The Great Canadian summer continueth...well being Canadian it is typically a pleasant admixture of sun and rain. Pleasant even when it is raining because I know the Sub Continent is either baking or flooding and with 95% humidity!
Well one of the great experiences as I mentioned in my last post was sea Kayaking with Howard Zatwarinski and Jeanne Zimmerman -kayak.bc.ca.
The other...has been a visit to Vancouver Island. Not an island you would get bored on if you were stranded on one..even with people you know!..Crossing the ferry (BC Ferries runs an excellent service of ships doing the shuttle) from Twassen, you reach Swarz Bay after a run of an hour and forty five minutes. The seat of Government, Victoria is where you then arrive. Victoria used to also have the Canadian Naval base and academy. The bases have shifted east since that is the more strategic I guess.
Victoria has streets named after SubContinental names...Sutlej (one of the five rivers of the land of five rivers -Punjab- punj- 5 and "ab- river" ) was one and the other, Trincomalee...where the English fought and overtook the native princes of Travancore (I think), in Southern India..or was it Tippu Sultan? Gotta check..and if you know it off the tip o yer fingers..let me know..eh? (Eh..is typical Canadian..)
Lush and verdant, slow and quaint, Vancouver Island has beautiful hamlets and inlets typical of the maritime culture...there are quite a few folk in the business of horses for kids to learn, therapy work and such.The mural artist Susanne Pink (who painted the leopard and fish mural on spashram rivermountain's liodge (see
http://www.spashram.info/ and http://www.rivermountain.in/ ) lives here . Her parents have built a beautiful heritage home replete with carvings of the Haida nation (one of the key ethnic groups indigenous to the region). Her sister Lis teaches riding and also therapy via miniature horses which seem to have some Falabella and some Shetland pony.....Liz was also a gold medallist who had represented Canadian overseas...
Mill Bay, Cowichan and other places are idyllic and the recreational boat and yacht community here is strong.
Like everywhere else, the Pink family laments the change brought on by big development.
Even so, the wilderness around homesteads is significant and wild rabbit, deer, bird life and the occasion bear will be seen..
I also met a healer..Karen Whitehouse. An accomplished reiki and sacro cranial healer she had helped many and I decided to undergo her treatment..She obviously wove a great spell for I was soon in the deepest of slumbers and felt the twists and pains sorted when I got back to my feet!
When I came back to the mainland..the computer techie said " they are sorta different out there are they not"... ? He had the impression of a laid back lot..
Thi was not far wrong but to me they were good people..who loved the outdoors and were all very hard working..But there was much more of the Island I was to discover...but that will keep for another Canadian summer..
No comments:
Post a Comment