Life After India

I returned home from India a week and a half ago now, and have quickly been thrown back into normal life. Back to work, a job interview, got the job (senior position, same office), presenting my masters project in a week. Phew!

I have been putting off writing a post about India because there is so much to say, most of it I'm not sure how to put into words, and I don't know where to start. We spent about half of the time travelling like regular tourists, Christine and I, and the rest of the time with our friends' families and at their wedding. I think that the most memorable, and most impactful times were those with the family. We were welcomed with open arms, and everyone was so generous to us from lending a mobile phone to have when travelling on our own, to arranging accommodation, driving us around, taking us shopping, and generally treating us like one of the family and making us feel very welcome and loved. Below is a picture of us with the bride, and our friend from Victoria, Pratibha in the middle, and her cousins Sanchita and Vrinda.


Now that I'm back to my quiet little house on my quiet little island I have plenty of time to contemplate India, all that I learned about it when I was there, and what it all means. I feel like it's kind of a parallel universe. At least, that's how I put it into words. Things are so different there, yet also so the same. Well, not really the same, but the same very superficially. Like, there are roads and hospitals and shops and people have jobs and families and many speak English. I guess a microcosm of my parallel universe idea might be Bollywood. What other country has developed such a distinctly different tradition of film making? Well I'm not a film expert, maybe there is one, but am I making sense?

What else? Religion, and traditions. We were mostly exposed to Hinduism since that's the religion of our friends and their wedding was a Hindu wedding, of course. So totally different. And so fascinating to me. I wish I had learned more about it before going there. A lot of things might have made more sense.

Hm, it feels good to write this all down. I will write more posts about India, I promise.

For now, for your entertainment, some photos of our adventures: The wedding, and highlights from our other travels.

The Abominable Snowman Closes His Mouth

Before I run down to the ferry to catch the bus to Victoria, here are a few more pictures. The swoop of snow from the roof, which from inside looks a lot like I'm in the mouth of an abominable snowman with icicles for teeth, continues to close.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and safe travels if you're going anywhere (and I hope you don't have to).

The Snow Out Here

It's been below zero for 10 days now, and snowed a couple of feet. This is totally unusual for the west coast, and so beautiful! I am at the point of laughing each time it begins to snow again. It's like I'm in some sort of groundhog day-like time warp, or a record that's skipping. Are the days really going by and it is snowing again and not melting?

The power went out on Friday evening and didn't come back on until 2pm the next day. During that time my pipes froze along with many other Gabriolans (their pipes I mean, not the Gabriolans themselves, of course). The pump house had no heat and the filter froze and cracked. I think the cistern might also be frozen. With a sigh of relief I am glad to be renting. And thrilled to be saved by the wood stove!

There are other stories to tell, involving shoveling, shoveling, and shoveling to extricate my truck from a snowbank, only get it stuck in my driveway (which I DID shovel). For now, here are some photos.

The snow swooping from the roof (Saturday)

By this morning the snow had migrated downwards (sorry for the dark picture, but I am at work during all daylight hours this time of year). It continues to migrate, and I plan to take another photo tomorrow.

A snowy Saturday scene looking out from beside the wood stove.

Cozy inside

This is fun!

The Kerplunks Rock!

A shout out to the Kerplunks and congratulations for winning a Western Canada Music Award and (as of this weekend) a Canadian Folk Music Award! Fellow Gabriolans, friends (and one is a former roommate), Tina and Dinah are fantastic and well deserve all of the recognition they are getting.

For any of you who have kids, know kids, or have any other reason to be looking for great kids music, check them out. You can listen to snippets of all of their songs on the website, and they are awesome. I like them all, and I don't know what is my favourite. "Beebs" is pretty great because the dog Beebs is real and is the best dog in the world.

Mystery Project Revealed

It's been shrouded in secrecy and I know you have been on the edge of your seats to find out what I have been knitting... Well I'm sorry to let you down but it really just an ordinary pair of socks in a beautiful, yet manly, colour scheme.

The socks are for Jake, my English friend who I met in Guatemala and became instant friends with when it was discovered that we both knew of the same purple house in Ucluelet. It's true. Jake moved to Victoria, and we were going to be roommates last summer, but then I got this job on Gabriola, backed out on him, and agreed to knit a pair of socks in return for him being okay with it all.

I was off work yesterday and at home all day working on this blasted project. In the morning I took the socks for a walk and photo session at the beach to get the blood pumping and visit the ocean.

Enroute to the beach we encountered a couple varieties of Gabriolan fauna: these ducks that seriously freak me out (they come at you honking like this and I think they will bite me one day)...

...and the peacocks, that I can get along with much better.

Feeling like I imagine it feels to be a new parent with a digital camera, I positioned the socks against various backgrounds and experimented. Now, the seasoned blogger or photographer would just choose the best and post only one, but I kind of like all of these. So here you go:

Socks on fucus

Socks on sandstone

Socks on assorted seaweed and stones

It wasn't all socks. I also took pictures of rocks (and if there had been a fox I'm sure I would have snapped a photo as well). Here are a couple of shots of the beautiful Gabriola sandstone.

First Solo Canning

A box of pears for $3 finally gave me the final push to try canning. I bought two. There's still one left, and I have 8 beautiful jars of canned pears. All have sealed, the dishes are done, and it took just under two hours start to finish. What fun!


Now I'm the type of person who is happy to do things like this for the pure joy of it, and for the satisfaction of learning a new skill (and perhaps a little for the knowledge that if the world as we know it collapses, I have one more skill under my belt to feed myself). I'm the type of person who will knit a pair of socks that, if I were to take into account the hours of work and the cost of the yarn, would be worth $100. And I won't mind. I will enjoy it, and I will do it again.

However, I am curious about the economics of these pears. Lets do some calculations:

Jars: $0.75 at GIRO
Lids: $3.50
Pears: $3.00
Labour: $20.00 (2 hours at $10/hour)

Total: $27.25
Divide by 8 = $3.40 per jar

Not bad! Aside from the joy of it, I think it's economically worth it too. Perhaps not a savings, but definitely less ridiculous than the socks.

Experiments with Granola Bars

I've been easing into a wheat-free and refined sugar-free diet over the last several weeks. So far it seems to have eased my chronic and mysterious joint problems and I think it's worth sticking with.

I've adapted a granola bar recipe with some great success and I thought I would share it with you. As long as you keep the gooey/sticky proportions roughly the same you can experiment with substitutions, which is how I came up with this:

1/2 c. pumpkin puree (best homemade so there aren't any weird things added)
2/3 c. peanut butter
1/3 c. molasses
1/3 c. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. oats
1/2 c. unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 c. unsalted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
1/3 c. raisins, chopped dried apricots, or dried cranberries
1/3 c. wheat germ (optional, if you aren't worried about eating wheat)
1 TBSP sesame seeds
1 TBSP flax seeds
1/2 c. carob chips.

Mix in order given. Press into 9x13 baking pan (you can use a cookie sheet but I think they bake more evenly in a pan that you'd make brownies in). Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, or until it starts to brown around the edges. Cut into squares while still warm.

Does anyone else have delicious wheat-free and refined sugar-free recipes to share with me?

Settling in for Winter

I bought a truck in May for its practicality of schlepping around kayaks and camping gear, which turned out to be awesome during the summer when I was kayaking a ton. As the kayak season slows, I've been feeling like the truck is total overkill for my lifestyle. And do environmentalists drive trucks anyway? I don't think it's any worse for the environment than a beater Subaru or an emission-spewing VW van that more commonly fits the image of a tree-hugger. (Terrible assumptions by the way.) But the image of a tree-hugger and the assumptions society has are a topic for another post.

Anyway, this week I felt very glad to have a truck so that I could pick up the load and a half of firewood I was given. What a gift! Firewood is a hot commodity on Gabriola at this time of year. Rumours fly that you shouldn't buy wood from so-and-so because it's not really seasoned, and the big old pick up with a sign on the back "FIREWOOD 2009" is driving all over the island with deliveries. (2009 doesn't refer to the year but the phone number, by the way... everyone's number starts with the first three digits on Gabriola.)


Tomorrow I have the day off work and Jim Chiminey is coming to assess the situation with this stove that my landlord bought second hand (looks kind of shabby, I hope it's okay). Hopefully it will be installed next week and I might actually be warm in my house. I do have electric heat, but I'm pretty stingy with it trying to avoid an exorbitant hydro bill.

On my day off tomorrow I also plan an attempt at canning pears... and on Saturday I am pressing apples for cider! Blog posts will surely follow.

A post for cute things

I present to you my latest find at the G.I.R.O. : One-cup coffee percolator. Cost 25 cents and makes fantastic coffee. And have you ever seen such a tiny, cute little percolater? For those who are already percolator users, you may have a knowing smile on your face now, remembering when you switched to the percolator and how good the coffee tasted. I have joined the ranks of percolatarians. And to think of the fantastic camping coffee this will make!

Speaking of cute, here are some little spider plan babies I have repotted. There were seven in the litter to start, and I've given away three, and taken one to my office at work. Now I'm propogating some little rosemarys from the huge bush in the yard, and have a wee mint on the go that nearly succumbed to mealy bugs but I think it will pull through.

To top off the cuteness, I found this tiny little feather in the driveway. My camera refused to focus on it, but I think this fuzzy picture is still rather cute.

Since my project isn't cute at all, I'm not allowed to talk about it in this post.

Writers block and new creations

As of tonight, I am 50% finished a project that I started in May and was stalled at about 40% until last night. Sneak preview below. I don't knit much during the summer, and I've been having shoulder problems that are aggravated by knitting. And although I have reached an advanced stage of denial about graduating, I will admit to you that I haven't graduated yet, and the last things I ever feel like is working on are the two papers (or a "project" and a paper) that I have to finish.


I have decided on a new approach to this problem, however. What I really need is motivation, and I need inspiration to achieve this motivation. I could read academic papers, chain myself to my computer desk, tell myself how ridiculous it is to keep paying tuition, but these things haven't worked so far. So I've decided to get inspiration elsewhere, and get my creativity going again. I unpacked my "nick-knack" box yesterday and did some more decorating around my place. I have a dried kelp installation on my window sill which I'm quite proud of. Simple but beautiful. I'll take a picture in daylight. And of course, I finished 50% of the mystery project pictured above, which has led to a good sense of accomplishment and should motivate me to accomplish other things. I am going to unapologetically work on the other 50% and it will feel great to put the project in the mail to its intended recipient. Just in time for winter. I hope he'll forgive me for the delay.

Not as nimble as a deer

The trails around Gabriola make me very happy. One of my favourite things is to go exploring in the forest and attempt to get myself lost. I just got back from a bit of an adventure doing just this, managing to get myself on a narrow deer trail on the side of a cliff with the ocean far below. It was a beautiful gulf islands scene in the evening sun; arbutus and Garry oak, dry grass, and low scrubby plants gone to seed with burrs all over them. My heart rate was up on a couple of occasions as I lost my footing, slipped, and had nothing to grab onto except thistle. I decided to scale the cliff and get to more solid ground above, which proved to be much more difficult than it looked from my eroding footing below. I have a new appreciation for the benefits of four legs and the hill climbing skills of deer.

Other recent joys include planting a wee fall container garden consisting of kale, chard, two kind of lettuce, and basil (which is indoors for now in a very sunny window where I think it will do alright). As the fall weather sets in and I am less likely to spend my time kayaking, swimming or otherwise just being outside for the sake of the weather, I am beginning to dream about other projects. Knitting, sewing, cooking... But I am trying so hard to focus on this small matter of graduation that is looming over me. I worked on it all afternoon (before the cliff-side adventure, which was my reward). It's getting there.

The view from here

It's been a long time since I posted. Way longer than I thought. With Facebook now part of life I can't remember what pictures I posted there and when I last updated here.

Much has happened since I last posted in June. I spent much of July kayaking, both guiding and personal trips. You can see photos of these adventures here.

I have had lots of visitors over the summer, and feel so blessed to have wonderful friends who will make the trek to visit me on Gabriola! You can also check out photos of exploring Gabriola, and a day at MudgeFest (Mudge Island is a stones throw across False Narrows from Gabriola but there is no ferry that goes there).

The picture above is the view from my new place. I lived with Penny and Tina for three months, renting a cute little pentagon-shaped cabin from them. I found my own place earlier than I needed to and reluctantly left Moss Hill and The Pentagon. The new place is lovely though, but a bit lonely. My efforts to find a roommate haven't been successful yet, but I continue the search. Any takers?

