"Come, faeries, take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame!"
- William Butler Yeats, 'The Land of Heart's Desire'
While this world isn't dull, I do like faeries, and the wind, sea and mountain references are very appropriate. I'm a girl of simple pleasures, and have been filled with childlike glee all day simply because of the weather. It's been one of those glorious late-autumn days where the sky is a cloudless azure, the air is cold and the wind is strong.
Clouds have obscured the mountaintops for the past couple of days and there's a bit more snow on them now, both the rocky ridges of Grouse Mountain and the softer tree-covered summit of Cypress Mountain. As I'm writing this, I've been watching through my window the gradual shift in colours as the sun has set, and can't decide which effect was more beautiful. At first, both the dark green trees and the white snow were a lovely shade of pink. Then, a while later, the sky instead was pink, but a softer shade, and the snow back to a cool bluey-white. Now the snow is sort of pearly against an indigo sky.
Putting on my thermal leggings, an extra pair of socks, and the thermal hat I had bought in Tofino (not to mention gloves, scarf and windproof coat with attached fleece) I took myself and my camera down to the beach I found a couple of weeks ago. I started grinning as soon as I entered the park. White horses played all over the Burrard Inlet and English Bay, and were even visible far out past Lighthouse Point. The waves curled in with regularity and under the constant roar of the windswept water I heard the soft lapping of each individual breaker as it washed up over the sand. Zephyrus sent the crows and gulls soaring with no effort on their part. I took a few photographs, but then just sat and watched and listened.
After forty-five minutes sat on a rock by the sea in a wind that makes the air temperature feel like three degrees Celcius, I decided to get up and move. The weak warmth of the early afternoon sun on my face was welcome as I made my way back to the house. Once more indoors, I switched on the little heater in my room for a few minutes before going down to the kitchen for peppermint tea and a warm lunch.
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Thurs 14th/Fri 15th November 2013, days 127/128 - Zenhouse Nights Out
Around the corner, less than a minute's walk from the house, is a twenty-four hour vegetarian restaurant called The Naam. I knew of it before I left England and have wanted to go in there but not by myself. Well I've been in there two nights in a row, now! Haha.
Thursday 14th, day 127
On Thursday, Anais, Jamie, Audrey and I went there for a meal. A girls' night, if you will. Jamie had suggested it last week, while I was making a korma for dinner. (I was ever so happy to have found some Sharwood's curry powder in Whole Foods a month or so ago. The Safeway stuff tastes nothing like what I'm used to so I don't like it.) By the time everyone got back from work or uni, it was a bit late to get the bus across town to the Indian restaurant Jamie had in mind, so we walked round the corner to The Naam. (Turns out, as Ian informed us yesterday, there's an good Indian restaurant just one block further west.)
It's a cool little place with wooden tables, a wooden floor and casual decor. There were no available tables in the main inside area, so we were seated out the back, which during the summer would be outside. Thankfully there were plastic wall things up, which didn't have gaps in, and decent heaters so it was warm. A lot on the menu sounded good, but I went for a Thai curry "dragon bowl": rice, broccoli, cauliflower, and fried tofu with a coconut curry sauce topped with bean sprouts and grated beetroots and carrots. It was nice, not amazing but good. To the surprise of the others I consumed the whole huge bowlful, while they each only managed about half of their chosen dish and took the rest home. To my surprise, I ate it all with chopsticks.
So that was an enjoyable couple of hours, and we might go out more often, either for meals or maybe even a yoga class or something of that ilk now and again.
Friday 15th, day 128
In 1867, the Hastings Mill sawmill was established on the southern shore of the Burrard Inlet. Later the same year, "Gassy" Jack Deighton built a pub on the edge of the mill property, in what was then just a clearing in the forest, to serve the loggers and workers. "Gassy's Town" quickly built up around it and two years later was renamed Granville, after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, when the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out plans for a township. In 1886 the Canadian Pacific Railway chose the town as the terminus for the transcontinental railway and it was renamed again, this time as the city of Vancouver.
Gastown is now a National Historic Site of Canada, with cobbled streets and late-Victorian buildings. After the Great Depression in the 1930s it became a largely forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline until the 1960s. Since then a lot of the area has been renovated, and there are now fashion boutiques, art galleries, music studios, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, offices of lawyers and architects, etc...
On Friday evening, Mark and Claude were planning to go out in Gastown and invited every Zenhousemate they saw - which, seeing as it was dinner-time, was almost everyone. Of course at first I was hesitant, but when they made it clear they weren't going to a club and Jamie said she wasn't going to stay out too late, I agreed to go. So an hour later Audrey, Ian, Mark, Claude and I squeezed into the passenger seats of Jamie's car, and Mark put an AC/DC song on for me because it was my "Zenhouse debut".
The pub we went to is in Maple Tree Square, which looked really pretty with the trees covered in little white lights. It was still relatively early, about nine-thirty, so there wasn't a queue outside, but the split-level maritime-themed inside was busy and we were lucky to find a table to fit all six of us. Being "so English", I bought a cider, and we sat talking around the table for a couple of hours, barely able to hear each other over the music (which wasn't bad, I neither disliked nor liked it). Of course, it was a social situation in a busy place so I wasn't entirely at ease, and looked down at the table and up at the ceiling and opposite wall while trying to think of conversation topics... anywhere but at people. We moved to the upper level, the dance floor, for a while, but stayed to the side where I could lean against a table and didn't have to dance, haha. Moving to music I don't enjoy is not a natural thing for me. Is it for anyone?
Jamie, Audrey, Ian and I left around midnight, leaving Mark and Claude to their dancing. Audrey went inside when we got back to the house but the rest of us were hungry, so we walked around the corner to The Naam. Even at that time of night it was busy, surprisingly with a few families with children. Jamie had a slice of rich chocolate fudge cake, I had a slice of Dutch apple-and-cranberry pie, and Ian hadn't eaten since breakfast so he had a bowl of noodles. We spent maybe forty-five minutes there, and Mark and Claude were already back at the house when we returned.
Thursday 14th, day 127
On Thursday, Anais, Jamie, Audrey and I went there for a meal. A girls' night, if you will. Jamie had suggested it last week, while I was making a korma for dinner. (I was ever so happy to have found some Sharwood's curry powder in Whole Foods a month or so ago. The Safeway stuff tastes nothing like what I'm used to so I don't like it.) By the time everyone got back from work or uni, it was a bit late to get the bus across town to the Indian restaurant Jamie had in mind, so we walked round the corner to The Naam. (Turns out, as Ian informed us yesterday, there's an good Indian restaurant just one block further west.)
It's a cool little place with wooden tables, a wooden floor and casual decor. There were no available tables in the main inside area, so we were seated out the back, which during the summer would be outside. Thankfully there were plastic wall things up, which didn't have gaps in, and decent heaters so it was warm. A lot on the menu sounded good, but I went for a Thai curry "dragon bowl": rice, broccoli, cauliflower, and fried tofu with a coconut curry sauce topped with bean sprouts and grated beetroots and carrots. It was nice, not amazing but good. To the surprise of the others I consumed the whole huge bowlful, while they each only managed about half of their chosen dish and took the rest home. To my surprise, I ate it all with chopsticks.
So that was an enjoyable couple of hours, and we might go out more often, either for meals or maybe even a yoga class or something of that ilk now and again.
Friday 15th, day 128
In 1867, the Hastings Mill sawmill was established on the southern shore of the Burrard Inlet. Later the same year, "Gassy" Jack Deighton built a pub on the edge of the mill property, in what was then just a clearing in the forest, to serve the loggers and workers. "Gassy's Town" quickly built up around it and two years later was renamed Granville, after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, when the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out plans for a township. In 1886 the Canadian Pacific Railway chose the town as the terminus for the transcontinental railway and it was renamed again, this time as the city of Vancouver.
Gastown is now a National Historic Site of Canada, with cobbled streets and late-Victorian buildings. After the Great Depression in the 1930s it became a largely forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline until the 1960s. Since then a lot of the area has been renovated, and there are now fashion boutiques, art galleries, music studios, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, offices of lawyers and architects, etc...
On Friday evening, Mark and Claude were planning to go out in Gastown and invited every Zenhousemate they saw - which, seeing as it was dinner-time, was almost everyone. Of course at first I was hesitant, but when they made it clear they weren't going to a club and Jamie said she wasn't going to stay out too late, I agreed to go. So an hour later Audrey, Ian, Mark, Claude and I squeezed into the passenger seats of Jamie's car, and Mark put an AC/DC song on for me because it was my "Zenhouse debut".
The pub we went to is in Maple Tree Square, which looked really pretty with the trees covered in little white lights. It was still relatively early, about nine-thirty, so there wasn't a queue outside, but the split-level maritime-themed inside was busy and we were lucky to find a table to fit all six of us. Being "so English", I bought a cider, and we sat talking around the table for a couple of hours, barely able to hear each other over the music (which wasn't bad, I neither disliked nor liked it). Of course, it was a social situation in a busy place so I wasn't entirely at ease, and looked down at the table and up at the ceiling and opposite wall while trying to think of conversation topics... anywhere but at people. We moved to the upper level, the dance floor, for a while, but stayed to the side where I could lean against a table and didn't have to dance, haha. Moving to music I don't enjoy is not a natural thing for me. Is it for anyone?
Jamie, Audrey, Ian and I left around midnight, leaving Mark and Claude to their dancing. Audrey went inside when we got back to the house but the rest of us were hungry, so we walked around the corner to The Naam. Even at that time of night it was busy, surprisingly with a few families with children. Jamie had a slice of rich chocolate fudge cake, I had a slice of Dutch apple-and-cranberry pie, and Ian hadn't eaten since breakfast so he had a bowl of noodles. We spent maybe forty-five minutes there, and Mark and Claude were already back at the house when we returned.
Monday 11th November 2013, day 124 - Lighthouse Park
Today was a public holiday and the weather was dry, so Audrey, Nico, Anais and I caught two buses over to West Vancouver and spent the afternoon in Lighthouse Park. Located on a little peninsula with the Burrard Inlet to the east and the Strait of Georgia to the west, it was named for the Point Atkinson Lighthouse and covers nearly 190 acres, almost all of which is old-growth rainforest. Point Atkinson was first chartered and named by Captain George Vancouver in 1792, so is a National Historic Site, and because of the lighthouse, which needs a dark background, the trees in what is now the park have never been logged. Therefore the park contains some ancient Western hemlock and Western Redcedar, and the city's last remaining stand of first-growth Douglas fir.
We left the house around 1pm, and on the overcrowded bus journey I noticed that, while the particularly pretty ones I pass on the way to the supermarket are now bare, some trees of the same species in other areas of the city still have a lot of their leaves. So my eyes stayed happily fixed to any vivid splashes of coral-pink, apricot and dark raspberry we passed, for as long as possible - which was usually only a few seconds. Mount Baker was visible as we crossed the Lions Gate Bridge.
We spent a couple of hours roaming some of the trails, pausing at a few viewpoints for a while; we saw an eagle at the one by the lighthouse. None of us had been there before and didn't know what the trail conditions would be like so I'm glad I wore my hiking boots: it was damp and slippery in places, but thankfully not too wet or my socks would have gotten damp too. We reached the last viewpoint just after sunset, and sat on the vast, smooth granite boulders to watch the lights of Vancouver slowly blink on in the deepening twilight. Returning through the now-dark forest was interesting, and quite cool, but not difficult. We only had to wait a minute for the bus.
It was 6pm by the time the bus arrived back in Downtown. Nico and Anais went to meet some friends, so Audrey and I decided to find something to eat before going back to the house. Wanting something savoury, warm, quick and fairly cheap, we walked along Robson Street, the main shopping street which I've never been down before, for five minutes before coming across a diner-style burrito place. Perfect! I ordered a pulled pork traditional burrito (slightly spicy rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, in a tortilla), it was made fresh straight away and it was yummy, and filling :) Back at the house, the rest of the evening was quiet.
We left the house around 1pm, and on the overcrowded bus journey I noticed that, while the particularly pretty ones I pass on the way to the supermarket are now bare, some trees of the same species in other areas of the city still have a lot of their leaves. So my eyes stayed happily fixed to any vivid splashes of coral-pink, apricot and dark raspberry we passed, for as long as possible - which was usually only a few seconds. Mount Baker was visible as we crossed the Lions Gate Bridge.
We spent a couple of hours roaming some of the trails, pausing at a few viewpoints for a while; we saw an eagle at the one by the lighthouse. None of us had been there before and didn't know what the trail conditions would be like so I'm glad I wore my hiking boots: it was damp and slippery in places, but thankfully not too wet or my socks would have gotten damp too. We reached the last viewpoint just after sunset, and sat on the vast, smooth granite boulders to watch the lights of Vancouver slowly blink on in the deepening twilight. Returning through the now-dark forest was interesting, and quite cool, but not difficult. We only had to wait a minute for the bus.
It was 6pm by the time the bus arrived back in Downtown. Nico and Anais went to meet some friends, so Audrey and I decided to find something to eat before going back to the house. Wanting something savoury, warm, quick and fairly cheap, we walked along Robson Street, the main shopping street which I've never been down before, for five minutes before coming across a diner-style burrito place. Perfect! I ordered a pulled pork traditional burrito (slightly spicy rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, in a tortilla), it was made fresh straight away and it was yummy, and filling :) Back at the house, the rest of the evening was quiet.
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Sunday 3rd November 2013, day 116 - Beach, Fawlty Towers and children's books
This isn't a particularly interesting post. I did nothing particularly interesting, but had quite a nice day so I'll write about it.
For breakfast I made pancakes. Not from scratch, although I need to try that one day. I have a packet-mix: just add water. I haven't made them in a couple of months - they always end up thick, heavy and burned, which will partly be because it's a wholemeal mix and partly because cooking American pancakes (aka Scotch pancakes or drop scones) is difficult.
I also read for a long while. The e-book I'm currently devouring on my Kindle is Anne of the Island, book three of the Green Gables series. Oh, I love them! I watched the late-80's miniseries last year and adored it, but I'd never read the books - so I'm doing that now. Anne of Green Gables is the fourth so-called children's book I've read in the last few years that I never did when I was actually a child. Upon reading it for the first time in early 2011, I wasn't particularly impressed with Alice in Wonderland, and didn't understand the hype, but perhaps a second perusal one day will change my mind. The Wind in the Willows, on the other hand, I absolutely loved. The Hobbit certainly has more of an air of a children's story than it's epic high fantasy sequel trilogy does, and I enjoyed it but not as much as the latter. There are several more so-called children's books on my extensive books-I-want-to-read list, but the idyllic, enchanting Avonlea has my attention for now :) If you've ever read it, and know me, I'm sure you won't have any difficulty understanding why I love Anne of Green Gables (and Wind in the Willows).
