On the Road Again (intermission #7) Leaving Salt Spring Island

It is always difficult to leave the island for the last time. Which is rather strange in that other than Sally and a few other friends, I know very few people and I really don't know the island at all. There are whole sections of the island I have never been to, and there are at least three lakes that people swim in that I have never even seen never mind swim in. So why is SSI so close to my heart?

Sally is of course one of the reasons. The amazing variety of friends that gather around her, their stories and their drama that are openly shared as people drop in. Some of the people bring gifts of food, flowers or finds from the thrift shop, some just literally drop in to say hi, give/get a hug and then leave, while others come with all of their baggage (literally and figuratively) and stay and stay.

Somehow in spite of all of the chaos, Sally and I remain constant in our relationship. There are days when we hardly speak because she is so busy in the garden or with people dropping in.But there are also days when we spend much of the time after she is up and about (seldom before 12:00) together, shopping and visiting at the Saturday market, working/chatting in the garden or on occasion arguing about politics and whose perception of the world is the right one. When we are teasing each other, I call her "boss" and she calls me "the professor". We bicker about taste in dishes and where things get put away (Sally is very specific). After hearing one of our exchanges, one of her workers asked "are you sure you two aren't married?" People assume that Sally and I are old friends. But we are not. We are just good friends. So I will miss her and her garden

The picture above is of her little "pond" made out of a bathtub which has been surrounded by rocks and plants. One of my "jobs" when I am around is to keep the little ceramic frog (left side of pond) which acts as a pump working. The sound of the running water is quite delightful, but the plastic tube gets plugged, the frog gets turned around (and thereby pumps all of the water out of the pond) or sometimes it just stops working. I fix it.

This picture to the left is of my favourite plant. Sally plants vegetable amongst her flowers (or perhaps it is the other way around) and occasionally she loses things. While watering the garden one evening I noticed this plant amongst her pole beans. I think it is a Dahlia - very dark leaves - almost black with quite remarkable orange flowers.

I spend hours in the garden watering it.  The garden consumes Sally's money and her worker's time - it drives many of us who live there slightly crazy as Sally fixates on it, in fact obsesses on it. It controls when we eat (if they are planting, weeding or dead heading and it is warm - there will be no food until sundown)  and what else happens around the house. But those of us who work in the garden do so at least in part so that we can be part of Sally's life and passion. The garden is a gift to all who visit it.

The other reason I will miss the island is just the island itself. It is beautiful. I love the trees, the hills, the winding roads, the ferry terminals, the extraordinary gardens and of course the Arbutus trees. It is a remarkable and magical place.