I was surprised this morning to see a pair of mourning doves perched on a telephone wire out my kitchen window showing affection the way horses do preening each other's necks I imagined how pleased they must have been to find such a place to alight so far from stinging nettles pine needles branches and trees I wanted to ask them what's going on but generally you don't need to ask that of crows or ravens or rooks or all manner of non blondes and just then I imagined how the local French Canadians with their own special joual got their nid de poule by analogy with the more familiar nid de corbeau which marks Turtle Mountain and the Frank Slide and the Crowsnest Pass as a place of love and loss and longing stopped fast I can't think now of those souls without longing I can't actually ask the mourning doves a thing but I believe I heard them say take time to do your laundry t...