I have finally figured out how to change the settings so that iTunes will allow me to edit the song titles! so spent some of today doing that. I also thought about what I'd like to bake. I haven't baked in months and I need to. I even bought a cheap tiny plastic set of kitchen scales the other day because the majority of my recipes are measured by weight not volume, and there are no scales in this house.
I signed up for the Canadian version of Netflix a few days ago. I can't get the UK one here. Among the things I was very happy to find was Fawlty Towers :) Ian and I are getting through the episodes quite quickly - we watched three today, and there are only four left.
The most remarkable thing I did today was go to the beach. Not like one does in the summer, of course; it is November. I sat on a rock for half an hour. I'm only mentioning it and writing this post in the first place because, although it's only a five-minute walk away, it's the first time I've been there. It's small and quiet and, although not the prettiest beach, is a pleasant place to sit awhile looking out over English Bay.
To the left, about a kilometre west, is the marina of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club at the near end of Jericho Beach. Slightly to the right as my eyes pan across, but further away and not actually part of English Bay, is Bowen Island, beyond which in the far distance are dark snow-topped mountains. Directly opposite, past the container ships and between Lighthouse Point and Grouse Mountain, is the North Shore and West Vancouver. Below said mountain, as I look at it, is Stanley Park, the maple trees on the western shore of which providing a faint splash of pretty colour in among the evergreen conifers. Finally, to the right and east, standing out against yet more shadowy, distant snow-dusted peaks, are the glassy skyscrapers of Downtown Vancouver, shining brightly in the low late-afternoon sun.
For breakfast I made pancakes. Not from scratch, although I need to try that one day. I have a packet-mix: just add water. I haven't made them in a couple of months - they always end up thick, heavy and burned, which will partly be because it's a wholemeal mix and partly because cooking American pancakes (aka Scotch pancakes or drop scones) is difficult.
I also read for a long while. The e-book I'm currently devouring on my Kindle is Anne of the Island, book three of the Green Gables series. Oh, I love them! I watched the late-80's miniseries last year and adored it, but I'd never read the books - so I'm doing that now. Anne of Green Gables is the fourth so-called children's book I've read in the last few years that I never did when I was actually a child. Upon reading it for the first time in early 2011, I wasn't particularly impressed with Alice in Wonderland, and didn't understand the hype, but perhaps a second perusal one day will change my mind. The Wind in the Willows, on the other hand, I absolutely loved. The Hobbit certainly has more of an air of a children's story than it's epic high fantasy sequel trilogy does, and I enjoyed it but not as much as the latter. There are several more so-called children's books on my extensive books-I-want-to-read list, but the idyllic, enchanting Avonlea has my attention for now :) If you've ever read it, and know me, I'm sure you won't have any difficulty understanding why I love Anne of Green Gables (and Wind in the Willows).
I have finally figured out how to change the settings so that iTunes will allow me to edit the song titles! so spent some of today doing that. I also thought about what I'd like to bake. I haven't baked in months and I need to. I even bought a cheap tiny plastic set of kitchen scales the other day because the majority of my recipes are measured by weight not volume, and there are no scales in this house.
I signed up for the Canadian version of Netflix a few days ago. I can't get the UK one here. Among the things I was very happy to find was Fawlty Towers :) Ian and I are getting through the episodes quite quickly - we watched three today, and there are only four left.
The most remarkable thing I did today was go to the beach. Not like one does in the summer, of course; it is November. I sat on a rock for half an hour. I'm only mentioning it and writing this post in the first place because, although it's only a five-minute walk away, it's the first time I've been there. It's small and quiet and, although not the prettiest beach, is a pleasant place to sit awhile looking out over English Bay.
To the left, about a kilometre west, is the marina of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club at the near end of Jericho Beach. Slightly to the right as my eyes pan across, but further away and not actually part of English Bay, is Bowen Island, beyond which in the far distance are dark snow-topped mountains. Directly opposite, past the container ships and between Lighthouse Point and Grouse Mountain, is the North Shore and West Vancouver. Below said mountain, as I look at it, is Stanley Park, the maple trees on the western shore of which providing a faint splash of pretty colour in among the evergreen conifers. Finally, to the right and east, standing out against yet more shadowy, distant snow-dusted peaks, are the glassy skyscrapers of Downtown Vancouver, shining brightly in the low late-afternoon sun.
I'm very lucky to be living here.
Monday, 4 November 2013
Wednesday 30th October 2013, day 112 - Anna's Farewell Potluck
Anna moved out on Friday (I'm writing this days afterward, as usual), so she wanted to have a potluck as a farewell party. A potluck is a meal where the attendees contribute a dish to share. It was fun :) The living room area of this "Zenhouse" was filled with fourteen people: nine Zenhousemates, plus two of the four who live in the separate ground-floor apartment, and three strangers, friends of Jamie (female) who didn't eat but were waiting to go out for the evening. There would have been a fifteenth if the owner hadn't been unwell.
Of the current ten housemates, only three were here when I arrived nearly four months ago: Mark, from Scotland, Anais, from France, and Claude, from Mauritius. All the others who have since moved in - owner Jocelyn, her boyfriend Adam, Ian, George and Jamie - are Canadian. On Friday evening French girl Audrey moved into what was Anna's room. Of the four who live downstairs on the ground floor, there are two who I've seen perhaps only once and whose names I don't know. Naomi, who when I arrived had the room next to mine, and Anais' French colleague Nico, we see fairly frequently.
Naomi had topped a focaccia loaf with tomato paste and cheese to make pizza; Adam bought some vegetable sticks and dip; Claude made a salad and guacamole; Nico made a tasty butternut squash soup, and Anna topped slices of persimmons and tomatoes with cheese and walnut halves. I made a Moroccan chicken stew and, although the dried cherries I'd bought turned out to still have the stones in, everyone said they loved it, which I was really happy about. For dessert Anais made a lovely choc-chip pumpkin loaf cake, and Jamie made what was supposed to be a sort of chocolate-biscuit-coconut granola bar but ended up as a rich gooey yummy mess that could only be removed from the baking tray by being scraped out with spoons. Nico brought up some grapes, too - really nice purple ones that actually tasted like grape-scented or -flavoured things (like shampoo or soda) smell and taste like. I think all that was leftover were a few tomato slices and a bit of the chocolate thing.
While the presence of Jamie's three talkative friends made me not quite as comfortable as I might have been in their absence, I enjoyed the evening and potlucks should definitely happen more often. When everyone dispersed around 10pm, Anna, Anais and I washed everything up (as you might imagine, there was a lot) and returned the kitchen and living room to a clean and tidy state.
Of the current ten housemates, only three were here when I arrived nearly four months ago: Mark, from Scotland, Anais, from France, and Claude, from Mauritius. All the others who have since moved in - owner Jocelyn, her boyfriend Adam, Ian, George and Jamie - are Canadian. On Friday evening French girl Audrey moved into what was Anna's room. Of the four who live downstairs on the ground floor, there are two who I've seen perhaps only once and whose names I don't know. Naomi, who when I arrived had the room next to mine, and Anais' French colleague Nico, we see fairly frequently.
Naomi had topped a focaccia loaf with tomato paste and cheese to make pizza; Adam bought some vegetable sticks and dip; Claude made a salad and guacamole; Nico made a tasty butternut squash soup, and Anna topped slices of persimmons and tomatoes with cheese and walnut halves. I made a Moroccan chicken stew and, although the dried cherries I'd bought turned out to still have the stones in, everyone said they loved it, which I was really happy about. For dessert Anais made a lovely choc-chip pumpkin loaf cake, and Jamie made what was supposed to be a sort of chocolate-biscuit-coconut granola bar but ended up as a rich gooey yummy mess that could only be removed from the baking tray by being scraped out with spoons. Nico brought up some grapes, too - really nice purple ones that actually tasted like grape-scented or -flavoured things (like shampoo or soda) smell and taste like. I think all that was leftover were a few tomato slices and a bit of the chocolate thing.
While the presence of Jamie's three talkative friends made me not quite as comfortable as I might have been in their absence, I enjoyed the evening and potlucks should definitely happen more often. When everyone dispersed around 10pm, Anna, Anais and I washed everything up (as you might imagine, there was a lot) and returned the kitchen and living room to a clean and tidy state.
Monday, 28 October 2013
Saturday 19th October 2013, day 101 - Macbeth, and a nice stroll around Downtown... not
For the first time since I've been here, I went to the cinema. Not to see a conventional film, but rather a screening of National Theatre Live: Macbeth. Until last year I had no idea that such things happened, that plays, ballets, operas and museum exhibitions were filmed and broadcast live in cinemas. I would have started going to see them years ago if I'd known. Anyway, unlike Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, I didn't know Macbeth at all, not even the basic plot, and so wouldn't be able to understand of what was going on and being said, at least not in detail. However, this performance starred the fantastic Kenneth Branagh as the title character and Alex Kingston as his Lady wife - so I had to see it.
The performance - held in a deconsecrated church in Manchester - actually took place back in July, not long after I left for Canada. I was disappointed about missing it until I found a cinema here that would be screening it. It was broadcast live to UK cinemas, but that live performance was recorded and sent around the world for international audiences to see at a later date. It was really good, I enjoyed it, and while obviously I'm not an expert in Early Modern English and all of Shakespeare's nuances, I understood what was going on in general. Kenneth Branagh was of course brilliant, as was Alex Kingston (who I've only ever watched as River Song in Doctor Who, so it was great to see her in something else, in a completely different role). The cast included a few other faces I'd seen before: John Shrapnel, Jimmy Yuill... the young man playing Prince Malcolm looked familiar and I later found out it was Alexander Vlahos, aka Mordred in the last series of Merlin. Ray Fearon's performance as Macduff was particularly impressive; his voice was just so powerful.
So yeah, that was good! I'll be going to more of those events. NT Live: Corialanus is coming soon. It's starring Tom Hiddleston :) so I might go. My debit card allows me to earn points, and a certain number of points means a free cinema ticket!
The annoying thing about my Canadian debit card, though, is that it's a bank debit card, not a Visa or MasterCard, so not everywhere accepts it. I haven't been able to use it for the few things I've tried to pay for online, including my phone bill - so I decided to go to the phone shop to do so after the cinema. (That bill is more than annoying too: I never send a text or make a call so thirty dollars every month is currently a completely unnecessary expense. It's kind of essential for job-hunting, though, and hopefully I'll use it more when I make friends, but I do wish they had pay-as-you-go here.)
I thought the phone shop was on an intersection on Granville Street. I didn't know which exact intersection, but Granville was only a few blocks away from the cinema so I thought I'd easily be able to find it. It wouldn't take long and I could go back to the house and have lunch.
Nope.
The red line on the map below is my accidental, hour-long route from the cinema to the phone shop.
The blue line is the route I should have taken, a journey of ten minutes.
Hahaha!
I laugh about it now, but it was frustrating at the time. I didn't want to hang around Downtown. I made it there eventually, though. I don't imagine I'll be forgetting that intersection again.
The performance - held in a deconsecrated church in Manchester - actually took place back in July, not long after I left for Canada. I was disappointed about missing it until I found a cinema here that would be screening it. It was broadcast live to UK cinemas, but that live performance was recorded and sent around the world for international audiences to see at a later date. It was really good, I enjoyed it, and while obviously I'm not an expert in Early Modern English and all of Shakespeare's nuances, I understood what was going on in general. Kenneth Branagh was of course brilliant, as was Alex Kingston (who I've only ever watched as River Song in Doctor Who, so it was great to see her in something else, in a completely different role). The cast included a few other faces I'd seen before: John Shrapnel, Jimmy Yuill... the young man playing Prince Malcolm looked familiar and I later found out it was Alexander Vlahos, aka Mordred in the last series of Merlin. Ray Fearon's performance as Macduff was particularly impressive; his voice was just so powerful.
So yeah, that was good! I'll be going to more of those events. NT Live: Corialanus is coming soon. It's starring Tom Hiddleston :) so I might go. My debit card allows me to earn points, and a certain number of points means a free cinema ticket!
The annoying thing about my Canadian debit card, though, is that it's a bank debit card, not a Visa or MasterCard, so not everywhere accepts it. I haven't been able to use it for the few things I've tried to pay for online, including my phone bill - so I decided to go to the phone shop to do so after the cinema. (That bill is more than annoying too: I never send a text or make a call so thirty dollars every month is currently a completely unnecessary expense. It's kind of essential for job-hunting, though, and hopefully I'll use it more when I make friends, but I do wish they had pay-as-you-go here.)
I thought the phone shop was on an intersection on Granville Street. I didn't know which exact intersection, but Granville was only a few blocks away from the cinema so I thought I'd easily be able to find it. It wouldn't take long and I could go back to the house and have lunch.
Nope.
The red line on the map below is my accidental, hour-long route from the cinema to the phone shop.
The blue line is the route I should have taken, a journey of ten minutes.
Hahaha!
I laugh about it now, but it was frustrating at the time. I didn't want to hang around Downtown. I made it there eventually, though. I don't imagine I'll be forgetting that intersection again.
Sunday, 27 October 2013
Monday 14th October 2013, day 96 - A Canadian Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is exactly that: giving thanks. It's a time for everyone for reflect upon and be thankful for all that they have been blessed with over the past year, in particular the harvest. Of course, this meaning has been lost a little in modern commercialism, but it's still a time for food and family.
Americans commonly trace the origins of the festival to a celebration held in 1621 by the settlers of the Plymouth Colony, in what is now Massachusetts, after their first harvest in the New World. Arriving on the Mayflower in December 1620, the group who would come to be known as the Pilgrims faced a hard winter in a strange land, and only fifty-three of the original 102 passengers survived to see the following autumn. The English colonists invited ninety-one members of the local Wampanoag tribe to celebrate the bountiful harvest with them, and the feast lasted for three days.
Before I came here, I didn't realise that Canada, too, celebrated Thanksgiving. It's not that I thought they didn't; rather that "Thanksgiving" is so American, it just never occurred to me that Canada might do too. But with the two countries sharing a border it's hardly surprising. It's celebrated in pretty much the same way and for the same reasons as in the USA, but is held about six weeks earlier on the second Monday in October.
Me and Maxi were lucky enough to be invited back to Lockwood Farm to celebrate it over the weekend with James and Cammy, their whole extended family, and the two WWOOFers Ryoko and Haruka. What better place to spend a harvest festival than on a farm?
Saturday was a lazy, restful day in which nobody did much, but the evening was great fun. James and Cammy went out, so Maxi, Ryoko, Haruka and I had the house to ourselves. We had pizza for dinner, made from scratch. After I found a yeast-free dough recipe online, Maxi made the base, I chopped vegetables for the topping, Ryoko made cookies and a salad, and Haruka laid the table and took photos =] No yeast meant we didn't have to leave the dough to rise, so it was incredibly quick and simple to make: just flour, baking powder, salt, water and oil, mixed until a smooth ball can be formed and rolled out. While of course a little denser than most pizza bases, it wasn't very much so and tasted great. We topped it with tomato puree/paste, cheese, onions, rocket, peppers, courgette, tuna and peanuts. It tasted so good! We ate the salad while impatiently waiting for the second pizza to finish cooking. Before sitting down to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we finished off with some of Ryoko's cookies, and marshmallows toasted over candle flames :)
Late on Sunday morning the four of us left on a walk to Cobble Hill Mountain, taking Enzo with us - much to his delight. The hour-long walk through the forest to the top was lovely. Apart from our feet rustling the dry leaves strewn across the trails, and the odd breeze sending more floating down in whispering showers, it was still and quiet. The fronds of bracken gleamed silver and the maple trees were resplendent in colours that "red", "yellow" and "orange" are too boring for. There were sticks aplenty to throw for Enzo, though after bounding off after them he rather enjoyed breaking them and eating the ends... We reached the top - which was a somewhat strange area of exposed mossy bedrock and shortish trees that gave the place a feel of an abandoned orchard - and rested awhile in the warm sunshine looking out at the wonderful view to the south and west.
After lunch back at the farm, we spent an hour or two peeling and chopping quince, a fruit similar to apples and pears but one that is usually not edible when raw. They have a wonderfully sweet fragrance, and two full tubs had been sitting in the kitchen for days so the room was filled with it. It wasn't the most enjoyable task - they were covered in a grey-white fluff that stuck to the fingers, and were really hard and tough to cut - but it was worth it. The quince sauce made from them was incredible!
Fifteen people sat down to the big Thanksgiving meal on Sunday evening. Two dining tables had been pushed together next door, and even then it was a squeeze to fit everyone around them - and to fit all the food on. Roast turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, carrots, parsnips, beetroots, courgette, sweet potato, potato salad, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, quince sauce, and gravy, followed by trifle and pumpkin pie.
Of course most of it was from the farm, which was wonderful. Cammy brined the 10kg turkey overnight before smothering it in lots of butter and herbs and roasting on a low heat for several hours. The potatoes were put into the same pan so tasted amazing. Maxi had fried slices of courgette in olive oil and garlic then put them in a dish with parsley, salt and lemon juice. Ryoko and Haruka made a Japanese potato salad, which uses mashed potatoes instead of chunks. James' sister had made what sounds to probably most non-Americans incredibly odd: sweet potato with marshmallow. Thick slices of the potato baked with butter, sugar, a bit of salt, possibly one or two other things but I can't remember, and marshmallow, results in a soft, sweet, syrupy dish that was so good! Needless to say, everything was delicious and nobody went away without feeling completely stuffed.
Some of us finished off the evening by playing a domino game called 'Mexican Train'. It was fun! I play board and card games so rarely that I don't know how to play any, and can never grasp the rules by just being told, it takes me a while. This was really simple, though, and despite my having never played with dominoes before, I understood it straight away and could just enjoy the game :)
On Monday morning I saw a hummingbird. I'd never seen a hummingbird! What a lovely thing to see first thing in the morning. Wonderful :)
We spent the morning cleaning eggs. It was Thanksgiving Day itself, a public holiday, so everyone took it easy and did no non-essential farm work. The table is usually in the workshop but, because it was gloriously sunny and warm, we moved it outside. Lunch was leftovers - the food on that table had fed fifteen people twice - and after that we did not a lot. I read for a couple of hours, sat on the sofa outside on the veranda while it was still fairly warm. James and Barry continued laying tiles for the soon-to-arrive wood stove, until the former went to chop wood and Maxi asked him to show her how to do it. So all four of us WWOOFers had a lesson in splitting logs with an axe, which was great fun! :D James' nephew and Cammy had a go, too, though of course neither of them are new at it.
We had a sushi party for dinner! Ryoko and Haruka made tuna and shrimp sushi rolls, a sushi salad (all the ingredients in a bowl instead of wrapped in nori, the edible seaweed that in Wales is called laver), and tamagoyaki, an egg roll or Japanese omelette. I've only tried sushi once before, from Pret's, vegetable not fish, and it was somewhat bland on its own but unpleasant with the soy sauce. So I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it again, but everything was really nice (though I didn't have it with soy sauce). For dessert, later, James made caramelised bananas with more than a splash of brandy (the flambeing wasn't successful) and served them on cold ice-cream. Yum! He and Cammy had spent a year in Japan soon after marrying, and did some acting work as extras, so they showed us a scene from "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" in which James appears. We then watched Top Gear :D
Maxi and I would be getting up before dawn to catch the 6:45am bus to Victoria, so we said goodbye to Cammy, Ryoko and Haruka before everyone went to bed. James drove us the two minutes to the bus stop in the still-dark morning, so we said goodbye to him there when the bus arrived. It took an hour and a half to get to Victoria, and I spent the entire time gazing out the window in tranquil wonder at the beauty of the quiet world we passed, ever so gradually brightening with the pastel blush of sunrise.
We took a second bus from Victoria to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, where we waited two hours for the 11am sailing to Tsawwassen, which - despite receiving a ferry between once and twice every hour - only has one bus every hour. The bus queue was so long that only half of it managed to fit, packed to absolute full capacity, into the vehicle. Everyone else, including Maxi and I, had to wait an hour for the next one. Thankfully the 10am sailing had been cancelled so we didn't have people from that ferry in front of us as well. It's absurd. We did manage to squeeze onto the 2pm bus, though, and arriving in Vancouver nine hours after leaving the farm Maxi and I went our separate ways, she to a hostel then onto Banff, and me back to Kitsilano.
Americans commonly trace the origins of the festival to a celebration held in 1621 by the settlers of the Plymouth Colony, in what is now Massachusetts, after their first harvest in the New World. Arriving on the Mayflower in December 1620, the group who would come to be known as the Pilgrims faced a hard winter in a strange land, and only fifty-three of the original 102 passengers survived to see the following autumn. The English colonists invited ninety-one members of the local Wampanoag tribe to celebrate the bountiful harvest with them, and the feast lasted for three days.
Before I came here, I didn't realise that Canada, too, celebrated Thanksgiving. It's not that I thought they didn't; rather that "Thanksgiving" is so American, it just never occurred to me that Canada might do too. But with the two countries sharing a border it's hardly surprising. It's celebrated in pretty much the same way and for the same reasons as in the USA, but is held about six weeks earlier on the second Monday in October.
Me and Maxi were lucky enough to be invited back to Lockwood Farm to celebrate it over the weekend with James and Cammy, their whole extended family, and the two WWOOFers Ryoko and Haruka. What better place to spend a harvest festival than on a farm?
Saturday was a lazy, restful day in which nobody did much, but the evening was great fun. James and Cammy went out, so Maxi, Ryoko, Haruka and I had the house to ourselves. We had pizza for dinner, made from scratch. After I found a yeast-free dough recipe online, Maxi made the base, I chopped vegetables for the topping, Ryoko made cookies and a salad, and Haruka laid the table and took photos =] No yeast meant we didn't have to leave the dough to rise, so it was incredibly quick and simple to make: just flour, baking powder, salt, water and oil, mixed until a smooth ball can be formed and rolled out. While of course a little denser than most pizza bases, it wasn't very much so and tasted great. We topped it with tomato puree/paste, cheese, onions, rocket, peppers, courgette, tuna and peanuts. It tasted so good! We ate the salad while impatiently waiting for the second pizza to finish cooking. Before sitting down to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we finished off with some of Ryoko's cookies, and marshmallows toasted over candle flames :)
Late on Sunday morning the four of us left on a walk to Cobble Hill Mountain, taking Enzo with us - much to his delight. The hour-long walk through the forest to the top was lovely. Apart from our feet rustling the dry leaves strewn across the trails, and the odd breeze sending more floating down in whispering showers, it was still and quiet. The fronds of bracken gleamed silver and the maple trees were resplendent in colours that "red", "yellow" and "orange" are too boring for. There were sticks aplenty to throw for Enzo, though after bounding off after them he rather enjoyed breaking them and eating the ends... We reached the top - which was a somewhat strange area of exposed mossy bedrock and shortish trees that gave the place a feel of an abandoned orchard - and rested awhile in the warm sunshine looking out at the wonderful view to the south and west.
After lunch back at the farm, we spent an hour or two peeling and chopping quince, a fruit similar to apples and pears but one that is usually not edible when raw. They have a wonderfully sweet fragrance, and two full tubs had been sitting in the kitchen for days so the room was filled with it. It wasn't the most enjoyable task - they were covered in a grey-white fluff that stuck to the fingers, and were really hard and tough to cut - but it was worth it. The quince sauce made from them was incredible!
Fifteen people sat down to the big Thanksgiving meal on Sunday evening. Two dining tables had been pushed together next door, and even then it was a squeeze to fit everyone around them - and to fit all the food on. Roast turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, carrots, parsnips, beetroots, courgette, sweet potato, potato salad, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, quince sauce, and gravy, followed by trifle and pumpkin pie.
Of course most of it was from the farm, which was wonderful. Cammy brined the 10kg turkey overnight before smothering it in lots of butter and herbs and roasting on a low heat for several hours. The potatoes were put into the same pan so tasted amazing. Maxi had fried slices of courgette in olive oil and garlic then put them in a dish with parsley, salt and lemon juice. Ryoko and Haruka made a Japanese potato salad, which uses mashed potatoes instead of chunks. James' sister had made what sounds to probably most non-Americans incredibly odd: sweet potato with marshmallow. Thick slices of the potato baked with butter, sugar, a bit of salt, possibly one or two other things but I can't remember, and marshmallow, results in a soft, sweet, syrupy dish that was so good! Needless to say, everything was delicious and nobody went away without feeling completely stuffed.
Some of us finished off the evening by playing a domino game called 'Mexican Train'. It was fun! I play board and card games so rarely that I don't know how to play any, and can never grasp the rules by just being told, it takes me a while. This was really simple, though, and despite my having never played with dominoes before, I understood it straight away and could just enjoy the game :)
On Monday morning I saw a hummingbird. I'd never seen a hummingbird! What a lovely thing to see first thing in the morning. Wonderful :)
We spent the morning cleaning eggs. It was Thanksgiving Day itself, a public holiday, so everyone took it easy and did no non-essential farm work. The table is usually in the workshop but, because it was gloriously sunny and warm, we moved it outside. Lunch was leftovers - the food on that table had fed fifteen people twice - and after that we did not a lot. I read for a couple of hours, sat on the sofa outside on the veranda while it was still fairly warm. James and Barry continued laying tiles for the soon-to-arrive wood stove, until the former went to chop wood and Maxi asked him to show her how to do it. So all four of us WWOOFers had a lesson in splitting logs with an axe, which was great fun! :D James' nephew and Cammy had a go, too, though of course neither of them are new at it.
We had a sushi party for dinner! Ryoko and Haruka made tuna and shrimp sushi rolls, a sushi salad (all the ingredients in a bowl instead of wrapped in nori, the edible seaweed that in Wales is called laver), and tamagoyaki, an egg roll or Japanese omelette. I've only tried sushi once before, from Pret's, vegetable not fish, and it was somewhat bland on its own but unpleasant with the soy sauce. So I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it again, but everything was really nice (though I didn't have it with soy sauce). For dessert, later, James made caramelised bananas with more than a splash of brandy (the flambeing wasn't successful) and served them on cold ice-cream. Yum! He and Cammy had spent a year in Japan soon after marrying, and did some acting work as extras, so they showed us a scene from "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" in which James appears. We then watched Top Gear :D
Maxi and I would be getting up before dawn to catch the 6:45am bus to Victoria, so we said goodbye to Cammy, Ryoko and Haruka before everyone went to bed. James drove us the two minutes to the bus stop in the still-dark morning, so we said goodbye to him there when the bus arrived. It took an hour and a half to get to Victoria, and I spent the entire time gazing out the window in tranquil wonder at the beauty of the quiet world we passed, ever so gradually brightening with the pastel blush of sunrise.
We took a second bus from Victoria to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, where we waited two hours for the 11am sailing to Tsawwassen, which - despite receiving a ferry between once and twice every hour - only has one bus every hour. The bus queue was so long that only half of it managed to fit, packed to absolute full capacity, into the vehicle. Everyone else, including Maxi and I, had to wait an hour for the next one. Thankfully the 10am sailing had been cancelled so we didn't have people from that ferry in front of us as well. It's absurd. We did manage to squeeze onto the 2pm bus, though, and arriving in Vancouver nine hours after leaving the farm Maxi and I went our separate ways, she to a hostel then onto Banff, and me back to Kitsilano.
Saturday, 19 October 2013
Friday 11th October 2013, day 93 - Tofino to Cobble Hill
I'd been breakfasting on the muesli I'd purchased at the Duncan Farmers' Market, and finished the last of it with hazelnuts (from the Free Food shelf in the hostel kitchen) and the remaining jam we'd bought on Sunday. After booking our places on the 10:30am bus, we went to The Cottage Loaf (the bakery-cafe I'd been to last time) to treat ourselves to a nice breakfast. I had a veggie burrito (burritos are popular here and are often on breakfast menus), which contained scrambled eggs, onions, black beans, spinach, peppers and cheese. There were meant to be mushrooms as well but there didn't seem to be any. (I've come a long way from refusing to eat mushrooms, to being disappointed that there aren't any in something I'm eating, haha!) It was served with herbed potato chunks, salsa and sour cream and was yummy :) I also bought a slice of baklava to take away.
We took the Tofino Express to Duncan, where the coach driver for some reason couldn't drop us at the bus depot so we had to get off literally on the side of the road when he was conveniently stopped at traffic lights. We didn't know where we were or how to get to the bus depot. Neither did he; turns out it was just a few hundred yards further along the road. We got there a minute before the bus to the farm left.
James, Cammy, Barry, Ryoko and Haruka (who I hadn't met) were in the workshop when we arrived in the early evening, finishing up the market preparation, and were glad to see us again. It was nice to be back. James' mum had made cottage pie for dinner and we all ate together. I had the baklava later on - which was delicious! Well, I had half of the slice: I asked everyone if they wanted to try some, and everybody did. Haha. I need to learn to make baklava. It's too yummy. Anway, there was no room for me in the spare room I'd stayed in before, so James' parents kindly let me stay in their spare room for the few days I would be there.
