Due to inevitable circumstances...

Handwritten sign spotted in the window of a small nearby sushi restaurant:

"Due to inevitable circumstances we will no longer be here after August. Thank you for enjoying our sushi these many happy years! We hope to be back some day."

"Inevitable circumstances." The phrase fascinates me as it jingles along in my head, jostling with the more predictable "unavoidable circumstances". In one part of the space-time continuum, I suppose circumstances are "inevitable" -- and rarely "avoidable."

In any case, due to my own inevitable circumstances, this is the first month (I think -- except for when we moved) of many happy years (thanks for that) of To Capture the Eye that I will miss posting an original production of some kind or another.

I've been working away -- sometimes plodding, sometimes grinding...neither a good sign -- trying to finish the Blue and White triptych.  Until this week, it's been very slow going indeed. And the circumstances were inevitable -- inevitable that working on the third panel would present big challenges in making a "seam" with the second panel, matching colours shared between panels #2 and #3, and keeping the whole flow of the triptych going. I thought I'd finish by the end of September but it's not gonna happen.

Still -- inevitable circumstances sometimes have their up-sides. Consider these other recent circumstances.

It was perhaps inevitable that our friendly neighbour Anita would not have two years in a row of a bumper crop of "Anita's squash" -- the mysterious prickly pear-shaped squash that turned out to be something called "chayote" by non-Chinese speakers. Last year her small front yard was packed with an ever-expanding trellis laden with these squash; this year, the trellis is a quarter the size.

The up-side: She remembered how much we enjoyed her bounty last summer and brought us some of her sister's harvest, giving us all another opportunity to enjoy each other's neighbourliness.

Circumstance #2: Our Crow Haven neighbours gave us some cosmos seedlings after I'd raved about the special variegated variety that flanked their walk last summer. Inevitably it seems, the seeds ran true to their original type, and our plants yielded mostly white flowers. The up-side? The white cosmos have become the lovely fresh stars of our late summer garden, and I wouldn't trade them for the once desired pink-and-white variegations.

Circumstance #3: Well, of course, it's inevitable that I'd be unable to do all the garden rearrangement that I'd planned for Summer 2014. The up-side? A great treasure sprang up from the vintage compost that I spread on my work-in-progress garden plot next to the back gate. The compost dated back to the previous owners here, and we've never seen anything like this amazing volunteer, except to recognize that it's one of the Cucurbitaceae (that's for all those who love that funny word "cucurbit" as I do). It has now produced about 40 feet of trailing vines,and dozens of golden yellow trumpet flowers that bloom in twos and threes, each lasting just a day.

AND there are so far nine quirky flat-ended squash/gourds(?) awaiting our pleasure:

(If you can put a name to this, please reply soonest)

And so.......while it's inevitable that I haven't yet completed the B & W triptych, it's gradually coming together and just might exceed all expectations. Would it be an inevitable coincidence...or maybe an enviable coincidence...or certainly an incredible circumstance...if I were to finish it the first week in October, just in time for the birthday milestone of the original Blue & White Girl?