Summer's Over

Squamish: Tree that perished without a fire, with wildfire smoke.

Just before I left on holiday, the Ontario government announced that it was committing $85 million dollars to clean up the English/Wabigoon river system, or, the way people have more commonly heard it, Grassy Narrows.

Grassy Narrows is one of too many woeful stories in Canada of governments making decisions that did enduring damage to First Nations communities.

In this case, almost sixty years ago, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment gave license to a plant in Dryden to allow mercury to make its way into the river. 170 km downstream, people in a First Nations community that relied on fish in the river for food developed symptoms of Minimata disease.

Steps were taken to stop the problem but, fifty years later, mercury levels in fish in the river are still the highest in the province; hence, the government's promise.

Now, people may think that once a government has made an announcement like this, all that is left to do is write the cheque and move on.

Nope. 

There are lots of things to do, all of which are, of course, completely confidential. You can expect to hear from our friend the Ruler and her Advisors in future posts. 

Whether the posts will be coming from her temporary residence in Dryden, Ontario is something I can neither confirm nor deny at this time.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Home Again

Allan Gardens Peacock 

It's always nice to travel. It's always nice to return home. We got back home Thursday night, as planned, without any last minute surprises from Air Canada.

Friday we "slept in" according to Ontario time and then took a quick run down the 401 to see Bruce's dad.

Encouraged by how well my hip fared with all the hikes on our holiday, I have re-joined the YMCA so I can start getting back to the shape I was in before all this arthritis stuff happened. 

There were many memorable, enjoyable and special moments this vacation. 

I missed only one thing from home: cooking.

Thanks for reading! 

Have a great week!

Karen

PS: this is my 300th blog post. Imagine that.

What Are You Looking At?

Big horn sheep on the tracks above Lillooet, B.C.

Mother and baby sheep, Lillooet, B.C.

Chicken waiting on table scraps at the Fort Berens Winery, Lillooet, B.C.

Osprey, atop the old suspension bridge, Lillooet B.C.

On our last full day in BC, we crossed over the summit into the rain shadow to deliver Jeff's riding mower to a repair shop in Lillooet. Then we poked around the old suspension bridge, had a delicious lunch at Fort Berens Winery and drove up to some high country to have a look at the view. By a ranch on the topmost hills, we had a truck window to truck window conversation with a local about the fire at Loon Lake. 

Some properties were fine. Some weren't. Jeff and Annikka still don't know how the fates have played for them.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

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Sunshine and Smoke

Annikka's garden: Egyptian Walking Onions

Tuesday, July 18, under heavily smoke-laden skies, we drove into Whistler to check out the always interesting Squamish Lil'Wat Cultural Centre. We'd been before, but this time we elected to take the tour with Josh, one of the centre's cultural ambassadors. 

If you ever do go, I would recommend you take the tour.

In the background of our pleasant, indolent days is the uncertainty of what is happening at Loon Lake.

What news there is still isn't good. The south side of the lake, the side accessible only by boat, the side Jeff and Annikka's cottage is on, was hard hit.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Loon Lake

Annikka's Garden

We drove to Squamish to ride the Sea to Sky Gondola.

Howe Sound from the top o' the mountain.

Wildfire smoke from the interior obscured the spectacular views.

We enjoyed the day but were preoccupied with thoughts of what was going on in Loon Lake where Jeff and Annikka's cottage sits nestled among the dry pines.

We don't know exactly how their property has fared, but the news isn't good.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Mosquito Lake

I've been suffering a bit from the bites of small blood-sucking insects. There's a healthy crop here thanks to a wet spring, lots of run off from the mountains and now a hot dry spell.

So when they told me we were going today to a place called Mosquito Lake, I hoped they were kidding.

We hiked along mountain bike trails with quirky names and steep inclines in the midst of a pristine bush. 

While my lungs, long unaccustomed to this kind of work out, were at times pushed to their limit, my hip did fine both going up and down.

Not a mosquito, but among the many winged things hanging around the screen porch.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Anderson Lake

Today we drove out to Anderson Lake.

Ponderosa pine at the lookout over Anderson Lake

At lake level: photo by Annikka Snow

From the lookout: Drive along the High Line for 40 minutes, and this is what you'll see.