We took the Tofino Express to Duncan, where the coach driver for some reason couldn't drop us at the bus depot so we had to get off literally on the side of the road when he was conveniently stopped at traffic lights. We didn't know where we were or how to get to the bus depot. Neither did he; turns out it was just a few hundred yards further along the road. We got there a minute before the bus to the farm left.
James, Cammy, Barry, Ryoko and Haruka (who I hadn't met) were in the workshop when we arrived in the early evening, finishing up the market preparation, and were glad to see us again. It was nice to be back. James' mum had made cottage pie for dinner and we all ate together. I had the baklava later on - which was delicious! Well, I had half of the slice: I asked everyone if they wanted to try some, and everybody did. Haha. I need to learn to make baklava. It's too yummy. Anway, there was no room for me in the spare room I'd stayed in before, so James' parents kindly let me stay in their spare room for the few days I would be there.
Thursday 10th October 2013, day 91 - Last full day in Tofino
I was mystified in the morning when I couldn't find my key to the dorm room. I'd gone out to the toilet during the night and remembered putting the key on top of my book when I got back. I looked everywhere, twice, and couldn't find it. Only when Adele returned from breakfast and asked what I was looking for did I find out: she'd accidentally picked it up with her purse or something, which she'd unknowingly put on top of it earlier. She was very apologetic, but I didn't mind, I hadn't lost it completely!
Maxi left at 11:15am to go surfing and, because she really wanted to see Long Beach and it was our last day, I spent a while trying to find out how we might be able to do so that afternoon. There are buses that go from Tofino to Long Beach - but only in the summer. To walk there would take three hours, one way, along the highway, so nobody does that. Cycling would also be along the highway and bikes rented for the 'day' have to be returned by 4pm. Maxi wouldn't be back until mid-afternoon so, unless we were willing to hitch-hike (which we weren't), we would not be able to go, which was a shame.
For lunch I bought a portion of soup at the supermarket and took it to a park, and sat in the sun gazing at the amazing view for an hour and a half and watching the seaplanes taking off. The cheese-and-broccoli soup had smelled nice and was two dollars cheaper than the Thai coconut chicken but, though I didn't dislike it, I'd have definitely preferred the other. I met Maxi on the way back to the hostel, and after she'd rid her hair of sea salt we ended up going to the park I'd left not an hour before and sitting there awhile. She suggested we have Toast Hawaii for dinner, so we went to the supermarket and bought some ham, those rubbish plastic-like cheese slices and tinned pineapple.
We still had pasta, tomato sauce, courgette and pepper to use up so we cooked all that, and put it into two containers to take for lunch on the bus the next day, before making dinner. The ham goes on top of the bread, and a ring of pineapple on top of that, and finally the cheese; it was really good, though towards the end we found that one slice of cheese, not two, would have sufficed. I wanted nothing except a glass of orange juice - something really healthy-feeling - after eating that. We had the remaining pineapple rings and warmed the rest of the cookies we'd bought the day before, for dessert.
Maxi left at 11:15am to go surfing and, because she really wanted to see Long Beach and it was our last day, I spent a while trying to find out how we might be able to do so that afternoon. There are buses that go from Tofino to Long Beach - but only in the summer. To walk there would take three hours, one way, along the highway, so nobody does that. Cycling would also be along the highway and bikes rented for the 'day' have to be returned by 4pm. Maxi wouldn't be back until mid-afternoon so, unless we were willing to hitch-hike (which we weren't), we would not be able to go, which was a shame.
For lunch I bought a portion of soup at the supermarket and took it to a park, and sat in the sun gazing at the amazing view for an hour and a half and watching the seaplanes taking off. The cheese-and-broccoli soup had smelled nice and was two dollars cheaper than the Thai coconut chicken but, though I didn't dislike it, I'd have definitely preferred the other. I met Maxi on the way back to the hostel, and after she'd rid her hair of sea salt we ended up going to the park I'd left not an hour before and sitting there awhile. She suggested we have Toast Hawaii for dinner, so we went to the supermarket and bought some ham, those rubbish plastic-like cheese slices and tinned pineapple.
We still had pasta, tomato sauce, courgette and pepper to use up so we cooked all that, and put it into two containers to take for lunch on the bus the next day, before making dinner. The ham goes on top of the bread, and a ring of pineapple on top of that, and finally the cheese; it was really good, though towards the end we found that one slice of cheese, not two, would have sufficed. I wanted nothing except a glass of orange juice - something really healthy-feeling - after eating that. We had the remaining pineapple rings and warmed the rest of the cookies we'd bought the day before, for dessert.
Wednesday 9th October 2013, day 90 - Bear-watching boat trip
Ursus americanus vancouveri - Vancouver Island Black Bears - venture out at low tide onto the rocky beaches to forage for food. Thus bear-watching trips are best done at low tide, and on this particular day was scheduled for 9:30am; so Maxi and I said bye to Stephanie and Amy, who were leaving, and walked ten minutes to the dock.
The sun was still shining so the beautiful landscape - islands, mountains and unending rainforest - was visible clearly from the open top deck of the boat, as we made our way out from the harbour and up past the mud flats. We saw bald eagles, seals and glimpsed the dorsal fins of shy harbour porpoises, but it took a long time before we saw a bear: we had travelled pretty much as far as we could do with the time available. I would have been so disappointed if we'd seen none at all, but happily we saw two! We didn't get too close, the first one we saw was a few hundred metres away, but we were able to get about one hundred metres away from the second bear - still on the boat, of course. I'd completely forgotten to bring my little binoculars on the trip but the crew passed round theirs so everyone could have a closer look.
When back at the hostel for lunch we met our new dorm-roommate Adele, from Norfolk, then went back to the activity-booking centre. Maxi had booked to go kayaking the next day, but they need a minimum number of people to go and there wasn't that number so it would be cancelled. So she decided to go surfing instead, and we went to book that. Somewhat disappointed by the lack of bears we'd seen, she then suggested buying treats - crisps, cookies - at the supermarket and spending the rest of the afternoon watching a DVD in the hostel's TV room. "The Assassination of a High School President" is a bizarre film that we both soon wished we'd passed over in favour of The Wedding Crashers, but we watched all of it anyway and had chicken jambalaya for dinner.
...
I saw a bear! A real wild bear! Hehe! :D Magnificent.
The sun was still shining so the beautiful landscape - islands, mountains and unending rainforest - was visible clearly from the open top deck of the boat, as we made our way out from the harbour and up past the mud flats. We saw bald eagles, seals and glimpsed the dorsal fins of shy harbour porpoises, but it took a long time before we saw a bear: we had travelled pretty much as far as we could do with the time available. I would have been so disappointed if we'd seen none at all, but happily we saw two! We didn't get too close, the first one we saw was a few hundred metres away, but we were able to get about one hundred metres away from the second bear - still on the boat, of course. I'd completely forgotten to bring my little binoculars on the trip but the crew passed round theirs so everyone could have a closer look.
When back at the hostel for lunch we met our new dorm-roommate Adele, from Norfolk, then went back to the activity-booking centre. Maxi had booked to go kayaking the next day, but they need a minimum number of people to go and there wasn't that number so it would be cancelled. So she decided to go surfing instead, and we went to book that. Somewhat disappointed by the lack of bears we'd seen, she then suggested buying treats - crisps, cookies - at the supermarket and spending the rest of the afternoon watching a DVD in the hostel's TV room. "The Assassination of a High School President" is a bizarre film that we both soon wished we'd passed over in favour of The Wedding Crashers, but we watched all of it anyway and had chicken jambalaya for dinner.
...
I saw a bear! A real wild bear! Hehe! :D Magnificent.
Tuesday 8th October 2013, day 89 - Surfing
The hostel is right on the waterfront, and our room overlooked the water. Happily for a village on which it rains for two-thirds of the year, the day had dawned not only dry but clear and sunny - so when we opened the blinds on Tuesday morning, we were somewhat surprised to find ourselves looking at a mountain on the island opposite. We could see all of the land, stretching to distant mountains, that the day before we had no idea was there.
Maxi had the hot springs trip booked for today and our two roommates Stephanie and Amy were going surfing at 11:30. I planned to go surfing, too, but hadn't yet booked anything: the companies I'd been to the day before required people to get themselves to the beach. Stephanie and Amy told me they'd booked with a company that would take them to the beach, and after Maxi left I walked down to that particular surf centre and book myself a lesson. There was still space on the 11:30 one for that morning so I went for that, and we three were the only people. For the two hours in the water we wore wetsuits and water shoes, so it wasn't as cold as I was expecting.
I'd done a short surfing course in Year 10 at school, for an hour or two after school once a week for five weeks, in Bournemouth - but with nothing between it and Japan, Tofino is the surfing capital of Canada, so of course the waves here were much bigger and it was a little daunting. But I managed to get to my feet! I didn't stand upright, only a low half-crouch, but I was still pleased! We all felt the cold after getting out of the water, my toes were numb and I took a long time to warm up.
I bought chips for lunch on the way back to the hostel, where I read and wrote for a few hours before Maxi returned. We'd only used half of the seafood mix, courgette and pepper the night before in the jambalaya, so finished them in a tasty pasta dish with some more of the tomato sauce we'd bought on Sunday.
Maxi had the hot springs trip booked for today and our two roommates Stephanie and Amy were going surfing at 11:30. I planned to go surfing, too, but hadn't yet booked anything: the companies I'd been to the day before required people to get themselves to the beach. Stephanie and Amy told me they'd booked with a company that would take them to the beach, and after Maxi left I walked down to that particular surf centre and book myself a lesson. There was still space on the 11:30 one for that morning so I went for that, and we three were the only people. For the two hours in the water we wore wetsuits and water shoes, so it wasn't as cold as I was expecting.
I'd done a short surfing course in Year 10 at school, for an hour or two after school once a week for five weeks, in Bournemouth - but with nothing between it and Japan, Tofino is the surfing capital of Canada, so of course the waves here were much bigger and it was a little daunting. But I managed to get to my feet! I didn't stand upright, only a low half-crouch, but I was still pleased! We all felt the cold after getting out of the water, my toes were numb and I took a long time to warm up.
I bought chips for lunch on the way back to the hostel, where I read and wrote for a few hours before Maxi returned. We'd only used half of the seafood mix, courgette and pepper the night before in the jambalaya, so finished them in a tasty pasta dish with some more of the tomato sauce we'd bought on Sunday.
Monday 7th October 2013, day 88 - Tonquin Park
After a lie-in and breakfast Maxi and I went to one of the numerous activity centres, where we booked what we wanted to do over the next few days. It was a shop too, selling lots of things from and to do with the area, and I decided to buy a beautiful bracelet with wolf charms and little blue-black glittering stone spheres, and a simple string necklace with a wooden black bear pendant. After lunch we took a walk to Tonquin Park, where there's a walking trail through the rainforest and access to a beach, which was really nice. It was cloudy but dry, and the sun broke through now and again.
While in the supermarket buying lunch and dinner supplies, Maxi suggested rice and fish for that evening, so when we came across a box of jambalaya-spiced rice, I suggested we buy that, a couple of vegetables and some seafood to add to it. She agreed and we had an easy, filling and very very tasty meal! After dinner we went to Jack's, the pub at the other end of the village where I'd been during the Moose trip. We arrived just as open-mic night was starting, and it gradually got busier. The musicians were all good, and their instruments and styles varied. One guy - to my utter, absolute and sheer delight - went up with a bodhran. For those who don't know what that is, it's an Irish type of handheld drum. It's pronounced "bow-rawn" and I sat enthralled.
While in the supermarket buying lunch and dinner supplies, Maxi suggested rice and fish for that evening, so when we came across a box of jambalaya-spiced rice, I suggested we buy that, a couple of vegetables and some seafood to add to it. She agreed and we had an easy, filling and very very tasty meal! After dinner we went to Jack's, the pub at the other end of the village where I'd been during the Moose trip. We arrived just as open-mic night was starting, and it gradually got busier. The musicians were all good, and their instruments and styles varied. One guy - to my utter, absolute and sheer delight - went up with a bodhran. For those who don't know what that is, it's an Irish type of handheld drum. It's pronounced "bow-rawn" and I sat enthralled.
Sunday 6th October 2013, day 87 - Vancouver to Tofino for the second time
I was due to catch the 12:50 ferry from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver, so before I left the house I made a frittata to use up eggs and vegetables in the fridge and to take for lunch. The clear sunshine meant that, on the ferry, the glaciated cone of Mount Baker - an active volcano 121 miles south-east in Washington State - rose up behind Vancouver like a ghost. On days of exceptional clarity, the even more distant Mount Rainier can be seen from Victoria. Perhaps it was, there were more snow-topped mountains in the distance.
(The water wasn't that dark. I reduced the brightness and increased the contrast to make the mountain more clearly visible - of course the camera couldn't capture it as clearly as I saw it.)
I boarded the Tofino Express at Departure Bay in Nanaimo, Maxi got on five minutes later at the bus depot and we spent the next hour and a half travelling west towards Port Alberni. It was the same route the Moose bus had taken, but looked much different in the sunshine - that is, everything was visible, not swathed in clouds and rain. We passed Coombs Old Country Market, Campbell Lake, Sproat Lake, Little Qualicum Falls, Wally Creek and MacMillan Provincial Park. Cathedral Grove had looked like something out of a Tolkien story enough in the drizzle that accompanied my first visit there, but this time - with the low sun, the occasional maple providing a splash of gold, and the silvery ferns - it was utterly enchanting. This was just from the road, too, not in among the towering trees themselves.
During the forty-five minute break at Port Alberni, storm clouds were visible in the direction we were headed, and after reboarding the bus we soon hit rain and everything was as I remembered it. We arrived in Tofino at 7pm - the driver kindly dropped us off at the hostel door - and after putting our bags in our room we hurried to the supermarket before it closed at 8, to buy some pasta and a jar of sauce for a quick and simple (but tasty) dinner.
Our two dorm-roommates were from - of all places - Southampton.
(The water wasn't that dark. I reduced the brightness and increased the contrast to make the mountain more clearly visible - of course the camera couldn't capture it as clearly as I saw it.)
