The US West Coast

We’ve arrived at Dave’s place in Mountain View, just south of San Francisco and I am taking a moment to collect impressions of our trip down the US north-west coast. We started on a lovely day for a drive down the Island, and as we drove it occurred to both of us that it was going to feel very different coming back to the Comox Valley after exploring the coast to the south. In part we expected to find out more about our more immediate neighbours, whose waters we now share. And we wondered if knowing that we now share the gloriousness of the coast would soften the sharp longing that each of us has felt for years when visiting water.

Lunch with Shiela and Anne was a perfect pre-amble to getting on the “Coho”, the BlackBall ferry that took us from the Victoria harbour, across the San Juan Straight to Pt. Angeles. Our lovely clear day disappeared half way across, and it was raining when we arrived in Washington. It took us a couple of minutes to get comfortable with the km/mile conversions because Cori's SAAB does not include this on the dashboard – it turns out that our GPS not only does this, but it “knows” local speed limits and will beep when one exceeds them, which entertained Cori and made me want to throw it out the window. We had a couple of hours drive to the motel that we’d reserved for the night, and thought there might be time to take a side trip to Pt. Townsend, but the rain made that unappealing. Pt. Angeles seemed to be a pretty un-reconstructed port town that felt more like a 1960s northern Alberta/BC town than anything that was related to Victoria. And the rest of that drive felt similar – like we were in a wild, remote backwater – sleepy, kind of forgotten, very different than anywhere on Vancouver Island south of Campbell River. (It’s a bit like the difference between northern New Hampshire and southern Quebec). We came across a first hint of the politics of the place when we passed a big sign that said “No more wilderness. Working forests = Working families”. We traveled along the Hood Canal, which is very beautiful – clusters of daffodils were out, along with the occasional flowering tree. We stayed at a motel that catered to divers in Hoodsport, and had dinner at the one place that was open. The “Model T” bar & family restaurant was a pretty basic affair that had half the tables kind of separated off for the restaurant part, and a pool table and bar stools at the counter in the other. It specialized in brazed chicken that was pretty good. We played a bit with folks at the next table who were celebrating St. Paddy’s day by putting green food dye in their (and other people’s) beer, and the guys ended up singing “happy birthday” to Cori.

The next day we drove through sleet, rain, snow, hail and beautiful clear weather. We cut across to the coast through McLeary, Elma, Satsop and Montesanto – McLeary in particular was one of the bleakest communities I’ve ever been through. There were perhaps fifty small houses, all the same, possibly built during or just after WWII, in rows with fences in some disrepair, no gardens, very little paint, all lived in currently. It really did feel like the forgotten edge of an empire, or the leading edge of an empire in decay.

Our day brightened as we got out to the coast, the rain/sleet/hail lifted and we started our trip down #101. We saw the water first just outside Raymond (a big oyster area), and we had our first stop of many at a place where we could take in the power of the waves, the wonder of the bluffs and the occasional off-shore rocks that are characteristic of this coast. We crossed the long bridge over the Columbia River into Astoria and Oregon and stopped again at Seaside to walk a bit on the beach. It’s accessible from Portland, and is a much more thriving vacation/beach town with several blocks of a beach wall and walk and beachfront accommodations. The de Wolff family had been here sometime in the early ‘60s (?) and while I could find little actual memory of that time, I had a very strong sense of my mother and her love of big expanses of sand and the ocean as we were walking around. Back on the road, off the coast for a bit through hills with a slight elevation, where it hailed on us for a bit, and we began to see trees down all along the side of the road. The coast had been recently hit with a bad storm, possibly the same one we had the Monday before we left, and many trees were badly damaged.

We stopped that afternoon in Newport, which turned out to be an inspired decision. After driving by several places we might stay, we went looking for the town core where we found the Sylvia Inn, a small 3 storey, maybe 24 room place right on the water. We were shown the Agatha Christie room (among a couple of others inspired by other authors), and were completely taken by it. It made this one of the Birthday events of the trip – the room had a balcony, a fireplace (with wood & kindling), a couch for reclining, more than enough Agatha Christie books to read in an evening, spiced wine in the evening and breakfast in the AM. No TV, no Wifi, and in the morning the completely engaging company of several urban greenspace planners from Portland who were regulars, and who were friends of Goodie, the owner, who had purchased and planned the place so that she would be surrounded by interesting people.

The first gallery visit of the trip was in Walport, where we found a spectacular collection of paintings, clay, glass and jewelry (we knew there would be many more galleries associated with Cori's pottery convention in Seattle). It was warmer that day, and clear, and we began to see azaleas, along with great patches of daffodils, and some of the pines that were the northern-most cousins of those in California. Cori had been imagining finding a place to eat crab, and we found an actual “Crab Shack” in Banden - a tiny place with a big steamer outside that served whole Dungeness crabs. It was a lovely long meander that day too, and we stopped at look-outs and took our time. Past Port Orford the road hugs the coast and it’s just not possible to travel at any speed, so we didn’t cover as much ground as we thought. We stayed the night just over the California border at Crescent City, right at the top of the redwood forests. We noticed that as soon as we crossed into California the fields were cultivated, with small green veggies quite visible in the fields. We found a place that was again on the water, where we could hear the surf all night and see the lighthouse, and that also provided us with a great hot tub!

It was raining the next day as we headed into the Redwoods, but it made little difference to our experience of their magnificence. Before we left the hotel one of the young men recommended that we take a scenic parkway that parallels the #101, and it was simply breathtaking. As we left these big beauties we began to drive through stands of eucalyptus, pines and great spikey junipers, and the sides of cliffs were in bloom with succulents and something that looks like lupin but isn’t. We could have driven to San Francisco that day, but just before the #1 splits off to go out to the coast we phoned Dave and said we were having such a good time that we were going to take another day to get to him.

And then we took THAT drive (the #1 coastal highway). I have never been on such a twisty road, and was never as close to being motion sick as a driver. We were in fog, in the trees, going over several “hills” for maybe 10 miles at no faster than 30 mph. What fun, really. And then we were out on the coast, which wasn’t much different except there were longer straight-ish sections between the twisty hairpin turn bits that navigate around each and every watershed and cove along the coast. The fog lifted enough so we could see how high we were, how sheer the cliffs were, and the vast unpopulated expanses of sand beach. We came across herds of cows and sheep, but very few people for the next several hours. We were completely surprised by how un-peopled that whole stretch of coast is, all the way to just north of San Francisco. Dave told us later that California has worked hard at restricting development right on the coast, and it certainly seems to have worked. With the cows and fog and fresh green rolling grass hills we felt like we’d landed in Scotland or Ireland - very beautiful. We stayed that night in Gualala, right at the north end of Sonoma county, in another delightful place right on the water, waves crashing all night, fireplace, big Jacuzzi tub. All of the towns on this part of the coast are really quite tiny, and we were lucky to be traveling off-season – if we had done this in-season we would have needed advance bookings because there are not that many places to stay.

Twice on this route, first in Oregon and then along the # 1 we saw people walking, both heading north. The first was a black American woman pushing a grocery cart of belongings who was at least 20 miles from the nearest very small town, and another 10 from the next one. The second was an older guy along the #1, in a long remote stretch, who looked like he had nothing and indeed was carrying almost nothing with him except a small pack on his back.

We had stopped a bit early in Gualala hoping that maybe the next morning there would be less fog. When we woke up it was thicker than the night before! So that morning we drove for a couple of hours in occasionally in very dense fog, but mostly in fog that would lift enough to see the ghosts of rocks & big long breakers. I loved driving it, but think in retrospect that I am thankful that it didn’t lift enough to know exactly how precipitous parts of the road actually were. Brunch was in a little place called Jenner that had a cluster of the first surfers we’d come across and a restaurant that you might come across on one of the BC Islands that had a wonderful crab (yet again) sandwich. And then the fog lifted, and we had clear crisp blue skies the rest of the glorious trip down the coast, inland for a wee bit and then over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. The city was beautiful as we drove over the bridge, white and tiled roofs all sparkly and Spanish. We missed the turn that Dave suggested and drove into the city further than we’d intended, and the way back to our route sent us up and over one of the more dramatic hills that is an important SF experience.

Half an hour later we were at Dave’s place in Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley. (Google’s headquarters are there, for instance). He left 24 hours later, and in the interim we talked pretty constantly, getting to know each other and Dave introducing us to the highlights of the Bay area. He took us to two of the local restaurants, introduced us to his neighbours, and we interrogated him about his life. We left him at the airport on Thursday afternoon, on his way back to Calgary, and we headed into San Francisco for the rest of the day. We drove in along the harbour and scouted Fisherman’s Warf first from the car. Then we spent a couple of hours in North Beach, where we found the City Lights bookstore. I knew I wanted to drop in, but didn’t know how happy it would make me. I think that was because it was still clearly a progressive collection, and that it appeared to be thriving. Also, maybe because the last time I was there I remember being overwhelmed and didn’t know much of what I was looking at, but this time much of it looked familiar. I was there last with Janice, Vic and Fred in 1968.

Late afternoon Cori & I returned to Fisherman’s Warf to take up Dave’s suggestion that we have dinner at Scoma’s. What a great suggestion!! We arrived at 5:30, so walked right in and were seated at a window looking out at the boats and the city and eventually the sunset. It was a bit more expensive than we’re used to, but we quickly decided that this was going to be another “birthday” event. Tomato based fish stew, or chioppino, is a San Francisco specialty, so we indulged and it was completely delicious. In the process we learned that our waiter had worked there for 28 years, and was one of a many who had been there a long time. So we felt that it must be a place that treats its staff well (he said it was) as well as its customer’s stomachs. When we left we realized that we had entirely lucked out – we had to work our way through at least a hundred people who were prepared to wait as much as a couple of hours to get in! We felt that not only was it delicious, but also that we had stumbled into the middle of an important heartbeat of the city.

The next day we headed in the opposite direction, back out to the coast to Monteray. Dave’s neighbours had given us their members’ passes to the Aquarium, which is one of the largest on the continent. It was a magnificent day, about 15 degrees & clear. On the way we drove through fields of artichokes, as well as other veggies that were being tended by groups of farm workers. The Aquarium is located in Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, which has of course been gentrified. But the Aquarium is wonderful, and Monteray Bay was spectacular. On our walk from the car we saw a whole cluster of seals, including a day old pup, just below the Stanford Marine Research Station. A volunteer who was there with a viewing telescope got all excited because she’d just spotted dolphins in the Bay. It turned out that they decided to spend the afternoon with us, close enough in that we could see them splashing and playing – at one point we figured that we saw at least 20 on the surface of the water, which meant that there were a bunch of them out there. As we entered the Aquarium we caught feeding time with the otters who were in a large two storey tank, one a rescued pup and the other a surrogate mom, and we fell in love with them. We watched the pup for the longest time wiggle and twist and dive and hide with a buoyant toy that he just loved. There were three very large tanks, and a number of great exhibits, most notably one about seahorses (the two here are a sea dragon and a zebra seahorse), another about jelly fish, and another two storey tank that reproduced the kelp forest along the Bay’s shore. While we were visiting the latter a diver got in the water to feed the fish, including some smaller sharks, wearing a device that made it possible for him to talk to the audience. In his talk and throughout each exhibit there were very clear messages about the fragility of the ocean and the health of its creatures and what we could do about it.

This was a perfect end to a special week of travels along the coast. From here we will head back north, traveling inland via Interstate #5 through Portland to Seattle.

International Women's Day with WOMANCENTRIC

Naked Lady Series by Cori  Sandler

Quilt Squares representing years of Protests and Festivals made from T-Shirts by Alice de Wolff

 International Women's Day Gallery Art Show

 WOMANCENTRIC

Both Alice and Cori have work in this collective art show at the Corre Alice Gallery in Cumberland, BC - 

Alice has assembled years of Protest and Festival  Tshirts into individual quilt squares.  They have been displayed on a clothes line with clothes pegs. 

Cori has some of her "Naked Ladies" pottery, celebrating life in our many sizes and shapes - Recognizing that we are all beautiful regardless of what mainstream media would have us believe.

It's a great show to be participating in.  Here is the press release that Alice wrote for one of our local newspapers.

Published: March 06, 2012 7:00 PM - The Comox Valley Record

A rich celebration of the creative spirit of women will take place this Thursday, the 101st International Women’s Day at the Corre Alice Gallery in Cumberland.
The opening event of this month-long exhibit will feature 10 spoken word, vocal, instrumental and dance artists who range in ages from 14 to 70. They will perform surrounded by a stunning visual exhibition.
Corre Alice is thrilled with the response to her call for contributions to this show.
“Forty people have sent me their visual work! It’s wonderful how excited and supportive everyone has been about it, and what lovely artists we have in the Comox Valley.”
The pieces she has accepted for this show celebrate women’s beauty, some of the contemporary issues in women’s lives, women’s spirituality and struggles.
Most of the artists are from the Comox Valley, but the show includes artists from Alberta, Salt Spring Island, Quadra Island, Campbell River and Alert Bay. The exhibit includes work in oil, pastel, acrylic, watercolour, mixed media, ensemblage, fabric, photography, ceramics and collage.
WOMENCENTRIC is the beginning of the second year of the Corre Alice Gallery. She lovingly renovated Frelone’s Grocery to create the gallery space, and in her first year brought a series of monthly exhibits to our community.
Along with her own work, these have including shows that feature surrealism, watercolours, photography and group events.
The visual exhibition will hang at the gallery throughout the month of March.
The gallery is usually open Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. To confirm hours, call 250-400-4099 or visit www.correalice.com.

Featured Artist at the Potter's Place for September.

Well, the potter is up and running full steam ahead.  This month I am the featured artist at a gallery  in Courtenay, BC called the Potters Place.  I have 3 shows that I am committed to over the next few months and another that I am tempted by... The question is, will these 2 hands be able to make all the work I need for another show?   I dunno!

Been making lots of fun things, like these butter dishes for instance...

I am loving working in my new studio and surroundings.  The ocean is right outside, and we have a heron that has decided that one of the trees in the backyard, is a perfect place to call home.  You should hear the sounds a heron makes at about 2 am, when all is very quiet and still - Oh My Goodness - You'd think someone has just thrown up an elephant or a large skidoo, and didn't much like the taste! 














I had an interview with a reporter today from Campbell River (this beautiful place was just featured on Rick Mercer Report if you happen to watch that hysterically funny man) as the next show/fair I am participating in is on Sept 25th at the Haig Brown Festival in Campbell River and somehow I was chosen to have an article written about me... Sweet!    Tomorrow, I will be doing another interview with a local newspaper about becoming the new president of the potters' guild in Comox and about our upcoming holiday sales. - Should be fun!~

My mom has come to visit us for a couple of weeks and we are having a delicious time with her, showing off the whales up island, the deer on the sides of the roads, and the new friends that we have made this last year.  She has been filling our freezer with her famous hearty beef/barley/veggie soup, and a brisket. - Are we lucky or what?????

Everyone in the house is  quietly sleeping or seriously thinking about it and I should do the same, so... Goodnight all.  Thinking of you and missing you,... but loving it here!!!!!

If you do the facebook thing, I seem to be posting to it quite regularly - look me up if you are so inclined.

How the garden grows

These two veggie beds are feeding us salad and greens every day. We put them right in the middle of the front yard where there is the most sun, filled them up with 'fish soil', mulch and other soil goodies, and voila, this explosion of green. Besides several varieties of lettuce there is chard, kale, dill, peas, cucumber, a couple of peppers, all flanked by marigolds. You can see from the grass that we are into the dryer part of the year, although we've had a bunch of rain this last week, which all the plants are happy about.



There weren't cherries on our tree last year so we weren't certain what it was - now we know that it has small red, almost merachino-like fruit that isn't a particular favorite. It's a good thing, because now that the tree is covered with them it's being swarmed by birds - crows, starlings, sparrows and other lbbs, finches.



Karen gave us three tomato plants this spring, and we potted them up in some of that fish soil and put them on our deck. They are doing very well. As is the purple rose on the deck. We are out there most mornings, sitting amongst this productive greenery, checking out the water and the mountains. The clematis didn't bloom last year either, but it's blooming now and I love it.

What we really think about the proposed Raven Coal Mine

June 27, 2011
Union Bay, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Rachel Shaw, Project Assessment Manager
Environmental Assessment Office
Government of British Columbia

Project Manager: Andrew Rollo
Canadian Environment Assessment Agency
Goverment of Canada

Raven Coal Mine Proposal Draft AIR

Not only have we found it difficult to know where to start with comments about deficiencies in the Raven Underground Coal Project’s Draft AIR, but we have also found it very difficult to decide whether it is even appropriate to participate in this process. But finally we have decided that it is best to put our concerns on record, and risk this effort being construed as legitimizing, or supporting in any manner the development of the proposed mine. Let there be no ambiguity: we are completely opposed to the development of this mine.

First, the joint government decision to not take this proposal through an independent environmental review has laid the ground for profound public mistrust, fear and anger. That Ministries of the Environment have, without independent detailed study, determined that there is not significant threat to a key shell-fish producing body of water and its related industry, the second most important bird area on the coast, the drinking and ground water of several communities, one of the country’s treasured old growth forests, and the Pacific Rim National Park only suggests a that there is a political “green light” for this project that has already dismissed any negative environment impact and that this whole process an expensive sham. We harbour a small and possibly naïve hope that this perception is wrong. We re-iterate here what you have heard over and over: the single biggest deficiency in the Draft AIR is that it relies on studies to be conducted by the company. This would be addressed by a Joint Federal / Provincial Independent Review Panel of Experts and full public hearings in all areas affected by this project. This process must include:
• a full and complete mapping and baseline testing of all underground aquifers and surface drainage systems onsite and off mapped by an independent group of experts. This must happen before any further site preparation goes ahead.
• a full accounting of the project’s carbon footprint, including the mine construction and operation, ground and sea transportation and coal combustion at destination points, and an independent expert assessment of the impact of the project’s carbon footprint on local and global climates
• an assessment of the impact of potential noise, light, water and air pollution (including dust and methane emissions) associated with the mine on all (not the small selection proposed by the proponent) species of affected flora and fauna, including the health of humans.

The Draft AIR’s sections on the economic and social impact of the proposal tell us only about sources the proponents will use to describe a limited number of “valued components”. It does not tell us how these will be assessed, or weighed, and we argue again that the proponent is not in a position to provide an independent assessment of the project’s impact. Independent social and economic impact studies must include all communities from from Qualicum to Campbell River and Port Alberni, Uclulet, Bamfield and Tofino. The studies must include:
• an explanation of how the project fits with the regional plans of all communities affected, including the Islands Trust. To the best of our knowledge, none of the local regional development plans, which are the result of extensive consultations and planning and are expressions of the aspirations and interests of the people who live here, have included coal development
• A detailed description of proposed mine and spin-off jobs, including skills and experience required, along with an equally detailed assessment of whether these skills can be found in local communities. If the skills are not available locally, the proposal must identify the likelihood of training local workers, and/or where trained workers are likely to come from and their numbers.
• An assessment of the health and safety impact of this mine environment for workers, including risk of black lung, other diseases and catastrophic events.
• A detailed estimate of the negative effect on non-mining jobs and industries, particularly the shell-fish industry, agriculture, tourism, eco-tourism and recreation
• A full accounting of the project’s public revenues and costs. The public costs would need to include highway repair and maintenance, mines and health and safety inspection, job training, increased hospital and emergency services use, and any increased school, social services and policing (see Fort McMurray). It also needs to include a realistic projection of any public costs associated with catastrophic events that could occur during mine construction, operation and decommissioning (Who Will Clean Up Our Mining Mess? Christopher Pollon, 23 May 20011, TheTyee.ca)
• Detailed drawings of above ground-mine operations and tailings piles, in the landscape, as they will be seen from key locations, particularly Denman Island and the Island Highway.
• Comprehensive social studies, including surveys, interviews, and focus groups, on the project’s impact on tourism, property values and the effects of a project that is opposed by a significant proportion of residents, including out-migration, mental health and community cohesion.
• A statement of the company’s commitment to workers’ health and safety, and corporate citizenship.

On a personal note, again for the record, if the Raven mine or any associated open pit mines proceed, it will be devastating for us. We moved to Union Bay a year ago, investing the sum total of our life’s work to come to a community that we understood valued and cherished one of the most beautiful environments on the planet. One of us has asthma, and we live close enough to the proposed site that coal dust may become a factor in our ability to stay here. We can barely think about the grief we would experience for this beautiful, still abundant environment, and the possible economic and social consequences for our lives if the mine becomes a reality.

Alice de Wolff
Cori Sandler

We've Joined A Choir

We've joined a choir!!!! - Island Soul Choir

It is called a Gospel Choir but it is more of a Soul filled Choir than a Gospel Choir -
We had our first of 2 concerts last weekend - They took place in Nanaimo BC and we had a blast.
This is just a sampling of what we have been up to lately.

This first video is the song Melodies From Heaven
(if the video doesn't stream well, you can go straight to youtube to see it there. just click here http://youtu.be/1BAkFg8kFpo)



This 2nd Video is the song Woke up this morning
(if the video doesn't stream well, you can go straight to youtube to see it there.
just click here http://youtu.be/VyMl6oRRo6E)

Sea Lions

Last year we saw sea lions emerging from fog covered waters just off Heron Rocks on Hornby Island, and we have known for years that they hang out off the south east tip of Helliwell Park on Hornby. I've always thought one needed to be in a boat, or in a pretty remote location to see these wonderful, noisy, smelly critters.

But 10 days ago I drove down the Island Highway and practically went off the road when I passed the Fanny Bay warf and realized that the booms attached to the warf were covered with them. The next day Cori & I went out in the morning to see if they were still there, and indeed there were about a hundred of them (literally) sunning themselves on the booms and waiting for the herring to arrive. Bark, bark, ark, bark, growl, ark, bark - they're incredibly loud! The day after that Dad, Evelyn, Cori & I went to check them out again, and there were maybe half that many, it being not such a great morning for sunbathing. I have developed considerable sympathy for the herring - their arrival here to spawn is such a sign of spring and renewal, but that's partly because a whole array of predators arrive with them. We're particularly aware of the eagles, these guys, and the human fishers.


We got a good look at sea lion "rafting", a version of the back float, flippers in the air, sun on belly, usually side by side with a friend or two. This looks kind of like a partially submerged, inverted tree root, until the flippers move or a head emerges. In this photo there is one alone, and two together.

On Sunday we were at our neighbour's across the road, and saw what first looked like a gaggle of ducks, but then we realized that it was a 'raft' of sea lions - just off 'our' beach!

When Cori came home tonight she heard what she first thought was a dog in some distress, but then realized that it was a sea lion, and then heard the full chorus. It sounds like they are on the log booms that are a couple of kilometers south of us. We will check it out in the morning.



ps. the boat in this photo is bringing in a harvest of Fanny Bay oysters.

Fin Clipping

We are among the newest, and are quite likely the greenest 'stream keepers' on the west coast! On Wednesday we joined and had our first morning volunteering with the Fanny Bay Salmonid Enhancement Society. They are a great group of volunteers who operate a small hatchery and look after more than 20 streams that drain into Baynes Sound. They put us to work very quickly because they needed hands to clip the adipose fins of many thousand salmon smelts. Here's what we now know about this process..... it is done so that fishers recognize that these fish are from a hatchery, and so that they are recognizable when they return to these streams. These little guys have been fed since the fall and are getting ready for release - they are just a bit longer than the palm of one's hand, and after a dose of clove oil calmed them down it was possible to pick them up, quickly clip that little fin behind the dorsal, and put them back into running water that sent them back into their tank. The fish counters told us at the end of the morning that we'd clipped precisely 5001 fish.

The streams that these folks (us too, now) look after are the most likely to be affected by the proposed Raven Coal Mine. It is hard to believe, but both levels of government are (well, were, when there was a functioning prov. government) apparently encouraging several new proposals to remove coal from the bench just a few kms. above the Sound. There is a long and dangerous history of coal mines here, all of which have been closed for years. But it seems that it's now possible to seriously propose a new underground mine, with the coal to be transported by road to Port Alberni and then by ship to Japan. It's hard to keep track of the number of things that are wrong with this plan. We're wearing NO COAL MINE buttons and have gotten involved with Coal Watch and the Comox Valley Sierra Club. And have just had intimate interactions with several hundred salmon. There is a huge amount to learn and do, but this was a good place to start.

The January 8 Picnic

We decided that this last Saturday & Sunday (Jan 8 & 9) would be the right moment to get on the ferry to see Bob & Laura Johnson and their daughter Krista who live on the beach about 15k south of Powell River. Environment Canada predicted a couple of clear days, so we took B & L up on their invitation to meet us at the ferry and then stay for an overnight. We'd visited several years ago when their new house was weather tight but still under construction ... Dad had helped Bob install their kitchen cupboards. They'd not moved in yet, although Laura was beginning to feed big groups of us in the house.

So we needed to see the fully finished version.

And it's pretty wonderful. Bob and Laura planned and built every square inch of it, so it is completely "theirs". And it showed itself off to us at it's best - the weather was spectacular. When we arrived Krista was on the beach tending a big fire, and Laura said "Hotdogs on the beach". Years ago they'd built very protected seating just above the beach logs, so that's where we had lunch. So there we all were, January 8, warm enough to sit out, sunning ourselves on the beach (in this pic you can see Laura, Krista, Dad & Cori, with Bob way in the background roasting wieners on the fire).