Work is fantastic. What can I say? It's great to feel like I'm doing useful things that directly affect people's lives and to have put academia aside, for now or maybe ever. Who knows. Well there is still the small matter of graduating which I haven't actually done yet. I have a project to finish, and hope to have it wrapped up before 2008 is over.

Hope you are all well and I promise to post again soon.

Mermaid Tears or Nurdles

Floating out in the ocean, and washing up on our beaches, are tonnes and tonnes of mermaid tears, also known as nurdles. Sounds cool? Strange? Like I'm really gullible?

Well I found it on the Internet so it must be true.

Mermaid tears or nurdles are the tiny bits of plastic broken up from plastic garbage that finds its way to the sea. It doesn't biodegrade, but instead just gets broken down into little, well, nurdles. And there is a lot of plastic in the sea. Check it out.

New sub-title needed

The time has come for a new sub-title for this blog. As Sheena has pointed out, I am no longer "under-employed". In fact, by Gabriola standards I might be considered over-employed, having one of the few full-time, permanent, professional jobs on the Island. In any case, I am employed, more a "planner" than "geographer" (although I think once a geographer always a geographer), but still a kayak guide.

If you have any ideas for a new tag-line, let me know. I'm quite attached to the old one, but have realized that I have to come to grips with a new identity. I can't define myself by being a perpetual student, who only ever has short-term or seasonal work. How strange.

Here are a few shots of Gabriola to add interest to the post:

Welcome to Gabriola Island

I'm still getting settled, becoming aquainted with Gabriola, and trying to just go with the flow as my mind and soul goes through quite an adjustment. I am so happy to be out of the city (although of course there are wonderful memories of my time in Vancouver) and back to Island life. I've always wanted to see what it is like living on one of the Gulf Islands, and now I have my chance. It's all fitting into place, in many ways a dream come true. I don't think I realized until I got here that it might be a bit strange at first. A bit lonely, a bit difficult, and a bit unsettled. Numerous people have told me that there is a severe shortage of eligible young men here. Sigh.

I am so fortunate to have met Penny last year in one of my classes, and that she is such a generous person to welcome me into her and Tina's home for a while until I find a place of my own to rent. I'm living in an pentagon-shaped cabin (dubbed "The Pentagon) as you may have heard. Photos to follow. It's lovely.

Moving to Gabriola Island!

My days in Vancouver are numbered. I'm checkin' out of the big city and movin' to Gabriola Island. I got a job, a "real" job, as a planner for the Islands Trust. I can't really believe it's real, to be honest. I had my summer all planned out: I'd move back to Victoria, work a summer job with Parks Canada (where I worked also last summer), write my graduating project, then look for permanent work in the fall. I applied for this job kind of on a whim. I figured they'd want someone to start earlier than September, but I didn't think I'd get the job either. Making the decision to back out on the summer work with Parks to take the job on Gabriola was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make.

Now, I'm disappointed that I won't be in Victoria for the summer where I have some of my closest friends, and lots of family. But, it's a permanent job, and this is what I've been going to school to do. It's a GREAT job in fact, and I can't turn it down. If it was in Prince George I'd turn it down, but it's really not that far from Victoria or Vancouver (or Gibsons, for those who are interested ;).

Now that I've come to grips with this massive change to my plans, I can start getting excited. I'm looking forward to Gulf Islands life and to checking out Gabriola. I'm also really looking forward to the job. To be honest, I'm nervous. I have a hard time explaining to people what I'll be doing, because I don't really know! I'm nearly finished two years of planning school, but I'm still not sure what a day in the life of a planner for the Islands Trust is like. There will be a steep learning curve, but I'm encouraged by the fact that they picked ME, so they must know what they're getting themselves into. I did get a technical question wrong in the interview, so they are under no illusion that I am a pro at municipal planning.

I'm not looking forward to being lonely. Maybe I won't be lonely, but I already feel lonely thinking about it. I know, I shouldn't focus on the negative, but I'm not being too negative, just a bit apprehensive. I know one person on Gabriola; a wonderful gal who I had a class with last semester lives there with her partner. I imagine she'll be happy to introduce me to people and help me get oriented when I arrive. I imagine I'll also enjoy the change from the big city, and will be happy to spend exploring time alone.