I boarded the Tofino Express at Departure Bay in Nanaimo, Maxi got on five minutes later at the bus depot and we spent the next hour and a half travelling west towards Port Alberni. It was the same route the Moose bus had taken, but looked much different in the sunshine - that is, everything was visible, not swathed in clouds and rain. We passed Coombs Old Country Market, Campbell Lake, Sproat Lake, Little Qualicum Falls, Wally Creek and MacMillan Provincial Park. Cathedral Grove had looked like something out of a Tolkien story enough in the drizzle that accompanied my first visit there, but this time - with the low sun, the occasional maple providing a splash of gold, and the silvery ferns - it was utterly enchanting. This was just from the road, too, not in among the towering trees themselves.
During the forty-five minute break at Port Alberni, storm clouds were visible in the direction we were headed, and after reboarding the bus we soon hit rain and everything was as I remembered it. We arrived in Tofino at 7pm - the driver kindly dropped us off at the hostel door - and after putting our bags in our room we hurried to the supermarket before it closed at 8, to buy some pasta and a jar of sauce for a quick and simple (but tasty) dinner.
Our two dorm-roommates were from - of all places - Southampton.
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Sunday 6th October 2013, day 87 - A week back in Vancouver between trips
I left the farm on Monday 1st and took the ferry back to Tsawwassen. The sky over Vancouver was dark with storm clouds by the time it docked, but the sun shone from the west onto the early-autumn trees creating a spectacular contrast I happily gazed out at through the bus windows. Apart from the clouds and the trees, though, I didn't like the journey between the ferry terminal and the house; it felt like being in London when I didn't want to be.
After three weeks on a farm, returning to a major city, via areas I haven't been before, after sunset, was rather disorienting. Well, I say "rather"... It felt exceedingly strange being back in Vancouver, and back in the house, on Monday night and Tuesday.
Two of my housemates, Anna and Hannes, a German couple who had moved in while I was in the Rockies, had asked if they could use my quiet bedroom at the top of the house as a work space while I was away, to which I readily agreed (their room was next to the busy kitchen so they were repeatedly disturbed, though they've now moved into the room opposite mine since the girl who was in it left). They sent me a long email when I was on the farm, asking how it was going and letting me know what was happening at the house, which was a pleasant surprise, and I got back to find a bar of chocolate on my pillow with a photo of most of the housemates, which had been taken at a house meeting the week before I went to the farm :)
The housemates I did see on Monday evening were very friendly and welcomed me back, asking how my time on the farm had been, what I'd done there, if I'd been elsewhere on the Island, etc. Arriving at dinnertime, I'd planned to have pasta with butter for dinner - having not much more than those two things - but Hannes kindly offered me some of the large amount of bolognese sauce he was cooking, and even heated up a slice of apple strudel for afterwards.
It was dark when I arrived back at the house, so when on Tuesday morning I opened the curtain to see the gorgeous blazing shades of red and gold on the deciduous tree out front, bright in the sunlight against the clear blue sky, I was thoroughly happy. (Actually, the curtain too had been a surprise, a new addition that Anna had thoughtfully put up while I was away: the skylight has a blind but the window next to my bed had nothing and I'd been using a blanket to cover it at night.) I spent a couple of days working on the blog, sitting in my room at the top of the house, listening to the rain on the roof, and glancing every now and then at that tree. Now, when I'm finishing this and posting it two weeks later, all the leaves are gone.
On Tuesday I went shopping. Knowing I would be away for two or three or maybe even four weeks, I'd used up all the perishable food I had before going to the farm, and finished most other store-cupboard basics. (Hence the pasta and butter.) I needed to restock. Fruit, veg, bread, eggs, milk, meat, cheese, pesto, tinned tomatoes and tuna... pretty much everything except peanut butter and pancake mix. I also bought some sardines, and had sardines on toast for lunch :)
I could tell from just a single glance at the apples in the grocery store that they were proper, seasonal, local ones. They were gorgeous. I love seasonal produce. For once they were that beautiful deep red colour, crisp and sweet. I even bought some pears, which I don't usually do. Kale and chard, which I hadn't seen in there before but of course I'd been handling at the farm, had also suddenly made an appearance.
Autumn! Yay!
October. Wow.
Happily, a slow cooker has been found and cleaned. There's not enough room in the freezer to make lots, but I'll be able to make stews! Hurrah. I've been wanting to use the barley on the 'Help Yourself' shelf in the kitchen for a long time.
On Thursday, for the first time ever, I bought clothes from a charity shop. I needed to buy some more warm clothes, but clothes shops here are of such great number and variety that I didn't know where to start. So I started at the charity shop opposite the supermarket, and came away feeling very pleased! I'd managed to buy several items for the same amount of money that would buy me two or three things in H&M, thus eliminating my need to go to said international big name shop. I am a convert, I will use charity shops more often. There were, however, two things I needed to get which weren't available in there, and I had to spend a lot of money on those - but they're much better quality than I've had before now and should last longer, so should be worth it.
I've spent some time considering whether to spend the winter in Vancouver or Victoria. Vancouver is very expensive (well, it is in Kitsilano, much cheaper in other areas further from Downtown and the beaches). The Downtown area is huge and daunting and I don't like it much. Victoria's Downtown is lovely, and much easier to navigate. Rent there is also cheaper.
On the farm and until I got back to the house in Vancouver, I was leaning towards choosing to move to Victoria. I know I would enjoy it there. However I really enjoyed being back at the house, with my housemates.
It was quite unsettled the week I was back: people had moved out, people were moving in, people were moving into different rooms, there was maintenance, redecorating and a thorough clear-out taking place. That's calmed down now, but there are still ten people in this house, which means it is hectic at times. Especially in the evening when five people want to make dinner at the same time, and there's only three working hobs, the oven and the microwave available. But I quite like it, they're nice people, there's a nice vibe to the place. I know I've been away on trips for half the time I've been here, but I'm only just starting to get to know them, get on well with them, and think that maybe if I stayed here long enough that proper friendships could be formed. If I went to Victoria I'd have to start from scratch.
I don't care much for Downtown Vancouver at the moment, but there's so much in Kitsilano that I wouldn't necessarily need to venture there often. The house is between two major retail streets, both with loads and loads of different types of shops and restaurants and cafes. I need to take time to walk around and explore and actually take notice. Next to the charity shop, there is a second-hand bookshop. Until Thursday, despite the fact that it's opposite the supermarket and I've walked past it a few times to the bank, I'd never realised it existed. There are bound to be more. There's an independent family-owned organic bakery that makes fruit pies by hand in the back of the store. There are probably antique shops. There are a few quirky stores selling crystals and incense and Buddha statues. I could try to find a job in any one of those sorts of places.
So I've decided to stay in Vancouver for the winter, and give the big city a chance.
Lastly... I'm working on a blog post just about food, and I'm not sure whether to include it in this Canada blog - it's related to my time on the farm - or start a new blog altogether, start a food blog. I don't know what I'd write about most of the time, or how often I'd post, but food is one of my passions. Also I find I quite enjoy writing, though it takes me a heck of a long time. Anyway, I'll decide within the next few days, I think.
After three weeks on a farm, returning to a major city, via areas I haven't been before, after sunset, was rather disorienting. Well, I say "rather"... It felt exceedingly strange being back in Vancouver, and back in the house, on Monday night and Tuesday.
Two of my housemates, Anna and Hannes, a German couple who had moved in while I was in the Rockies, had asked if they could use my quiet bedroom at the top of the house as a work space while I was away, to which I readily agreed (their room was next to the busy kitchen so they were repeatedly disturbed, though they've now moved into the room opposite mine since the girl who was in it left). They sent me a long email when I was on the farm, asking how it was going and letting me know what was happening at the house, which was a pleasant surprise, and I got back to find a bar of chocolate on my pillow with a photo of most of the housemates, which had been taken at a house meeting the week before I went to the farm :)
The housemates I did see on Monday evening were very friendly and welcomed me back, asking how my time on the farm had been, what I'd done there, if I'd been elsewhere on the Island, etc. Arriving at dinnertime, I'd planned to have pasta with butter for dinner - having not much more than those two things - but Hannes kindly offered me some of the large amount of bolognese sauce he was cooking, and even heated up a slice of apple strudel for afterwards.
It was dark when I arrived back at the house, so when on Tuesday morning I opened the curtain to see the gorgeous blazing shades of red and gold on the deciduous tree out front, bright in the sunlight against the clear blue sky, I was thoroughly happy. (Actually, the curtain too had been a surprise, a new addition that Anna had thoughtfully put up while I was away: the skylight has a blind but the window next to my bed had nothing and I'd been using a blanket to cover it at night.) I spent a couple of days working on the blog, sitting in my room at the top of the house, listening to the rain on the roof, and glancing every now and then at that tree. Now, when I'm finishing this and posting it two weeks later, all the leaves are gone.
On Tuesday I went shopping. Knowing I would be away for two or three or maybe even four weeks, I'd used up all the perishable food I had before going to the farm, and finished most other store-cupboard basics. (Hence the pasta and butter.) I needed to restock. Fruit, veg, bread, eggs, milk, meat, cheese, pesto, tinned tomatoes and tuna... pretty much everything except peanut butter and pancake mix. I also bought some sardines, and had sardines on toast for lunch :)
I could tell from just a single glance at the apples in the grocery store that they were proper, seasonal, local ones. They were gorgeous. I love seasonal produce. For once they were that beautiful deep red colour, crisp and sweet. I even bought some pears, which I don't usually do. Kale and chard, which I hadn't seen in there before but of course I'd been handling at the farm, had also suddenly made an appearance.
Autumn! Yay!
October. Wow.
Happily, a slow cooker has been found and cleaned. There's not enough room in the freezer to make lots, but I'll be able to make stews! Hurrah. I've been wanting to use the barley on the 'Help Yourself' shelf in the kitchen for a long time.
On Thursday, for the first time ever, I bought clothes from a charity shop. I needed to buy some more warm clothes, but clothes shops here are of such great number and variety that I didn't know where to start. So I started at the charity shop opposite the supermarket, and came away feeling very pleased! I'd managed to buy several items for the same amount of money that would buy me two or three things in H&M, thus eliminating my need to go to said international big name shop. I am a convert, I will use charity shops more often. There were, however, two things I needed to get which weren't available in there, and I had to spend a lot of money on those - but they're much better quality than I've had before now and should last longer, so should be worth it.
I've spent some time considering whether to spend the winter in Vancouver or Victoria. Vancouver is very expensive (well, it is in Kitsilano, much cheaper in other areas further from Downtown and the beaches). The Downtown area is huge and daunting and I don't like it much. Victoria's Downtown is lovely, and much easier to navigate. Rent there is also cheaper.
On the farm and until I got back to the house in Vancouver, I was leaning towards choosing to move to Victoria. I know I would enjoy it there. However I really enjoyed being back at the house, with my housemates.
It was quite unsettled the week I was back: people had moved out, people were moving in, people were moving into different rooms, there was maintenance, redecorating and a thorough clear-out taking place. That's calmed down now, but there are still ten people in this house, which means it is hectic at times. Especially in the evening when five people want to make dinner at the same time, and there's only three working hobs, the oven and the microwave available. But I quite like it, they're nice people, there's a nice vibe to the place. I know I've been away on trips for half the time I've been here, but I'm only just starting to get to know them, get on well with them, and think that maybe if I stayed here long enough that proper friendships could be formed. If I went to Victoria I'd have to start from scratch.
I don't care much for Downtown Vancouver at the moment, but there's so much in Kitsilano that I wouldn't necessarily need to venture there often. The house is between two major retail streets, both with loads and loads of different types of shops and restaurants and cafes. I need to take time to walk around and explore and actually take notice. Next to the charity shop, there is a second-hand bookshop. Until Thursday, despite the fact that it's opposite the supermarket and I've walked past it a few times to the bank, I'd never realised it existed. There are bound to be more. There's an independent family-owned organic bakery that makes fruit pies by hand in the back of the store. There are probably antique shops. There are a few quirky stores selling crystals and incense and Buddha statues. I could try to find a job in any one of those sorts of places.
So I've decided to stay in Vancouver for the winter, and give the big city a chance.
Lastly... I'm working on a blog post just about food, and I'm not sure whether to include it in this Canada blog - it's related to my time on the farm - or start a new blog altogether, start a food blog. I don't know what I'd write about most of the time, or how often I'd post, but food is one of my passions. Also I find I quite enjoy writing, though it takes me a heck of a long time. Anyway, I'll decide within the next few days, I think.
Saturday, 5 October 2013
Lockwood Farm - Week Three
Monday 23rd, day 75
We cleaned tubs and eggs for three and a half hours and had lunch slightly earlier than usual. For myself I made scrambled eggs with tomatoes, herbs and cheese - which was very tasty and I'll make it more often. In the afternoon we removed dead tomato plants and planted broccoli. Everyone had dinner next door with James' parents then, while Maxi filled the house with the smell of baking yoghurt bread, I sorted photos for couple of hours. Of course everyone tried a slice, fresh and warm with butter and honey :) We finished off the evening with a card game called Dutch Blitz, during which James produced shot glasses of milk with amaretto; the first sip was nice, but after that I found it too strong for my liking.
Tuesday 24th, day 76
In the morning I put on full waterproofs, and harvested/washed/bagged rocket and bunched spinach until elevenses. Everyone else warmed up with mugs of steaming tea, which (much to their surprise) I don't like - but happily they had some Ribena so I did have a hot drink. I harvested and washed kale and bagged salad mix until lunch, for which I reheated some leftover shrimp korma and had a slice of Maxi's bread. The weather was still rubbish so we were given tasks to do in the workshop: for an hour and a half we cleaned eggs, then started to pot stevia plant cuttings but Cammy would be late back so I went to start dinner. It didn't take long to prepare so I sorted photos while it was cooking. James had been out and picked two full crates of apples somewhere so made apple pie for dessert: yum!
Wednesday 25th, day 77
Maxi wanted to go to the Royal BC Museum, so we went into Victoria with James and spent three hours in there; two of those were on one floor alone. For lunch we headed to a fish-and-chip shack on the waterfront, but the queue was too long so we continued another couple of minutes to the pizza place, got a take-away slice each (and a chocolate-cornflake-marshmallow-peanut butter square to share) and sat in the sunshine overlooking the Inner Harbour. I bought some honey from one of the market stall holders and James told us to check out the olive oil shop opposite while he packed up. On the way back we stopped at Goldstream for a walk along the river. We were slightly early for the salmon run, which is probably happening now and would be quite a sight, but it was a pretty place and a nice walk. Some of the market stallholders exchange leftover produce with each other at the end of the day, so we had some gorgeous fresh corn on the cob for dinner, barbecued with potatoes, shrimp and salad. After that we watched "The Matrix", an excellent film which I'd never seen before.
