A Lizard Visits Lillooet

Alexandra Elizabeth Waterhouse-Hayward, Lillooet, September 22, 2012

I have to confess to you here that my recent 70th birthday has brought to light that I have devolved to becoming a lizard or a snake. I wonder what Charles Darwin would make of this. Or Paul Bettany the wonderful English actor (Dr. Maturin to Russell Crowe’s Captain Jack Aubrey in Master& Commander: The Far Side of the World) who plays Darwin in the 2009 Jon Amiel film Creation. Rosemary, my eldest daughter Ale, 44 and I watched it over the weekend in Lillooet.

Our window in our bedroom

I am a snake, or at the very least an aging Mexican iguana because all I want to do these days is soak in the sun (not for a sun tan) but to feel hot. Of late I have enjoyed getting into my Malibu and feeling the heat of the enclosed car. I am reluctant to lower the windows. I want heat. With Rosemary’s cat Casi-Casi we sit on our backyard bench, he, cat-like and me like that iguana or, could it be a Galapagos turtle?

Ale's bedroom window

Going to Lillooet can be a trying experience. I am 70 and very set in my ways. You might say I am inflexible before you even check my joints. And my 42-year-old single daughter who happens to be a teacher can be bossy and set in her ways, too, even though there is no lizard transformation in her near future.

The kitchen window

For our weekend trip to Lillooet, we drove on Friday morning and left for Vancouver on Sunday noon. It was uneventful, with no confrontation. A couple, Darlene and Bruce, friends of Ale, arrived on Saturday afternoon and we entertained them with fresh strawberries and a very cold bottle of prosecco that the Lillooet government liquor store stocked to my astonishment!

I even managed to take some Ektachromes (few of these left in my fridge and the film has been discontinued) of Ale that pleased me even though I had a little bit of slight friction from my subject when I suggested that the red, white and black polka dot halter straps on her shoulders clashed with her beautiful sunflowers.

Friday was almost hot enough for me (it was 29) but Saturday and Sunday were cool to my chagrin.

As we drove back to Vancouver, listening to Gore Vidal pontificate on how the United States became a security-based empire with an unconstitutional CIA in 1947 and how inept and corrupt President Jack Kennedy was, I knew that come next spring I can expect some more pleasant heat in Lillooet for the lizard in me and that Rosemary and I can bask, at least, in the furnace heat of our Vancouver home, knowing that our eldest daughter is a happy woman.





     




Sunflowers & the Fraser Canyon

  

 

Rosemary and I picked tomatoes at the farm. She, unfortunately does not like these.

Addendum: Even though Ale does not have cable we were able to enjoy our Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC streamed live on Rosemary's laptop!