I'm also hoping that lots of people will come and visit me. If you're in Vancouver, it's easy to get to via Horseshoe Bay, and if you're in Victoria, it's just an hour and a half drive to Gabriola ferry. It looks like there are some summertime community events to entice you all, such as the "Himalayan Festival" from June 6-8. Don't ask me why Gabriola would have such a culturally specific festival when I am fairly certain there is no Himalayan heritage on the Island, but perhaps you should come and check it out for yourselves.

With such exciting things to look forward to, it is proving especially difficult to motivate myself to finish the mass of papers and presentations I have to do. Really, really difficult. Please send motivating energy my way.

Knitting gallery updates

The knitting has been kind of sporadic recently. I finished one sock of a pair I'm making out of beautiful deep pink heathered stuff (after taking it out back to the heel because it was too tight). And I'm part way through a brown-ish pair for my Mom with a new toe-up pattern. I have yet figure out the perfect combination of needle size and number of stitches for a sock to fit my foot but both of these pairs will be closer than I've been before.

Brown toe-up

Beautiful pink

I had the worst flu of my life last month (unless there was something when I was very young that I don't remember) that I am still kind of fighting off (every few days I get a sore throat again and feel really tired). Appropriately, I was inspired to knit a cover for a hot water bottle that I bought at the thrift store for 39 cents. I experimented with the seed stitch, and worked in a reindeer (or elk, or deer, whatever you want) that I designed a few years ago but hadn't used in anything yet. I also managed to use eyelets for the drawstring which are actually very easy to make.

The last new knit is these legwarmers that I made for Jenny's Christmas present. She was away in January on a practicum and took them with her (yay, she likes them!) so I just got the chance to take a photo recently. I'm quite proud of these too because although they are not a 100% from nothing creation, I didn't stick right to one pattern. Being the kind of person who gravitates more towards following instructions than creating something myself, I am quite proud of my progress in altering and creating patterns.

ps. Does anyone who uses Blogger know why I have so much trouble with formatting spaces when I use pictures?

10 Things I am Looking Forward to...

...when I move back to Victoria:

10. Yoga at Moksana
9. Cheaper rent for a nicer place
8. Summer concerts
7. Outdoor rock climbing
6. Working for Parks
5. Saanich Organics food box
4. No homework in the evening
3. Biking around town
2. Friends and Family
1. Kayaking a ton

Poem: "Lost"

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you

Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,

Must ask permission to know it and be known.

The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,

I have made this place around you,

If you leave it to you may come back again, saying Here.

No two leaves are the same to Raven.

No two branches are the same to Wren.

If what a tree or a branch does is lost on you,

You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows

Where you are. You must let it find you.

Wagoner, David (1978). Who Shall be the Sun? Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

A Weekend in Gibsons

A few weekends ago, I took a much needed break from Vancouver and a busy schedule to visit Sheena and Matt on the Sunshine Coast. It's a good thing I got some fun times in then, because I've been insanely busy since (AND came down with the flu, which I am still battling).

Sheena and her mom picked me up from the ferry Saturday evening and we went straight to a potluck to celebrate a citizen group's victory over "the [evil] developers". Go citizens! This is what gets me excited about planning; grassroots struggles over top-down planning. Yeah! Someone had actually cooked an entire turkey for the potluck, and it was then we realized this was "grown ups" potluck, which is quite different from the university potlucks we're used to.

Sunday morning was rainy, but we decided to go exploring around town anyway. The chickens didn't seem to be too happy about the rain and sought shelter under a bench.

At the marina we spotted this great blue heron in bright breeding plumage.

At the beach where Sheena learned to drive stick (not on the beach itself, but the steep road down TO the beach), we communed with the sea and basked in the sunshine that decided to arrive.

They're cute!

Returning to town, we walked passed the site of the [evil] development that was stopped by valiant citizen action (below).

The development was to look something like this, and be built on a wetland.

Not too far away is the museum where Matt works, humbly answering emails, vacuuming the floor and aspiring to greater things, if only the museum had more money to actually improve its exhibits. Sigh. Maybe they could get the developer make a donation to the museum...

Believe it or not, we did all of this after a delicious pancake breakfast and before a scrumptuous lunch of oysters at Gibsons' newest, and perhaps poshest, restaurant right on the water.

Back at home Matt baked bread while Sheena and I knit.

And we bottled beer...

...making sure to get every last drop.

What a super day! Thanks for the fun times.