Of Festivals and Fortieths

Who is that folksy pixie with the spritely green elf hat? (chapeau on loan from a certain Crazy Colombian.... thanks, Nene!)...

Why, it's "still-thirty-nine"-Tim at the Calgary Folk Fest AND awesome Feist up on the screen in the background!

Such great music at Calgary, as compared to Winnipeg (sorry, peggers...) Feist rocked socks -- she was a humanform energyball as she jumped & spun around the stage AND she plays a right mean guitar + drums! (who knew...?)

The long-haired beauty on this next big screen is from an Iranian/American band called Niyaz --- SO worthy was this spooky band that the other two little pixie-hippies beside us (pictured here, licking each other) almost got up to dance!! (but didn't....) Calgary was a much more subdued crowd than Winnipeg until...

Broken Social Scene hit stage --- that changed Everything!!

Don't know if the picture will reproduce it well enough but.... anybody recognize that bass player at the far right (stage left) of BSS...? Hobson!!!

We didn't even know he was in the band...

Anyway, after howling at the moon with the Calgary folkies, it was time to celebrate Tim's 40th birthday -- AND as it turns out, the birth of the newest member of the extended family.!!!... Welcome to the world, Sao Mai!!!!

There are lotsa pix from Tim's big day but... we're all old & ugly so I'm only including a picture (below) of the real "lovelies" in our family.

Damn, these girls are gorgeous! It's almost criminal! Wait'll they're all 40......

Shaggin' Down in Cow Town

Sundre, Alberta: one hour north of Calgary, and home to Tim's sister, Laurie's, expansive and seriously peaceful acreage.

It's 'critter paradise' out here --- with horses grazing right beside Shaggy, and farm kittens playing in the barns and cows mooing and chewing in the pastures.... I even bridled up one of the horses (too lazy to throw a saddle on, tho) and barebacked around the farm a bit --- not that anyone takes any pictures of me, though......

Tim, on the other hand, has been playing with all the farm equipment! Guess who wishes he had a tractor now!?! It took him about five minutes to figure out how to work the tractor, and then within a few more seconds he was lifting, loading and leveling some soil that he'd been moving around (for no real reason except to play with the tractor).

Laurie's got about 160 acres of rolling hills, with a stream running through it, as well as some flat pasture & farmland and a large area at the top of a noll where she has a trailer, an airstream (!!) -- see the pic at left of Laurie walking beside her 'silver bullet'. There are also several lovely log cabins on the farm --- We have Shaggy parked beside one cabin that Sami's is staying in....

Everyday we take the dogs for a walk along the horse-trails that wind through Laurie's lower pasture & alongside her stream. We've also been bike riding beside the endless cow pastures that make up this wide countryside. Whoever said that "curiosity killed the cat" has obviously never met a cow. I don't condone bovinicide (that's "cow-killing" for you lexiphobes out there), BUT honestly, these animals will walk right up to anyone doing anything. Nevermind "sitting ducks"..... try "standing cows".... they're live target practice, if I've ever seen it. (just kidding....) But they are endless fodder for dumb-animal jokes, we've discovered.....

There are also two big rivers that criss-cross at Sundre and we took a drive down to one of them for a swim. Both Sam & I felt some kinda gross & slimy, little fishlets scampering over our feet & legs, so we hightailed it outta the water while Tim & Laurie kept on swimming.

When I get a better internet connection (not just random roadside stops), I'll try to upload a bunch of the Sundre farm pictures to my photo website because --- it's just been so gorgeous out here that it's impossible to describe. I agree with (lovely) Emerson when he said that "as soon as we walk out of doors, Nature transcends all poets so far...."

It's been a good place, out here, to read & write & play with tractors.....

Here a Moose, There a Moose......

First up --- "Moose Lake", Manitoba --

at the southeasternmost corner of the province, right next to both Ontario and Minnesota. In other words: the best d*&*#ed variety of bugs & flying critters that anyone could ever hope to encounter! From mega-moosequitos to flesh-eating-blackflies, we've got the holes in our legs to prove it!

My cousin's husband's family (otherwise known as "the relatives of Dick Shaney") have a beautiful cabin on ultra-peaceful Moose Lake, nestled among trembling populars & white pine, and we were fortunate enough to squeeze ol' Shaggy right in next to their toolshed for a few days of Manitoba-style "lake life" (until the eager Park Rangers told us that we couldn't actually camp in their driveway but... that's a whole other story....)