Thursday 26th, day 78
This morning we were tasked with removing selected weeds from where the tomato plants had been. It was frustrating and I disliked that as much as I did weeding at home. I'd have preferred to remove all the weeds, leaving a clear patch behind me, instead of just having to find certain ones in among a tangled profusion of others. After elevenses James asked for help cleaning eggs - a chef he supplies had called asking to pick up fifteen dozen early afternoon - so while Maxi and Ryoko continued weeding in the sunshine I did that. Cammy made egg mayo to have with the newly-arrived bread rolls for lunch, and I spent the last couple of hours helping to finish weeding the tomato patch. We had corn on the cob for dinner again, this time just boiled and buttered, with runner beans, salad and barbecued chicken wings. Simple things can taste so good :)
Friday 27th, day 79
Thursday was the last day I wrote anything down, and the only thing I remember harvesting was basil. We had eggy bread for lunch, with blackberries, jam and syrup, and after finishing for the day went to Kinsol Trestle, a wooden railway bridge from the 1920's that's recently undergone an expensive restoration. It was really quiet and foggy, which gave quite an atmospheric feeling to the place, and the bridge was impressive. We didn't get back until nearly 8pm, but had a nice meal and apple pie from James' mum waiting for us and, after gladly tucking into those, watched the second Matrix film.
Saturday 28th, day 79
Ryoko, Maxi and I spent some of the day helping Cammy prepare for the baby shower she was holding for her friend that evening. I made dinner, a sort of stew of sausages, beans and vegetables. The sausages Cammy had provided unknowingly had chilli in them and were very spicy, so the flavour of the stew was a bit lost, but it was warming comfort food after a rainy day. The guests arrived shortly afterwards and we were welcome to join the party if we wanted to, but when James' plans to go elsewhere fell through he suggested taking the DVD player, some popcorn and blankets next door to watch the third and final Matrix film, to which we readily agreed!
Sunday 29th, day 80
The weather worsened as a storm arrived so Cammy and James decided it'd be better for me to get the ferry back the following day, and I spent the day mostly reading. James made eggs Benedict for brunch - it was intended as a late breakfast but was nearly noon by the time we ate. Poached eggs over bacon on a buttered English muffin, covered in Hollandaise sauce: I've never had it, and it was really nice! We had pasta for dinner, with vegetables and pesto made of rocket instead of basil, then filled jugs and pans full of water in case of a powercut - their water comes from a well on the property but the pump is electrically-powered, so if there's no power there's no water either. The last couple of hours before bed was spent playing Cluedo.
We cleaned tubs and eggs for three and a half hours and had lunch slightly earlier than usual. For myself I made scrambled eggs with tomatoes, herbs and cheese - which was very tasty and I'll make it more often. In the afternoon we removed dead tomato plants and planted broccoli. Everyone had dinner next door with James' parents then, while Maxi filled the house with the smell of baking yoghurt bread, I sorted photos for couple of hours. Of course everyone tried a slice, fresh and warm with butter and honey :) We finished off the evening with a card game called Dutch Blitz, during which James produced shot glasses of milk with amaretto; the first sip was nice, but after that I found it too strong for my liking.
Tuesday 24th, day 76
In the morning I put on full waterproofs, and harvested/washed/bagged rocket and bunched spinach until elevenses. Everyone else warmed up with mugs of steaming tea, which (much to their surprise) I don't like - but happily they had some Ribena so I did have a hot drink. I harvested and washed kale and bagged salad mix until lunch, for which I reheated some leftover shrimp korma and had a slice of Maxi's bread. The weather was still rubbish so we were given tasks to do in the workshop: for an hour and a half we cleaned eggs, then started to pot stevia plant cuttings but Cammy would be late back so I went to start dinner. It didn't take long to prepare so I sorted photos while it was cooking. James had been out and picked two full crates of apples somewhere so made apple pie for dessert: yum!
Wednesday 25th, day 77
Maxi wanted to go to the Royal BC Museum, so we went into Victoria with James and spent three hours in there; two of those were on one floor alone. For lunch we headed to a fish-and-chip shack on the waterfront, but the queue was too long so we continued another couple of minutes to the pizza place, got a take-away slice each (and a chocolate-cornflake-marshmallow-peanut butter square to share) and sat in the sunshine overlooking the Inner Harbour. I bought some honey from one of the market stall holders and James told us to check out the olive oil shop opposite while he packed up. On the way back we stopped at Goldstream for a walk along the river. We were slightly early for the salmon run, which is probably happening now and would be quite a sight, but it was a pretty place and a nice walk. Some of the market stallholders exchange leftover produce with each other at the end of the day, so we had some gorgeous fresh corn on the cob for dinner, barbecued with potatoes, shrimp and salad. After that we watched "The Matrix", an excellent film which I'd never seen before.
Thursday 26th, day 78
This morning we were tasked with removing selected weeds from where the tomato plants had been. It was frustrating and I disliked that as much as I did weeding at home. I'd have preferred to remove all the weeds, leaving a clear patch behind me, instead of just having to find certain ones in among a tangled profusion of others. After elevenses James asked for help cleaning eggs - a chef he supplies had called asking to pick up fifteen dozen early afternoon - so while Maxi and Ryoko continued weeding in the sunshine I did that. Cammy made egg mayo to have with the newly-arrived bread rolls for lunch, and I spent the last couple of hours helping to finish weeding the tomato patch. We had corn on the cob for dinner again, this time just boiled and buttered, with runner beans, salad and barbecued chicken wings. Simple things can taste so good :)
Friday 27th, day 79
Thursday was the last day I wrote anything down, and the only thing I remember harvesting was basil. We had eggy bread for lunch, with blackberries, jam and syrup, and after finishing for the day went to Kinsol Trestle, a wooden railway bridge from the 1920's that's recently undergone an expensive restoration. It was really quiet and foggy, which gave quite an atmospheric feeling to the place, and the bridge was impressive. We didn't get back until nearly 8pm, but had a nice meal and apple pie from James' mum waiting for us and, after gladly tucking into those, watched the second Matrix film.
Saturday 28th, day 79
Ryoko, Maxi and I spent some of the day helping Cammy prepare for the baby shower she was holding for her friend that evening. I made dinner, a sort of stew of sausages, beans and vegetables. The sausages Cammy had provided unknowingly had chilli in them and were very spicy, so the flavour of the stew was a bit lost, but it was warming comfort food after a rainy day. The guests arrived shortly afterwards and we were welcome to join the party if we wanted to, but when James' plans to go elsewhere fell through he suggested taking the DVD player, some popcorn and blankets next door to watch the third and final Matrix film, to which we readily agreed!
Sunday 29th, day 80
The weather worsened as a storm arrived so Cammy and James decided it'd be better for me to get the ferry back the following day, and I spent the day mostly reading. James made eggs Benedict for brunch - it was intended as a late breakfast but was nearly noon by the time we ate. Poached eggs over bacon on a buttered English muffin, covered in Hollandaise sauce: I've never had it, and it was really nice! We had pasta for dinner, with vegetables and pesto made of rocket instead of basil, then filled jugs and pans full of water in case of a powercut - their water comes from a well on the property but the pump is electrically-powered, so if there's no power there's no water either. The last couple of hours before bed was spent playing Cluedo.
Lockwood Farm - Week Two
Monday 16th, day 68
This was the day I was ill, and stayed in bed for most of it. I first began to feel not quite right when cleaning eggs so thought it was just the smell, but went to sit outside when I started feeling shaky and lightheaded. It soon passed, though, and I rejoined them. Lunch, however, was lasagne, and I don't know why I had even the single mouthful I did manage before being forced to hurriedly excuse myself. Needless to say I didn't join them for dinner, but did for a game of Monopoly and kept down a slice of watermelon.
Tuesday 17th, day 69
I'd been fine overnight so, after having just some plain porridge for breakfast, started harvesting rhubarb. Washing and bunching that was followed by doing the same for kale, bagging runner beans - which reminded me of Grandad - and harvesting/washing rocket and mizuna to go in the salad mix. After cheese on toast and a fried egg for lunch, I finished off said mix by picking edible flowers and then bagging it all up with Maxi. I made dinner, pasta with chicken in spiced tomato
sauce, and rhubarb crumble and popcorn were made before we watched "Now You See Me", which is a great film!
Wednesday 18th, day 70
I went into Victoria with James and helped set up the market stall, but
then had four hours to do what I liked before returning when the market
finished at 3pm. I spent an hour and a half in a bookshop, and bought a thick Lonely Planet comprehensive guide to Canada, before finding my way
to and having lunch at the pizza place I'd been to on the Moose trip. We
stopped at a viewpoint on the way back, and I helped unload the trailer back at
the farm before having Thai green curry for dinner.
Thursday 19th, day 71
After cleaning tubs, the remainder of the day was spent weeding carrots.
We finished early, though, when Cammy came back with Ryoko and James decided
we'd go to the old quarry while the weather was still nice. The old quarry is
now a lake and, despite the fact
that it's apparently private property, has been a very popular swimming spot with the locals for years. The weather was cooler and cloudier than
the previous week, but not so much that we didn't go swimming.
Friday 20th, day 72
With five people at it, most of the harvesting and market prep was done
in a few hours; so Maxi and I weeded leeks for a while before lunch (Ryoko
continued with James and Barry) and resumed afterwards for an hour or so. We
finished just as it was beginning to rain and joined Barry cleaning eggs.
Dinner was barbecued lamb-and-aubergine kebabs with potatoes, salad and Maxi's
homemade mayo. She made dessert, too: a kind of bread and butter pudding
without the butter, with apples and the custard on the side... we curdled the
custard, but it tasted good.
Saturday 21st, day 73
James and his brother-in-law had fixed the internet connection the
previous evening so, when he and Cammy left for the Duncan market in the
morning, I took the opportunity to catch up with friends and family. Maxi did
the same but Ryoko took a bike and explored despite the rain. Said precipitation stopped around
4pm so we went for a walk and found the Cobble Hill Mountain hiking trails, but
didn't follow them. Returning about 5:30/6pm we joined Ryoko talking to James' nine-year-old nephew, who was up a tree sawing off a branch to make slingshots.
He ended up making one for each of us. Dinner was eggy bread and I fried apple
slices to go with mine: yum :) James had arranged
to go and play video games with his brother-in-law for the evening so Maxi,
Ryoko and I watched "I Capture the Castle" (a British period drama which I thoroughly enjoyed), then helped Cammy finish making
another batch of plum jam and cleared up before bed.
Sunday 22nd, day 74
The morning was lazy, I
worked on the blog and looked at Cammy's recipe books. Ryoko and I went with
her for the short drive to the pretty little village of Cowichan Bay to trade
for shrimp, then spent two hours shelling 10lbs of them. Haha. A new skill, much
easier than cutting up a chicken. Of course we used some for dinner in a shrimp korma, which was followed by bread and
butter pudding with apple.
Lockwood Farm - Week One
Sunday 8th, day 60
It took about an hour and a half (and two transfers from bus to Skytrain to bus) to reach the ferry terminal at Tsawwassen, a little over thirty kilometres south of Vancouver in the agricultural flatlands of Delta. Apparently it's the biggest ferry terminal in North America. The bus became surrounded by fog very suddenly as it neared the three-kilometre-long causeway, that juts out into the Strait of Georgia and leads to the terminal - but because the rest of the sky was for the most part clear, and the road is flanked on both sides by water, it created a wonderful glowing whiteness that I happily marvelled at. It cleared just as
suddenly about five or ten minutes after the ferry left the dock at 3:15pm, and the straight line of cloud was visible sitting on the water behind us as we emerged into sunshine. I arrived two hours later at Duke Point, Nanaimo, where Cammy met me, and we took
the scenic route back to the farm, where James had a simple dinner ready for us, of carrotts, beans, corn and little Ukranian potato-filled pastries called perogies. After
clearing up, we watched Amelie (I'd never seen it... it's good, but strange) and had some homemade blackberry ice-cream.
Monday 9th, day 61
We met for breakfast at 8am, then James gave me a tour of the farm and
introduced me to his dad before we started the Monday tasks. Cleaning eggs, for
the most part by myself, took until around 4pm so I helped Cammy with dinner
after that. It was Thai shrimp soup, from a packet mix they bought from one of
their market friends, and we ate outside with James' parents. It was so
delicious!
Tuesday 10th, day 62
The morning was spent harvesting, washing and bunching radishes. Lunch was salad with tuna, banana, peanuts and cheese, which sounds odd
but was really good, and after that I sorted and bagged basil then salad leaves. We
ate barbecued steak with potatoes and salad for dinner, outside again with
James' parents and nephew, and after cleaning up watched "Oz the Great and
Powerful".
Wednesday 11th, day 63
I weeded coriander then rocket for a couple of hours before leaving with
Cammy for Duncan, a town about ten minutes north, where we picked plums, pears
and apples in the garden of the house they rent out. Dinner was scrambled eggs
with tomato and basil, made by me, followed by leftover Thai soup. After
clearing up, Cammy and I made jam with the profusion of plums we'd harvested,
and didn't finish 'til 11pm.
Thursday 12th, day 64
Planting seedlings into the ground was today's task. It was quite nice,
simple, but uncomfortable: like weeding, it involves a lot of leaning or
crouching down. Thursday is bread pick-up day so there were some cinnamon scones
which went amazingly with the plum jam. For lunch we had freshly-made egg
mayonnaise sandwiches and a cold fruit smoothie. Cammy's extended family came
over for dinner, which was chicken roasted with rosemary potatoes, accompanied by salad and
extra sides brought by the guests. One of them had bought a couple of rhubarb-and-strawberry pies at a bakery in the town of Ladysmith, for dessert. Oh they were ever so yummy! After cleaning up and everyone had left, we went out to the workshop
to process some of the chickens that had been sent to the abattoir on Tuesday.
They'd been plucked before being returned to the farm, so were as you see them in
shops, ready to roast. James and Cammy briefly showed me how to cut it up and remove
each part (thighs, breast, wing, legs) but it did take me over an hour and a
half to do just one, haha!
Friday 13th, day 65
An hour and a half of cleaning eggs preceded the harvesting, washing and bunching of radishes until lunch. I spent the afternoon finishing the radishes, bunching
kale and chard, and picking edible flowers for the salad mix. James' mum cooked
dinner so we ate next door, before finishing market prep until about 9pm.
