intermission - elections

Well it is all done for another 4 years - although with a minority government who knows what will happen.

The best case scenario is for the Liberals and the NDP to agree on some basic facts and plans and then to make a commitment to work together as long as those goals last. It has been done before. The two parties are not that far apart.

As a commentator said last night - 53 seats is sort of a majority - if the speaker comes from the opposition - he/she "has" to vote for the government if the vote is a tie. It is one of those weird traditions that make little sense.

The scary thing is how close some of the contests were.... we could have had a Conservative government. We need to be more active, more vigilant, more aware of what is happening in that never never land of politics. The nightmares might just come true one day.

On the Road Again 2011 - Blog 31

By this point I had been out west for a month, but I had spent virtually no time on Salt Spring Island. So in spite of my desire to spend time with my grandson, within a day or two of coming back from the folk festival I was on the ferry heading to that tiny island and the house that has been my summer home for the past few years.

The first night I was there we went down to the Treehouse - an outdoor restaurant in Ganges and watched a friend of Sally's sing a few songs. I had seen Susan at her CD release party at Hugh's Place in Toronto last November and it was good to see her sing again. However before she sang, we watched a most remarkable act on the waterfront.

A couple from France, who were sailing around the world earning money performed this remarkable ballet/acrobatic show on their sail boat that was anchored twenty or so meters from the boardwalk. They used the riggings and the boom like they were natural extensions of the water. The two of them were far superior to any of the acts that I saw at the Busker’s Festival in Victoria. They were graceful and strong, the act had some humour in it, but most amazingly the love story they told was so powerful that I am sure I was not the only one who stopped breathing at the sheer poetry of it all. It was quite a night!

I spent just over two weeks at Sally’s. I don't know where the time went. I watered the garden most evening, I repaired the foot rest of Sally's chair, I resurface some salad bowls, the teak dining table and a large coffee table, repaired a silk shawl and a small leather foot stool. But those jobs only took a little bit out of my day. Most of the time I just hung around and chatted to whomever was there. If Sally was busy I read outside, if she was alone then we chatted about life, politics and anything else that came up. As always sometimes we argued about our quite different views of how the world works. As always we enjoyed being together. On occasion I cooked for her and her guests if her workers were busy doing something else. I once even cook some chili for a number of ladies who were coming over for an evening of singing and chanting. I didn't stay for the music. The irony of the "man of the house" cooking for some ladies and then leaving them was not lost on me or anyone else.

The time for me to leave and get back to Duncan arrived all too quickly. My son was getting married and I wanted to be around for at least ten before the wedding so that I could be there to help. The plan was that I would come back and say good bye to Sally after the wedding. The plan was to bring my daughter and my two grandchildren from Sudbury over to meet Sally. It never happen. And so Sally and I never had the chance to say goodbye. The thought saddens me still. I miss the island and I miss that other part of my family.

Salt Spring Island, or at least Sally's version of the island is a remarkable place where everyone knows you, where every cares about and believes in you and where all things are possible if you just have faith. I am not sure if I could live there forever. But I wish that I could try to live there, to immerse myself in a land filled with people who are beautiful in their love for each other and who always welcome me like I belong there.

a minor complaint

I appreciate the fact that for whatever reason Google "allows" me to have a blog at no cost. I am glad that I have the chance to write every once in a while BUT I wish they would leave the damn thing alone.

As you may have noticed - they have changed how it looks - I am sure if I spent enough time I could make it look the way it did before, but I don't want to spend an hour or two playing with the format. It took me that long to get it the way it is right now and if I tried to put it back to the way it looked yesterday - I could be here all night. If I was lucky and a lot better at design than I have been up to now.

Jeez guys - if it ain't broken - why did you have to fix it?

On the Road Again 2011 - Blog 30

One of the particular pleasures of my trip out west is to attend the Folk Festival at Providence Farm just outside of Duncan. The site is beautiful with the camping sites located in a forest, and the stages located in or near various gardens. Providence Farm which was the site of a school run by nuns (I have been told but I can't find any proof that it was a residential school)  is now described as a therapeutic Community. On this large 400 acre site there are gardens maintained by seniors for their own enjoyment, a therapeutic riding centre and a number of day programs for individuals with special needs. It is also a great site for a small three day folk festival.

Many of the volunteers and attendees are local to the area and there is very much of a family or neighbourhood feeling to this festival. Which makes it a bit difficult for outsiders such as me to always feel as if we "fit in". But  it was my third visit to the festival and this year, for the first time, there were people there who I had met at previous festivals. For example I have camped in the same place for the past three summers and so have the people across the path. This year he always made a point of saying "high neighbour" whenever we saw each other between shows. I don't have a clue what his or his wife's name is - they have never asked for mine but we will forever be neighbours. But generally the people are nice and always prepared to chat about this performer or that, the food is good (it is one of the only places on the island to get fries from a chip truck) and there are always enough acts to impress me. Usually there are one or two acts that are so great that I have to buy their CDs.  My favourites from this year were Kat Danser from the Prairies who sang the blues so beautifully in the Chapel - which has great acoustics and Tim Willams who plays the blues perhaps even better and who is incredibly knowledgeable about who sang the originals. Unfortunately neither of the CDs captures their live performances.

It was a cool weekend. For the Friday night show I had on all of my shirts, sweaters and a jacket. But the days were comfortable and it is such a pleasure to walk around, visiting with people, watching little kids play and to listen to fine music.

There appears to be a major difference between the programs at the festivals in the east or in the west. In both Ontario and BC they have in the daytime the same type of performers. In fact I have on a number of occasions seen the same performer at Shelter Valley near Grafton Ontario one August and then seen them at Providence Farm the following summer (or vice versa). However in Ontario they are more likely to have the acts perform on the main stage at night and then during the day play with other performers (workshops) on the smaller stages. At Providence Farm almost all of the acts perform solo regardless of where they play.. Even more noticeably at Providence Farm while the first one or two acts of the evening may be singer song writers, by the time the sun sets, it is all about dance bands. There is a huge plastic tarp nailed to the ground in front of the main stage and everyone is dancing to the drums etc. of the large ensembles. Those who don't want to dance- go to bed.

Personally, I would perfer to listen to good music.