Tripping around and over British Columbia

White Lake marsh near Sorrento, BC

It seems a lifetime ago I wrote about our current trip. 

But here we are still on the road almost three weeks later.

We woke up in Sorrento June 29 and made a B-line for the coast. We visited with sisters in Langley; which was the first time in a long time where the four Lacombe girls spent a day with just us. I learned some things about me that day.

Rain forest pine on Quadra Island

Then three of us hopped a ferry to Nanaimo, drove to Campbell River and hopped another ferry to Quadra Island. On Quadra, we spent a week at a private women’s retreat where I learned some more things about myself and wrote the poem that precedes this entry called O Mother. 

I knew some of the women when I arrived and all of them by the time we parted. I think that’s all I will say about that for now.

My sisters dropped me in Victoria at my son’s home. Unfortunately for me that wasn’t planned very well and I missed seeing the grandkids.

Houseboat at Fishermen's Wharf in Victoria, BC

However, I think that’s the most time I’ve spent alone with my son in about 15 years or more, so more learning took place along with some quality son time.

 Then my daughter and son-in-law picked me up and took me back to Langley. On the way, we watched the super moonrise over Swartz Bay as the ferry headed for Tsawwassen, BC.

 In Langley, I hung out with sisters of two generations for a few days. The younger generation are sisters and cousins and it would be interesting to send them off for six days together in one house. One of them is a nurse, so they should all survive. LOL

Tuesday, the original sister pair piled into the van and headed for Nakusp where sister two has lakefront property. And here we are until tomorrow or Sunday.

On our way up here, we ran into a road blockade due to a grisly accident on Hwy 97 between Kelowna and Vernon. A half-hour segment of our trip took over three hours in 38^C heat. Air conditioning doesn’t work all that well in a car moving at 5 km ph and we never broke 10 km ph during that entire detour. So, that’s when I learned that no matter the tragedy taking place in anyone else’s life, I can be ticked at the inconvenience it’s causing in mine. This proves beyond doubt that we live in our own Now regardless of our compassion for fellow men. My divine compassion boiled off somewhere between hour one and hour two that afternoon!

This is what crossing Uper Arrow Lake looks like in the dark!

Anyone who travels in British Columbia knows that the landscapes are spectacular and varied from rainforest to desert. The roads can be twisty and the trees grow right down to the edge of the pavement almost. So, when the delay had us driving from Lumby to Needles after dark, we drove on high alert for deer and saw four beside and one on the road. THAT was a LONG drive.

I’ve tweeted a bunch of photos from along the way too. You can see those @umbelH2o

We landed at our destination around midnight and were mighty happy to sink and swim for the next day in and out of the lake. I have two more days before I return to reality. I’m going to soak those puppies up!

 

Sunset on Upper Arrow Lake

O Mother!

O Mother!

O abundant,

Clever creator

Using variations on a theme to experiment & create

Experiment & create

 

A genetic tweak here

 

An adaptation there

Shapes & textures nudged around the spectrum

 

Chaos!

Cacophony!

Alive!

Clever, creative Mother

Calgary to Sorrento, BC

Road tripping with my sister this week. We left Calgary Thursday morning and traveled to Sicamous along the TransCanada highway. The scenery is spectacular all along the way. We didn't stop a lot, but picked up yummy bagels in Canmore and took a tour of Field, BC; which is something I've never done in the 30 years I've traveled these roads.

Field, BC

We stopped and took in a pottery shop where a young lady and I talked about how mass production hasn't really done our humanity any favors. This young lady (and possibly others; I didn't ask) make beautiful pottery dishes. I love pottery, but how does a potter make a living when everyone buys cheap dishes from some big store chain.
We've made the makers nearly obsolete. Sigh...

Back on the road, we cruised along to Golden. Kathleen wanted a break from the driving and an electronic sign above the highway said, "Take your turn as designated driver,"so I figured I'd better.
I drove to Revelstoke and Kathleen took over again because she knew where we were going next.
We stopped at a beautiful historic B&B called Artists' B&B. We were staying with another couple of sisters and the owner who is also female. It was a really feminine energy night overlooking Shuswap Lake.

The next morning started very slowly after a late night of laughter, but we didn't have far to go. We moseyed along the lake shore because my sister wants to buy property in BC on a lake. She knows this route far better than I and took me to a few of her favorite spots. One of them was the DeMille's Farm Market in Salmon Arm. This is truly a diversified operation. It has a petting zoo, feed sales, grocery store, artisan shop, hay sales and more.

Coot on a log in Salmon Arm

Salmon Arm sits on the (you guessed it) Salmon Arm of Shuswap Lakes. The lake shore of the town is mostly wetlands... or was before the cottages, homes and now resorts went up. We met a local representative of the Naturalist Society. She was perched on the huge warf that juts out into the lake for the houseboats to gas up and buy ice cream. She had a high powered telescope pointed at an osprey nest and was letting people look at mom fusing over her eggs. She also told the story of how the local Naturalist Society is trying to preserve the remaining wetlands by the town. They are home to an endangered turtle species.


Today, we spent tripping around Sorrento, Blind Bay, White Lake and stuff. We started at the weekly farmer's market across the road from the motel we're in where I bought some goodies for the Quadra Island experience coming right up.
We looked all over the lake front areas until finally I started thinking about how little Shuswap lake front is left in a natural state.

We visited a provincial park on White Lake though that was remarkable for a couple of reasons. One was its beauty and the other was its fearless ducks and ducklings. One parent had 3 ducklings that simply were not afraid of the people swimming among them. And the parent jumped out onto the dock at my feet. These ducks were a perfect example of animals habituated to being fed by humans. The young ones kept checking out my toes to see if they were food and the adult quacked at me for being slow about bringing out the food. Except we didn't have any duck food with us and I learned a long time ago not to feed wild animals.

We dined at a lakeside pub where an old minstrel serenaded us with Jimmy Buffet and Bob Dylan songs. Life felt pretty good.
We put miles of miles on the van today. We saw houses galore sitting on the land water folk call the riparian zone.
In my mind, BC is officially no longer pristine. It has joined the ranks of provinces that haven't cared for the natural environment. It's off that pedestal for me.

"When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?"

Creativity

The Universe Gave Me a Pink Star!

I talked at length with an astrologer last night about what is in my birth chart. I had specific questions for him about what the stars and planets say I laid out for this lifetime in terms of purpose, learning and auspicious times for personal growth. I think he's a Master Healer.
(If this is a little too hee bee gee bee for you, you might want to navigate away now before I get really out there.)
He gave me some "homework" to move me toward my goals.

The first thing I got to practice today was not swearing at myself and calling myself bad names for sleeping late. I struggle with that. So today, when I saw  the clock at 10 am when I opened my eyes, I smiled and wondered if he hadn't somehow made me sleep late to test me.

Then I tried one of the things he suggested that I'm not outing myself on yet. He's says if I can master it, it will be a gift I can share with many. So I did a little experiment today in the kitchen.

Apparently I also need to relearn how to hug. This is not easy for me. So, I put it out there on FB to elicit help from my network. 

Then I went out for a walk with the girls after dinner and this too is in my best interest. It's social and it's movement. Double whammy!

He also said that I have many spirits around me waiting for opportunities to help. I forget about those invisible forces in our lives until they do something to remind me.

Such as give me a pink star for my efforts.
As I walked home the last few hundred yards alone, I saw something in the grass up ahead. Curious like a cat, I angled toward it.
As I got closer, I realized it was a helium balloon blowing on the breeze, but almost out of lift. My environmentalist kicked in and I picked up its string to take it home to the garbage can.

As I walked, it lifted off the ground and snuggled itself against my right shoulder just behind my head. By the time I got home, I realized I couldn't assign it to the garbage while it still had a lift/life in it. I tied it to the clothes rack outside my window. I is floating in gentle circles on the breeze and waving at me.

I get a pink star for my efforts today. How brilliant is that!

Why is This so Difficult?

Hi Juliana,
Thank you for sending me out into the rain! Truly, I am grateful. You found the perfect motivator for me - Take a Picture!

I walked 23.5 minutes today. I also got a draft of one of the newsletters done before I went for my walk.
I'm on a roll!

There is a park behind my house. At one end of the park up hill from my house, I get a view of COP. Right now we are watching the snow melt
from it daily.
It also has an excellent view of the John Laurie Blvd. and 53 street intersection as you can see. We also get the COP view from the house, but not the intersection.


At the other end of the park (there is a big circle path), I get a view of downtown Calgary. 

How about that sky eh?

You can see we have some excellent facilities here. It would be a great place to raise kids. I appreciate this park being literally right outside my back door. 


However, once around the circle only takes 10 minutes. 



So, I have to go off into the neighborhood to get the next 10 minutes. 
I spent enough time walking with my timer this winter that I know how long each loop is and can walk according to what time I feel I can take away from my desk right now. 
Because I included the park today and it's raining rather hard intermittently, I took the short loop that takes me past this enormous house.


 

 Seriously, it makes me want to make a racist joke. How many _____ can you put in one house?
But I suppose the real question is how big can you stand to let your environmental footprint get? 

Huh, a walk and a preach! How satisfying is that?

Foody Feelings

I think it’s fair to say that, at least in North America, our relationship to food has become Frankenstein-ish. We created a monster that repulses us, confuses us and slipped from our control.

hand-made buns & an orange

Consider how many of us relish with great gusto a well-prepared meal. Also, the iconic characteristics we imbue to certain foods such as bread, apple pie or coffee. 
We love food; have relationships with it and even impart it with special powers. Chicken soup cures colds. Chocolate revs up engines and wine loosens lips. 

You can even say that a persons’ style of food preparation and consumption can speak volumes about their character.

Flax in flower

It’s no surprise food holds a prominent place in our lives. We do after all need it to some degree; although we consume it for many other reasons.

In times past, food creation occupied much more of our time. So much so that anthropologists assert that food surplus is a necessary part of civilization advancement. It was not until we could take time away from hunting or growing food that we had time to think about anything else. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs points to this as well with food and shelter needs overshadowing all else. It is not until we meet these most basic needs that we can turn our thoughts to other things. In fact, food beats out sex!

Jared Diamond, through his book Collapse, taught me how human civilizations have repeatedly out-grown the capacity of their environment to feed them and subsequently perished. Then David Montgomery’s book outlined how our food production system is now global and, therefore, the next collapse will be as well.

All the while more people move into cities as we cut them off from natural resources through industrial activities that include farming on large scales as well as mining and activities that deplete or poison water resources making subsistence farming impossible.

This might be wheat or rye
- can't remember

Today, in Canada, I eat fruit from around the world all year long. A fond childhood memory is that an uncle sent our family a Christmas box of fancy apples from Ontario. We loved that glut of fresh colorful fruit so full of flavor and otherwise scarce in December. It was a box of riches and it looked like it when you opened the lid to see all the shiny apples of different variety.

I also recall childhood joy derived from a huge garden my mother and aunt created at the summer cottage. Snacks were right there! Beans, peas, carrots and radishes

Peas on the vine

soaked up the sun and waited for little hands to come pick them. The earliest days of summer offered asparagus over by the hedge and the fall supplied apples along the driveway. Food was part of the landscape of my childhood. I remember tomatoes that curled my toes, Hubbard squash too big for me to lift and beets sweetening the aroma of the whole house while cooking.

Wow! I sound 150 years old! Truly, we have abandoned our creative relationship with food in less than half a century! These memories are only 45 years ago.

Now, I have no way of knowing exactly where my food originates, what it might contain or which of my ethics it may insult. Sometimes I find myself looking at a food product and wondering if eating it is the right thing to do for my body, for the planet, for compassion and for balance between what I value and what I will tolerate to satisfy my desires.

Consider that I’m not an ignorant city girl that knows nothing of modern agriculture. I work with agricultural research hubs. I talk to farmers. I go to manure injection equipment demonstrations!

Oats ripening

But food production has become a subject that is so complex, so compartmentalized, specialized, scientific and diverse that it is impossible to know all aspects of it. It is diverse in type and in practice. Also, agriculture is only the beginning. Food processing has its stories too.

My best advice is to buy food as close to the way God makes it and take it from there yourself. If you have a spot, grow some food for yourself and share it.

We may have to survive the collapse to reboot the system, so knowing how to produce your own food could be helpful.

What Heights to Achieve?

I started thinking about climbing stairs after I made this image.

Here are some images that came to my mind and made me realize how climbing stairs really is a good metaphor for life.

Gleefully bounding up the stairs two at a time!

Rushing up the stairs because you are late and catching your toe on the edge of one; which causes you to bruise a knee and generally slows you down for days

Slowly, carefully, quietly climbing the stairs with a sleeping child in your arms

Climbing stairs somewhere where the view gets more spectacular with every step.

Dragging your butt up the stairs for any reason

Climbing the steps onto a stage

Getting to the second to last step in a long flight of stairs and remembering something, an item you need, still downstairs

Stairway to Heaven

Shadows

Missing Link

I stopped at a favorite spot to get out of the car for some air and get my blood moving. There was a gate closed at the top of the road, but not something that barred a walker. As I folded my upper body to swing it under the arm of the gate, I saw a chain link lying on the ground. 

I walked the short distance down, around and back up to the gate. I was refreshed, awake again and saw that link once more lying under what must have been the rest of the chain hanging from the arms of the gate.

I heard an echo in my head, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” Then, a resounding Divine voice boomed in my head, “This is the missing link.”

I took a photo of it. I suspected it might be one of those moments that cause me to gnaw.

What missing link? 

That link clearly separated itself from the chain and was on its journey to oblivion. The process is evident in its condition. It is a broken link. 

What?

So, I got out my Tarot cards as I am wont to do when gnawing a thought. I use them for focus as I once used the Rune stones.

There is a link in all of us that tethers our spirit to our bodies. We must respect that and take responsibility for what that brings to our lives. 

There is a link between appreciation/gratitude and an absence of fear. Whenever we allow ourselves to let our fears grasp our hearts, it is because we are willfully blind to the good fortunes we have in our lives and the immortality of our spirit.

There is a link between our perspective and our reality. Our thoughts bring us joy or sorrow. We choose.

When you allow yourself to see your life from a lofty perspective rather than in the mess at ground level, you can be objective. 

There is a link between emotion and fear. Emotionless is fearless – not cold-hearted, but clear-headed.

I’ve been emotional for so long that I started to think that it is necessary to be emotional to be in touch with spirit. 

Now I see it is important to recognize that the mind also uses emotion as a tool for its tricks.

A higher perspective will show whether the emotion comes from spirit or the mind. 

And so, that rusty little link came into my life to remind me that the Claudette that walks among you is linked to something much greater and so are you.