Saturday 14th, day 66
I went into Duncan with Cammy and, while she helped James' dad on the
market stall, took the opportunity to go to the supermarket and buy some
cold-weather tops (there isn't a clothing section in Safeway and there are so
many clothes shops in Vancouver I don't know where to start). For lunch I bought some kushari from one of the market vendors; it's an Egyptian dish of rice, pasta and lentils covered in
a spiced tomato sauce and topped with crispy fried onions and a garlic-cumin
dressing. It was amazing! I've already looked online for a recipe, but I should
have asked them what was in the sauce. I bought muesli and an
oat-seed-fruit-choc cookie from the bakers' stall next to the Lockwood one. James returned from Victoria in the evening with Maxi, and we had a late but tasty dinner of pasta with pesto, leftover chicken, tomatoes and parsley, followed by rhubarb-and-strawberry pie. Then she and I had our 'initiation': balancing eggs on the table. I managed to get only one standing upright, but Maxi had ten or eleven!Sunday 15th, day 67
The family went to church in the morning, so Maxi and I read for a few hours before I gave her a short tour of the farm and we played with Enzo for a while before they got back around lunchtime. Reading occupied the afternoon as well until dinner, which was pancakes with cream, raspberries and syrup - they make a point of having breakfast for dinner sometimes, because they don't have time in the mornings to make nice things like that. We watched Stardust before bed.
Overview of first WWOOFing experience
After three weeks spent on a farm on Vancouver Island I'm now back in the city, contemplating what I'm going to do next. For those who are interested in the day-to-day activities and variations thereof, I will write three more blog posts about my time on the farm, one for each week with a paragraph for each day; but this post I've written as a more general (though long) summary.
Lockwood Farm is located in Cobble Hill, about forty minutes north of Victoria, in the agricultural Cowichan Valley. My WWOOF hosts were James and Cammy, a couple in their late twenties with two kids aged four months and twenty-one months. Enzo the four-year-old chocolate Labrador completed the household. The Lockwood family has been farming for centuries, but mostly horticulturally; when James started, only a few years ago, he decided to take the tradition in a new direction, by growing edibles and having flocks of chicken and turkey.
There are three houses on the something like eight-acre property (which is on the site of an old school): James' parents live next door, and his sister with her family next to them. Originally from Yorkshire, they emigrated to Canada twenty-two years ago and James' parents still have no trace of a Canadian accent - though they use North American words like zucchini (courgette), arugula (rocket) and cilantro (coriander), which was strange to hear. His father Barry co-owns and helps manage the business.
For the first week I was the only WWOOFer, but German girl Maxi arrived on the first Saturday, and Japanese girl Ryoko the following Thursday. The variety of tasks wasn't large, but there were enough that we didn't do the same thing two days in a row. Cleaning eggs, harvesting and preparing for market, weeding and planting were what we did most.
Mondays and Thursdays were 'farm days'. Mornings began in the workshop (the old school gym, complete with paintings on the ceiling) with cleaning tubs that had been used to take produce to market the previous day. After the table had been cleared of those, we'd sit down to clean eggs (and weigh and sort them into medium or large cartons), which would take until about lunchtime. Afternoon tasks varied, but on Thursdays was usually weeding. On these days a sign advertising eggs was put on the roadside, so now and then someone would drive up to purchase a dozen or three.
I spent most of my second Monday there in bed, with a bucket on the floor beside me. Unfortunately and inexplicably I was unwell, which I haven't been in several years: the worst I get is a cold. Thankfully it was just a one-day thing, and everybody else was fine - although both Ryoko and Maxi have since suffered the same. James did too, on the day I left, but only from eating too many meringues and caramel cookies the evening before.
Weeding wasn't as hateful as I was expecting it to be: at home I used to loathe it, though was pleased that the garden looked tidy when I'd finished. Here it wasn't so bad. Of course it was still incredibly uncomfortable, which is never pleasant, and my neck and shoulders ached the next day, but weeding carrots and leeks was quite satisfying. It probably helped that the soil wasn't hard-packed and stony like at home.
Each Thursday Cammy picks up from the supermarket huge sacks full of bread about to exceed its sell-by date. It would all go to the food bank, but the people who use it are ridiculously picky and want sliced white only. So the Lockwoods get free bread, and lots of it. Some things like scones go mouldy within a day or two but there's always more than enough to last everyone the entire week. Everything left the following Thursday is fed to the chickens.
Tuesdays and Fridays were harvest days in preparation for market, so we worked until all the jobs were done. On Tuesdays we had to harvest not just for the market but also for the CSA boxes - Community Supported Agriculture members pay to receive a box of produce each week. After harvesting whichever crop, we'd wash them, picking out any bad or bug-eaten ones, then bunch or bag them.
Wednesdays and Saturdays were market days, which meant it was relaxed and easy on the farm and we could take the day off if we wanted to, and everyone had Sundays off.
The weather for the first week and a half was warm and sunny, and I got a bit tanned. We ate outside as much as possible, though the wasps were unwelcome company. The second half of week two was slightly cooler and cloudier, but with the autumn equinox arrived the autumnal weather, and week three was wet and chilly.
Lockwood Farm is located in Cobble Hill, about forty minutes north of Victoria, in the agricultural Cowichan Valley. My WWOOF hosts were James and Cammy, a couple in their late twenties with two kids aged four months and twenty-one months. Enzo the four-year-old chocolate Labrador completed the household. The Lockwood family has been farming for centuries, but mostly horticulturally; when James started, only a few years ago, he decided to take the tradition in a new direction, by growing edibles and having flocks of chicken and turkey.
There are three houses on the something like eight-acre property (which is on the site of an old school): James' parents live next door, and his sister with her family next to them. Originally from Yorkshire, they emigrated to Canada twenty-two years ago and James' parents still have no trace of a Canadian accent - though they use North American words like zucchini (courgette), arugula (rocket) and cilantro (coriander), which was strange to hear. His father Barry co-owns and helps manage the business.
For the first week I was the only WWOOFer, but German girl Maxi arrived on the first Saturday, and Japanese girl Ryoko the following Thursday. The variety of tasks wasn't large, but there were enough that we didn't do the same thing two days in a row. Cleaning eggs, harvesting and preparing for market, weeding and planting were what we did most.
Mondays and Thursdays were 'farm days'. Mornings began in the workshop (the old school gym, complete with paintings on the ceiling) with cleaning tubs that had been used to take produce to market the previous day. After the table had been cleared of those, we'd sit down to clean eggs (and weigh and sort them into medium or large cartons), which would take until about lunchtime. Afternoon tasks varied, but on Thursdays was usually weeding. On these days a sign advertising eggs was put on the roadside, so now and then someone would drive up to purchase a dozen or three.
I spent most of my second Monday there in bed, with a bucket on the floor beside me. Unfortunately and inexplicably I was unwell, which I haven't been in several years: the worst I get is a cold. Thankfully it was just a one-day thing, and everybody else was fine - although both Ryoko and Maxi have since suffered the same. James did too, on the day I left, but only from eating too many meringues and caramel cookies the evening before.
Weeding wasn't as hateful as I was expecting it to be: at home I used to loathe it, though was pleased that the garden looked tidy when I'd finished. Here it wasn't so bad. Of course it was still incredibly uncomfortable, which is never pleasant, and my neck and shoulders ached the next day, but weeding carrots and leeks was quite satisfying. It probably helped that the soil wasn't hard-packed and stony like at home.
Each Thursday Cammy picks up from the supermarket huge sacks full of bread about to exceed its sell-by date. It would all go to the food bank, but the people who use it are ridiculously picky and want sliced white only. So the Lockwoods get free bread, and lots of it. Some things like scones go mouldy within a day or two but there's always more than enough to last everyone the entire week. Everything left the following Thursday is fed to the chickens.
Tuesdays and Fridays were harvest days in preparation for market, so we worked until all the jobs were done. On Tuesdays we had to harvest not just for the market but also for the CSA boxes - Community Supported Agriculture members pay to receive a box of produce each week. After harvesting whichever crop, we'd wash them, picking out any bad or bug-eaten ones, then bunch or bag them.
Wednesdays and Saturdays were market days, which meant it was relaxed and easy on the farm and we could take the day off if we wanted to, and everyone had Sundays off.
The weather for the first week and a half was warm and sunny, and I got a bit tanned. We ate outside as much as possible, though the wasps were unwelcome company. The second half of week two was slightly cooler and cloudier, but with the autumn equinox arrived the autumnal weather, and week three was wet and chilly.
Meals were eaten together, which was nice. Breakfast was porridge and toast. Lunch varied, but usually had something to do with eggs or bread or cheese, or leftovers. Dinners were good; we ate well with as much as possible sourced from the farm or elsewhere locally.
It wasn't just things directly related to the day-to-day running of the farm that I was able to do. I had my first try at cutting up a whole chicken into the separate meat parts: breasts, thighs, wings and legs. I helped with shelling however many individual shrimp it takes to make up ten pounds in weight. Preserving-wise, I helped make jam with the profusion of plums Cammy and I harvested. We dried apples and herbs, and made pesto to freeze. The amount of rhubarb that wasn't quite good enough for market but still perfectly usable, was enough to make two crumbles with. Their pantry had jars and jars full of cherries and peaches, jams and jellies. I loved it.
Even though I've had only one fairly short experience of working on only one type of farm, I don't think I could be a farmer, or do WWOOFing during the winter (at least at this latitude). With full waterproofs on, working outside in the rain wasn't too bad - but it was only once or twice for a short while in the mild early autumn, and in worse rain and colder months I'd undoubtedly have more of a dislike for it. Also farming is a business; I have no interest in business and little tolerance for The Customer. It's a great way of life, but as with anything you have to be passionate enough to commit to it despite the things that mean it's not so nice sometimes.
However, I would definitely love to be able to grow my own fruit and vegetables, and perhaps keep chickens and bees. That hasn't changed, though I have a lot to learn. :)
So, to finish up: I enjoyed my three weeks as a WWOOFer on Lockwood Farm. While the daily tasks can't be described as fun or exciting, they certainly weren't dull or horrible, and there were definitely some fun times. Not for a moment did I wish I hadn't gone. I learned some new things, made some new friends and I'm so glad I did it. It was my first experience doing something like that and won't be my last.
Even though I've had only one fairly short experience of working on only one type of farm, I don't think I could be a farmer, or do WWOOFing during the winter (at least at this latitude). With full waterproofs on, working outside in the rain wasn't too bad - but it was only once or twice for a short while in the mild early autumn, and in worse rain and colder months I'd undoubtedly have more of a dislike for it. Also farming is a business; I have no interest in business and little tolerance for The Customer. It's a great way of life, but as with anything you have to be passionate enough to commit to it despite the things that mean it's not so nice sometimes.
However, I would definitely love to be able to grow my own fruit and vegetables, and perhaps keep chickens and bees. That hasn't changed, though I have a lot to learn. :)
So, to finish up: I enjoyed my three weeks as a WWOOFer on Lockwood Farm. While the daily tasks can't be described as fun or exciting, they certainly weren't dull or horrible, and there were definitely some fun times. Not for a moment did I wish I hadn't gone. I learned some new things, made some new friends and I'm so glad I did it. It was my first experience doing something like that and won't be my last.
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Friday 30th August 2013, day 50 – Whistler
Moose Tour part 3 – Whistler
Day 15: Whistler to Vancouver
There was an enormous
thunderstorm overnight. It was so cool!
Three of us were picked up by Dustin at 8:20am for our off-peak-time
zip-lining session. I've been on the little ones there are in children's
playgrounds, but nothing like this, not proper adventurous zip-lining. I've
never been scared of heights but I was a bit surprised that I wasn't even
slightly nervous about taking a step into thin air.
It was fantastic! Ever so much fun. The session lasted two and a half
hours and we went on five lines of varying height, length and steepness. There
are ten lines in the whole course, zigzagging back and forth across the valley,
and now and then we heard whoops of delight from some person in another group
echoing around. The two guides were knowledgeable and told us a lot about the
course, the company, the area, its environment and history, and there were
information boards around the course too. I liked that the company makes a
point to be as eco-friendly as possible: solar power, sustainably-sourced wood
with natural properties that mean they don’t need to use chemicals to clean it,
and other stuff I can't remember. The branches of the trees surrounding us were
covered in hanging lichens, which only grow at about one millimetre per year
and are very sensitive, so are a good indicator that the air is very clean.
After the zip-lining I went on the chair lift system. I refuse to call
it a gondola. "Gondola lift" is the technical term, to distinguish it from the
Venetian boat, but nobody says the "lift" part. So I'll be pernickety and call
it a cable car. Anyway, Whistler Village is located in the valley between two
mountains: Whistler and Blackcomb. There are chair lift systems on both, and the
2.76-mile-long Peak-2-Peak Gondola traverses the valley between the two peaks –
making the longest continuous lift system in the world.
The first chair lift on Whistler Mountain had been hit by lightning and
was out of order so I made the short walk to the other side of the village to
the base of Blackcomb. It took two lifts and about half an hour to get up to
the Peak2Peak terminal. Literally surrounded by cloud for pretty much the whole
time, it was extremely quiet, drizzly and cold, and I couldn't see any of the
scenery. There are hiking trails on both mountains and I did a fairly short and
easy one around a rocky alpine landscape before getting gladly on the Peak2Peak.
There are twenty-eight cabins, two of which are partially glass-floored. I was
able to ride in one of these but most of what was visible underneath was cloud,
or trees swathed in cloud. About midway between the peaks, though, the cabin
did leave the cloud for a minute and Fitzsimmons Creek, four hundred and
thirty-six metres below, was visible, which was cool.
I didn't know if the chair lift on Whistler Mountain was open yet so I
stayed in the cabin and returned to base via Blackcomb Mountain, arriving in
the still-cloudy but brighter and warmer Whistler Village about 2:30pm. There's
a little bakery-cafe hidden at the back of a bookshop, so I went for lunch
there. They'd sold out of beef stew, but I was just as contented to have hot,
chunky vegetable soup with a thick slice of multigrain bread. Hmm :)
The group reassembled on the steps outside the aforementioned bookshop,
by the taxi loop, to be picked up by Dustin at 4pm to return to Vancouver. The
only stop we made was at Tantalus Lookout to see the view, which was quite
impressive: we could even see Shannon Falls far in the distance. The clouds had cleared by the time we reached the coast so we could see
a lot more than we had the day before, and we arrived back to a very warm and
sunny Vancouver.
Saturday, 7 September 2013
Thursday 29th August 2013, day 49 - Vancouver to Whistler
Moose Tour part 3 – Whistler
Day 14: Vancouver to Whistler
Whistler, located about two hours north of Vancouver in the southern
Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, is one of Canada's most popular ski
resorts, and played a major part in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Like Banff, it's
a resort town with a permanent population of about ten thousand, has a large transient
population of seasonal workers, and receives over two million visitors each
year.
