SALT SPRING ISLAND CONSERVANCY
“The Salt Spring Island Conservancy (SSIC) was formed to help the community preserve natural habitats on Salt Spring Island and in surrounding waters. Its core functions are public education, holding conservation covenants, acquiring ecologically valuable land and helping land owners become good stewards of their own land.” This is a major understatement of what the Conservancy does to preserve and protect the marine birds and wild animals and to steward the land of this island. www.saltspringconservancy.ca/
In addition to donating time to the Conservancy on Mondays, I have bought 3 Western bluebird nest boxes for Conor, Joe and Mac to sponsor for the building and upkeep of the boxes in the year 2010 in order to attract these birds back to the island. These birds are successfully breeding in the San Juan Islands (only 25 km away), and the Conservancy is trying to woo these birds so they will breed here again. These boxes will be put up in the Andreas Vogt Nature Reserve. www.saltspringconservancy.ca/andreas_vogt.html
Hike, anyone?
This is a photo of Linda, Robin and Kisae who work for the Conservancy. Just before taking this photo, Robin, a biologist, jumped up and down in her chair and said, “Yea, the Snails & Slugs At Risk Identification Workshop” is coming up soon!” Linda retorted, “Well, I can tell you, any slug in my yard is at risk!”
All the people I have met here do such good work and are much more a gift to me than I am to the Conservancy.
LIVING STRONG STUDIOS
Living Strong Studios is a fitness studio on the island where I work out with this darling young lady in the photo, Valri. She puts me through the paces and is encouraging and always positive, and I complain and whine. The workouts are a gift from the two friends I'm house sitting for and is greatly appreciated by me, even though I complain and whine. In Stephenville, I called the trainer “Osama bin Donny” but I haven’t thought of a terror name for this sweet girl. I’ll show you my pecs when I get back to Texas. www.livingstrongstudios.ca/
KNITTING AT STITCHES FIBREARTS STUDIO
Every other Monday I go to the knitting group at Stitches, a beautiful shop in Ganges. The owner gets very talented people to give great workshops on knitting, quilting, felting, et cetera, and they travel to other Gulf Islands for these workshops -- what a great way to see these islands! www.stitchesfibreartsupplies.ca/
The ladies who come to the knitting group are darling, helpful and so much fun. They are very talented and experienced knitters and knit not only for themselves, but also for others -- I just love them! I have started a scarf but don’t seem to knit in between time, so we’ll see if I finish before summer -- it’s a winter scarf and a complicated pattern, of course.
Have you heard of the "Midnight Knitter"? Check this out: www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/10/us/AP-US-ODD-Midnight-Knitter.html
CAT'S PAJAMAS STUDIO
This is Anna, dancer and teacher of Bones for Life, Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, and dancing. She has a beautiful studio overlooking St. Mary's Lake. I take her Bones for Life and ATM classes and have met some great women who are interested in keeping healthy bones and aging gracefully. I'm also going to take her Sounder Sleep workshop to even out my sleeping patterns. www.bonesforever.com/
I met Anna at the Kentucky convent where Ruthy Alon came to teach Bones for Life. I remember her, but she doesn't remember me. She is a mover and shaker in the Feldenkrais/Bones community, and I am fortunate to benefit from her expertise.
And this is the end of my Monday, a full day of fun.
THE WEDGING
There are many hilarious things about this adventure that I am not telling you, mostly for the reason that you would laugh at me and I would not like it. But there are some things that have happened that -- well, you know, don’t you, that when someone lives alone, the world takes on a different slant; there is no one there to, for instance, come to the rescue in case you have what I will call a “wedging.” There is also no one to share the story with and then the farther away from the event, it’s just plain scary or not really funny or something or other, just not worth the telling.
I will tell you about the “wedging” because I think you will not believe it could happen, but it did. After my “hike from hell” I knew that the only thing that could comfort me would be a hot bath with Epsom salts. So I prepared my bath, got in and was immediately wedged in, I could not move. The water was running and the tub was filling in front of me and not in back of me, because I was wedged in and couldn’t reach the faucet. I worked and worked and could NOT move out of the wedging. I thought of being found in a flooded house wedged into the bathtub and knew that trying to yell, “Hey, honey, I’m wedged in the bathtub, please come get me out” was not going to work. Whether it was the fear of being discovered dead in that half-filled bathtub or the idea of being seen alive in a bathtub of any kind, I somehow must have levitated some and jumped out of the tub. Now I never go into the tub without a complete slathering of oil in the wedgy places.
Have you ever in your life heard of someone getting stuck in a bathtub?
At the end of the day Monday, I return to this view when the tide is out and the boats are zigzagging.
P. S. Many, many thanks, you two, for giving me the gift of this beautiful island and its great people.
