On the road again (heading east) part #1

I got a drive to the Nanaimo Hostel with my daughter in law, son and grandson. I could have taken the Greyhound bus but I was glad  for the offer. It was one less thing to worry about. In the next day or so there would be a few connections that I was not sure if I could make, or at least how to make them. It was also nice to spend a bit more time with them.


I "hate" saying goodbye and goodbyes between my son and I are always far too brief - there are a million things that we have not said to each other but I am too close to tears to even start saying them now. We quickly hugged goodbye, say we loved each other and I walk away. There is  always this profound sense of loss when I say good bye to him. It is a loss so deep that it hurts.

The hostel was fine but the owner/operator was perhaps a bit over friendly to the point of superficiality . As I stood around waiting for my turn to check in  it was clear that his little welcoming speech which sounded spontaneous was in fact a set speech. He said exactly the same thing to all new arrivals.But then I suppose that when one greets potentially 100s of people a month, the speech does get a bit set.

The hostel was a new one. Everything look clean and well set up. The larger than usual dorm rooms only held two bunk beds as opposed to the usual three. The beds that were made out of metal and wood looked studier than most (they were not any better. Every time the guy on the bottom bunk turned over, I, on the top bunk, could feel the bed shake). The bathrooms were great as were the showers. There was also what they called the "great room" which was a combination lounge and kitchen. It was well outfitted and a great place to have a cup of tea.  My favourite part of the evening was the large bowl of popcorn that was set out on the counter for all to share. That was a nice touch. Once again however, due to the number of people using their netbooks or laptops there was relatively little conversation between the people in the room. Pity.

After a good meal at a local bar I went for a walk along the water front. The harbour looked almost full with most of the boats being fairly large. The quay was lovely with little shops and restaurants. The park area that bordered the quay was well maintained and people friendly. There were lots of people walking, young couples, families and singles like myself strolling along. I was particularly fascinated by a dock that was reserved for people fishing and crabbing, something I had never seen before.

People had small collapsible nets baited with chicken parts. They threw the nets into the ocean 15- 20 feet from the dock and let the nets sit on the bottom of the ocean for about 10 minutes. They then hauled them out again. Sometimes the nets were empty and other times they had 4-5 crabs.It was fascinating and even a bit exciting as the fisherfolk had to be careful not to get nipped by the crab's pincers.Some were large enough to keep but most of the crabs needed to be thrown back.

I was in bed by just before 11:00 - feeling a bit nervous and excited about the upcoming days.

There was suppose to be a bus connection between downtown and the ferry terminal. But in reading the schedule it appeared as if the connection only worked during the school year. I suppose that there are kids coming from the smaller islands that attend high school in Nanaimo. I had a choice. I could take the bus and get to the ferry terminal 35 minutes early or I could walk. People at the hostel said that it was about a 40 minute walk. I was up early on Tuesday and decided to walk. In hindsight it sounds silly to intentionally walk 45 minutes just so I would not have to wat around for 35 minutes, but that is what I did. I had so much excess energy from unresolved emotions that I needed to burn some of it off. It was an easy walk. A couple of time I asked people on the street if I was going in the right direction, but in fact it would have been hard to get lost. All I had to do was follow the water front.

I got to the ferry terminal in good time, the ferry left on time and I was almost first in line for breakfast. The breakfasts on the ferries are pretty good, perhaps a bit more expensive than in a cheap restaurant but it is pretty convenient. Eating on the ferry is a lot easier than trying to find a place open downtown early in the morning. Besides I walk better with an empty stomach. 

Just after I had finished breakfast there was an announcement that those who wanted to go to Whistler by bus, needed to buy a ticket within the next 45 minutes. This had been one of the connection points that I was worried about. I had searched the web a number of times and had not been able to find the Greyhound bus station in Horseshoe Bay or how to buy a ticket.  They made it so simple. I bought the ticket (using my hostel discount) and caught the bus just outside the ferry doors. It could not have been easier.

