BACK TO THE GRIND :)

Well, after stretching our BC Day long weekend for an extra two days (by goofing off and accomplishing absolutely nothing), it's back to work today! I have an editing job to finish this morning, and then a meeting with the client.

I had a lovely surprise day before yesterday ... my friend Grace gave me this award ...


... and I think I'm supposed to 'pass it on.' So I'm sending it to ...

Ruth at Knitting on Impulse
Stacey at EarthChicknits
Evergreen at Evergreen Knits.

So yesterday's dinghy jaunt through the harbour took us past yet another one of those 'Top 100' yachts in the world.... this one is called 'Senses', it's 194', built in 1999, and it *only* costs about $300,000 a week to charter. The list of 'toys' aboard (apart from that helicopter on the back deck) includes a 30' sailboat, several single and double jet-skis, a 42' launch and a laser sailboat. First, the stern view, and that's the 42' lifeboat ...

And then...


I wonder how much fuel this thing burns on its average outing??

On the way home, we passed this beauty...


Can you guess which boat I like better? :)

Oh, and that weekend project? I started it last Thursday thinking it would be a quick knit over the holiday weekend... HA. It's now a week later, and I'm not finished yet... although there is a light at the end of the tunnel now. Here's a 'sneak peek...'

THE FINE ART OF DINGHY PICNICKING

Start with a beat-up old dinghy ...

Add two hungry people...

Throw in the camera, the cell phone, the binoculars, a coupla bottles of water...

Add the picnic (or $20 if you're doing 'take out')...

Find a nicy shady spot to drop the anchor...

Make sure you have a nice view in the other direction ...

And the other direction...

After you've finished your picnic, you can always go for a little scenic drive to see what the locals are up to...

And then, at dusk, return home ...

And just one more thing... count your blessings.
:-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BC!

What a great holiday weekend it's been!

Symphony Splash was the highlight, as always, but the fun didn't stop there. On Monday morning Jason and I took Joshua to the train to go home (he lives with his Mom about 3 hours north of here), and then I headed down to Clover Point for my morning coffee and knitting. I regularly look out over the Strait, and the first time I looked, here's what I saw ...

My son had followed me down to the water, even though he'd pretty much been up all night as assistant producer of the Victoria Electronic Music Festival that went on all weekend. So we hung out for a bit -- it was a lovely morning!

Then, just after noon, while our Prime Minister was apparently on the steps of the legislature schmoozing the crowds and wishing us Happy Birthday, we had some other guests...



These are the Canadian Snowbirds doing a 'fly-by' ...


They did about a ten-minute show, and it was wonderful!

I spent the afternoon just hanging out in the sunshine on the deck of the boat and knitting (my weekend project isn't quite done yet, but it will be today, and I'll have pics), and then, at about 4 pm, we got in the inflatable to go back over to the Inner Harbour, where an outdoor concert was taking place. Dropped anchor to the sounds of Colin James, stayed for the Burton Cummings set, and left just after Sarah McGlaughlin (hmm, I don't think that's spelled right...) took the stage. There were probably 40,000 people there, again!

On the way home we saw this little dude...

... which was the perfect grand finale for us!

STACEY'S RAFFLE

I know, I know... two posts in one day! But I just found out about this contest, and the deadline is soon, and I wanted to pass it on.

Stacey's blog was one of the first I read when I started reading knitter's blogs a little over a year ago... and just when I was 'getting to know her' through her blog, she had the life-changing event that you'll read about if you follow that link, above. It seemed absolutely unbelievable to me, at the time, and as a mother, I just felt so connected to her.

Stacey is also an ordained minister, in an 'industry' that has very few women. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not religious, and the contest she's having is going to support a 'religious' cause -- but, just like she says, it's also supporting WOMEN who are supporting each other. And anyone who knows me knows I'm ALL about that! (Besides, maybe as more and more women get involved in organized religion at the ministry level, the face of organized religion would change into something I'd be more interested in?)

Besides, the prizes are YARN. Go read Stacey's story at least, and then donate/enter her contest if the spirit moves you... you can tell her I sent ya, too!

THE SPLASH!

A perfect blue sky, calm, family and friends, great music ... wow!

The event always starts for me when they move the barge they've been preparing right across from us, for several days, into the Inner Harbour.


Jason couldn't join us because he was the general manager for this event, which also took place downtown this weekend -- but Michael and I and Hailey, Joshua and Mischa and River, a visitor named Laura and Mischa's friends Rye-Ann and Trevor (this event is MEANT to be shared!)trundled ourselves, tons of food and water, and various hoodies and blankets, into three little boats, and 'paraded' over to the Inner Harbour for the biggest event of the year here...

This is what it looks like when we get there...

Everybody gets comfy... here's Scott and Aisha from our marina, who joined us...





We always make sure we get there no later than about 5 pm to get right in front of the stage... so I knit. . .

