Quest

Gallery: Comox Valley -- an evening's walk's worth of views

francesanddavid — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:35:00 GMT

Finding Community in Comox Valley...

francesanddavid — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:25:00 GMT

We drove up and found ourselves in a lovely home in Comox. Comox is basically like a suburb. There's a great garden in the backyard and we can help Alice out by doing some weeding. At the same time, there is the treat of doing a little strawberry harvesting.

Alice is very practically minded individual who is also into psycho/social/spiritual self help in a big way. Lots of interesting books and dvd's around here. She is very easy to get along with and it is a treat to be here. She is a fabulous networker and the first night we were here, we wanted to attend a raw food potluck in neighbouring Courtenay, and in no time, she had arranged a ride for us.

Gallery: To Victoria and beyond...

francesanddavid — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:38:00 GMT

Gallery: Galiano Island

francesanddavid — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:58:00 GMT

Onward ho! Victoria!

francesanddavid — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:55:00 GMT

We took a ferry from Galiano to Victoria. A lovely, short trip and at no cost as the ferry from Vancouver to Galiano essentially covers you all the way to Victoria. We arrived in Victoria and caught two buses and arrived at Trevor's. We stayed at Trevor's from Wednesday, June 18th, until Saturday, June 21st. It was nice to visit with Trevor, who always has a thoughtful thing or two to point out about travelling or finding a place, real estate, and many other things. We helped him a bit around his yard, and a more appreciative host is not likely to be found. We hope he is enjoying his week off. Another highlight of our visit to Victoria was getting together with Dave's long time friend Bart. He has such a kind, receptive, and intuitive nature. Our time with Bart was inspiring for both of us, in our process of exploring the possibilities of living and settling on Vancouver Island. On the 22nd, Trevor gave us a ride to the Unity Church at Pandora and Quadra where we met up with Alice and listened to a lovely service including some really nice music from a visiting duo. The sermon was delivered by a buddhist/Christian minister. She was terrific -- very funny, real, natural, self effacing, as well as deep and wise. A natural minister! Then, we piled into Alice's Tercel and headed north up the island for Comox.

Gallery: First stop: Vancouver

francesanddavid — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:28:00 GMT

Gallery: Winlaw

francesanddavid — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:03:00 GMT

Next stop: Serenity by the Sea

francesanddavid — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:45:00 GMT

Yes, that is the name of the place. serenitybythesea.com on Galiano Island. I was sure that I had landed in paradise. No doubt. And yet, when we heard from Sean, another wwoofing host whom we had contacted in order to build in some flexibility while we were on the island, we heeded the call. For one thing, there happened to be a goodly number of people at Serenity. For another, Sean was a nice guy who needed a hand. We enjoyed staying at his place too, and had our own separate cabin on the property, as well as an opportunity to enjoy their rental property which we were preparing for renters coming this Friday. There was a nice energy about Sean (and Jennifer's) place. Jennifer was in T.O. due to her sibling's illness, and Sean had everything to keep going on his own before he left to join her. So, we were glad to fill in as well as meet a comely Galiano resident and also a few of his friends and family. Jennifer had the most incredible library, including one of her own creation (in collaboration with two other filmmakers): none other than Canadian documentary extraordinaire: The Corporation.

First stop: Vancouver

francesanddavid — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:25:00 GMT

From the interior, we decided to head for the coast. It had our name on it. It was what we loved. The temperate forest. The ocean. Both Mountains and flatlands. First stop: Vancouver

Will the true crescendo of spring please stand up

francesanddavid — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:41:00 GMT

We had been travelling in eternal spring since March 13th when we returned from Costa Rica, landing in Atlanta. When we came to Nelson, I saw the lilacs in bloom as the crescendo of spring. But, the real crescendo was yet to come, and it came today, when the pregnant goat, Walnut, gave birth to 3 healthy kids, two females and a male. Dave is busy making sure they're okay as I write this. Carolyn was hoping that Walnut would hang on until she returned, but not 12 hours after her departure, the great event took place. She did leave us with some literature on goats, and Ken was around goats all of his childhood.

