That’s entertainment

Last night DH, Son3, and I picked up a drink at Sbux and sat down by the marina to watch the boats coming and going. I love the smell of the marina – sea air and fish and creosote and boat gas. (Okay, listing it out like that doesn’t make it sound that appealing, but man, the combination is so awesome. Aromatherapy extraordinaire!)

Some massive yachts were moored there for the night — one called Reward, another At Ease – and we couldn’t help speculating on who might own such boats, and what it might be like to live on one (one had a sundeck that I’m sure was larger than the one on our house). (Gee, maybe I should write a story about a yacht-dweller… surely I’d have to go cruising — I mean, do research — right? )

The boats were interesting and all, but sea-life trumps boats any day. Minnows were jumping, or rather, they were flinging themselves well clear of the water in a hilarious display of bug-catching. I’ve no idea how they can propel themselves like that, but it was a fine show. We also saw an otter swim by, apparently unfazed by the power boats zipping past. I only caught a couple glimpses of the otter, but then, the coolest thing: a Great Blue Heron flew to the wharf and settled on the edge very near our vantage point. With slow, delicate movements, stepping carefully with his funny backward-bending knees and peering into the water, he stalked his dinner. Step. Step. Freeze…. Gotcha! He grabbed a fish in his bill, manoeuvred it into the right position, then swallowed it whole. Yummy. We watched a while longer as he poised on the edge of the wharf waiting for his second course to swim into range, but then a speedboat docked nearby, and the heron flew to another fishing spot out of our view.

The ferry had come and gone from the neighbouring island and was on its way back again by the time we were ready to go. On our way home, we stopped to pick up a movie, but IMHO, nothing in that video store could beat the entertainment value of an hour at the marina. It was a good evening.

Peace….

A surprise on the beach

This morning I saw something unusual on the beach — a critter not often found in the intertidal zone:

Yup! A deer — a young buck, very much like the one in this not-taken-at-the-beach photo. I’ve no idea why he wandered down to the beach, but I sure hope he manages to find his way safely back across town to the forest.

Warm is good

The cold wind bit into her skin, and the rain beat down upon her, until finally she stumbled, falling to her knees in a puddle.

“No…” she moaned. “Please. No more.”

Clutching her coat around her, she looked to the sky and cursed the storm clouds. Then she began to sob.

Ahem. Right…. Um, Mother Nature? I think I’m ready for summer weather. Now would be good. kthxbai.

The entertainment value of a thick fog

We’ve been fogged-in here for a week. And there’s so much moisture in the fog that we have ice and frost galore! When I went out to go to work the other day, my trusty mini-van was frozen shut. Fortunately, I managed to get the back hatch open and climb through that way (a very entertaining sight for the neighbours, I’m sure). Then I had to scrape the windows – inside and out – and blast the defogger for ages before I could drive. Of course, the fog and cold weather didn’t go anywhere, so after working my 12-hour shift, I had to repeat the whole process (yes, climbing in through the back, too) before I could drive home. I know, poor me. Sniffle, sniffle, whine.

It’s actually quite beautiful weather. Cold and a little eery, what with not being able to see more than ten feet or so ahead of you, and hearing the fog horn wail all day and night. Now that I have a couple days off, though, I’m hoping the fog will lift and I’ll get to see the sun! Meanwhile, I’m off to test the grippiness (interesting word, that) of my running shoes as I attempt to run on the frosty roads. This morning I carried the garbage bin out to the curb and had only to stand still at the top of my driveway and slide down to the bottom. Fun way to start the day. My next-door neighbours, who didn’t have the pleasure of witnessing my ungraceful entry into my van the other day, found my take the garbage out without moving my feet demonstration quite entertaining.

Anyway, my run. Yes. Off I go — wish me luck!

[ETA: I'm back, and I didn't sprain an ankle or fall on my butt, so it was a good run.]

Friday Five: Avalanches R Us

1. THIS is why BC shouldn’t get so much snow…. We’re lucky here on the east coast of Vancouver Island. So far, we seem to be having a controlled melt, so no flooding. Whew. No avalanches, either, despite this news today: The Canadian Avalanche Bulletin for the coming days rated nearly all areas of the province as either high or considerable risk. Yikes. I’ll be staying home, thanks.
2. Now that the roads are mostly clear here, I finally got out for a run with my new iPod Shuffle. And it made me wonder why I waited so long to get one! Running with tunes is very fun. Usually I’m happy to just zone out and let my mind wander where it may, but music was a nice change. Besides, it’s probably not a good thing for me to spend too much time inside my own head, given the presence there of an eclectic collection of imaginary characters.
3. Ever wonder what kind of font you would be if you were a font? Of course you do. I’m helvetica, apparently. Classic, reliable, and a bit boring. Hmmm…. May have to do something about that boring part. (Take the What Font Are You? quiz here.)
4. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the internet? I love that I can find out any thing, any time. And lately I’ve been spending a lot of time doing “research” (ahem) and – here’s the great part – calling it “work”. Yup. Surfing the web, following tangents that my new characters would follow so when I actually write those characters’ story, I’ll know what they know.
5. As I type this, I’m listening to an obscure band that one of my main characters is obsessed with. (But no, I’m not telling yet what band it is, and may never tell.)  And now with that fairly lame excuse for a fifth item in my Friday Five, it’s time for more chai tea and some actual writing. Seriously. No more surfing. I’m going off-line. Any minute now….