On the Road Again (finally) part #10

Leaving today for the east. Starting off slow....getting a drive to Nanaimo and then tomorrow I will catch the ferry to Horsehoe Bay and then a bus to Whistler. It won't be until Thursday that I start to hitchhike.  Just need to say thanks to all of my friends who shared time with me and to say how sad I am to be leaving these fair islands

On the Road Again (intermission # 8) Camping on Lake Cowinchin

My grandson and I (along with his parents of course) went camping for a few days on Lake Cowinchin. What a great camp site and what an amazing lake. The sunsets were incredible and for the three evenings we were there, we made it point to be on the beach as the sun set.

(I need to at this time mention the BC definition of beach. When the locals say a "beach" they are not referring to a nice soft sandy beach that feels nice on the soles of your feet - but rather to an area that is strewn with large rocks or in the case of this beach sharp stones designed to cause some not so little pain as you tip-toe from your blanket to the shore and beyond. In fact many folks wear some sort of foot wear even while swimming.) A beach therefore is any stretch of land that allows you access to the water no mater how challenging that access is.)

The actual campground is in the middle of a very old forest . Perhaps 80-90 years much of  the timber had been harvested. One can still see some of the stumps that were left behind. Remembered pictures of 6-7 lumberjacks standing on the stumps flashed through my mind. My son and I both agreed that even with a chain saw, it would be a daunting and dangerous task to take down one of these trees. It is not surprising that logging is still one of the most dangerous occupations.

There were as well a couple of the old ones still standing including a cedar that was hollow in the middle - it was so huge you could climb inside it. The top had been blown off but it still look to be surprisingly healthy. The undergrowth was generally comprised of large ferns giving the area a general feeling of some primordial forest.

It was a grand spot to spend a few days. The first morning my son called to me as I was drinking my cup of tea. He led me to a herd of elk just a few hundred feet from our camp site. There was an adult female and four or five younger ones, including a male whose antlers were just starting to bud. He looked so proud of himself! The Elk could not have been more than 20-30 feet away from us, happily nibbling on the ferns and the low lying leaves. They were clearly aware of us, at least the adult was, but they were in no rush to finish browsing the green treats that were available. I wish I had brought my camera. For an easterner it was a very unique moment although my son says such a sight is fairly common on the island. The Elk herd on the Island are protected and so have not learned to be afraid of very much. Of course their size may have something to do with their lack of fear as well. The mature female was as big as a medium size pony.

There is a total fire ban in the province which meant that no one could have a campfire. Which is a pity, it would have been so nice to sit around a fire, but then if we had done that we could not have seen the meteorite shower. We pent part of the first night on the beach looking for the meteorites as they dashed across the sky. Because of the forest behind us, we only could see half of the sky,but we did see a few rather amazing shooting stars with extra long tails that lit up the sky for a brief moment in time.

I think I prefer camping near the ocean if only because the beaches, while still rough and sometimes hard to walk on, are more interesting. However the ocean campgrounds are less accessible and would make camping with a stroller more challenging. But this campsite with its easy access to the water and a surprising amount of privacy was perfect for our small family. And less than an hour from home!


  

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.

On the Road Again (intermission # 6) Hiroshima Day

Yesterday was August 6. That is a significant date for two reasons. One, it was Hiroshima Day - a day when some people remember the devastation of the first atomic bomb. A small handful of people on Salt Spring Island remembed.

Yesterday afternoon about 15 people gathered in the Peace Park in Ganges for a brief ceremony. The Raging Grannies were there ( although one was missing. She had been a Japanese prisoner of war, and remembers cheering when the prisoners heard about the destruction of Hiroshima. It is not surprising that she would find Hiroshima Day a bit conflicting) plus perhaps 10 other people. The Grannies sang a few songs and then we went around the circle saying why we were here. I  didn't have much to say - except to note the ages of the people present. With the exception of one young man in his early 20s (who was with his grandmother), I think I was the youngest.

I suppose we can't expect younger people to remember the second world war - it was 65 years ago - with any sense of passion or anger. But surly we, those of us of my generation, should have/ could have done a better job of telling them why war was wrong. It seems to me that somehow while people may complain about the war in Afghanistan or Bosnia or where ever, we have accepted that wars will exist. The debate appears to be more frequently about whether or not the war is justified as opposed to the fact that war is wrong.