The road between Vancouver and Whistler begins at the US border and
extends north for a total length of 409km. It's known as the Sea to Sky Highway
and is one of the most scenic drives in the country. Unfortunately, we could
barely see a thing. Our small group of seven (five of whom were English) left
Vancouver around 9:15am with Dustin, my final guide of the trip. It was too cloudy to
stop at the Cypress Mountain viewpoint, so we went straight to a supermarket in
West Vancouver for lunch supplies.
Despite the low cloud and rain, we did make a few scenic stops on the way.
First was Shannon Falls, a cascade-type waterfall which, at 385m, is the third
tallest (of any type) in Canada. It might have been impressive if we could see
more of it. Our lunch stop was at Alice Lake, which was quite nice. There's a
little outdoor performance area there, with seats and a stage, and we sat
around the sides of the small covered 'backstage' area, out of the rain. Next
was Brandywine Falls, a seventy-metre plunge-type waterfall, which was cool (all
of it was visible from the viewpoint overlooking it). Apparently, hidden in the
cloud on the opposite side of the valley was a mountain with a huge piece of volcanic rock on the top of it, which had been carried along by a glacier after an eruption and deposited there. I would have
liked to see that too, but oh well.
Dustin dropped us off in Whistler Village (the main centre) at 2:30pm
and we had an hour to wander round. It wasn't created until the 1960's, so everything
is relatively new, and was designed to look like a town you'd find in the
Alps. Like Banff, it's pretty and I’d like to see it in the winter, but it’s
very commercial. I had thought about applying for a winter job in one of the
big hotels there, but decided against that. It would certainly be an experience, spending
winter in a busy ski resort, but I don't have an interest in winter sports so
there wouldn't be much to do when not working, unless I wanted to spend a
lot of money in the wonderful little bakery-cafes they have. Also I'd have to spend four
months there, meaning I wouldn't be able to go anywhere else until April.
Tues 27th/Weds 28th August 2013, days 47/48 - Banff to Vancouver
Moose Tour part 2 – The Rockies
Day 12: Banff to Kelowna
The group we had departed Banff with on Thursday diminished further to
five as the Scottish girl 'hopped off'. We were picked up by a new guide again, Kari, the only female one I'd had so far and she seemed cool. As on the previous trip
between Vancouver and Banff, the bus was a big twenty-one-seater, and most of
the other passengers had been with this guide on a shorter trip round the
Rockies. So they knew her, they knew each other and everyone was already in
little groups.
The drive to Takakkaw Falls took about an hour and a half. Located in
Yoho National Park, back in British Columbia, the name is also Cree and means
something like "magnificent". Around 385m tall, it is pretty impressive and,
like at Bridal Veil Falls, we climbed the rocky slope on one side to get closer.
We got a bit damp though, with the large amount of spray, and it was quite
cold.
Like the previous week, we made a rest/coffee stop at Golden an hour
later, then another at the Rogers Pass Visitor Centre. We left the Rocky
Mountains after this, but we were still in the Columbia Mountains. Our lunch
spot was at the Giant Cedars Boardwalk, which I liked. It reminded me of the rainforest
on Vancouver Island... probably because it was rainforest. From there we had an
hour drive to the town of Sicamous for ice-cream at a dairy there. I had
mango-and-cream and it was delicious! I thought it would be an interesting
place to help out: it was a farm which produced its own ice-cream and other
products, not just dairy but pies and things as well, there was a fruit and
vegetable shop, and animals. While there I had a brief conversation with one of
the other girls on the bus, and found out she’s doing a PhD studying the human
factor side of air crash investigation! Which I thought was incredibly cool! Of
course I told her I used to watch the National Geographic programme all the
time, but that's nothing compared to having a degree in it haha.
We continued another hour to Kalamalka Lake, in Vernon, where some
jumped off the dock to swim in the warm water. I took the opportunity to sit
quietly on the sand of the lovely beach and just have some time to myself after
the near-constant company of the last week.
Day 13: Kelowna to Vancouver
I'm including this day in this post because I haven't written much at all. As on the trip east, this trip back west was mostly spent sitting on the bus and by this time I just wanted to get back. We left Kelowna at 9:30am, stopped half an hour later at a grocery shop in West Kelowna for lunch supplies, then drove an hour to the British Columbia Visitor Centre at Merritt for toilet break. It was another hour to Hope, where we had our lunch next to Schkam Lake, which was really pretty.
Friday, 6 September 2013
Monday 26th August 2013, day 46 - Banff
Moose Tour part 2 - The Rockies
Day 11: Banff
Today was our day to do as we pleased in Banff. After waking up late enough to miss the included breakfast, I took one of the instant porridge sachets and a box of blueberries I had with me and found the kitchen, where I sat for at least an hour leisurely catching up with a couple of people on Facebook. After that I wandered into town and found the activities centre Ryan had pointed out (it took a while, there are quite a few, but we could get a discount at this one) to book to go horse riding later that afternoon.
I booked the 2pm two-hour ride (at about 1:20pm) and it was a twenty-minute walk to the stables on the edge of town, so I bought a take-away lunch from the wonderful organic bakery-cafe across the courtyard. It was very busy and I had to wait for about ten or fifteen minutes to get the fruity quinoa salad I had ordered, so had to hurry to the stables. It was really good, though, so tasty!
I didn't enjoy the horse riding as much as I'd hoped. Before we'd even set off, my horse Louie had wandered away from the others a little and I didn't know how to turn him around, so I was sat almost with my back to the rider who would be our guide for a few minutes while he gave us brief instructions on how to ride western-style. Needless to say, I felt somewhat stupid. I was at the back when we left in single file and made our way up the track, but for a few minutes until we reached the woods there was someone else from the stables riding rearguard. I really could have done with her being there five minutes later when Louie decided he wasn't going to follow the others and set about wandering off track and eating grass. When I tried and failed to stop him, he probably got a bit annoyed, sensed my inexperience and took off running. One of the four women still following the guide let him know, he came straight back and it took a minute or two to get Louie under control, by which time I was very shaken and honestly had to fight back tears. Not the best re-introduction to horses after not sitting on one for nine years. The guide roped my horse to his until we were about an hour into the ride, and for the rest of it I was able to keep Louie away from the grass and under control. Despite never having ridden western-style before, once the horse and I calmed down it was quite easy.
Apart from all that, and the fact that sitting on the saddle was incredibly uncomfortable, the scenery was lovely!
Back at the stables, I bought the photo they'd taken of me on Louie as we set off. At fifteen dollars it felt very expensive but I kind of wanted a photo of me horse riding in Canada, and (hatefully) I can't seem to pause and think "no!" when I'm put on the spot: I added a five dollar charity donation to my bill at the supermarket a few weeks ago because I didn't want to seem mean in saying no but had no idea what an acceptable amount would be. I realised as soon as I'd said "five" that one dollar would have sufficed. Gahh!
Anyway, on the walk back to the hostel I ate the oh so delicious raspberry and lemon muffin I'd bought with my lunch, and read then dozed for an hour or so when I got there. The three other girls were out hiking up Sulphur Mountain to catch the cable car ("gondola") back down, so I joined the two guys for a walk round the town.
Unlike Jasper, which began as a trading outpost in the early nineteenth century but has become touristy, Banff was created as a resort town and is one of Canada's most popular tourist destinations. It's Downtown area isn't large but is extremely commercial. It's pretty, and I'd like to see it on a winter night with snow and lights, but I couldn't live there. Once the parks and hiking trails are snowed under, there'd be nowhere to go to just get away from the bustle for a few hours.
We walked along the main street and decided to follow the Bow River, eventually coming to Bow Falls where we could also see some of the impressive Fairmont hotel, "the Castle in the Rockies", behind us. We were out for maybe an hour and met the three others in the bar at 9:30pm (along with a Belgian guy who they'd been hiking with... he was in our dorm room too and had woken us up by coming in at 3am with two friends and a headlamp). My belated dinner was a very tasty slice of pizza, and we stayed for a couple of hours, most of that time spent playing quite a fun game, before heading to bed.
Day 11: Banff
Today was our day to do as we pleased in Banff. After waking up late enough to miss the included breakfast, I took one of the instant porridge sachets and a box of blueberries I had with me and found the kitchen, where I sat for at least an hour leisurely catching up with a couple of people on Facebook. After that I wandered into town and found the activities centre Ryan had pointed out (it took a while, there are quite a few, but we could get a discount at this one) to book to go horse riding later that afternoon.
I booked the 2pm two-hour ride (at about 1:20pm) and it was a twenty-minute walk to the stables on the edge of town, so I bought a take-away lunch from the wonderful organic bakery-cafe across the courtyard. It was very busy and I had to wait for about ten or fifteen minutes to get the fruity quinoa salad I had ordered, so had to hurry to the stables. It was really good, though, so tasty!
I didn't enjoy the horse riding as much as I'd hoped. Before we'd even set off, my horse Louie had wandered away from the others a little and I didn't know how to turn him around, so I was sat almost with my back to the rider who would be our guide for a few minutes while he gave us brief instructions on how to ride western-style. Needless to say, I felt somewhat stupid. I was at the back when we left in single file and made our way up the track, but for a few minutes until we reached the woods there was someone else from the stables riding rearguard. I really could have done with her being there five minutes later when Louie decided he wasn't going to follow the others and set about wandering off track and eating grass. When I tried and failed to stop him, he probably got a bit annoyed, sensed my inexperience and took off running. One of the four women still following the guide let him know, he came straight back and it took a minute or two to get Louie under control, by which time I was very shaken and honestly had to fight back tears. Not the best re-introduction to horses after not sitting on one for nine years. The guide roped my horse to his until we were about an hour into the ride, and for the rest of it I was able to keep Louie away from the grass and under control. Despite never having ridden western-style before, once the horse and I calmed down it was quite easy.
Apart from all that, and the fact that sitting on the saddle was incredibly uncomfortable, the scenery was lovely!
Back at the stables, I bought the photo they'd taken of me on Louie as we set off. At fifteen dollars it felt very expensive but I kind of wanted a photo of me horse riding in Canada, and (hatefully) I can't seem to pause and think "no!" when I'm put on the spot: I added a five dollar charity donation to my bill at the supermarket a few weeks ago because I didn't want to seem mean in saying no but had no idea what an acceptable amount would be. I realised as soon as I'd said "five" that one dollar would have sufficed. Gahh!
Anyway, on the walk back to the hostel I ate the oh so delicious raspberry and lemon muffin I'd bought with my lunch, and read then dozed for an hour or so when I got there. The three other girls were out hiking up Sulphur Mountain to catch the cable car ("gondola") back down, so I joined the two guys for a walk round the town.
Unlike Jasper, which began as a trading outpost in the early nineteenth century but has become touristy, Banff was created as a resort town and is one of Canada's most popular tourist destinations. It's Downtown area isn't large but is extremely commercial. It's pretty, and I'd like to see it on a winter night with snow and lights, but I couldn't live there. Once the parks and hiking trails are snowed under, there'd be nowhere to go to just get away from the bustle for a few hours.
We walked along the main street and decided to follow the Bow River, eventually coming to Bow Falls where we could also see some of the impressive Fairmont hotel, "the Castle in the Rockies", behind us. We were out for maybe an hour and met the three others in the bar at 9:30pm (along with a Belgian guy who they'd been hiking with... he was in our dorm room too and had woken us up by coming in at 3am with two friends and a headlamp). My belated dinner was a very tasty slice of pizza, and we stayed for a couple of hours, most of that time spent playing quite a fun game, before heading to bed.
Sunday 25th August 2013, day 45 - Jasper to Banff
Moose Tour part 2 - The Rockies
Day 10: Jasper to Banff
We arrived in Banff early
evening and checked into a different hostel than before, this one only a short
walk from the town centre. All the dorm rooms had animal names and ours was,
surprise surprise, Moose. And very nice indeed it was! There was an en-suite
bathroom, a telly above the fire and two armchairs in front of that. Dinner
here was included so we met Ryan in the hostel's bar and I had a tasty pulled
pork curry. I think we stayed for about an hour but most of us wanted an early
night so we bid farewell to one of the German girls, who would be catching a
pre-dawn bus to Edmonton, and Ryan, who would have the next day off before
greeting a new group of adventurers and doing the whole thing again.
Day 10: Jasper to Banff
Finishing up the last of the breakfast supplies from the last few days
with one of the Australian girls who would be staying in Jasper, the remaining seven of us
left the hostel at 10am. We made a coffee stop in town and I wanted to get a
photo of the 'sleeping chief' in the mountain ridge nearby, but couldn't. The
rock that was the 'face' was a different colour to the rest of it, and there
was even had a headdress with feathers, which I thought was cool.
After that we headed about an hour south on the Icefields Parkway to the
Beauty Flats, a plain on the Sunwapta River. From a roadside car park we took
the Beauty Creek Trail, along the top of a berm then through the trees for a
short while before coming to the canyon. It was deep and narrow in some places,
shallower and wider in others, with a few waterfalls and we followed the trail
for maybe half an hour or forty-five minutes, then had a short rest on the
rocks by one of the waterfalls before turning around. Stanley Falls is
apparently at the end of that trail somewhere, though it isn't signposted and I
don’t recall seeing it (at least I don't have a photograph of a big waterfall
there) or Ryan mentioning it. The trail wasnt as easy as at Maligne
Canyon but, though I think there were a couple of short steep parts, it wasnt
difficult. Three of us reached the car park about ten minutes ahead of the
others, and I sat with Jordan talking about photography.
Having driven round a nice campground looking for a free picnic table, and
seen the rainclouds over in the direction we were going, we stopped for lunch in
the lay-by on Big Hill. Not the thing people usually do on the side of a road
but, hey, the view was pretty great.
Our next stop was Peyto Lake. For those who have seen my new 'cover photo' on Facebook, it was taken here. We didn't go down to the lake but to the
lookout on Bow Summit, the highest point along the Icefields Parkway at 2088
metres above sea-level. Most people take a trail leading to a viewing platform,
but Ryan took us via another less well-known trail (I don't think it was
even signposted) to a spot a little further along the ridge, away from the
crowds and noise. During the introductions at Lake Minnewanka, he'd told us we
weren't going to be tourists, we were going to be adventurers, hence all the
less-touristy spots. Indeed there were only two other people there at the same
time as us, and all we could hear were the occasional squeaks of ground squirrels
and the faint roar of Peyto Creek pouring into the lake far below.
I don't think I truly understood the meaning of the word stunning until
the moment the trees stopped and that view opened up before us. I'm rubbish at giving
descriptions, so I'm not even going to attempt one. I will say that it's
probably the most incredible thing I've seen with my own eyes (that and the
Milky Way in Australia) and was definitely the highlight of the Rockies.
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