From Sea to Shiny Sea - July 2013

Leaving Vancouver Island whilst the sun is setting over the Pacific, one climbs into a plane and submits to the vagaries of fate, 6000 km in the air and heading East to the Atlantic shores - destination Pictou, Nova Scotia.

The usual pleasure of air travel: plane sold out to the last seat, a paying customer in every one of them, and some containing more than one and some more than one and a half sized travellers. There must have been 20 toddlers (not counting school aged children) on various motherly laps, judging by the concerted bawling going on, enthusiastically supported by the yipping of about half a dozen pooches, who travelled in carry on bags UNDER various seats. For the first couple of hours these two contingents competed for the the price of 'most penetrating howls that are possible to emit from a canine or human throat' before things quietened down.

Sunrise over Nova Scotia a few hours later. Blue crisp skies, fresh salty air, balmy temperatures...a leisure early morning drive from Halifax north to what I call 'Caribou Lodge'.

Right on an inlet of Northumberland Strait - said to be the warmest sea north of the Carolinas - a little private park connects the residence to the shallow water of the Atlantic.

A variety of cultivated and native grasses grows more than eight feet high, and a short moved path allows access between house and beach.

Nothing would be complete without the resident dog - here his nibs "Stumpy", so called to celebrate his incomparable short bowed front legs. He appears to be an expert water craft rider as well, and rides the waves like land lubber dogs ride the back of motor bikes - leaning into every curve and changing position to avoid facing the wind, but presenting same with his rear quarters.

From the beach across to the opposite shore, but a short distance.

Totally the well equipped sailor.Stumpy's faded life jacket is proof of almost daily 'cruises' off shore Cariboo Island.

Amongst the profuse grasses ashore- lilies of different colour seek light and sunshine.

 

The view from my window....
Now where are those famed Maritime Lobsters and Digby Scallops???

One kilometer diet...Vancouver Island

Summer on Vancouver Island

One lives like a king. Anybody who loves to cook with the very best ingredients, fresh from the source, will have found Gourmet Eden on Vancouver Island.

Just now, Arbutus Farm sells fresh strawberries (but only when they put up their stand at Telegraph Road), the winery sells eggs from happy chickens, and Mr Jessie (Jose?) Pereira of Terra Nossa Farms sells happy chicken meat, garlic, lamb, pork and black berries. Senor Pereira, owner of Terra Nossa Farms, hails from the Azores, Portugal, and has brought his love of land and farming to my little corner of the world, and provides good food to his devoted customers like in the old country.

A mile down the road, there are blue berries, fresh produce, happy pork, and happy lamb. A seafood store downtown Duncan sells fresh anything with fins or shells right from the boat - caught that very morning by the owner and attendant of the store. Sometimes it feels like a neighbourhood enterprise, where eggs from one farm end up in dough of the Cowichan Bay Bakery (True Grain Bread), and neighbourhood dairy cows provide milk for Hillary Cheese production.

Not bad, actually, the best place in Canada for anybody who loves to eat the best that our planet has to offer.

 

Volunteer farm worker hailing from the Province of Alberta, spending his summer on Terra Nossa farm on Vancouver Island during school vacations - and coming back year after year. Here he is giving me the choice of 'harness' to carry around a berry picking bucket. Backpack  style or neck style...well, five pounds of berries feel better acting like a back pack, then as a necklace.

Black Berries...you can pick your own. Quite inviting, as the absence of thorns makes picking a dream...

Oblong, almost two inches long, sweet as can be.....

The bounty is so rich, that my bucket fills with sweet dark and ripe berries within minutes

Brain food , they say...apart from that a taste of summer without equal...

And whilst the berry harvest is in full swing, juvenile turkeys are enjoying a short and happy farm life before the hour of destiny arrives, and they will be served - stuffed - Thanksgiving Day.

Better than Kentucky Fried Chicken fowl, which spends its pre-slaughter years in crowded cages, without the pleasures of living a chicken life.
These hens are enjoying party time. Well - a life well lived - and a quick and painless death to end it all. In the meantime, these hens enjoy each others company, munch on chicken gourmet food and wander around at will in summer pasture and rest in shady chicken condos.
 

Nothing like Cowichan Valley, where I live on Vancouver Island, to learn to appreciate and convert into incomparable culinary delights everything that grows in our fertile ground, anything that swims and resides in the sea, and anything that grazes and pecks in our bucolic country side. Ingredients, which have never seen a fridge or container, at your door step, turn preparation of a meal into a joyous labour of love.
And the grapes are ripening on their vines....to add to the pleasure of the palate...soon. Merridale Cider is preparing for a bountiful harvest to brew the best cider in creation (find it in your local liquor store).
Off to Nova Scotia tomorrow....maybe fresh lobsters await???