But how exciting!~ Congratulations, Walnut.

Blowing into a small town...

francesanddavid — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 13:27:00 GMT

We arrived in Winlaw with all of our luggage in tow, knowing that Caroline would be taking her friend to the bus for 11:10 a.m. The town is tiny, but it does have a wonderful organic food store with a cafe attached. We walked into the cafe, with all our luggage, and three friends who were enjoying a visit, could not help but notice. Finally, one of them, a very tall young man in a hat, pronounced appropriately in a loud, ringing voice "Welcome!" It was hilarious, and eventually, I went over to take his picture for this blog, and we landed up meeting some very nice people. Other than that, we drank herbal tea, and used the internet, and before we knew it, Caroline was there. We shopped together and then made our way back to her place for a whirlwind of getting settled and oriented as she was heading off the very next day at 6:30 a.m. Fortunately, though, she has a caretaker who could show us any of the ropes that we might have missed. A perfect set up really. Interestingly, as we waited for the bus with Mike, he began to tell us about the history of the Dukhabours and Caroline lives on a former Dukhabour farm, and her caretaker, a really great guy named Ken, is a descendant of the Dukhabours, actually the radical branch known as the Freedom Fighters, and he spent part of his childhood camped out outside of the jail.

Meeting new friends in the area...

francesanddavid — Sun, 8 Jun 2008 13:13:00 GMT

In the midst of all the excitement of finding that we were staying and then booking ourselves in at the Dancing Bear HI Hostel in Nelson, we heard from some people that we had been communicating with about a possible wwoofing engagement. Mike and Ulla live about 15 minutes outside of Nelson, and when we first wrote them from Costa Rica, we learned that they were actually in Guatemala at the time. Finally, they had booked us for five days in June, and when we thought we might not be around, I phoned and left a message to that effect as soon as we got into Nelson. Mike, in turn, had sent me an email stating that they would like to meet us if we were still around and that we would be welcome to come by.

When we spoke to Carolyn who lives just outside of Winlaw, which is another 45 minute bus ride away from Nelson, she told us of a rather complicated plan to have the person who was to pick up her friend in Winlaw take us out there from Nelson. Then, for the first time ever, her friend missed the bus out to Winlaw. So, we took advantage of the opportunity to book in for a night with Mike and Ulla. It was great to meet them and chat about all sorts of things, as well as see the incredible property which they had developed over the last 17 years or so. Ulla had just returned from Germany, and Mike had just picked her up, and the two had visited friends on the island. So, it really was an amazing act of hospitality for them to have us over at that time. But, it worked out really well, and Ulla and David and I put our ideas together to make a great meal and enjoyed learning a trick or two from eachother. Loved talking to them both -- really fine, even tempered people. Ulla had retired from teaching exactly the same time as I had. They were, in fact, both retired teachers, though Mike said he still enjoyed going in to substitute in shops as he found it to be a really nice, low key way to relate to the kids, and also get going on a project of his own. Mike gave us an extensive tour of his garden and one of the featured items was the bee condominium that he made out of a block of wood and some holes 5/16, I think it was, as the preferred diameter of the species of bee in question.

Giving the area a chance...

francesanddavid — Sat, 7 Jun 2008 12:41:00 GMT

As I said, I am neither a man nor am I young, but I am heading west, and feeling younger for it.

One of the pleasures of my retirement, is not having to know exactly what I am going to do next! David and I found ourselves in exactly that state after leaving Diane's farm between Nelson and Balfour. We were in Nelson and the next several hours were going to decide whether we got on a bus headed west... Little did we suspect how that would all work out. But, I forgot to mention a detail of our earlier experience. While we were in Nelson the first time, upon our arrival, I found myself eyeing a book in the health food store. It is called The Building Bones Solution and it is a valuable resource to help see through some of the myths that have been propogated about maintaining ones bones as one ages. I was interested in studying the book in order to rehearse the knowledge that I wished to share with others.