Wars in the world will only stop when we the people say so. We can stop war by not participating, by not paying taxes or by not electing governments who want to go to war.  But that is only half of the solution. We must also insure that the conditions that allow/encourage war to exist, are eradicated. One of the people at yesterday's little get together said that Canada was spending 17 billion dollars on new jets. 17 billion dollars is about the same amount that it would take to feed and educate all of the people in developing countries.  One has to wonder if feeding and educating folks would not do more to limit war than than buying a few jets.

On a secondary note the Peace Park was in part created to recognize the contributions that people with Japanese heritage made to the development of Salt Spring Island. The irony is of course that all of those families were taken off of the island and sent to the interior during WWII. Most never returned.

The second reason why August 6 is significant is that it is my brother's birthday. Which goes to show that even on a date infamous in history - good things can happen.

On the Road Again (reading notes # 1)

When I travel I usually bring a book or two. Thoreau's writings are always in my bag. His short essays Civil Disobedience and Life without Principle are always worth another read. On other trips I have brought with me the writings of Emerson or Walt Whitman. For this trip I brought for the first time Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract and Discourses.  Rousseau, who was Swiss originally, wrote this body of work just over 250 years ago. I have heard about it, and read articles that discussed it for most of my adult life. I have even discussed it in class ( inappropriately as it turns out). What a wonderful book!! I suspect that I will be reading it again and again for some time in the future.

It is on occasion clear, and quite wonderful. Far more often it is complicated, dense and a bit of a hard slog to get through it. I find myself re-reading the same passages again and again- not too sure what he was trying to say. I wonder sometimes whether or not I have lost some of my reading skills that I nurtured so very carefully just a few years ago. At the very least I am out of practice reading something so intellectual challenging.

But what I have manage to read and hopefully to understand is absolutely brilliant. I had no idea that Rousseau was to much of socialist. Quite before his time. While he approached the distribution of wealth from a different perspective than did Marx - he gets to the same point.We should only have what we need. To own more than that is unequal and unsustainable. Or at least that is what I think he was saying.

More on this in the future.

On the Road Again (intermission #5)

Let me tell you about a 12 hour period in Sally's house......

 Last night (Friday) in her house, there were 2 people who rent rooms from Sally (one of whom has a lovely quiet dog), Sally's sister visiting for 3-4 days, a young mom with her 15 month old son who is staying here for a few weeks, a man who had a knee operation and is on crutches, Sally, Sally's dog and cat and of course me.  Next door, but still on the same property, there is a young family living who had 3 young children as well as a dog and a cat. The dog and cat wander through Sally's garden and house. Occasionally the children do as well. It sounds like the house would be in constant turmoil, and on occasion it is, but most of the time it is surprisingly peaceful. To achieve this partial serenity requires lots of work, almost constant dish washing, and people putting things away in the right place. Not everybody contributes equally and sometimes it feels as if my hands will be permanently wrinkled.

We had a nice meal together with lots of friendly chatting. The highlights of the conversation were Sally and her sister talking about their childhood in Toronto and the various houses they had lived in throughout their lives.

Once the dishes were done and the house sort of organized, Sally started to paint and and Sally's sister and I went out and picked some plums by flashlight. (Why we did it then is a long story in itself). The evening was pleasant and fun.

By 11:30 I and the other gentleman were bedded on the floor, Sally's sister and one of the tenants were sharing a bed, and the mom and young son were sleeping in the spare room (the one that I usually get). At some point after the house was in bed, Sally's son and three year granddaughter arrived from Vancouver on the last ferry. There were of course no beds left. So they shared Sally's bed (something that she loves).

Needless to say in the morning the house was in chaos. There were 2 strollers blocking the big door that lead to the ramp, Sally's power chair was being recharged in the living room, there were 2 little kids running/crawling around and people were lining up to use the one bathroom. Sally's sister wisely hid in the room she was using and Sally was slowly going through her morning routines with her worker.

I had planned on finishing the deck and ramp today, but there were far too many people needing to use the sliding glass doors that lead out onto the deck. The thought of trying to get folks to stay away from that part of the deck for 4 hours while the paint dries was just too much work to consider doing any painting. I suspect it will be Tuesday before I can get to it. It is Saturday - which means market day on Salt Spring. Sally and I, along with anyone else who wants to, will gather at the market and visit with old friends and meet new ones.

I wonder who will appear today?

 Just another day at Sally's!!!