Saltspring Island...no boat, no problem....

 Sunshine, sparkling blue wavelets on the ocean...and no boat. What to do, but head for the nearest ferry and get the second to best thing. Having reached the age of free personal ferry travel between Monday and Thursday, it is easy to park the car at the ferry terminal and just 'walk on', free of charge to be transported to the nearest convenient Gulf Island - this time Saltspring Island. By many defined as 'one of the 100 things to do before you die' it is a lovely and unique spot here in British Columbia. No plans for dying yet, but Saltspring Island is still a rather inviting idea for me. At Crofton on Vancouver Island - my departure point - , where a pulp mill emits odorous vapors, one joins the crowd of pedestrians, bicyclist, motor bikers, RV-ers, ambulances, construction trucks, armoured money transports, and regular commuters. Twenty minutes after cast off, one arrives in Vesuvius on Saltspring Island.
Rather funny feeling for me, to be on the very ferry that I dodged so many time each summer season when my boat and she crossed path.
The long defunct Vesuvius Pub is still awaiting a buyer, but the Seaside café at the ferry dock is doing a lively fast-cuisine business. A transit bus is allegedly meeting the ferry to take walk-ons to 'downtown' Ganges.
However, mainland efficiency has raised its bureaucratic head: if the ferry is delayed even one minute past scheduled bus service, one is out of luck and walks off the ferry and the bus has 'just departed'.
I was out of luck, and 'hung out' until the next one arrived an hour later.

Bicyclists, ambulance...then the rest leave the ferry.

Reflection of ferry terminal pylons

Vesuvius Bay with a warm and sandy beach, leaving Crofton on the far horizon, the fumes of the paper mill being dissipated into higher clouds.

Eclectic, slightly crazy Saltspring. Teak wood flower pots at about $25. Art, crafts abound. The rather quiet environment of Saltspring Island fires imagination and creativity...beneficial boredom  sets in after enjoying the matchless views and residents express themselves, their innermost artist, their hidden talents in torrents of artistic endeavours.

People watching at its best, just don't expect elegant style or fashionable displays. Individualistic, sometimes inspired by long gone hippy days, dreadlocks, flowing gowns, Birkenstocks, homespuns intermingled with the clam diggers, message t-shirts and baseball caps of the visiting cruising crowd.

Abstract by a tango aficionado....displayed in ArtCraft, a local public gallery.

Pottery, painting, carving...shapes one never dreamt of.

Textile Art, depicting a typical Gulf Island islet, mirrored in the ocean

The Oystercatcher....waterfront bistro and bar, where locals and visitors enjoy the view of marinas, landing and take off of float planes, and just plain pleasant surroundings

The fast way to get here....float plane

Detail of a larger oil painting depicting a sand spit in Fulfort Harbout, Saltspring Island

Almost a photograph, a super realistic oil painting of an apple tree in winter

Painting of abstract wave patterns

Native Carving with a modernistic twist

Wind sculptures...shapes in spoon shapes catch even the slightest breeze and gracefully circle in the balmy summer air.

Low tide in Ganges public marina

A popular spot for visitors, dinghies are parked everywhere to shuttle boaters ashore.

Ganges Harbour at low tide

Local hardware store, advertising paints in a fetching way

Old Vesuvius Store still stands...

Canada Day Celebrations 2013

Honouring our Veterans...each year there are fewer, and each year age takes its toll on mobility and health...A moving moment when the National Anthem is lead by our local choir, a cornet player sounds Reveille, and a minute of silence is only filled with bird song.

Residents...almost all dressed in red and white

One of the fifty plus canine residents, dressed in patriotic red and white as well

Proudly Canadian



A novel way to carry The Flag

A visitor to the community. If not falling into the red and white motif, he is a flag bearer nevertheless...

The local antique car club displayed their beloved toys.

Nostalgia...an old truck parked at the 'Village Centre'

Canadian Patriot: turning the other cheek - Canadian style.

Being a 'golfing community', there are a couple of hundreds of golf carts living here. This one is actually a firetruck version, equipped with extinguisher, first aid kit, blankets and radio communication. It has put out quite a number of fires in its lifetime. Today, it leads the parade of 'decorated golf carts' winding its way through the village center.

One of the many examples of 'detailing' creativity

Adult community notwithstanding, the grand kids make their appearance around this time, and need supplementary transport.

Dog Day summer

Everyone is into it...

Low Slung reveller...

Tranquil Canadians...it took a few libations and some inspiring music before some of them  got up and danced a few beats....

Happy Canada Day