HOME AND GONE AGAIN

My trip to Whistler was lovely, and accomplished exactly what I intended -- R & R after the FibreFest. Here's some of the scenery I saw...




We drove out to a farm in Pemberton and picked strawberries...



... and then drove up the Pemberton Valley to the start of the road to Goldbridge...

Goldbridge is a tiny community just on the other side of that mountain, where my father and his brother are both buried .... long story, but we decided, when we saw the sign 'Summer road only', not to try to drive there.
Instead we found fibre...

That was all on day one! On day two we checked out the still-under-construction 2010 Olympics 'Sliding Centre'...


That sign was serious ... there was bear 'scat' everywhere there! Nearby was the 'Zipline' over Fitzimmons Creek -- and if you click on this picture to make it bigger, you'll see that the red dot is a human being 'zipping' by...


I had lots of time to knit...

And I finished this cotton blends shawl...

I finally got to meet Ruth Stewart, an artist and 'fibre creator' whose work I've admired for a long time -- and came home with some gorgeous new yarn, of course!

And Victoria's not the only place with beautiful First Nations spindles... Hailey took me to the new Squamish-Lilw'at Cultural Centre, and here's the front entrance...



Can you see the ancient photographs of the Native women working with fibre?

It was time to come home yesterday, but not before I got to see Hailey's old friend Mica, and her new baby Daniel, who drove from Abbotsford to meet us at the ferry ...



Got home just in time to grab some supper and head down to Clover Point, where we watched a rescue take place -- two guys who had been para-surfing ended up in the water with their 'kites' down and couldn't get going again, so this whale-watching boat had to pluck them (and their gear) both out of the water.


You'd think I'd be rested and ready to get back to work, but not quite -- Michael and I are heading out to Albert Head today for a few days. I'll be ready to get back to the real world soon....