The first few days we were battered senseless by the kind of thickly intense and humid heat that can only be produced within the abusive Canadian Shield. The heat, accompanied by venomous insects, forced us all to drink the only known Praire antidote: mas cervezas.

Even the kids were drinking beers -- Moosehead, of course... Luckily, this particular prescription to ward off evil bugs & weather ALSO effectively quietened the kids (see picture of passed-out child below--- what luck!!)

We stalwart adults, however, found some energy to do such things as swim & canoe & such (between beers)...

If this d*&%med bad internet connection lasts, I might post Tim's newest movie documentary called "Moose Canoes" at my movie site (listed at top right of this page)...

SO relaxing was our time at Moose Lake that Tim even began to....

READ!! (not kidding)...

then again, who could resist reading when there were approximately 5000 magazines to choose from (Thanks Joan!!)

Next "Moose" stop was --- Moosomin, Saskatchewan --- where Tim's Aunt & Uncle have a large & lovely farm (which became our own private campground for a few days!... that's Shaggy, hidden behind the red tractor...)

I was in particular dreamland there because...

1) there were Purple Martin birdhouses all over the property & I was able to watch these crazy dive-bombing bugeaters defend their young while I tried to approach their nests and....

2) Tim's cousin has a huge Elk Farm just down the road and we got a great tour of his operation. It's been good for us to see all these working farms to help us sorta decide whether we'd like to go WWOOFing within the next few years.... it does seem like something we'd enjoy doing...

Next "farm stop" is Sundry, Alberta where Tim's sister has 150 acres of horses & praire & big sky &.... more to come!

The Flock Festival Diaries -- First Edition

After a few frustrating days of fighting with my blogging program, I have emerged victorious. I am bloggin' again! Which means that I can post pictures from the start of our trip --- right back to when we picked up our Edmonton hitchhiker (that's her in the fancy cowboy hat --- a ubiquitous fashion statement across the praires, by the way)!

We also picked up one extra furball to make it a complete team-of-three, scratching and shedding inside of Shaggy (brought new meaning to her name, as the furballs were tumbling down her hallway....)

Anyway, this posting is really just a sampling of the wonderful and varied eye candy that the festival offered. Again, as mentioned in the post below, lotsa smoking .... is it really that cool or is it a praire thing....?

Spent an afternoon listening to a bluegrass band called the High Flyers, napped out on a ratty blanket in the hot sun, thoroughly enjoying their female slide guitarist(!) and trying desperately to get a good picture of this young hominid balanced in his native environment. The subject, tho' shy at first, began to take notice of my sneaky photographic glances and, eventually figured out that he was the focus of my lense.

The Flock Festival Diaries

Winnipeg: where heat & humidity are an evil flip side to this region's deeply frozen winter windchill. To the degree that Winnipeg winters have given birth to the phrase "frozen solid", their scorching summers OWN the definition of unsurvivable heat spells. It is so bleeding hot here that air conditioning is just futile.

HOWEVER (according to my cousin's immensely informed husband, TRENT... aka "Dick Shaney") there is a new entymologist in the southern Manigawtoga region who has miraculously introduced the cure for 'death-by-mosquitos': Dragonflies (no kidding)!! These Winnipeg folk have purchased a good supply of killer dragonflies who have been
routinely patrolling the praire skies
in search of a bloodsucking feast. And, thankfully, they are
gorging themselves!! YA!! The evening skies
are full of fat, happy dragonflies cruising around
and filling up on evil mosquitos. Around sunset
every evening we all look skyward & give our
"thanks" to them!
In other words --- no (or, rather.... "few") mosquitos here on the praires!!

Which almost makes up for the unbearable heat & humidity.... (almost)....

Anyhew --- at right is our most awesome new set-up there at Birds Hill Provincial Campground. The uber-hubby positioned our netted, outdoor gazebo so that we could just truck right on into it from Shaggy & BBQ up whatever quick-&-easy meals we pleased.

Below is a silly photo of 'yours-truly' getting ready to dine at our indoor table. Honestly, we were both ready to fight-the-power of these mean & manhungry Manitoba mosquitos (with our handy screened-in eating area) and then.... there really weren't any bloodsuckers around. But we still hung out in the gazebo because it made us look so cool (& prepared!)