When Dave and I made our way back to Nelson on the bus, there was a chance that I might purchase that book. But what was more prominent in our minds was being aware of signs as to what our next move might be. I reflected that we had not been in love with Costa Rica at first, and that it had taken some time to acclimatize, but the final result was so positive that we were entertaining thoughts of return. The bus driver was very friendly as we made our way into Nelson, and extremely patient with us as we loaded and unloaded our luggage. I guess he was curious about us because we had a long chat with him at the end of the line. Then, we made our way around Nelson, over to the payphone and to the library where we could do our research and send off some emails to possible wwoofing hosts on the island. From there, we made our way over to the RawFreshing restaurant where I had planned to go ever since catching sight of its wedge shaped presence on our first arrival in Nelson. We were going to take advantage of the opportunity to go to a restaurant that catered to our preferences. We came into the small, bright, newish but still charming restaurant to find the owner chatting with a mature lady with bright red hair. At some distance from the little bar where they chatted, was the table where we put our luggage, and on it, in true Nelson small town relax mode, was the red haired lady's purse and sunglasses. We had some vegan sushi and went on to another treat, and then, time was running out, and we had to figure out whether we were coming or going, so we started to get ourselves together to leave. The red haired lady came by on her way out and thought she knew me -- we were quite happy to chat with her. We asked about possible internet/phone facilities and after starting to give us directions, she offered us a ride, and took us to a wonderful little organic vegan restaurant called the Jagannatha Express, run by Hare Krishnas. There we could use the internet, and eat some more. (The food was wonderful!) But, before we got there, we had an amazing 5 minute ride/visit with Robin, the red haired lady (how appropriate! as in the red, red robin) And in that time, we shared many things. She had the lightest, liveliest energy imaginable. And at the end, as we hauled our luggage out of the car and onto the pavement, she remembered that a friend of hers who was a doctor and an author, was just saying that she needed help the other day. Turns out, it's Carolyn de Marco, one of the authors of The Bone Building Solution book that I had eyed and thought about with the intent of buying.

So now, as I write this, the book is just over on a couch, not to mention the many other books that I have lined up of interest... Carolyn is a very interesting person with a huge number of books. I emailed her from the restaurant. The owner let us stay in the locked restaurant and use the internet during his absence for his son's graduation. Carolyn called the restaurant (I had given her the number) and we started to line things up. We spent that night in the Nelson 'Hostels International' Hostel called The Dancing Bear.

Before we left the restaurant, though, we witnessed the graduates' parade. I thought it was quite cool, indeed, as all of the graduates from the local high school, paraded down the people-lined street, well dressed, and having fun, as they waved to the onlookers from the procession of vehicles. It seemed to me a real improvement over cloistered graduation celebrations, and made a lot of sense for the town to celebrate the progress of its youth.

The Dancing Bear was an immaculately kept hostel. Our room was small but everything was well laid out, and quite new. There was lots of light wood -- very uplifting. What was incredibly uplifting at the time was being in my very own space. I felt this even as I used the shower. Something about the neutrality of the space. It was small, but it was mine, for the moment, and I loved it. We met some really nice people in the hostel, too. A nice couple from Ireland, a single young man from Germany, and a more mature traveller from France, who had been living in the Nelson area and walking long distances within it for many a year. We had some really nice visits and slept very well in the quiet space of the hostel.

Helping the herb lady...

francesanddavid — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 11:49:00 GMT

I'm not a man and I'm not young, but I am heading west, and feeling younger for it...

Dave and I made our first stop in B.C. in Nelson, where Diane came and picked us up at the bus depot, swung by the organic food store, and then brought us over to her farm. Diane has been studying plants for over 30 years and has the most phenomenal knowledge of local and native plants. We learned about all sorts of new greens that we could put in our salads and grain dishes, including some that we had been weeding while we were in Winnipeg. We also helped Diane to scrape the bark of some Devil's Club, and then sheer off the inner bark, in order to prepare it for a recipe that she has that is good for a variety of uses, including balancing blood sugar. She plans to make a gift of it to the native people. While we were with Diane, we also met her family that live around her, one son just in the process of moving to the area, and the other firmly planted next door to her with his wife and four sons. An engaging young woman from Toronto named Marsha was also on hand, helping Diane out with everything and learning much about gardening and plants from her. After the week was out, we felt that our time there was over, but we were able to purchase some of Diane's fine Laird Creek Essentials products for the road, including a very effective remedy for itchy bug bites! I knew, from experience, that it would be very helpful to have.

Gallery: Nelson

francesanddavid — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 15:08:00 GMT

Gallery: Westward Bound

francesanddavid — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 13:24:00 GMT

Worthwhile stopover

francesanddavid — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:38:00 GMT

Thanks to the couchsurfing.com project, Dave and I had a great time during our 4-5 hour layover in Calgary. Sarah and her boyfriend, Mike, picked us up and took us to an organic vegan restaurant called The Coup. It was artsy and neat, the food was wonderful and we enjoyed the idealistic energy of our new friends -- interested and interesting people that they were, we shared our interests and had a few laughs, too. Mike had to pull himself away from our fun evening as there was a party on the other side of town that he had to go to. As it was raining, our plan to have a walk transmuted into a drive and we headed off with Sarah to check out some of her favourite views of Calgary. While we were at it, we took a few pics, and Sarah taught us something about having fun posing for pictures.

Closing the loop

francesanddavid — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:30:00 GMT

We arrived in Winnipeg Wednesday evening (May 14) just before 7 or so. Lori picked us up, we swung by eatit.ca where we had a joyous reunion, and then over to her place in River Heights where we have been ever since. We made a deal, back on the phone at "Wit's End" (cute! the name of the estate in Ontario where we were the previous week). We met through couchsurfing.com and I explained to Lori that Dave and I were a kind of "travelling organic food show". She was all ready to let us buy and make organic food, and we were delighted to have a kitchen to use. I'm writing now from my laptop in her dining room. Our bikes are in the garage, and we have been staying in her spare bedroom and getting to know Lori, and her dog and cat. It's been great making dinner for Lori and dining with her. The location was made in heaven, right smack dab between Dave's mom's and my brother's place. We have had a great chance to get around to see people in the area that we know, and shop at some of our favourite organic food stores.

Aside from visiting with Dave's mom in between cleaning out the clutter which we had left in her garage and sorting out the things that were at my brother's place, we had all sorts of visits with family and friends. We cherished each and every one of those visits, whether we took a picture of it or not!

Leaving family and friends is the only really difficult part of leaving Winnipeg...

We didn't even make it to see our dear neighbours. But, it seemed a tad soon after moving from our home (was our castle) on Tait Avenue. Looks like we might be ready for that part of the journey next time!

Au revoir!

Gallery: Winnipeg

francesanddavid — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:59:00 GMT

Gallery: En Route pour Winnipeg

francesanddavid — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:28:00 GMT

House sitting in the country near Athens, Ontario

francesanddavid — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:55:00 GMT

What a change from the travel from one place to another that we had been doing in the past while. This place was really close. All it took to get from one place to another was for one of our hosts to drive us to Foodsmiths in Perth, Ontario, and our new host to pick us up. Total trip time was under 2 hours. We were whisked through the countryside and regaled with interesting tidbits of historical information in one of Canada's most historical (colonially speaking, that is) areas. Our host and novelist, Merilyn Simonds, has an obvious interest and flair for history. Her novel, Convict Lover, relates to a bygone era of Kingston. While house sitting, I, too, went back and visited Kingston and found myself relating to a byone era of my past. I had been in Kingston for a brief period over 30 years ago when I (briefly) attended Queen's University. It was an amazing experience to recall the flavour of Kingston. This special house sitting time came to us because we met with Merilyn and her writer/environmentalist/translator/editor husband, Wayne Grady, and spent 2 days learning the ways of their household, their two cats, and their gardens. Lunch, work, dinner, work the next day, and the following morning, our hosts were on their way to their bird watching engagement on Pelee Island while Dave and I had time on our own and many things to do to assist the progress of the gardens in the springtime. It would have been such a treat; however, as luck would have it, the two week period of black flies was upon us, and it was bug jackets all the way. Even so, we managed to collect more than our share of bug bites, and I, once again, found myself rather sensitive and reactive to them.

