Spring in Victoria - apologies to the rest of Canada

So we went for a walk on a spring day in Victoria…

As we walk down almost any street in James Bay, this scene is repeated time and time again.

In the 1930's the local Japanese community donated money to the city of Victoria. 1,013 cherry trees were planted and a flowering-tree program was begun, and continues to this day. In Feb Pink plumb blossoms bloom, 8 varieties of cherries begin in late March with the White Goddess cherries, planted in 2002 peaking in May. (info from WESTWORLD magazine - In the Pink by Ryan Stuart)  

And, there are daffodils EVERYWHERE! Yes, even on the roof of this guy's garage. Some are in clusters gracing private and public gardens alike but they seem to grow wild throughout lawns and parklands. The first picture is a view of Beacon Hill Park. I omitted the pic of the guy walking to his car with a lovely yellow bouquet he'd just picked.

 Some other scenes of gardens we came upon on Monday as we walked from Ogden Point to Oak Bay Marina following the shoreline. Everyone was walking…with big grins on their faces, exclaiming, "What a glorious day!" We all know how lucky we have been this winter and spring as the rest of Canada has been experiencing a minor ice-age, buried in snow. Hell, most of us are from other parts of Canada and we don't forget where we've come from. I also know, from experience, that it is possible to endure 6 weeks of unrelenting rain and overcast skies that would depress even Princess Giselle (Amy Adam's version of Cinderella from ENCHANTED).

A lovely little beach we passed along the way. It was so warm and the beach so white, I felt like I was down south.

And today, Thursday, this guy must have felt like he was down south too because there he was swimming, without a wetsuit, in the ocean waters in front of the sea wall just a few blocks from our apartment. Not just dipping, swimming!

The turtles felt it too as they piled up on this log in Beacon Hill Park and craned their necks to cast their gazes upwards to the sun in thanks.

On my way back home there they were again, those amazing trees and…a song was wafting through the air. Seriously! Was there a radio on somewhere? I wasn't sure. As I gained on the woman with the walker in the picture. Yup, there it was. She was the songbird with the enchanting voice.

Ah, springtime in Victoria; there's no better place to be.

Staycation vacation

Rod and I have been on Vancouver Island 1 whole month now. We are residents living like tourists which is the best way to discover one's new surroundings.

Scenes from the village of James Bay, a five minute walk from our place. This is where we do our grocery shopping, laundry and grab a coffee (I've discovered 5 coffee shops around the intersection that comprises the centre of the village).

Many cottage-like homes with English style gardens line narrow streets.

Fantastic fare to be found here: baking, local produce, honey, music
and even a  tarot card reader.

Drivers have to be alert for carriages, pedi-cabs, tour busses and sight seers
as well as for the young and old alike who just walk slower here.

I admit that this feels a little weird, this staycation that's really a vacation; no phone calls, no clients in need of emergency care, no one wanting to line up a job, workshop or appointment for next week or the week after that or the next...

Rod's taken to his retirement like a fish to water. Suddenly, free from the demands of customers and the estimating that filled evenings and weekends, he's read more books since we got here than he has during our whole relationship! And I used to think he was a non-reader, a trait, which for a Thacker - voracious readers that we all are - was incomprehensible. Years ago I found the most difficult challenge put before me during a vipasana retreat wasn't not talking. I loved that! That was a piece of cake. But, not reading, that was impossible. My eyes would lite on print everywhere: cereal boxes, t-shirts, boxes of tea and the little tab on the tea bags... I fixated on the washing instructions on the tags of my clothes.

This vacation finds me, at unexpected moments: in the middle of a shower, when I awaken, as I'm doing dishes, chomping at the bit to "make something happen". The underlying catalyst for this is a limboish feeling of dropping into space that washes over me now and again. I'm not the one retiring. I'm on vacation. But vacations have a beginning, middle and end and then you go back to work. With undetermined time, place and work to "return" to I feel eerily unemployed; redundant.

So, just as I acknowledged my compulsion to read and got back to the silence of my mind I feel my redundancy and get back into the headspace of vacation.

This time just for me, away from my practice, is precious. I tell myself there will be work again, clients will call and I will be able to remember how to do what I do.

Setting Up & Homecoming

We've been in our new neighbourhood, James Bay, for 19 days now. Blogging hasn't been a priority due to these events...

Written at the base of the Terry Fox Statue at Mile 0 in Beacon Hill Park

Because our 17 ft van was soooo loaded we've been de-cluttering and getting rid of things. After-all, 2 businesses got packed up as well as personal stuff. And it all has to fit into a 2 bedroom apartment as we downsize from a 3 bedroom + garage with full basement all with ample storage.

Ah storage space, the great deceiver, lulled me into thinking that I possessed little. It was just tucked away and forgotten. Though we're not consumers, 27 years has given us plenty of time to accumulate. A little thing here and a little thing there, it all adds up to a sh**load of stuff.

Boxes full of stuff have gone to the Salvation Army; more is yet to follow. Some of Rod's stuff will go to good use when we donate it to Habitat for Humanity. 3 boxes of books await delivery to a second hand bookshop in hopes that they can overlook those that are earmarked, underlined and filled with notes in the margins... pretty much all of them.

I've allotted myself 1 bookcase to house my most treasured books. Though Kindle fulfills much of my desire to own material I still love the look and feel of the printed page!

Lugging this stuff all the way across country wasn't a mistake. Surprisingly, what seemed essential from my Burlington life's vantage point changed the instant we got here confirming that I actually am starting  a new phase of my life. Who knows where it will lead? I only know that I have to be a whole lot less encumbered in order for it to really take off. As things drop away I'm feeling lighter and lighter.

There will be more de-cluttering over the next few weeks: slides and photos need to be consolidated; 3 boxes of letters and cards (down from 4) carted back and forth from B.C. to Ontario over the years are waiting to be re-read, let go or kept; and the 4 boxes of Christmas decorations were too much to get into before we left.

4 boxes of mine - 2 small and 2 huge ones remained unexplored, filled with God knows what unessentials. I got into all but the biggest one today and miracle of miracles it all fits into the cabinet that Rod made me. The rule is if I don't love it, it's gone. Hmm, still loving a fair bit...we've got great storage in this place - yikes!

Exhausted little girl

Flippy and Maya arrived on the Mon the 12th thanks to the efforts to Pam and Morgie (her handsome grey and white longhaired cat) aka Special Air Freight Agent and Crew. Pam picked them up from the Cats' Castle, gave Flippy a shoulder to snuggle and Maya pats to soothe, put them up for the night and arose at some ungodly hour the next morning to chauffeur them to the airport for 6a.m. Via cel phone she gave me a play by play of the events as they unfolded. I slept on our couch in the living room so as not to disturb Rod with her early morning reports.

Upon coming home, the girls slinked around the apartment for a good while. Then Flippy disappeared for 90 minutes. I couldn't find hide nor hair of her and it was freaking me out. To calm and assure myself I kept repeating the mantra, She didn't get out, she's in here somewhere. And just like magic she walked out of a closet I'd checked umpteen times.

Later, out of the corner of my eye, I caught her squeezing herself through an opening, seemingly half of her girth in width, in the kick under the kitchen cupboards. One leg and her tail were all that I had to grab in order to haul her outta there.

It was all too much stimulation for her so I wrapped her up in a blankie, sat on the bathroom floor with her and closed the door. Feeling secure once more she was out for a few hours while I read.

Yin and Yang - Maya finds consolation with Flippy

Maya, intrepid explored that she is, seemed unscathed. But while we watched TV she crashed behind me, laying on the back of the couch for the rest of the night.

The rest of the time we were: visiting and exploring the city and some choice restaurants with Rod's sister and her hubby who were in town for a few days and staying at a nearby hotel, exploring the hood and doing all that needs doing when one changes residence from Ontario to B.C.

Once the B.C. license plates were put on my car it felt official...WE LIVE HERE!

Leaving full of HOPE

SUITCASE DIARIES
DAY 7
Tues Aug 6

Hope to Victoria via TCH to Tsawwassen ferry terminal to Swatrz Bay #17 Pat Bay Hwy, TCH into Victoria and we're home in James Bay.

*        *        *

I went for a one hour snooze at 9:30 p.m. last night and work up at 7:30 this morning.With the pressure of long drives behind us I "crashed". Today is an easy day. 2 hours to the ferry from here, 90 min ferry ride and then we intend to find a place in Sidney for the night. (As you can see by the itinerary we decided to motor on.)

Brekkie today at the Kan Yon Restaurant in downtown Hope is a little slice of small town life. I can't help but over hear conversation between 3 local people, casually sitting a few seats apart from each other at the snack bar, talking about: stem cell "beef", service providers Shaw vs Telus, local festivals and accomplished children (a psychologist and a photographer amongst the bunch). Maybe they know each other; maybe they don't. It's a typical Chinese Canadian establishment that you find in many a small towns on the road providing very satisfying homey fare.

Complimentary fortune cookies accompany our bill, as he cracks open his cookie Rod says, "Let's see what is has to say to us about the rest of our trip." He's been hanging around me too long. "Listening, not imitation, is the highest form of flattery."

Grinning from ear to ear I nod my approval. "I couldn't agree with that more!"

And mine reads, "The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in". Providing a little nod to the relativity of time in my quest for a slower pace.

Goin' down the road I glance back in the rear view mirror at the snow capped mountains fading in the distance as we head off to the delta plains and the Tsawwassen Bay ferry to Swatrz Bay on Vancouver Island. I smile knowing that these mountains will be our playground for the next few years.

Feeling upbeat on this sun filled day I choose to skip music selections that are beginning to repeat on my i-pod as well as: Spanish instruction, most new age and instrumental selections. Tony Bennett and Elvis Costello chime in on Are You Havin' Any Fun? followed by Blue Rodeo's Til I Am Myself Again. I laugh waiting in line for the ferry as Bill Cosby spins a tale of a "typical" visit to The Dentist and am awed by the multi-talented, story teller extraordinaire, Shel Silverstein weaving tales of mischievous delight and singing his composition of Silvia's Mother. I mimic the vocal stylings of: Nat King Cole, Mel "the velvet fog" Tormé, Frank Sinatra and Kenny Rankin. I wail along with Janis, Melissa Etheridge and Amanda Marshall, sounding just like them in my mind's ear. The Canadian contingent that appears today are: The Boomers, Rufus Wainright, Prairie Oyster, Paul Langille, Ladybird Sideshow and Sarah McLaughlin.

The ferry is the most appropriate ending for our epic journey. I'm returning to the island, this time with my little family. It's been heart warming to see the U-haul in the centre of every image along the way knowing that Rod's there and he's on a long awaited adventure of his own. He says he can't take it all in yet; it feels surreal. There's been too much to do and more yet to be done. But me, I'm already home. As we sit one the deck we decide that the day is young so why not head down to our apartment and settle in with sleeping bags and padding for bedding tonight to get a jump on the movers who will arrive tomorrow afternoon.

While Rod catches some zzz's inside I walk the decks for some needed exercise, soaking in the sun, salt sea air and reacquainting myself with the islands we pass along the way. I really feel I'm returning home; the passion I feel for this part of the country stirs me.

On one of my passes a man on the foredeck points to a small school of dolphins passing through the channel. I and a few others are fortunate to witness their presence.

"I like your feathers," he says. I'm wearing the feather earrings Marisa gifted to me and of course there's the feathers in the tattoo on my arm. He opens his shirt collar to reveal a small feather pendant. I express my appreciation for the beauty of this land and tell him that, "I'm moving from southern Ontario where there is little respect for the land to this place and people that honour it."

His manner of speech, subject of conversation and perspective lend him the air of a native elder as he speaks of the need not only to respect the land but to replace criticism and judgment with prayer that our leaders may have wisdom and be supported in their work and do better by the energy we send them. He speaks of liking, not liking and indifference. How challenging, but necessary, it is to send to one and all alike, healing positive energy.

What is there to learn from this situation? Today the card - Kahuna/expert - asked me to consider this and here it is.

The call to return to our cars to prepare for departure ends our conversation and I wish him well. He says as he presses his hand to mine, "You are a healer and will bring the energy here to what you do." I had told him nothing about myself. Time will tell.

As we disembark from the ferry and head down the road to Victoria, a bald eagle flies overhead leading  the way.

*        *        *

We gave away all of our plants and then found Prickly Penis left alone in the corner so we had to bring him with us.
He was a real trouper. We gave him breaks now and again to catch some rays.
Let's hope he finds Victoria to his liking.

Our little place is perfect and Paul, the super welcomes us and orients us to our new digs in James Bay. At 8 p.m. Rod and I enjoy the freshest Pacific Halibut fish and chip dinner down at the wharf only a hop, skip and jump from our new "home".