So, the Winnipeg F*&k Festival was an event-&-a-half. We were camped about a kilometre away from the festival grounds and the photo of Tim (at left) shows part of our daily bike trip to the music --- past fields of tall reeds and deer-filled thickets, a lagoon and a praire lake (among other sights). At night, when we would ride home, there were late-night shows of fancy fireflies in the meadows accompanied by a fat praire moon above. Amazing that there were no mosquitos... (did I mention?)....

The Freak Festival was.... well.... just that. It's amazing that we didn't suffer whiplash from the amount of "people watching" we engaged in. Fer instance --- the fellow below (to Tim's right) was really wearing a sequined, sky-blue miniskirt and a lovely embroidered halter top. I must admit that it was a wise choice to pair with his cascading dreadlocks and the eagle feather that he had balanced on his head.

The age of the crowd was nicely varied --- basically people of every age attended, from newborn to 92. Why on earth someone would want to take a newborn to an overheated, loud outdoor music festival, I can't tell you but --- one thing we noticed was that, in the "hippy chic" culture: kids are kool.

Like--- they're everywhere! Kids and cigarettes --- that's what's cool among hippies right now. Must run out & buy a pack of Benson & Hedges & get myself a bun-in-the-oven before summer is over. These dreadlocks just aren't cuttin' it.

Tattoos are also still very cool with the Flake Festival crowd (as evidenced above). Tim embarked on a serious study of the various tribal body art that the young women had emblazoned upon their skin. I was deeply impressed with his dedication to his studies (he could probably start his own blog just on this subject)....

There was all kindsa other stuff at the festival, too --- art installations, tons o' great food, handmade items. We kept finding all this cool art hanging in the trees and almost banged right into it. The photo doesn't do it justice but the material under which Tim is standing has all kindsa little intricate ornaments strung from it (like the clay eye below)....

And then there was the music. Some great (but also not-so-great) artists to enjoy like ---- Cindy Cashdollar, Hawksley Workman, Fred Eaglesmith and --- our faves of the festival --- the South Austin Jug Band.... awesome! They were a big group of (very) young bluegrass musicians from Texas who were just a multi-instrumental melee of foot-stompin' fun. We spent many hot afternoons stretched out on our blanket, sipping secret beers (don't tell!) and enjoying their groove. lovely......






The last night of the festival was, perhaps, a bit mellower than we'd hoped for. My memories of this particular folk fest include finale performances that got entire crowds of thousands on their feet.

It was much more subdued this year, tho...

The final performances were solos by Ricki Lee Jones and then Bruce Cockburn. Sombre and sober.... more background music than festival fare. There was a full harvest moon above the praire horizon as Bruce Cockburn rocked us to sleep so.... Tim & I hopped on our bikes & headed back to the campsite. Sorta anticlimactic but... we felt healthy in the morning! (for the first time in my festival history....)

Don't Fence Me In

Well, it would appear that Sir Timothy has, at last, completed building the fortress of rocks around our Fifedom and, so, now it is time to contruct the Fences! (what next?.... a moat?... wait, we sorta DO have a moat....)

The fences will wrap all the way around the front of our property --- and, altho' I'm feeling a bit "fenced in" as he's building them .... actually, they're really cool!

Now I can stand way up at the top of the property - looking out over the valley & creek - and lean against the fence (don't tell Tim!) without fear of losing my footing and tumbling into the rosebrushes and marsh below (believe me, I've done it before...more than once!)







Things are filling in beautifully down at the creek & pond. Our resident nesting Mallards (Frank & Lucy) are with us again this year --- altho' they're sitting on eggs at present so we're not seeing them.

This means that, pretty soon, they'll return with a little clutch of downy ducklings who will entertain us for weeks as they paddle around our pond.


Lots of the plants that we've been feverishing planting are finally showing their beauty this year.

Three years ago, when we started this whole insane project, we warned ourselves that it would be five long years of building the structure of the garden, and another five long years of planting it. We're a few years ahead of schedule in both departments but, believe me, the work goes on. However, when the bugles start to open their purple buds toward the bumblebees and the ferns unfurl beside the creek, it feels very worth it all. Now, if only that wisteria vine would start to grow...!!

Notes from the Nanaimo Office

Still computing here in the lovely outdoors at The Living Forest Campground in Nanaimo....


The local island weather has been variable (some drizzling rain and little pockets of fleeting sunshine) --- but decent enough to allow us to bike and hike lots during the day and keep the "roadrunner adventures" a-happenin' !