And once again, I wasn't alone!

And the show begins....

This year the theme was, of course, 150 years of British Columbia history, so it included a dance by a local First Nations group that was pretty cool...

And this is what the crowd looks like a bit later...

It truly is the most amazing evening... symphony music outdoors, shared by about 40,000 fans -- and there are moments during the concert that you really could hear a pin drop in the harbour. The concert began with a piece that was composed locally called the "Inner Harbour Overture" (debuted this year) that included the sound of the Coho ferry whistle, the Johnson Street bridge 'going up' alarm, the carillon bells of the museum, and the arrival of the E & N daily train. It was perfect!
The last piece of the night is always the 1812 Overture, complete with real cannons (courtesy of our local cadets) and fireworks... and then the grand finale is always a pipe band playing 'Amazing Grace' as all the boats (and the 40,000 land-based fans!) are slowly snaking their way out of the harbour. . . truly a memorable night, again!

BC DAY LONG WEEKEND

I finally got my 'summer' haircut .... just in time for the biggest weekend of the year here in Victoria, BC!

The highlight of this weekend is called 'Symphony Splash' -- literally a full-on outdoor symphony concert, from a barge in the Inner Harbour. Here's some images of what it looks like from land. And this is what it looks like from the water....

We'll be right there, in our 'front row seats' in our inflatable with Joshua and River and Mischa (Gibson's a bit young to sit still in a small boat for 5 hours!) -- and Hailey will be here! The road from Whistler re-opened last night, and she has reservations on the bus!

Symphony Splash is nothing short of amazing ... it's FREE, for starters (well, donations are highly recommended and welcomed, the event IS a fundraiser), and they estimate that about 40,000 folks turn up for it. It's an absolutely magical evening that ends with cannons going off and fireworks, too -- it's the highlight of our summer, I can tell you that!

And knitting takes place there... we have to get there early (by about 5 pm) to jockey for a position in front of the stage, so I always bring knitting because the concert doesn't start until 7:30. Two years ago, my daughter Mischa just rolled her eyes when my needles came out, "Oh, Mom, do you really have to knit EVERYWHERE?" ("Why, yes, and your point is...?")

When the concert started I tucked the knitting away, and then took it out again at intermission. Mischa shook her head, rolled her eyes, and looked away -- and then turned back to me and said, "Oh my God, Mom, look over there!"

And sure enough, three canoes and two kayaks over another woman was knitting! We got each other's attention, and were close enough to exchange greetings ... she was a tourist from New York, in her son's canoe. What a fun way to connect with another knitter!

I have a 'weekend project' on the needles that I hope to have finished by the end of the 'Splash.'

I just remembered that I left you with a little mystery in my last post...


I'm going to try (non-technical person that I am...) to describe the 'background info' you need for this photo...

When you live on a boat, one of the big concerns is 'electrolysis' -- water has lots of electrical activity in it, and that activity can wreak havoc with any metal parts your boat has underwater.... propellers, struts, through-hull fittings, that kind of thing. So boat owners bolt big slabs of zinc to their hulls to 'distract' the electrical activity... and what happens is that those zincs, over time, literally get 'eaten' away and have to be replaced -- but better those cheap zincs than your expensive prop... or your steering struts.

So... if metal parts on a boat can get eaten by electrical activity, so can metal pipelines. And if you have a pipeline underwater, on the ocean floor, actually, that goes out 3 miles or so into the Juan de Fuca Strait (and the whole world knows that's what Victoria's 'sewage treatment' consists of), then electrolysis will be happening to that metal pipe. So you'd need to have some other metal nearby to 'distract' the activity ... so you'd have huge zinc balls hanging off of that metal pipe all along its length. And those would have to be replaced every couple of years (or at least what's left of them...), so you'd need divers who could do that...

And that's exactly what these dudes were doing when I was knitting at Clover Point the other morning!

I HAVE A SOCK

Indeed, I have two identical socks. That I knit. All by myself. :)

I used Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's 'Basic Sock Recipe' and it was easy-peasy. I'll graft the toes this morning and be able to wear them to Knit'n'Cafe this afternoon. I'm definitely hooked ... I've got the next three pairs already planned, and I think I know what everyone's getting for Christmas this year!
I also cast on another shawl day before yesterday, and the colors are amazing, but the battery died on my camera this morning so you'll have to wait for pics.

I missed seeing the Tribal Journeys canoes coming into Cowichan Bay the other day, but I did see this one under tow into the Victoria Harbour yesterday. It may have some ceremonial purpose because the BC150 celebrations (BC's 150th 'anniversary' as a province) are happening this weekend here in the harbour....

I was at Clover Point (surprise, lol) watching this dude walk off the cliff (in order to get airborne)...

And then I got distracted watching THIS, which I'll tell you all about ... tomorrow...