Peace.

Friday Five: Socks and Seasons

1. I’m wearing socks. I hate that I’m wearing socks. It’s still September, and I’ve been clinging desperately to summer and flip-flop season. But today it’s so flippin’ cold (as opposed to flip-floppin’ warm?) that I gave in and put on some socks. Blah.
2. OTOH, I read this yesterday: Blessed be the name of God from age to age, for wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons…. (Daniel 2:20-21) And I comforted myself with the thought that the changing seasons mean God is still at work in the world. (That’s my belief… I know YMMV*.) So maybe the annual return to sock-wearing will become a spiritual thing for me. Or maybe not, but maybe I’ll at least be okay with it.
3. One thing I truly am loving about the changing season is the grey. It’s drizzly and foggy today. (Stay with me on this one, folks.) Running by the ocean this morning, I noticed that the grey sky blended into the grey sea so perfectly that I couldn’t tell where one left off and the other began. That is so cool. And beautiful. I’m still hoping for those gloriously sunny and crisp fall days with red and gold leaves dancing along the sidewalks, and I know we’ll get a bunch of days like that. But I’m more than okay with the grey, too.
4. Fall also means conference time for me (yay!). In exactly four weeks I’ll be in Surrey, BC, for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. I went two years ago, and it was excellent, so I’m pretty excited about going again. (My mom’s a writer, too, so we go together, which I love.)
5. Four weeks to conference time means four weeks left to get my manuscript in pitchable condition (pitch as in tell-an-agent-about-it-and-hope-to-pique-their-interest, rather than pitch as in a-monkey-could’ve-written-this-so-drop-it-in-the-trash-where-it-belongs). I’ve still got lots of work to do, but it feels like this story is finally coming together. Time to get back to work!

Have a great fall weekend.

Peace….

(*YMMV= your mileage may vary, meaning you may think differently and that’s just fine)

The last bit of summer…

My parents have a cabin-in-progress on a tiny lake in the middle of nowhere. It’s a really wonderful middle of nowhere. I’ve been going there all my life, and I love it, but somehow a bunch of years passed without me getting there. So last week I went! A ferry to the mainland, several hours driving on highway, an hour on logging roads, and then this:

Yup, that’s the sign that signals the start of “our” road. 4×4’s only from this point on.

Oh, but it is so worth it! Here’s the view from our deck:

It was sooo relaxing. Visiting family, canoeing on the lake, staring at the myriad stars at night, listening to the creek gurgling and the loons calling… awesome!

After a few days chillin’ in the backwoods, we headed to Shuswap Lake for a family reunion (hubby’s mom’s side). Hubby has great relatives. Lots of laughing and eating and story-telling all weekend. Then it was on to my brother’s place for a quick visit (and more laughing and eating and story-telling) before heading home.

Now I have a few days left of my holiday time to read and hang with the kids and do the back-to-school prep stuff. Then it’s back to work at both the day job and the writing — revisions are waiting for me!

Hope the last bit of summer is wonderful for you.

Peace….

Willow Point Reef

My daughter and I spent two wonderful hours exploring the reef this afternoon. Wanna see some pictures?

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign…

Yesterday, the dh, sons, and I went on a short road trip from our home on the east coast of the island to visit my daughter on the west coast of the island. Along the way, we saw a couple black bears, a bunch of deer, and a ton of these:

If you like crazy nausea-inducing rides at amusement parks, you’ll like the road we traveled on.

The closer we got to my daughter’s home on the west coast, the more of these we saw:

They were all pointing away from my daughter’s place. Hmm…. I suppose living in the shadow of a potential natural disaster is a small price to pay to have a front yard like this.

We also passed a “wave hazard” sign, like a forest fire hazard rating sign but for wave height (it was moderate), but I didn’t get a picture of it. Cuz, you know, you can only yell “pull over” to take a picture of a sign so many times before your family thinks you’re a wee bit crazy.

We had a great day and a nice visit and dinner with our daughter. Then we loaded into the minivan again for the 3 1/4 hour drive back home. And thanks to the cute little guy on the plentiful signage, I will never forget to head for high ground in the event of a tsunami… but it doesn’t really look like the poor guy’s gonna make it. Climb, little man, climb!

Today there were Orcas!

Today there were Orcas… and I MISSED THEM! My hubby saw them, right out from the beach where I saw the eagles yesterday. He zipped home to tell me, and I grabbed my youngest son and the binoculars and headed down there. We were too late. No action in the water at all. We hung out at the beach for a while anyway, cuz you know, it was the beach. I overheard a woman mention to someone that she’d heard there were killer whales down at Stories Beach (south of us). Coulda jumped in the van and raced down there, but I probably would’ve ended up chasing those whales all the way down Island and still never seen them. Oh well. Another time…. For now, this will do: