of connection to the whole thing. i gave some feedback that seems to have been useful for refining the final performance, which Kate and i will be attending next weekend. i also walked away with a few books: The Summer of the Ubume, Consider The Lobster, and Hamnet - from Misty's downsizing giveaway. on Thursday, the "Good Grief" show opened at The Ministry of Casual Living and many more cool folks came to visit The Library of Death. i showcased some grief-specific resources that we have, and had my own work on display for the show as well. i'm generally not drawn to being a gallery artist, but figured i might as well since i have some wall space at MoCL right now. i've also been feeling bad about not giving my work more time to breathe out in the world beyond my closet. Marae volunteered to hold the space for the second half of the evening while i dashed off to Nova Arts Hub for Kyra Royo Fay's "Mask Making With{in}vasives: Reflections On Ancestral Migration" workshop. this prompt felt like destiny when it popped up on my radar, and really delivered on that promise. after a beautiful introductory exercise that brought out a lot of grief in me from my stewardship era, we introduced ourselves before getting to the mask making portion. we used Scotch broom, gorse, and wheatpaste to construct our masks - and i based mine on tiny, cute insects that were crawling all over the tables after being displaced from their homes in the broom. this was amazing to me, as i'd never witnessed any species really interacting with the plant. i later learned that these were broom psyllid nymphs, who exclusively feed on Scotch broom. i managed to rescue one but the others vanished... Friday, i headed to Seattle to spend time with my family, who are all migrating to Boise. and honestly, this visit, i really felt how much Seattle has changed since i left eight years ago - and not in a good way... one example: there was literally a dumpster on fire next to a restaurant we were picking up food from. a little on the nose, but yeah... lots of sad, strange feelings, revisiting a place both familiar and alien at this point. anyway, it was still a really nice family visit, and Kate joined us the next day. we played mini golf with my nephews for their birthday, during which an osprey(?) circled/dived/splashed down nearby, and had a nice picnic in the park afterwards. also, at an intersection on the way to mini golf, a crow swooped down to land next to us and proceeded to chase a mouse between the cars, zigzagging around, and managed to corner/catch it just as the light turned green. pair this with the fact that Kate had just seen a crow chasing a rat in Vancouver, and earlier in the week, i had stumbled across a comments section describing how good crows are at catching rats, and you'll understand our layered sense of synchronous wonder. oh, and i ran into Yumi, an acquaintance from various Japanese events, on the Clipper, and we had a really sweet chat about her ceramics work and the funding application circuit. my dad also gave me a belated Christmas / early birthday gift - a Basquiat jacket - which he chose because of the deathy art. for some strange reason, i've only ever admired Basquiat's work from afar, but he's one of those artists who seems like *such* the artist i would have paid a lot of attention to in my younger years. i went on to learn that he died the year that i was born at age 27... and all of the death-themed art... i mean, yeah, very strange that we didn't get connected until now, but also maybe it's just the right time. ~☯~ on the ferry ride back, i spotted a pod of maybe eight or nine orcas. later, i learned that my sister had dreamt of seeing about eight orcas the previous night, and my mom had told her it as a sign that i would see orcas on my journey home. me, orcas, and Orcus seem to be having a thing lately... hmm... ok! weekly memory workout complete. [5/6 edit: or so i thought...] 5.3.26 birds heard in Auburn from 9:46am - 9:52am #865933 junco #e88d3a robin #343a52 crow #db463b house finch 4.26.26 today, now: Mao, a dear friend of twenty years is visiting from Japan, where she's originally from and been studying folk traditions there for seven. many wandering conversations about the past, present, and future - and of gratitude, grief, and trade-offs. last week: _monday after helping Alfred troubleshoot computer confusion, we headed to St Cecilia to visit Andrew, who bakes there on Mondays. meandering chats and a convergence of worlds. _tuesday World Curlew Day. ~wingy & i celebrated with our fellow Curlew & Shrew crew members at RBCM by wandering the Natural History Gallery together, and exploring a secret room there. now like a dream. later, we met Anna C at Softer Drink for sweet sips & chats. _wednesday met Jess at The Library of Death - a manifestation of a conversation that we'd had a year ago. heartful catch-ups woven with lifedeath reflections. _thursday a day of meetings and plans. picked up an amazing deal on paper to be used for my first Print Hole project (tba). later, met new volunteer Ari at The Library of Death to get him oriented, before i dashed off to meet Kate at Alfred's dreamwork workshop. incense memories of Travelers. after that, dropped by Gwagwadaxla's sweet zine launch and had more wholesome chats. came home to a delightful email from ~flexvolcanic. also got a parking ticket, yay. (slightly contestable.) _friday-today wandering about town with Mao - RBCM collection tour with Jody, inner harbor walk, Uchida lunch, Jagasilk & surreal encounter with Jung Society, Beacon Hill walk, visited Anna C, home tour, Clover Point tidepooling, Gorge Pavillion Park, Market Garden, Sankaku, The Library of Death, Green Muse, Softer Drink, Wairua, the Strange Hour (ran into Ciaran), Jones BBQ, Compost Education Centre (stumbled across Taylor painting a mural), Fernwood, Island Eko Pantry party, gave Yasu a ride to Molly's b-day party at St Ann's Academy (spotted Alfred on the way), Cavity, home. got another parking ticket, yay. (this time highly contestable.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - archive: https://www.leaflitter.ca/special.fish - - - - - - - - - - - - - ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ _______________________________________________________________ |[+]o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o° [ chat.burbles] °o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o[v1.2]| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o° | | o [3.8 '26] o | | ° o° ° | | o ~leaf sweet! i've never been to oaxaca, but o | | o would love to visit someday. so kind of you o | | ° ° to invite us :^) o° | | o o | | ° we'll be in touch for sure if we're able to make °° | | o a trip your way. meanwhile, yes, let's have o | | ° some fun here in the special.fish.sea ~~~☆~~~ °o° | | o o | | °o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° | | o | | . <☉,>{ | | ___________________________________________________ | | ! | | | | }<,☉> < [4.26 '26] | | | | | | | | oh, hey, ~jeffy! so happy to see you swimming | | | | around here now too hehe | | | | | | | | really sweet to see the Salish Sea special.fish | | | | school growing lately :^) | | | |___________________________________________________| | |_______________________________________________________________|