A month in the Home Country...
A rare pleasant lunch with good friends at the Crow and Gate, a mock Tudor English Pub between Nanaimo and Ladysmith. Famous for it's fireplace, Olde English ambiance and decor. The food is, well, English Pub - but plentiful and a good test for a cast iron stomach. Mine does not qualify, but the social enjoyment certainly counterbalanced the gastric drawbacks.
The Crow and Gate is famous for its singularly bad tempered Black Swans. Noisy, grumpy, elegant and uncontested emperors of the pond beside the pub.
Back home, on the deserted pylons for the still absent boat dock, Cormorants preen their waterlogged plumage and cast the occasional bored glance at Mount Baker on the horizon.
Nestled between budding Rhododendron bushes a couple of freshly divorced bucks chew the cud and watch - unperturbed - hopeful gardeners, cleaning up winter detritus.
Swans in Cowichan River wetlands gorge themselves on lush greenery sprouting on fallow corn fields. Canada Geese and Brant keep respectful distance. All readying themselves for spring migration to the slowly melting north.
Always a few verbose citizens, warning the rest of the flock away from impertinent photographers encroaching on their real estate.
Overflow freighter traffic from the Port of Vancouver await word on available berths in the harbour on the mainland. Sometimes five of these humming vessels swing slowly to the changing tides, their lights lighting up the pitch black nights, bringing an air of Ocean magic to our otherwise quiet waters.
A little jaunt to Saltspring Island for a 'Funky Fix', a walk amongst Earth-mothers and Senior Hippies, clad in home spun garments in multiple unmatched layers, past art galleries who seem to replace more corner stores every spring, bicycle repair shops, second hand book stores, parades of happy alternate partnerships and Sobey's International Real Estate offices. Float planes line public docks, pleasure boats gather green mould, and gulls and crows dive bomb over sea and land.
Store signs, if not displaying 'Extreme Good Taste' are often still hand made.
And, one practices the tango in preparation for the next sojourn to Buenos Aires. ...
