Footnotes to a Conversation, May 29, 2023

“The proper, wise balancing of one’s whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.” – Arnold Bennett

Places Worth Visiting

In my opinion, a lively downtown doesn’t depend solely on office workers, a matter of some debate after Covid had so many people working from home. I haven’t ever worked downtown, but I have always gone downtown. In Victoria, my hairdresser, dentist, and optometrist are all downtown. But a lively downtown which is fun to visit needs more than that. I’m so glad Munro’s Books is located downtown. There’s also a great bakery and some interesting clothes stores. An article in Geekwire outlines 10 ways cities can encourage a downtown resurgence. They include embracing creativity and colour, enhancing street sounds and smell, highlighting scenic views, and incorporating places/activities for children. [Geekwire]

Community

I live alone and I’m aging, and I think about what might happen if I fell or became ill so I appreciate the idea of using Meals on Wheels to do more than simply deliver food. They have also been used to provide wellness checks and information/resources in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. [Yes Magazine]

I See the Moon

I have a long-standing fascination for the moon, especially when I’m overseas and far from home. I’ve never fully understood my sentiments so I was delighted to find Katherine May expressing a similar relationship with the moon in her book Enchantment:

“As a child, I would look out of the window on a nighttime drive and think the moon was following us … It seemed that she was attentive to my needs, concernedly checking in. Sometimes I felt like I needed her gaze. As I got older, I noticed more about how she waxes and wanes, and I began to remodel her in my mind: perhaps she was just like me, sometimes round with power and sometimes dissolving into the sky, eternally shifting shape, restless. By then, I no longer thought I was the centre of the universe, and so it felt as though the moon needed me to notice her, too. Our relationship was reciprocal. When I stepped outside at night, we witnessed each other, and that was all that needed to happen. I couldn’t ask the moon for anything. But between us, it felt like an exchange of information between two entities who know what it is to endure constant change.” [Katherine May]

Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.

If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.