The Crow Hour

Yesterday I went for my Wednesday ginkgo walk around Tea Swamp Park. A ginko walk is a meditative walk with the intention to write a haiku. There were a variety of beautiful cloud formations in the soft, late-afternoon sun. As I passed Sophia and 19th I noticed seagulls circling in a thermal updraft. Then the crows came--innumerable murders of crows heading off to Burnaby to roost. This is a daily occurrence in Vancouver. You can set your coffee break to it. It still amazes me every time I see it.


One day I was sitting on the bus once with a bunch of skateboarders sitting next to me. One looked out the window and said, "It's the crow hour." His friends looked out the window in silent meditation. It was a haiku moment.I had even thought about doing an art project about it--getting other artists to blog about what they are doing when the crows pass overhead, but I found someone has already done a major project focusing on this behavior.

I found info on Suzanne Northcott's Crossing Boundary Installation, an article about the show in the Canadian Universities Press website, and an article about the installation in the Georgia Straight.


there is a birch tree in my heart,

its bark

breaking, mending

breaking, mending

Sweet snowdrops!