We finally joined the 'responsible adult' world and.... bought bike helmuts.

Tim is definitely not handling this decision well and everyday (!) starts out with his asking whether we really need to wear our helmuts.

I've tried explaining to him that I like my head intact and without any large, gaping holes in it.

At least we didn't buy matching helmuts (like our matching bikes and raingear!!).....

As promised, there will be MANY birdwatching stories by the end of this trip (what luck for those who will hear them!) This little beauty above is a male Rufous Hummingbird who visits daily at a feeder that Tim hung just off the back of the motorhome. Tim caught a bunch of photos of the male and his (less colourful) mate this morning as we sipped our coffee in the back bedroom.

Yesterday we took a short ferry ride across Nanaimo Harbour and over to Protection Island.

It's a little one-horse town of about 250 houses and one great PUB! ---- The Dinghy Dock Pub and Restaurant.

After having walked the whole island and gone beachcombing and sight-seeing, we planted ourselves outside on the docks and drank fresh draft and ate deep-fried seafood!

The Dinghy Dock pub claims to be the west's ONLY "floating pub" and, believe me, I felt it. By the end of the afternoon, it felt like I'd been sitting on a small boat all day.... (oy)...

The island itself was interesting to see --- many crazy, artistic houses that (I hope) inspired my husband to do yet more back at Allison Place!

We also saw some of the largest (and most twisted) Arbutus trees that we've yet seen in our travels PLUS some beautiful fan palms (see photos below). I've put more of our pictures on our photo website for anyone who wants a fuller dose of our island adventures. Ciao!

Loving the Living Forest

Our new home here in Nanaimo is at... The (lovely!) Living Forest Campground. In a word: Heaven. Truly the most spectacular campground we've ever stayed at (in our short career as campers). Spacious, natural sites, surrounded by old-growth cedars and arbutus and towering firs and native ferns and wildflowers and SO many birds that my heart is singing constantly! We've got a site right on a bluff that overlooks the Nanaimo Estuary that flows out to the ocean. We look out at islands in the near view and the massive Olympia Mountains far beyond. We're sitting at a million dollar view for about $360 per month. Not bad....

We spent the first few days here just hiking the 60 acres (and more) of campground that surround us. Nanaimo has a park system unlike most towns its size. What it lacks in nightlife and restaurants (!), it more than makes up for in biking and hiking trails.

Anyway, we don't need fancy restaurants because Tim has us set up with an outdoor BBQ and stove already, so we can do some great cooking in this gorgeous setting. We do, however, always need a good pub AND we found one! The Lighthouse pub is right on the downtown harbour and is actually built on a pier that sits out in the water. Killer pub food and good local beer on tap = happiness for us.

PLUS there's a brewery nearby so Tim is slap-happy. It's a very small-scale, craft brewery called Fat Cat Brewery AND the assistant brewmaster is a woman named Bunny (!) -- who gave us a great tour of the place, along with very ample samples of their yummy beer. Tim fell in love (with the beer), so we're set. We've become pretty spoiled back home living within walking distance of first rate wineries and always seek out something similar when we're camped for awhile.
There's also a small group of stores about a half kilometre away, so we've got easy access to supplies to help keep ourselves occupied. First set-up job was to make birdfeeders out of our empty milk cartons (!) --- and we've got them hanging all around. Expect many bird photos as the Nanaimo part of the blog continues.... (joy!)...
Also have collected some fun beach jewels in our travels and am finally in one place long enough to start to play with them (see silly art above, for example....). Also expect many "campsite art" pix over the next little while. All in all, we've only been here about four days (and are here until the end of the month) and we've already got Shaggy all set up & homey-like!

I've even got a new office! Well... it's really just a gazebo down by the main office but --- nobody's ever in there so, every second day or so, I cart my computer down to the gazebo, plug it in and cruise onto the internet (we don't have wifi at our site but it's available within an area around the main office).

I'm also reading Emily Carr's "Klee Wyck" (thanks, Carol!) while on the island. A lot of her stories have Emily venturing into coastal communities near to Victoria so... near where we are now! It's amazing to look at a 150 foot tree perched on the edge of a bluff and wonder whether Ms.Carr walked past this tree in her travels.... Also, am doing some sketching (of birds and flowers). There is a calmness to this seaside haven that makes one breathe a bit deeper. Of course, the thick Porter beer helps liven the soul, as well.....