This is what we were looking at - that's the Sunshine coast on the left, and Texada Island on the right - and what they look at every day. They have a remarkably long view down the Malaspina Strait -it's pretty wild, with almost no lights at night. There are sea lions on rocks to the left, and a constant parade of birds, seals, boats, barges and logs that keep Bob endlessly busy. Each storm blows in new treasures and/or challenges - they heat the house with drift wood that Bob hauls up from the beach and splits. He also tries to keep a path clear onto the beach so they can launch boats in the summer. This beach can take the full-on brunt of a storm, several of which have happened this season. We were lucky with these couple of days, and enjoyed them to the full.

What an amazing thing to be able to do - drop the car at some ferry terminal close to home, hop on, hang out on the water for a bit, watch the mountains from new perspectives, be hosted by wonderful friends and then be accompanied home by a spectacular sunset. Thanks Bob, Laura & Krista.

Mt Washington

The ski hill that's about 40 minutes from us announced this week that it has the most snow of any ski hill IN THE WORLD! We woke up to a spectacularly clear day today, and thought it would be the perfect day to check out these claims and to take Dad up the mountain. Keep in mind that we had a spit of snow last week, that the temp has been in the +10s, and while it's been very wet (thus the snow at the higher levels) it's been pretty easy to live with.

They're claiming 5.5 meters of snow, and I can believe it. It was magical, snow piled on the trees, lots of people - likely their busiest day of the year, and it should have been. We watched the guys in the photo here sawing blocks of snow away from the windows of the Chalet - you can see the blocks at the bottom of the photo.

Wonderful to be able to visit winter like this.





Trumpeter Swans

These beauties arrived mid-November and there are hundreds of them (well, more like a couple of thousand). They grace the view out our window regularly, and will be here until the spring. I'm thrilled to find this video, taken in the last couple of weeks, from spots we drive by regularly.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Tonight Cori, Dad & I finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. We've been reading it out loud to each other after dinners over this last week and have been completely captured by its stories and the way they are told. Meg suggested that we would like it - she was right - and it's been, in part, a way of keeping her with us after she abandoned us and returned to the east. It's been part of a theme that started with Dad's Nov 11 WWII reflections (that we were part of in person this year), and included a remarkable production of Anne Frank's Diaries put on by students at the Comox high school. The book's voices of Juliet and her Guernsey and London friends are so strong that we're sorry that we're at the end of their regular communications with each other and with us. Their stories are not at all easy, but their horror is butt up against plain philosophical talk, an appreciation for the power of literature, and a remarkable humour and grace.
We're going to be looking for another good story so we can carry on reading to each other - any recommendations?

Winter here

We woke up last Saturday to this!! Along with great protestations from this household's residents about "false advertising" - "who said there wouldn't be any snow out here in la la land". And then the clouds lifted and we could see the peaks across the water, incredible blues and grays in the sky and water, highlighted by the new white snow that stuck to the boughs of the evergreens, the bare branches of the deciduous trees .... and we were glued to our front window "I don't believe how beautiful this is", and then out the front door "It's really quite warm and just gorgeous". The power didn't go out (it did all around us), so we've been toasty inside, although thinking about back up generators. We even used the snow shovels, and the cars needed their brushes & scrapers. Along with the rest of the west, the unusual cold and snow lasted almost a week, until last night.
Meg was with us for a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks, and has just returned to TO. She slipped into our lives with complete ease, reconnected us with our TO roots, met the new people in our lives and poked us about what's coming next. She and Dad are good friends and her visit made the transition of his arrival richer. We were able to maintain our long tradition of seeing Harry Potter films together, which was a bonus. By the end of her visit our neighbours were asking her to walk their dogs!! But back to the earth, ocean and skies.... she, Cori & I had a spectacular day on Hornby Island - a day 'stolen' from the forecast rain - it was cool, with a deep purple sunset and clear night skies; we took another drive down the Island Highway to Qualicum on the weekend - there was a bit more snow, and it was exquisite.

This new year

OK, OK, it’s been far too long since we sent everyone an update. And, it’s been a year, almost to the day, that we decided to make this move and start to prepare Garden Ave. for sale. It’s our own Rosh Hashanah, the new year in this transition we’ve created for ourselves. It’s been a year of being unsettled, and you know, it’s mostly been amazing.

What a summer we’ve had. We’re here, and are always thinking about our special network of friends & family, but we’ve have been a bit busy and our more regular communications have been disrupted. But we’re settling some and today seems like the perfect day to bring you up to date a bit.
Today was the first time since we arrived in July that we were really aware of the ‘surf’ that is so close to us. The wind was quite strong this morning and our usually calm waters were full of whitecaps and waves that crashed against the shore. I was working outside at the front of the house and was thrilled that I could be painting a cupboard and hearing the ocean at the same time.
It’s been a remarkable couple of months weather-wise - the Island has shown us its full summer beauty - maybe three days have included rain for the first two months, although that’s beginning to change now. Every day we spend some time just sitting by a window, or on the deck, drinking in Baynes Sound, the Georgia Straight, Texada Island and the Coast Mountains, or the trees in the back yard. Except in the morning, when everything is bright orange and green, this landscape has hundreds of shades of blue that change from minute to minute. Cori & I are pinching ourselves, that we get to be here, even if it’s a bit of a struggle to find the right name for that specific shade of “blue”.
Truth be, we seem to have lost our words for many things – we’re living in a renovation and things like the “vanity wall” are more often “you know, the place we agreed we would put that thingy we were talking about”. So many things are new or unfamiliar or don’t have the usual ‘anchors’ ... “I really liked that one color that we saw in that store, you know the one (what city, on what street, on what object)”. Or are among a thousand similar things to choose from ….“is this sink less expensive than the one we liked in Calgary (2 months and hundreds of web sites & brochures later)?” But all of that said, we are very privileged to be in a position to make these kind of decisions, and mostly we are managing to communicate with each other and our builders.
The short version of the time here starts with our arrival June 30 to take possession of the house. Cori & I camped out oustairs for two nights, then the furniture arrived from Ontario and we set up the basics. Deb, Billee and Dar from Toronto were our very first visitors – they showed up for a quick hug while the movers were still here, on their way to Hornby. Dad flew in the next day and the day after that my two cousins arrived to help us start the renovations, particularly, tearing out walls and constructing the shaft for the little elevator. We had a great time that week. Bill (from Salt Spring) and Bob (Powell River) are both experienced builders. They’d start at 7:30 (a pattern that was a shock to our systems, but hasn’t really changed since) and worked hard (Dad supervising) until late afternoon when we’d all sit on the deck and drink in the view. They arrived with fresh caught crab, which set the tone for a week of great eating! After ‘the boys’ left, Dad felt assured that everything was well underway, so he returned to Calgary to avoid the chaos here and to tend his garden. Unfortunately not long after he returned, his part of the city was hit with a heavy hail storm that ripped many of his lovely potatoes and annual flowers to shreds. They’ve recovered, but it was an upsetting mess.
The second crew of Comox-based builders began immediately after the cousin’s ‘shift’. Mike, Reubin & Tristan have been wonderful to have working in the house. We’ve left only two walls untouched on the 2nd floor, although we’ve had (& rejected for now) designs on both of them. They’re in the finishing stages of changes to 2 bathrooms, the master bedroom, Dad’s bed – sitting rooms, and the various entrances to the lift. This week they’ve opened up a door and window in the garage in preparation for Cori’s studio, and another team are working on the exterior of the house. You may remember that there were big concerns about moisture in the stucco when we bought the house, and that after considerable anxiety and talking with exterior experts we decided to take the risk that there was no structural damage. This week we’ve confirmed that there isn’t !! So this team is cleaning it all up and re-sealing it, and will give it a new colour (when Cori & I have figured out what we’d like).
OK, back to mid-July. Wayne came to Victoria to have dinner with Marlea & I to celebrate the publication of the book “Working Without Commitments”. It’s been almost 10 years that we’ve been working on this project and it feels great to have this phase completed. Cori & I stayed with Anne & Sheila again, which was lovely, and spent a day looking at house stuff. We’d only really been Comox Valley residents for 2 weeks at that point, but we found ourselves a bit shocked by the traffic, the cost of parking and size of Victoria and were very excited about our drive back up the Island to “home”.
A week after that we got back in the car to go to Calgary to pick up Dad and head into the BC interior for the Philip family reunion - Dad’s mother’s family. There were 26 cousins in Dad’s generation, and who knows how many in the subsequent ones (although there is a “tree” and it was being updated at the reunion). There were 70 or 80 of us camped together, or at the one or two motels in Hixon. Dad was the elder of this gathering. He and his younger cousin Buzzy are the only remaining of the 26. He, Cori, Bob & I shared an RV for a couple of nights, which was new for everybody, but which turned out to be fine. On this weekend where there were more cameras than people, I had a wasp sting me on the inside of my upper lip (it was inside my drink can). I looked a bit like Bart Simpson, and after it stopped hurting and it was clear the swelling wasn’t going to close up my throat, it was kind of funny. Most important, we came away with some new and stronger contacts, which was great.
The first day of our drive back to Calgary was through the Cariboo, and we spoke about how vulnerable the entire middle of the province feels to fire – which indeed broke out a couple of days after we left. Millions of acres of the pine forest have been killed by the pine beetle, leaving dead trees that are like a floor of kindling.
After re-acquainting ourselves with our cats in Calgary and an early birthday dinner for Dad, we left again to spend the weekend at the Canmore Folk Festival before carrying on to the Island. This was our second year volunteering with the Snowy Owl Dog Sled team who arrange (vehicle) transport for the musicians. It was a bit wet, but was a great weekend of music. Two musical highlights – Buffy St. Marie, and, Cori being invited to join the big crowd on stage to sing the closing songs.
Not long after we arrived back, Pramila & Arun came for a couple of days, and it was wonderful to have them here in this new place. Arun was celebrating his graduation from high school, and we were honored to be able to do this with him. We went up Mt. Washington on the ski lift one spectacular day and could see to Nanaimo in one direction and up past Campbell River in the other. Another day we sent them off to see seals and then horseback riding, and on the next we went up to Telegraph Cove to go out on the water to see whales. And they are still there, the whales – in one spectacular moment we saw a pod of orca, led by a minke whale, with a hunchback whale surfacing very close to them. This visit was the beginning of knitting together previous lives with this new one – and was very important. The next week my old friend Vic arrived with his son Liam for a couple of nights. We spend a day on the Francis Barkley, the mail and small freight boat that travels from Pt. Alberni to Bamfield every day. It takes along about 40 passengers, and is a delightful way to spend a day. Terry, who Cori & I connected with by singing our hearts out at a campfire at the family reunion, brought her daughter Natalie to visit overnight. We had just brought in several boxes of peaches to do our first canning, and it turns out that Terry is a master canner. So we spent the evening hearing stories of Natalie’s last 8 years in China and learning to can peaches.
Several people have come for dinners, brunches, coffee – Jan and Rosalyn from Calgary, Anne & Sheila from Victoria, Bob & Louise from Sydney, and Bob & Laura from Powell River and their daughter Krista & granddaughter Sonara from Edmonton.
Our community builder friends here, Karin & Agathe, set us up with a plot in a community garden before we arrived in June, and even planted for us. We’ve enjoyed visiting it every couple of days to water, and now to harvest – we’ve a spectacular harvest of beans & kale. These two women are wonderful, and are looking after us with regular check-ins, the occasional meal and introductions to as many people as we can manage. We had a little garage sale on the long weekend (sinks, tubs, doors, lighting, etc. that has been changed in the reno) which turned out to be the perfect way to introduce ourselves to more neighbours, so we can put more names on the folks who walk by & their dogs. There are almost as many dogs & their people go by here as there are cars!
This canning story captures many of the interactions we’ve had with people here…. We were in Quality Foods picking up cases of peaches. Cori asked the other woman who was inspecting them what she intended to do with them, and she introduced herself as ‘Sylvia the canner’, a lovely woman who is also a nurse. We had a short course in canning on the spot, and then she offered us a sample of her jam. She gave us her address and said she’d leave a bottle on the doorstep. The next day Cori went by, and was welcomed by a golden retriever (who is much like Verdi) and by Sylvia’s husband Dell, a retired bush pilot. He invited her into their beautiful home, showed her the pantry with stacks of preserved fruit & fish, the green house with tomatoes & cukes, the bees for pollinating everything, the smoke house for fish. It came up that we were novices at filleting fish, and Dell asked if we wanted a lesson. So Cori came home, gathered me and the small sockeye’s we’d got the day before, and took us back to Dell who spent another hour showing us how a fisher does it. We left with another couple of jars of his canned, smoked salmon, and new friends!
This next couple of months are going to be similarly busy. It’s Rosh Hashanah, so Karin and another friend are coming for dinner this evening. Then the potter’s guild arrives – Zsuzsa & Carole Anne Michaelson, and three potters from further south on the Island are coming here for a night, then we are all going to Hornby for a couple of nights, then returning here for a bit. Cori’s mom & Max are coming for ten days at the end of the month, which is very exciting (and a reason to push for the finish of the renos). Dad has found house-sitters for November – April, and that’s really great. We’re working on the details of how to actually make that trip (transporting the things from home that will make him comfortable, the cats, the car). We will certainly be in Calgary to help him pack up and get the house ready for the last couple of weeks of October.

