Pearl

Last night, just days before her 94th birthday, Pearl passed away.  Mother to my sister-in-law Bev, and mother-in-law to my late sister Carole, Pearl holds a special place in my heart.

I first met Pearl about forty years ago, when she welcomed me - a young single mom - into her home for Christmas.  And she continued to welcome me, to make me feel loved and cared about and special every time I saw her after that.

She made the best ginger cookies and the most delicious canned peaches.  She sewed wonderful gifts, and I still have a beautiful lap quilt she made for my mother, a stuffed mouse she made for me, and some amazing outfits she made for  the teddy bears who were always a big part of our family's story.

Peark having a chat with Henry W.,
one of several bears who often accompanied us on picnics. 

Pearl loved animals - her own and mine - and always asked after my dogs and cat by name.  She had the best laugh, a full-bodied, whole-hearted laugh that expressed her genuine delight in what had been said or what she had seen.

One of my favourite photos of  Pearl,
enjoying a good laugh.

But mostly, I loved her for how she loved my sister - unconditionally, enthusiastically, loving her like a daughter. I wrote the following poem for Pearl's 88th birthday, two months after my sister's death, to express how grateful I was for the relationship Carole had with Pearl.

                                                              For Pearl, on her 88th birthday

With loving thoughts, from Jean.

If my sister was here, she would say

“Thank you for being my second mom.”

If my sister was here, she would say

“You have given me laughter and love”

If my sister was here, she would say

“Thank you for accepting me for who I am,

For supporting me when I needed support

And for loving me like a daughter.”

If my sister was here, she would say

“You make the best canned peaches and ginger cookies.”

(Okay, maybe that is what I would say…..but I’m sure Carole liked them too!)

If my sister was here, she would thank you

For being such a big part of her life.

If my sister was here, she would give you a hug,

And a bag of silly little gifts that she’d bought throughout the year and stashed away in boxes and drawers and closets, but each bought because she’d been thinking of

YOU.

But my sister’s not here.  So trust me…..

She still thanks you for all that you are,

For all you have done for her,

For all the fun times you had together,

For your laughter and smiles and hugs and love.

And on this special day of yours,

 Please feel her arms around you

As her spirit hugs you tight and whispers in your ear:

“Happy Birthday, Pearl.”

Yesterday morning, when we knew the end was very close, Bev and I talked about how we could feel, could see, Carole reaching out to Pearl, ready to meet her and guide her on her journey.   And last night, she did just that.  I know there will be tears and hugs all round - both here and on the other side.

Rest easy, Pearl.  You are forever part of my heart, my memories, and my family. 

The Heron

Thursday, and unexpected break in what had been a rainy day gave me the opportunity to take the camera - and Maggie, of course - down to the beach for an hour or more.  The tide was out, so we were able to wander quite a distance along the shore, away from town.  Around the point, we saw a heron perched on a rock.  Herons are a frequent sighting here, but this one was particularly fluffed up and statue-like, not watching the water for fish as is usually the case but instead gazing out across the bay.  Maggie and I sat on a log watching him for the better part of twenty minutes, and he moved not a muscle nor a feather.

I wonder what he was thinking about?

January's Halcyon Day

Halcyon days:  a period of peace and happiness; an idyllic time; also, a period of calm weather during the winter solstice. ( Dictionary.com)

The day began like any other.  I dragged myself out of bed  at 5 AM, to the persistent mewing of a hungry cat and the excited chattering of a sheltie who needed to make sure I knew the cat was calling me.  I shuffled around doing the usual early morning chores: let dog out, let dog in, feed animals, make coffee, check facebook, make bed,  scoop litter box, have shower, get dressed, and, as it was Monday and one of my regular hiking days, pack my lunch and thermos into my backpack alongside my emergency supplies. The weather forecast was for a nice day - a welcome relief in a sometimes stormy, sometimes foggy, and often grey and wet month.

My friend and I planned to explore a park about an hour's drive away - one we had not been to before - and because I was not sure what the terrain would be like I opted to leave Maggie at home.  Handling trekking poles and a dog leash on unstable or slippery or muddy ground is a recipe for disaster for this falling-apart-at-the-joints body. So before I could head out hiking, Mags needed a good walk. And as we stepped out in the breaking dawn, magic began to happen.

The fog that had encased us the day before lifted, layer by layer, and the skies and seas turned orange and yellow with hints of purple and blue.

I love our island sunrises - they are frequent and beautiful and they chase away the winter doldrums like nothing else can do. Well, maybe like 'almost' nothing else can do, because the day just went from beautiful to outright fantastic.

Maggie fully exercised, fed, and toileted, I threw my gear in the car, picked up my hiking buddy, and off we went to Moorecroft Regional Park in Nanoose Bay.  Once a girls camp, then a United Church camp, it is now a beautiful ocean front park with well maintained easy trails, a meadow, a small swampy lake, an old cabin, rocky shores and small bluffs....and never ending views of tiny islands.

We tromped around the beaches for awhile,  admiring driftwood and windswept trees, and watching cormorants on a rocky outcrop.  They reminded me of tourists watching the surf  at Tofino - standing there admiring the view until that  surprise sneaker wave rolls in and drenches them completely.

Then we took the trail through a lovely forest with lots of bright sword fern. We checked out a few side trails, then crossed through the meadow and stopped by the lake to admire the mirror-image reflections of foliage in water.

Returning along the loop trail, we found ourselves back near the ocean, where we enjoyed the view of the snowy mountains on the mainland as we ate our lunch to the sounds of ocean waves, bird song, and the rustle of leaves.

It was only early afternoon, so rather than head home, we decided to check out a second but smaller regional park nearby -  Beachcomber Regional Park. There we followed the short trail down to a rocky beach with plenty of flat sandstone and shale rocks and tidal pools, and more incredible views.

We heard eagles calling, and turned to see a pair high in a tree above us, their eyes scanning the waters for fish

We watched the colourful Harlequin ducks, who look like someone has meticulously painted their feathers with intricate designs in grey and white and black and brown.

We chatted quietly as we admired the nearby mountain  (Mt Arrowsmith, I think),  and a bare tree clinging to a small rocky bank, and the many geological formations, one of which we likened to an anvil.

And then, as we were trying to decide if that was a seal or another rock beyond the Anvil Rock, the sea lions that had been barking in the distance for much of the morning suddenly gave us the show of a lifetime. First one, then three, then groups of five and six and three more and another five, on and on they came - an endless stream of sea lions slide past us not 30 feet from shore, some even closer as they skirted the overhanging rocks. And they raised their heads and barked at us, barked at each other, splashed and fished and played  and dove and barked some more.  Dozens of them, all coming from across the bay, down the shore, and congregating just beyond the anvil rock.

I live within sound of a sea lion colony and hear them often for their voices carry far, but never have I seen them up close, and even my best telephoto lens can only capture their general shape. For the eight and a half years I've lived here, I've wanted to see them at a distance more amenable to photographing their faces.

All it took was a halcyon day in January and a serendipity stop at a little regional park an hour from home.

Life doesn't get much better than this.

Cormorant Watercolour

While still working on a blog about last Marvellous Monday, I took a bunch more photos this Monday (and most days in between, truth be told).  Today's hike took us to Hemer Park, just south of Nanaimo.  Trumpeter swans, sunshine through trees, fresh cool air, happy dogs......and a cormorant on a log in the lake.  My little point and shoot is wearing out and sometimes changes settings without warning, paints whole photos in monochrome reds or blues, puts squiggly lines across the picture, or simply won't focus.  Usually it is aggravating, but for this photo I liked the lack of focus and the slight blur across the whole scene - it looks more like a watercolour painting of the cormorant watching the duck. 

Another teaser?

Sometimes it takes me a lot longer than I anticipate to edit photos and form a cohesive post, especially when it has been a fabulous day for photos and experiences. I end up spending hours just reliving the day looking at the photos and being unable to decide which ones to use and which to leave out of a blog post (because I'm quite sure you don't have time to scroll through 372 photos with your morning cup of coffee!).

So excuse me if I still don't have the post up from Monday's amazing day. The shots are edited (ie, the out of focus and boring ones are discarded, and the basic cropping and adjusting is done), but I still have to select and watermark and organize the ones for the blog.  Meanwhile, here is one of several photos from the start of that day- ducks enjoying a Crofton sunrise.

Ducks enjoying a Crofton winter sunrise,
as the mist lifts from the water.

See Sea Lion - a teaser

Monday was fabulous.  I took a ton of photos.  Here's one of them.  More tomorrow or the next day!

A sea lion barks at us.
Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island.

On a dark and dreary winter's day

Today was one of those miserable west coast winter days - rain, rain, rain and dark, dark, dark.  Fortunately our winter days are not cold like the days our friends back east are experiencing, and the dark and wet ones are interspersed with dry and sometimes sunny ones.  So on those rainy dark days like today I remind myself of two things - spring is just a few weeks away here on the island, and even before it arrives, there will still be magnificent moments.

I've lived in many places in BC, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, but I don't think I've ever lived any place where we so frequently have such amazing sunrises as we do on the east coast of Vancouver Island.  Often, the day will start with a wondrous display of colour and reflection and by the time most of the town is up and about, it is overcast once more.

Being the morning person that I am, and with a dog I love to walk as soon as I've had that first cup of coffee, those brief but beautiful sunrises are mine to capture, a thick slab of joy to get me through the day, a memory to draw on when the rain and darkness seems oppressive, a promise to look forward to once more in the days ahead.

This was my world morning before last;  if I'm lucky, it shall be mine again tomorrow.

A Beardie Bounce

Saturday, my friend Pat and I went to a Beardie Bounce - a party with more than a dozen Bearded Collies, hosted by another mutual friend.  The last one we attended, when puppies were involved, was two years ago.  You'll find the photos from that one here and here - and some of those same pups were at this year's event. 

Why a Bounce you may ask?  Because that is what Beardies do.  They are happy, bouncy, busy dogs who love to bounce all over the furniture and each other.

Bounce!

Of course, they aren't all bouncing all the time (though sometimes it seems like it!).  There were also the princesses:

Or perhaps the shy one:

And the inquisitive one who didn't wish to pose for a photo with his littermate (who thought her brother was pretty hilarious):

And there were the soft ones and exuberant ones and polite ones and unruly ones and happy ones and quiet ones and 'give me some attention' ones:

A good time was had by all, humans and dogs, and I'm guessing more than one of us felt like this at the end of the day:

A letter to the Poms.... from Maggie.

Dear Lexi and Cosmo. Maggie here. It's too bad yer mama don't like hiking in the rain. You shoulda come wiv mama and me on our walk this morning. It was awesome, even if it was raining. We didn't go far away, but we did all the back lanes and paths in Crofton (lotsa good smells!) and then down to the far end of the seawalk.

I think someone stole some of mah beach!  

The tide was really high, so I couldn't walk the beach at the south end. Mama sez it is a King Tide - I dunno why, maybe all the Queens and Princesses were busy. Anyway, I walked the seawalk, keeping an eye out for my favourite sight - ducks!

I see some!  I see some ducks! 

Not just any ducks. I likes the ones shaped like domestic ducks even though they are wild. I don't care about the seagulls or oystercatchers or commerants or little round plovers. I like DUCKS. Mallards mostly.

Hold your head high, Geraldine, so that dog won't
mistake us for a common domestic variety duck! 

Mama won't let me chase them cuz that would be mean, but she does let me move up on them slowly and quietly to drive them into the water. She says I has great herding instincts (I is a Shetland Sheep Dog, which is a herding dog y'know, though mama sez I should be called a Crofton Duck Dog) . Or maybe I has had some training on duck herding in the past. That's how they start shelties for sheep herding sometimes - using ducks. I move side to side and sometimes I even crouch low like a border collie to creep towards them. But sometimes I get so excited I forgets myself and I run right into the water and start barking! Mama hauls me back (I'm on a long leash so I can't run off) and all the birds swim or fly away real fast.

I can hardly contain myself!
Maggie the intrepid duck hunter - er - herder! 

That's what happened this morning - I raced into the water RIGHT UP TO MAH BELLY, barking the excited happy sheltie bark. But Mama had me on that stoopid long leash and she was way behind me so I couldn't go any deeper. I woulda swum to Salt Spring Island after those ducks if I coulda. She made me come back on shore and waited until I stopped barking before she would give me a treat. It was my favorite kinda treat - dried duck filet! Now isn't that silly - I coulda had wet duck filet if she'd just let me catch those darn ducks!

Mama, sometimes you're no fun!

But y'know what happened next? A man that lives right by the beach dragged a little zodiac-type boat with a motor down to the water near where I was, and I just trotted off right after him! I did! I wasn't afraid of him at all, and I just left mama standing there holding the end of my 25 foot leash while I went with him! He didn't even realize I was right behind him, heading fer his boat! I was gonna get in that boat and go after those ducks! At least, that's what my mama thinks I had in mind, because, y'know, I'm a Very Smart Sheltie. I figured out a boat could get me out where those ducks had gone. I don't haz a picture of this because actually these photos were taken yesterday (which was also a King Tide) and mama didn't take the camera today because of the rain. But mama sez you can picture it in your im-ag-in-nation!

See the ducks out there?
They is sticking their tongues out at me
sayin' "Nyah Nyah Nyah you can't get us!"

Mama's such a spoil sport sometimes. But I hads a good time. When I got home, I had to stay in the mudroom for a while because I was allllll wet even after mama used a towel and the blow dryer on me. I didn't mind though because I got TWO toys filled with treats to keep me busy.

I know you like water, Cosmo, so next time it rains on a Friday you just hustle your furry little butt over here and come for a walk and a swim with me! Lexi can watch from shore if she doesn't want to get her prissy self all wet. She can stay with the hoomans while we haz a blast - and gets ourselves some nice fresh duck. And the scenery is pretty nice too. I LOVES the beach!

Love, yer pal, Maggie.

(No ducks were harmed in the making of this blog post).

Oystercatchers

I had never seen oystercatchers until I moved to the island.  They amuse me with their very long, very orange beaks, their waddling walk in which they often flip their long feet up at the toes, and their funny call like a child's tin whistle.  They remind me of clowns - the kind that made me laugh as a kid, not the kind that seem to terrify people today (though I will never understand why).

Usually they fly away before I can get anywhere near close enough to photograph them.  But today, as Maggie and I wandered the beach - Maggie searching for ducks (her latest passion), me enjoying the beauty around me - the oystercatchers seemed quite content to have us nearby. 

You keep watch that way; I'll keep watch this! 

C'mon, Louise, let's go for a stroll! 

Shall we go walk to the cafe for a little breakfast?

You're heading the wrong way if you want to go to the cafe, George! 

Oh for fish sake, NOW what did I say wrong?

 I had a little fun with a mirroring tool on my photoediting program:

She: I'm sorry. 
He: I'm sorry, too.
Kiss and make up! 

Always hold wings and look both ways before crossing the ocean!