Small town spirit

One of the pleasures of living in a small community (population between 1100 and 2500, depending on what source I read) is the community spirit that emerges whenever we celebrate an annual event.  The Annual Easter Egg Hunt, The Annual Fishing Derby, The Annual Christmas Parade - three events that mark the passing year and bring out many happy revellers - kids with parents, adults with dogs, friends with friends. Last night's Christmas Parade was no exception.

I am fortunate to live on the parade route, so each year my friend Else comes to join me for a simple dinner and a glass of wine, and at the first sounding of the siren - the mark that the parade is starting - we rush outside to watch the show.  This year we were joined by our friend Liz and her dog Sasha.

We all agreed that this was the best parade yet - longer than last year's (possibly a function of the next community having to cancel their parade the previous night due to the horrible storm - we did notice the word "Chemainus" on a few floats and banners), and more colourful too. Participants included numerous First Responders, service clubs, sports teams, Crofton's one and only church, the school,  the municipality, and of course local businesses.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a parade without the jolly old man himself, who always brings up the rear, riding in one of the fire department's vehicles.  I suspect he  has a special relationship with fire departments around the world, who urge everyone to have their chimneys inspected and cleaned regularly.  Can't have Santa getting dirty - or worse, getting knocked on the noggin by a falling brick!

After the parade has completed its short route down one street and back up another (I did say we are a SMALL community!), with sirens bleating, candies tossed, and many shouts of "Merry Christmas", everyone headed over to the blocked off section of the main street, where the church musicians lead a community sing along, the school choir gives a lovely performance,  and Mike's Cafe serves up free food and beverages.  Up the street a bit, Cedrick's cafe offers free mulled apple cider.  

And all around me, people are laughing and talking and singing, kids are playing and dancing, and we all feel content, wrapped in a warm blanket of Community Spirit and Christmas Cheer. 

A good day for a good hike

The weather lately has taken us on a roller coaster ride - one day horrendous storms with high winds that cancel ferries and topple trees, the next calm with floofy white clouds in skies of blue,  and then we're back to storms again.  Repeat ad nauseam.
Today it has been torrential rain blowing sideways and skies so dark I kept my blinds closed nearly all day. Mitzi slept for the past 24 hours - I lifted her out of bed a couple of times and put her down on the wet grass for a pee, after which she raced back in the house and back into bed.  Sometimes I think that dog has more smarts than all us humans put together.
But, as it is stormy today, that means yesterday was nice - and it was.  A perfect day for a walk around Chemainus Lake, where the reflections were brilliant, the forests were lush, and the creeks sparkled as they tumbled down the hills.

The trail held a few surprises for us though.  Like this little hummingbird's nest that had blown from its bush in the previous day's wind:

And all along the trail - 2.5 kilometers circling the lake - someone had hung red and silver Christmas balls, in the trees, in the bushes, on a fallen branch.  Suddenly a flash of colour and light caught our attention and there one would be, hanging in the woods, causing us to smile.

They brought a much needed note of cheer to the park, where a young man, only 22,  lost his life a couple of weeks ago when his canoe overturned. Though a tiny lake, it is very cold and quite deep, and he could not make it to shore.  We saw a memorial to him, a sweet reminder of his love of fishing, the memorial complete with a fishing pole, a container marked 'Worms', and a fishing knife along the the customary assortment of candles and flowers.  I wondered if his friends and family had been the ones to decorate the forest with the Christmas balls.   Having lost some of my own family close to Christmas, I know how it forever changes the season.

Rest in Peace
Brayden Gale

The beauty of nature, the joy of surprises, the sorrow of death, the magic of reflections - a walk round a lake in the woods is full of so many experiences.

"In every walk with nature,  one receives far more than he seeks"
~John Muir~

Throwback Thursday: Dogs at Play

Back in September, I went for a hike with my friend Mary and her dog Heidi, and the latest addition to her family, Cody.  I am finally getting around to editing some of the many photos I took that day, in a park that was new to me - too many for just one post.  Mary's going to have to remind me of the name of that park, as I can no longer remember.  What I do remember, though, was the smile on her face at the end of the hike  - when, for the first time since adopting Cody,  she saw the two dogs engage in a full-out episode of joyful play.  For the next fifteen minutes, Heidi and Cody ran and jumped and rolled and ran some more, truly displaying the bond they were forming:

Wanna PLAY?

M a y be.....

"I can lick you with both paws behind mah back!"
"Sure ya can....bring it on, brother! "

Flying Ninja!

Do ya want more?
Do ya? Do ya?

More?  Want more?

Ooomph!

You okay buddy?

Ha!  Fooled ya!
You can't catch me! 

Can too!

First one to the car
gets all the cookies! 

It was pretty obvious the dogs had a great time - and so did I.  I'll post photos of the actual hike another day.

Morning and Evening Grumblings

It's 7:00 AM
Isn't it time you opened the damn blinds
so I can watch the birds?

It's 5:00 PM
Where the h*ll is our dinner?

Tales of a Tortie

Tortoiseshell cats have the reputation of being smart, entertaining, cunning, and just a little bit evil. The story that follows really deserves to be presented in video, but as I don't have a camera with video capabilities at the moment, you'll have to use your imagination and my words to envision the action. Cue music....

It was Tuesday, the first day of December, and I was in my office boxing up some gifts to mail to my daughter in California. Mitzi was having a lazy evening, just watching me from her comfy cushion on the floor.

Whatcha doin' Mama Jean?

Soon she lost interest and lay down her head for a long winter's nap, no doubt with visions of liver treats dancing in her head.

A large piece of newsprint floated off my workspace and onto the carpet below, but I didn't pick it up as I didn't need it right then. Allie, however, did have a use for it.  She invented a game called "Let's terrorize the dog!"

Allie likes to hide under things - under a blanket, under a chair, under a piece of newsprint.  And so, of course, she was under that piece of newsprint faster than you can say "Temptations!"

Ooooh.....this is coooool! 

I ignored her for the most part, just occasionally poking the paper for the fun of hearing her outraged
M E O W!!!!

Would you quit doin' that?

I got back to work and put the cat out of my mind until I heard a strange rustling sound - and watched as a slightly rounded piece of newsprint slowly and stealthily made its way across the room right towards where Mitzi was sleeping.

The attack of the triffids  newsprint

I didn't capture in photos what happened next because I had put my camera down while my hands were busy with sticky packing tape and scissors.  But what I saw was a piece of newsprint slowly nudging closer and closer to Mitzi's now slightly awake face - and Mitzi's eyes growing wider and wider as she edged back on the cushion attempting to escape the attack of the Large White Newsprint.  As the corner of the paper touched - TOUCHED! - her fur, and just milliseconds before a feline paw came out to thwack her, Mitzi took off like a bat out of hell!  [Like a bat out of hell?  Where the heck did that cliche come from?  Do bats streak out of hell?  Why bats and not some other creature?  Wouldn't most creatures try to flee hell?  But I digress....]

Heheheheheh!
Cats rule, dogs drool!

I put the tape down, grabbed the camera once again, but Mitzi did not return - no doubt traumatized by her near-death experience.  Allie amused herself tearing the paper to shreds....

Take that!

I finished packing the box, and sat at the computer to check my email, when Allie let it be known that with the dog gone, she was bored and wanted attention:

Hey! You up there!

I want some attention!

I ignored her, and moments later (upon hearing the rustling of paper once again) looked over towards the door to see this:

Allie heading out the office door underneath a scrap of paper
-- no doubt heading to the bedroom to terrorize a
certain dog once again. 

I quickly put a stop to that by ushering her into the living room and dropping a couple of cardboard boxes in her path - which immediately became her next source of amusement:

You can't see me!

Are you gonna package me up and send me
to California too?

Mitzi remained blissfully ignorant of the attempted second Ambush by Newsprint, and for the rest of the week Allie has entertained herself (and me) with shredded newsprint and old cardboard boxes. 

Thank Gawd!
Small things amuse small  feline minds!
Let me sleep in peace!

To boldly go where I've not gone before....

Holland Creek Trail

Today, my friend Sally and I headed to the Holland Creek trail in Ladysmith.  I've never hiked the large network of trails in that area, partly because my books and pamphlets and internet searches gave mixed reviews re the level of difficulty and clarity of signage.  Holland Creek Trail is a loop trail (with connections to other trails to Heart Lake and Stocking Lake), which takes the hiker along a trail high above the creek on the south side, and closer to the creek on the other. Trouble is, the south side is labelled as 'mild'  and the north side is "difficult".  I can do mild, and usually can do moderate (depending on who came up with the rating system!), but difficult is beyond my capabilities.  

However, we decided we would go up the south side and then return the same way instead of doing a loop. And so we did.  The south side trail was well maintained, easy walking, and well marked - not just with directions at all access points and trail intersections, but also with safety notices like the one that greeted us at the parking lot:

We read it carefully, noting that we were within the time frame when bears were most likely to be present.

We didn't see any.  We did see a number of dogs and their people, and a few birds, but no other wildlife.

We also saw lots of lovely scenes, from the forested trail ahead to the splashing water below:

Along the way we saw a few weirs, which I think are part of the Colliery Dam system - weirs were constructed in creek beds in the early 1900s to collect water to wash coal at Transfer Beach at the bottom of Ladysmith, a town built on steep hills.

There were other points of interest on our hike too.  I almost missed this carved rock (reminiscent of the carved fish rock and carved face rock found in Crofton) - in fact, I walked right passed it and Sally called me back.  It was a Buddha rock - beautifully carved though in need of a good cleaning to really bring out it's intricacies.  The face was quite clear, but the wonderfully detailed feet, one toes up and the other toes down, was more difficult to photograph.  But it did make us smile, and of course wonder who the artist was.

We took one side trip, up (and I mean UP) a trail to a lookout.  The trail was shown as 'moderate' which was pretty accurate, though parts were getting washed out by recent rains making footing a bit more precarious and leaving me thankful I'd brought my walking pole. The twenty minutes or so it took us to reach the top was well worth the climb.

  Returning to the main trail we went just a bit further on to where we could either go to Heart Lake (which included a steep and difficult section) , catch the (difficult) north side of the Holland Creek loop, or turn around.  We turned around.  At the Metheun St access point, we checked out a covered shelter with many information boards about the flora and fauna of the area:

Before leaving Ladysmith, we stopped at City Hall to pick up an up-to-date brochure on the trail systems. Looking at it, we realized we can access Stocking Lake, and do a loop around it, on trails all marked mild except one very short moderate section.  It's a much longer hike though, so we need to save that for a full day's adventure with lots of daylight.  

While you are waiting....

We're waiting....
Is it working yet?
Can they see us?

Blogger has almost resolved the photo problem and has created a 'work-around' site from which  we can temporarily post photos.  And it seems to be working!  But.... I have something else to share that is better than photos!

RASTA, the sanctuary where I volunteer, has created a short video as a holiday surprise for its supporters. And...I just figured out how to upload their video from Youtube right onto the blog. (Note: Copyright of the video belongs to RASTA - I had nothing to do with the making of this video.)

So...here's hoping this will work so you can see just why I love volunteering at this place, and meet some of the critters. Enjoy! (You can enlarge it to full screen size, then return to the blog afterwards).

All of the animals are available for sponsoring (and wouldn't sponsoring an animal at a sanctuary be a great gift for someone?).  Information on sponsoring can be found on this page of their website.

Edited to add:  Just in case you can't get the video to play,  here's the link to RASTA's video on youtube, where you will be able to view it.

Your regularly scheduled programming.....

...is interrupted for system maintenance.

In other words (if you read yesterday's post) Blogger has been so inundated with complaints from people unable to upload photos to their blog that they are actually working on the problem - trying to identify the cause and fix it!
I have no idea how long that might take - or if it will be fixable.  So no photos for a while perhaps. Just words.  

Two things that make this day important to me:

1.  Happy 11th birthday to my sweet yellow lab Emma, who lives with my ex.  She is doing well and I see her whenever I go to the mainland.  Her dad was home with her today and gave her a couple of extra treats for me. Emma loves swimming and going for walks and food and balls and wagging her happy lab tail. She's a lot whiter around her muzzle than when we first got her, but she's still the same happy dog!

and
2.  This is Giving Tuesday.  If you "saved" money shopping Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, how about sharing some of those savings with a worthwhile charity?  Or if you are trying to think what to give someone for Christmas gifts this year, consider donating in their name.

Some of my current favourite ethical animal rescues in BC:

Hearts on Noses Mini Pig Sanctuary, Mission, BC
RASTA (Rescue And Sanctuary for Threatened Animals, Chemainus BC
Broken Promises Rescue, Victoria BC
Barn Rats need Barn Cats, Victoria BC
Cowichan and District SPCA, North Cowichan BC
Richmond Animal Protection Society, Richmond BC
Bully Buddies Rescue Society, Vancouver BC

There are, of course, many other worthwhile animal rescues.  These are but a few of the ones I love hearing and reading about, and supporting whenever and however I can.

And in the non-animal area, a charity that aims to help children with a very, very rare disease, called Peroxisome Biogenisis Disorder - a disease that recently took the life of a friend's thirteen year old son. The charity is  The Global Foundation for Peroxisome Biogenisis Disorder .  

Find a cause you are passionate about, and then find a way to help - with donations, with volunteerism, with spreading the word.    Caring for others is part of our humanity, and it makes the world a better place to be.