Wishing you all the best for this coming year. Much love to all, and so many thanks for the love & support that you’ve show us this year.

May & June, Calgary & TO

We are itching to move into the new house, but do not take possession until July 2. So this month has been the perfect time for Cori to go to TO to help friends & family sell their houses, and for me to be in Calgary with Dad preparing the garden.

On the Calgary end, during the week that it was SNOWING here in early May, Dad & I poured over the house blue prints and made drawings for the installation of the lift and re-configuration of bathrooms & closets on the 2nd floor. That's going to happen pretty quickly after we arrive in July .... because it will be quite disruptive, it makes sense to do it before we fully settle in. Two of Dad's cousin's sons (my 2nd cousins) have offered to come to build the shaft for the lift - Bill is a builder on Salt Spring Island and Bob built his own place on the beach near Powell River. So for the first week we will be camping in the house with a bit of an extended family barn(lift)-raising going on. It will likely be August by the time the all the renos are done on the 2nd floor and we can fully move in.

Dad has decided that he doesn't need to move immediately and so we have the luxury of giving our proposed living arrangement an extended 'trial' period, just to be certain that it's going to feel good for all three of us (five with the cats). He is going to come for this first renovation week with Bill & Bob, and then will come back in the fall, to stay the winter. So we are not selling his place, but have been slowing working through clearing out for book sales & the church's big garage sale. We will likely have a garage sale here in June - cousin Linda & her partner Brian may come down from Mayerthorp (AB) to help out. Since it's warmed up, we've put in a large potato patch, and are working on planting the usual crop of annual flowers that make the back yard so lovely (although it's going to be cold again this long weekend, so we may wait a bit).

The other big agenda item for July is Dad's family's reunion. He had 26 cousins on his mothers', the Phillips, side of his family. Only he & Buzzy are still alive, and my generation and all their children don't know each other terribly well. We are gathering at a camp ground in Hixon, about 60 ks south of Prince George, in the middle of BC. Cori, Dad & I will drive to Pr. George, pick up a camper and stay in it for the weekend, which all by itself will be fun.

So, lots going on, much excitement, in the midst of this transition that is going at a relatively gentle pace over this next month. Love to you all.....

We have found our home!

This is our new home!!

We have found our place on Vancouver Island! We're still pinching ourselves to see if we're dreaming. We had a very complex list of things we were hoping for: a view of the water, comfortable space for Dad, offices for Cori & Alice, a guest room, a studio for Cori, enough sun, a place to grow things....... and this house makes all this possible.

It is in a little enclave called Criagdarroch Beach in Union Bay, about 8 minutes south of Courtney. It is on Baynes Sound, looking out at Denman Island and it's northern tip - Tree Island, and further across the Straight to Texada Island, with glimpses of Powell River and of course the very dramatic mountains on the mainland coast. We are a spit to one of the most prolific oyster beds in the country (Fanny Bay oysters), and a spit and a half to the ferry to Denman & Hornby.


We face east, and are across a street from houses that are on the water front. But the presence of the ocean is very big - bigger than can be captured in pics - and we think that these houses will disappear from our conscious view pretty quickly. The waterfront is a long, shallow rock beach with lots of water birds, herons, eagles and some seals. We have already spoken with a neighbour who says there are not many deer, and the occasional cougar!! There is public access to the beach about half a block from us, although it requires a bit of climbing, and there is walk-on access a km down the road (a very quiet, local road with neighbours walking their dogs). The plan is to post tide charts in the kitchen, and to explore the characteristics of different tides by walking down daily.

The house is on 1/3 acre, and has a delightful, small forest in the back, just behind a separate deck & hot tub. There are raised beds for veggies on the left side of the house (photo above), and a closed (from the deer) garden with fruit trees (as yet unknown) on the other side. The front has far too much lawn, and we will likely add several of the abundant shrubs that grow here .... Alice has always envied Hornby friends' fig trees, kiwi vines, pear trees, etc. so we will see what can be done in this space. And, of course, we are the proud owners of our first septic system, with a field in the back.

The main living area of the house is on the 2nd level. This is going to work for all of us into the future because we are going to install a lift. This has been the source of considerable discussion, and we've found a supplier and contractors who are able to do it. And we like that there are 3 doors to get onto decks on the 2nd floor, and another 3 doors on the 1st floor, so neither level feels enclosed. The living/dining room looks towards the water, the kitchen/family room looks to the back wood and the trees - both are very calm spaces. Offices will be on the first floor, and Cori will be using the garage for her pottery studio/workshop.

We blogged a couple of weeks ago about concerns about the exterior of the house, specifically too much moisture in the stucco finish, which slowed us down a bit after the first home inspection. But after a bunch of consultations and the lack of visual evidence of really big problems either inside or on the exterior, we decided to take on the risk that there might be damage under the stucco. So, one of the first things that needs to be done this summer is to confirm that there isn't damage (fingers crossed) and then re-seal and paint the exterior.

It's ours at the beginning of July, or at least ours and the contractors who will be putting in the lift and working on the exterior. It's all VERY exciting.

Musings by Cori on making this move, dancing with the tides, and feeling blessed for friends old and new, near and far

I am aware that most of the people that we have met, are not dissimilar from us in that they too are transplants. We have come across people from New Brunswick and Toronto, from Saskatchewan and Calgary, from Port Alberni and Hawaii. Everyone seems to be genuinely interested in who we are and we have learned a lot about the island from the people that we have met.

There is something different that seems to bring each of the people we meet out here to the Comox Valley. For some it is the desire for 'small town' living, yet not wanting to be so remote that you can't find a good place to get eggs benny on a Sunday morning. For others it is the climate that will allow them to play all day long if they want, most days of the year. For those that like the concept of casual Fridays and wanted that to extend to Saturday through Thursday ... well, they have found home here.

I assume some came here thinking this was pretty untamed and unreal and decided not to leave. We are told that many years ago, it was a place where people came who in some way were looking to fall off the radar so to speak. There are draft dodgers here, radicals of some sort or another, people who take this land very seriously and who are interested in taking an active roll in keeping it clean and healthy environment. People who have made a conscious decision to live among the eagles which are in abundance, much like the sparrow is in Toronto, and the deer, which very lovingly welcome us humans to share their home. (they especially liked to golf with the 10 o'clock crowd)
Close to every day, we meet someone else who has a wide smile and open arms, welcoming us not only to the Valley, but to living here. We have helped our housemates spread soil over the lawn preparing it for new grass seed and also helped with a garage sale. We were invited to go and see the snow birds - the one's that fly all over the world in air shows. They train here for about 2 weeks every year before heading out for their airshows and do they ever give the residence of this valley a show... Because they make so much noise for the 2 week period, they do a couple of free shows over the ocean for all to come out and watch. - Goose spit was packed on Saturday with hundreds of people sitting on the huge driftwood logs on the shore, watching out over the ocean with it's sailing boats anchored in the foreground, and with the mountain peaks in the background. The snowbirds numbered 9 in total, and flew so close to each other without moving out of formation. It was really quite stunning to see them so close. If I can figure out how to get video up here on this blog, I will add some video that I shot. Alice is pretty sure that they ( the snowbirds pilots) are taking their lessons from the shorebirds here.

Until I can load my video's up here, you can watch this video of the SNOWBIRDS IN FLIGHT in Comox.

We took a walk on Goose spit a few days ago at low tide and My Goodness was that a little piece of magic. There were lots of water foul, ducks of some sort following each other. They would travel one way, then we'd see them on mass, just turn and head in the other direction, the ones who were leading, now became the ones who were following.

It's kind of like what we are doing here. I am not sure who followed who here. Did Alice follow me, or did I follow her... We have both really been seeing this side of the country in our futures for such a long time that it is rather a shock to the system that we have actually managed to make it a reality.

So now...we are learning to go with the flow - to allow ourselves the ability and the freedom to move feeling, and resist little. There are lots of learning curves here and the elements here are a powerful force. When the winds blow, they blow wild and hard, moving trees that are hundreds of pounds with ease. The rains accompanied by winds can take down power lines leaving those who rely on electricity 'powerless' for anywhere from a few hours to several days.

People seem to take the time to connect here in a way we have been blessed with among our chosen family of friends, with little time for 'courting the friendship' before committing to it. This is by no means to say there is any type of replacement of friendships we know and love, only to say that we feel we are landing well here and being respected, cared for, and gently nudged up hill, like a goat learning to tread the mountain side. The little goat thinks "I can't make it up those rocks". The more experienced goats say, "Don't worry kid... we got your back!"
We hope to continue to meet more people with whom we can share stories of all of you with and so too share stories of them with you, so that when you are able to come and visit, you will already know well of each other and all hearts will be flowing in the same direction like the sand on the beach, dancing in patterns that are so beautiful. The sand waits patiently for the tide to ebb and flow back and forth and a new masterpiece is created each time. - Just like a charcoal drawing by the most gifted artist.
When I was young I use to lay on my back looking up at the clouds and I'd spend hours seeing all kinds of things in the clouds - patterns, animals, faces, ... lots of things... Now, I will be looking at the sand after the tide goes out and looking for new visions there.
In the picture below I see on the right hand side of the large form in the centre, a persons face clearly, with 2 eyes looking toward the left and an arm curved around to touch it's nose. The mouth is slightly opened or puckered. This is a tree person as it's legs are more like a trunk than legs. The person beside this one on the left, is hunched over slightly, with straight arms dangling in front to the left. This is a woman, with large almond shaped eyes, a long nose and a wide but closed mouth. Her arms are stretched to join into the trunk. ( Oh I could go on with what I see in these sand drawings left by the tides.)When I look away from this, and then look back, I can see something completely different. -

I guess all this is to say, that life is sure to change. Resisting it only makes hard work, but change will come regardless and it is easier and better for the spirit to dance with it.

Note to self... Try not to get overly distracted while walking on the beach at low tide... The tide can come back in really really really quickly!

Here's to long walks on the beach, interpreting sand drawings. It's kind of like reading tea leaves, only saltier.... Alice, wait for me, ... Come back here.... Did you see this????

Honey, did you remember to unplug the kettle when you plugged in the airplane?

We have found a great little neighbourhood bar/pub called the WhistleStop here in Courtenay. It overlooks the non military airfield where you can learn how to fly. We went for a little stroll along the gated area overlooking the runway ( which you too now have seen in these pictures) and saw the plane to the left plugged into something that looked much like the post with the speakers on them at a drive in theatre. Remember the gizmmo that you used to hand on the top of your open window so that you could hear the sound of the movie you were ( weren't ) watching?

I said to Alice... Honey, did you remember to unplug the kettle when you plugged in the airplane?

Snow Capped Mountains to Sparkling Ocean

So... we think we get it when the locals say, "This is the best place to be"! We took a drive last week when we had a few hours that we didn't have house hunting booked. We had heard about Mount Washington, but had not yet gone for the 15 minute drive out of town. ( Maybe 20 minutes, depending if you stopped to see the deer graze and watch the eagles sailing high in the sky, on a wind current.
We started to climb and lo and behold... we got it! We really got it! They say you can ski here in the morning and then go play golf or windsurf or sail in the afternoon.
There was so much snow, we could hardly believe it... We had just come from about 15 degrees, and walking on the sand by the ocean. The picture to the above and to the left was the little space that had been shoveled out so as to make access in and out of this house. The snow layers are surrounding the driveway in front of the house.



The streets ( of which are maybe 5 or 6 total right at the ski hill) were deep in snow, with sections plowed out for driving. It was truly unbelievable.






Behind us you can see one of several chair lifts.
So... be sure to bring your ski's.
I'll be on soup duty!







From the mountain, we headed back down to Courtenay/Comox and the ocean. At some point on the drive down the 14% grade, ( I think it was about 14%). We could see the snow... and the ocean... and mountains across the ocean... and more snow on top of those distant mountains. WOW!!!