Our hosts: Annikka and Jeff making googley eyes.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Almost According to Plan

Because we're not on the mountain: skies as clear as a bell.

Our last day in Whistler dawned sunny and warm, of course. We made the most of the fine day by taking a long walk before we went to the new Audain art gallery. The gallery is nigh on perfect: great collection of Indigenous art both historic and contemporary. The building itself is a work of art. It's hard to imagine how they could have done a better job. 

Perforated totem pole outside the entrance.

Nestled in a pine grove: sweeping form balanced on three pedestals.

Around noon, Jeff and Annikka's son Oliver came to Whister to pick us up and take us further inland to Pemberton/Mount Currie. 

Last night we joined a wedding party in progress in the Pemberton valley, ate massive quantities of food and also fed the local mosquitos.

The plan had been that we would all go to the cottage on Loon Lake today. We heard last night that an evacuation order has been issued for that part of the province. We are now playing it by ear.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Whistler and the 1%

If your sample set were only the families in Whistler - the ones from around the world, speaking Swedish, Urdu, Russian, Japanese, Italian, Norwegian, Punjabi, German, Hindi, Romanian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, French, Farsi, Spanish, Czech and English (among others) - the ones with the prosperous forty-something moms and dads and two-to-three children - the ones in the restaurants and shops and, more than anything, biking and kayaking and hiking and white water rafting on and near the mountain - if these were the only people from which you were to draw your conclusions, you would say that the people on the planet have it made. 

Bruce: looking like he has it made.

Me: looking like I'm holding back a wall of snow.

Wind and sun-dimpled massive cliffs of snow. Clouds socked in the mountain top.  

The long view - most of the hiking trails on the mountain are still closed due to the record quantities of snow that fell over the winter. Crews cleared a path to the summit leaving "ice walls" to astonish hikers.

Near the Whistler summit, there stretches along the road a hundred metre inukshuk zone where travellers from everywhere build for posterity little stone monuments. There are hundreds. Some feature impressive engineering and balancing acts.

At the mountain top, I celebrate the moment: my hip and I made it all the way up. It was zero degrees celsius at the summit. Yes, I had no jacket. And yes, those are sandals on my feet. But, hiking is warm work so I stayed toasty, the fact that I don't know how to pack for British Columbia notwithstanding.

A particularly nice configuration of jackets and a smaller ice wall.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

10,000 Steps

We have been enjoying lots of long walks on our west coast sojourn.

Cousin Pat and Bruce walk a trail by Grandon Creek, lovingly cared for by Qualicum Beach Streamkeepers.

Burnham the chocolate lab takes a dip in the waters of the Little Qualicum Fish Hatchery, lovingly cared for by the federal department of fisheries and oceans.

Two supervisors at the Little Qualicum Fish Hatchery give us the hairy eyeball.

View from the window at the Westin Resort and Spa in Whistler. When TD Canada Trust Visa helped us get every dime of our money back from the bankrupted Pemberton Music Festival, I treated it like found money and splurged on a crazy expensive hotel room. Seems to be working out so far. 

Today, our long walk will be on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Nanaimo and Qualicum

 We departed our Victoria B&B around 10:00 a.m. when my sister Carol came to pick us up in her spiffy new car to take us to Nanaimo. 

That afternoon, we hiked around Westwood Lake, stopped in to say hi to my niece and her husband (to make more detailed plans to see them and their kids the next day) and then went to Carol's place for a home-prepared meal with halibut and three kinds of salad.

The next day we spent the brilliantly sunny morning hiking around Nanaimo Harbour which is where, suddenly and without warning, the electronics in my camera lens went kerflooey. 

The shot above was taken with my phone.

After going for lunch with my nephew Troy, and before we headed a bit further up island to Qualicum Beach to see my cousin Pat, the assignment was to find a camera lens.

In BC, they sell camera equipment at London Drugs. Very expensive camera equipment. 

I have a spiffy new 14-150 mm zoom lens for the camera. If it lasts the rest of the vacation, I'll have paid about $100/day for the pleasure of being able to take pictures like these:

My niece Holly and her second-born, Charlotte, who is just turning two and who had been colouring that day, hence the temporary tattoo on her left arm.

Dylan, Charlotte's big brother.

Charlotte with her dad in the background, seated on a chair painted by Joe Rosenblatt.

Our host Cliff.

Our real host: Mango-the-cat.

 Thanks for reading!

Karen

Still Life with Laptop

Inside Room 5, Fairholme Manor, Victoria BC

We choose our travel accommodations these days according to a combination of whim, location, price point and "character." 

The place we stayed last night largely fit the bill. Breakfast was good, too.

After a very pleasant day with our friends Jamie and Wendy - which included a delicious lunch (salmon) in their back yard, a stroll along the new breakwater, a nap and a fine meal (more salmon) at a downtown restaurant - we meandered along Victoria's waterfront and caught sight of this impressive fellow on a canoe outfitter's dock. He nipped minnows out of the water with unerring precision.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

It Didn't Start Well ...

Together for the first time in 25 years:  Bruce and Jamie Dopp - Top of Mount Tolmie, Victoria, 9 July 2017

Me, and Benjamin Dopp and Bruce in Jamie's back yard, 9 July 2017

Me, Jamie Dopp, Wendy Wasilewski, Bruce, 9 July 2017

The shots above show that eventually we had a very nice day once we got to Vancouver Island.

But it didn't start well. First, there was the unsettling news at about 9 p.m. Ontario time on July the 8th that our flight the following morning had been cancelled.

Remaining calm, I called Air Canada and was reassured that we were still flying out to Victoria, at the same time and everything, just on a different plane.

Next morning, we cabbed only as far as Union Station so we could take the Union Pearson Express to the airport. We just missed the train, so rather than arriving at the airport two hours ahead of our flight, we arrived one hour and forty-five minutes ahead of our flight. Good thing. Terminal One was like Walmart on Black Friday. 

We'd checked in on-line so all we needed was to get our bag tagged and drop it off at the baggage counter. But the bag line extended along the length of the terminal - hundreds of people. It was like nothing I had seen before.

The line moved fast but it still took us forty minutes to check our bag. I wondered aloud how much more time it would take us to get through security.

But, security was a breeze. Another new thing: I advised the person examining my boarding pass that I had an artificial hip. She signalled to the person on the other side of the scanner. I was expecting to be taken aside and wanded - but the scanner didn't sound, so no arms out, feet apart, getting patted down by a stranger wherever the wand beeps treatment.

Our flight was cancelled because Air Canada had two flights to Victoria booked at almost the same time. The passenger lists for the two flights were collapsed into one. This meant Bruce and I sat wherever they stuck us. I sat next to a nice retirement-aged couple on their way to do some house hunting on Salt Spring Island. Bruce sat next to two horrible little boys who, had Bruce had his way, would not have arrived in Victoria alive.

Five hours later, the trip was over. We were met by our friend Jamie who has been showing us around all day.

We are adjusting to the time change each according to our preferred approach. Bruce is having a nap. I've just had an espresso. 

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Westward Ho

Bright and early tomorrow morning, Bruce and I will be heading out to Pearson Airport to catch an Air Canada flight to Victoria. 

Our itinerary includes time on the island with an old friend, even older family, very new family (my grandniece and grandnephew) and, with any luck, perfect weather.

Then we'll hop on the ferry to Horseshoe Bay at Departure Bay, catch a shuttle up to Whistler, and spend a couple of days there before venturing into the interior to hang out at Bruce's brother's no-road-access cottage at "the lake."

Many readers know I was born in B.C. Every time we go there - and we've been going there a lot since we hit our fifties - I wonder why we don't live there, for the following obvious reasons.

This is me on Whistler mountain ...

... me and my sister Carol in Cathedral Grove ...

 Bruce at Beacon Hill Park examining a work of art ...

 My niece Holly and nephew-in-law Andrew getting married on Denman Island ... 

Bruce and his brother Jeff on Whistler Mountain .... 

The Kinsol trestle ...

... me, my sister-in-law Annikka and Bruce at the Pemberton Music Festival ... 

... my cousin Deb and my sister Carol in Qualicum Beach at a family reunion in July 2015.

Coming soon: more photos of these and other people and things we are happy to be travelling to see.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen