Ohm Sweet Ohm

We're thinkin' that we've mellowed quite nicely into the ol' 'island-way-of-life' in the past few days, (yah mon),.... So much so that we've even taken on some catchy phrases from the local vernacular, such as ....
"travelling at the Speed Of Salt" !!

which --- surprisingly --- does NOT imply travelling at anywhere CLOSE to a leisurely, nonfrantic pace.

In fact, we've never seen such speeding maniacs in our lives. I mean, LA traffic pales in comparison to this stuff. Like --- I'd rather bike the interstates of Southern California than ever risk my life on these roads again ... (said with a large & sarcastic-but-depressed smile....) Which begs the question: where the h*$% are these people Speeding to all the time?? This whole Island is only like 200 square kilometres!... sigh....

By our estimates --- given that there are approximately 10,000 people on this small island, and judging by the unending volume of (rushing) traffic that we are seeing --- we calculate that, at any given time, at least one of every five residents here is frickin' zooming along some roadway.

Simply put: these people are speed demons. And I don't mean scooters or horses or bicycles or anything other than diesel-guzzling, big-motored mass machines.

People have actually stopped us (while we were biking) and asked whether we know that we are taking our lives into our own hands. And, frankly, we have started to realize that we are risking life-and-limb everytime that we step anywhere close to a roadway in this town. Even a cross-walk is questionable. Strange.... but true.....

Be that as it may... we're taking those risks daily (along with the risks of passing those d*&$% Alpacas---man, they scare us.....) --- and today we happened upon a passle of snakes on a sunny stretch of death-road. (herd of snakes? posse?)

The snakes were really just a fill-in to prove that, by-and-large, we're communing with nature and not just, say, hanging around town buying stuff.

Well... we did go into town one day (yesterday), but only briefly because Tim was feeling particularly misanthropic and didn't last more than fifteen minutes among humans....

At left is Tim packing our saddle-bags with some "booty" that we bought in downtown Salt Spring.

We bought some amazing "Body Gelatto" at Salt Spring Soap Works, and some lovely, delectable chocolates at Harlen's chocolates, and some terrible-truly-awful wine from Saturna Island (seriously... yuk!!).

The day before, we did the most insane four hour bike ride all around the northern tip of the island -- called the "north end bike loop". We passed sheep farms & even stopped & talked to a farmer who had just delivered a set of black sheep twins (!) The ride was actually quite gruelling BUT we ended it with a visit to one of the best local bistros --- called the Raven Street Market & Cafe (which always has at least fifty actual Ravens hanging around outside!). We rested our tired muscles & ate "Burnt Oyster Stew" and drank nectar-of-the-gawds from Gulf Islands Brewery --- the lovely, the delectable Gulf Golden Ale (makes up for buying that awful Saturna Island Wine... ug!!)

Above is a photo of me basking in the beauty of the bounty of my purchases (much to husband's chagrin....) --- holding Gulf Brew & Salt Spring Soap & Bear Claws, Ultimate Peanut Butter cups, etc on the table from Harlan's Chocolates --- yum!!!




It's 7:15 at night now which is "fire time" for the husband AND if I don't rush to the stove & start making some vegetables, you can bet that he'll get a big bonfire roaring & make himself a heap-o-smokies for dinner (again). I can actually hear him cutting up the kindling for his "smokie fire" outside my computer window.

Below is a picture of Kiya, flaked out in front of our picnic table, at the end of one of our lllloooooonnnnnngggggg daily walks. Sometimes I forget that the ol' girl is almost 80 years old in human years. She's an "island dog" now!!

I'm going to go repose in Shaggy's library now & peruse the many tomes that I purchased at the little used-book store here on the island (fabulous place!).... Off to commune with James Harriot .......Ciao all!!