Ah, home sweet home....apart from being attacked by a humming bird, things are rather civilized.
Running a 'dry' boat, being back on land, a small sip of red tastes pretty good. A few local cherries, a cosy and shady spot in the garden - almost as good as sitting on a boat somewhere.
My Shasta daisis went nuts during my absence, these flower stalks are higher than a man! Small shrubs beside them are buried under this mass of white and yellow flowers.
Despite the longlasting, withering draught and heat in BC, these things almost grew tall enough to spoil the view.
Arrival home....the apple tree in the front garden is groaning under its load of fruit.
Not quite ripe yet, but the deer don't mind. My welcoming doe stood under the tree, totally unconcerned about my presence a few feet beside her. She rose on her hind legs and pulled a couple of these unripe beauties with pursed lips, munched them contentedly, and then wandered off to the begonias in the neighbour's garden.
Beside the bakery in Cowichan Bay grows this Godzilla of a monster thistle, the blooms are almost as big as cabbages, and the whole plant must be 10 feet high.
On the way home, one has to stop at the True Grain Bakery in Cowichan Bay. This bakery has put the little seaside village on the map big time, even Conde Nast Travel Magazine has cited this little aromatic spot amongst its 'must visit' places. And the bread is scrumptious, all made out of flour ground on the premises in an wooden grinder. The French baguettes rival the ones baked in France. Just heard that there is a new master baker....an import from Bavaria, Germany. Maybe now they may expand into baking Pumpernickel und Broetchens?
I finally enjoyed a whole day of all-sails-up sailing coming back from Todd Inlet to Maple Bay. Getting the anchor unstuck in Todd took a little while and a bit of to-ing and fro-ing driving over it repeatedly, it seemed dug in for eternity. Took a little poking and hosing (I do have a wimpy deckwash) to get the half ton of black gooey mud off it, which must have weighed as much as the anchor itself. There was no wind and no current, so I could do all that leisurely, without drifting into trouble, and without kinking the good old back again.
Now Millie is back at her 'home-dock', for a couple/three weeks before heading out again.
It's chore time, of course: dig the kelp out of the seawater intake filter, top up distilled water in batteries, scour fresh water tank, scrub the wildlife from the dinghy bottom, hose down the accumulated mud blobs from the deck (actually not bad, due to the odd day when I could use morning dew for clean up), defrost the fridge (yep, even on a boat), vacuum the persian carpets (all 8 square feet of them) etc etc etc...
Todd Inlet - the place is filling up again with all kinds of odd vessels, British Columbia Day Long weekend crowds are arriving.
This guy is taking the adage of 'keeping it simple' to the extreme. No worries about anchors drifting, crowds moving in, engines failing....just a skipper, a surfboard and a loooong paddle... and GOOD sense of balance.