Indoors, we had a chance to survey an impressive library of 5000 books, with a specialty in Canadian work. I chose to read some more of "Bringing back the Dodo", a book of Wayne's that I had borrowed from the library in the last year or two. (He was also the author of a book on coyotes that I had purchased at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature several years ago.) And we became very friendly with their cats whom I called whatever name inspired me at the moment, although their given names were Dionysos and Penelope, although they were actually son and mother.

Our neighbours, two retired history professors from Queen's university, had us over for a lovely spot of tea. They showed us their gardens and we were amazed at the amount of work they had to do to maintain them. Later, they confessed that it really was an awful lot of work and that they were openly considering downsizing.

Before you know it, Merilyn had bid us goodbye at the bus station at Smiths Falls, and we were on our way to Ottawa, and from there, out west. Our ticket was for all the way to Nelson, but we were about to take our next stop in our home town of Winnipeg, thus closing a loop that had been begun October 26th, 2007, when we boarded a bus for Regina.

Gallery: Ontario -- Wit's End

francesanddavid — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:29:00 GMT

Gallery: Ontario -- New Life Retreat

francesanddavid — Sun, 4 May 2008 18:58:00 GMT

New Life Retreat Centre, near Lanark,

francesanddavid — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:41:00 GMT

Sunday, April 27, 2008

We arrived in Ottawa Monday evening, after travelling up from Phoenicia New York. Doug, Manager at Menla, gave us a ride from Menla to the bus stop in Phoenicia, and just as we were parting, I said, “Doug, I’d like to take your picture.” A big smile came over his face, and just as I was about to snap the photo...

Nothing Happened!

Against my better judgement, I had followed Dave’s suggestion to recharge the battery, and…

You can guess the rest.

My Ross in Nanaimo, and Marla in Victoria, know that this has happened once before, and I had adopted the preventative strategy of leaving the battery flap open as a reminder to retrieve the battery; however, as I already mentioned, my better judgement was not kicking in just then and there.

So, long story short: no photos for the time being.

A little holiday from that aspect of technology.

And that’s okay! (Only regret: not being able to share that wonderful smile that moved across Doug's face!)

We came through Montreal, which city I did live in over 30 years ago, and, once again, it was an intriguing city to observe – a peculiar mix of cultural trappings that reads like a mystery novel to me. Downside: a large number of smokers.

We came into the Ottawa bus depot and had a chance to catch our breath and look at a map and our wwoofing guide as we strategized about our route westward as we waited for Chas to come pick us up.

After being shown to our lovely bedroom in this spacious farmhouse, and getting a good night’s sleep, we began to orient to the centre, and help with spring cleanup. Then, it was on to planning and preparing for the yoga retreat this weekend, including moving out all of the furniture from the living room to create the large space for the group to do their yoga and meditation.

Now, as I write this, much has transpired. We have completed our assistance in the hosting of the weekend retreat. We worked with Chas and also with Mary, a local person who does the odd bit of catering, and who was active in the recent citizens’ actions against the opening of uranium mines in the area. Chas does a lot of raw food cuisine, and Mary has a great connection to food and is super fun to work with. They both have a good sense of humour.

But, here is the big news: we are on our own for the first time in a while! We’ll be taking care of things while Chas is gone, including basic maintenance, some yard work and repairs to the cabins, and some showing of the space to potential renters of it. We also look forward to a visit with Mary. It’s been tickling me pink since yesterday to know that our own special week of retreat was beginning~!

Gallery: Menla: Life in the Mountains

francesanddavid — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:26:00 GMT