A LOVELY WEEKEND

On Friday morning I caught the Vesuvius ferry and Julie picked me up in Crofton so we could drive in to Victoria together -- she had an appointment with a client and I got to go to Knit'n'Cafe! Here's Vesuvius Bay from the upper deck of the ferry....
Julie came back to Salt Spring Island with me, and we went to the Ganges market on Saturday. On our way back from the market, we 'met' this parade, being led by a bagpiper ...
This was the start of an event called 'SpiritWalk,' highlighting the three historical churches in the Burgoyne/Fulford Valley, with a welcoming ceremony by the First Nations and a presentation at the Fulford Hall by the Historical Society.

Julie left yesterday morning, Michael had to go to Victoria -- and I took myself on a little field trip! Foxglove Farm, up on the slopes of Mount Maxwell, had an open house yesterday. This property is one of the original homesteads here on the island, and all the pictures I'd seen of it are gorgeous.

Foxglove is one of the regular vendors at the Saturday market, and for some reason, I am drawn to it every week. I have bought all of my produce from them since arriving here, and two weeks ago, when the young woman passed me a postcard announcing the open house, out of my mouth came... "Oh, I just want to come and knit in that garden!" She never missed a beat when she responded with, "Would you PLEASE? And can you bring some extra yarn and needles in case any children want to join you?" I didn't need convincing!

I had a lovely time, even though no children wanted to learn to knit... :-)
You can see the Cuban live band that was playing, on the porch of this cabin in the background...Some of the old buildings....
... and the new ...
The brand new outdoor pizza oven....
(Imagine an outdoor wood-fired vegetarian pizza with organic ingredients fresh-picked an hour previously ...... yummmmmmmmmmmmy!)

Anyone want to join me there for an October knitting retreat?? Or better still .... can you picture a new Salt Spring Island fibre festival here?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAILEY!

On this day 34 years ago I was in a Victoria hospital on the second day of a horrendous labour -- but it would result in the birth of my second child, my oldest daughter, Hailey. :-) Happy birthday, Hailey! (Ok, from now on I won't mention your age...)

(Hailey in Cannes, France, last summer)!

Since she was 16 years old (and we were living in Parksville), it's been a tradition to celebrate Hailey's birthday on Salt Spring Island ... browsing through the world-famous Saturday market, having lunch at the TreeHouse Restaurant or dinner at Oystercatchers, and wandering through the shops. So almost every year (I think we've missed a few, but not many) we've driven or cruised to Ganges, the major community on Salt Spring -- and for Hailey, that means arriving first by bus from Whistler, where she lives.

So it's really fun this year that we actually LIVE here and we get to 'host' Hailey differently than ever before on her birthday. She's been here since Friday, and Mischa and Gibson joined us for a bit on Friday and Saturday (River was spending the weekend with a friend). Yesterday we drove in to Ganges for lunch at Treehouse, and then went for a long drive out Isabella Pt. road - it was, luckily, one of the nicest days we've had here for awhile! When we got home, Hailey made *us* a delicious pad thai for dinner! She'll go back to Whistler today... :-(

MY PHOTO!

Check this out .... I sent my 'This is July?' picture from the harbour, here, to the Weather Network, yesterday -- and it's been published on the Salt Spring Island weather page. :-) The weather page is here (scroll down to the first series of photos), and if you click on the 4th one over, it comes up bigger and with the details. Fun!

THIS IS JULY??

Here's what it looks like out my window this morning....
It's drizzly and cold and miserable .... and yesterday was just gray and miserable. I don't think we've had 3 straight days of hot summer weather *yet* this year!

Oh, well, we had a great time with the boys over last weekend ...
I'm SO glad we still live close enough that they can come for visits ... even though it's a bit more complicated than it used to be!

I've had lots of knitting time, and some results to show for it! I finished designing and knitting a pair of socks based on the little flower stitch pattern I used for Wendy's shawl a few weeks ago:
I'll have to get Michael to take a picture of them on me later today ... that's when you can see the little flowers 'pop' the best. I was also playing on the ferry ride over to Victoria the other day (when I delivered the boys back to Mischa) and came up with this...
I have a second-hand fleece jacket that I just love, but it has an old company logo embroidered on the chest and I've been trying to come up with something to cover it up. I have some tiny ribbon flowers that Esther made a few years ago that I can add to the centre of this (instead of that little pink I-cord holding it all together) and I think this will work!

I've started a knitting circle here in Fulford (at the Rock Salt Restaurant, 2 -4 pm) and today is the day -- I've sat there knitting, alone, for the last two Thursdays, but this time I put an announcement about it on the SaltSpring Exchange site, and it's had over 90 'views,' so hopefully I'll have some company today!

And then it's a homemade-soup-for-supper kind of a day ... did I mention how domestic I've been since we got here? :)

ANOTHER PICTORIAL

Michael took his first swim in Fulford Harbour the other day ...
He says it's much warmer than the Juan de Fuca Strait was! He's pretty happy here (and I'm relieved about that....)
It was a busy weekend here -- lots to see! These two folks had at least five kids each in these canoes...

(As a mother, all I could think was how soon one of them will say, "I have to go pee....")

Speaking of mothers...
This young couple in our marina acquired this old wooden boat recently (apparently built by the 'Best' family here on Salt Spring), and this was their first outing in it....
And speaking of pretty old wooden boats, I spotted this one coming in to the government dock yesterday...
I also caught this rainbow just as the ferry was about to glide 'through' it (or so it seemed)!
This weekend the owner of this property was here with his wife and daughter, and they had a 'flag-raising' -- the second flag is Germany, which is where his wife is from, and where they met...
It was fun to watch from dockside!

We have the boys for a few days so we picnicked at Drummond Park again last night and I'm not sure what we'll get up to today. I probably won't get much knitting done, but I finished a pair of socks day before yesterday:
.. and I have another one on the needles, my first personal sock pattern design (complete with beads):
More about that when I see how it goes..... :-)

That's the Fulford report for the day!

SALT SPRING DAZE

Wow, it's been over two weeks since I posted? Well, I still have only very spotty internet, for another week or so.

Much of the work we are doing here falls to Michael, so I've been terribly domestic -- cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, doing laundry -- and knitting, of course. I hope to have some to show you soon!

But we are settling in here, and already had Mischa and the boys and Hailey come for a visit on Canada Day weekend...
No pics of Mischa -- they all turned out really bad and she'd kill me if I put them on here!

I've started a new knitting circle at the Rock Salt Cafe right at the ferry landing .... I'll be there on Thursday afternoons from 2:00 - 4:00 pm.
And I'm very quickly becoming a Salt Springer, I can tell you that. I've:

1. Picked sea asparagus and added it to my potato salad:

2. Bought an organic cinnamon bun from a local farmer's roadside stand (check out the honor system cash box)!
3. Seen some freshly shorn alpacas:
4. Had to wait while a wild turkey and many babies crossed the road in front of me .... and ...

5. Seen Valdi in concert, on Canada Day!
6. Finally, gone for a dinghy ride in our new bay, breathed the fresh ocean air, and dug my toes into the sand where the tide went out.
Aaaaaaahhhhhhh............... we do love it here. For more general info about Salt Spring, check out this page or this page or this one.

I'll have my phone and high speed internet connected on the 12th, and then I'll be back to blogging as often as I can!

A PICTORIAL (mostly)...

Leaving Victoria last Thursday, this military helicopter came down low beside us at Cattle Point... I thought, "Wow, we get a military salute for leaving town..." LOL.
It was flat calm and sunny the whole trip -- the biggest issue was getting across the ferry lanes at Schwartz Bay ...
Here is our new 'home' ... looking up from the dock... (and the property goes off to the left in this photo as well)
There's a local 'harbour authority' dock wedged in between our marina and the ferry ...

Looking down from the house... (the Wind Walker is to the right of the sailboat, left centre)...
Out to the bay ... the view with the ferry IN...
.... and with the ferry gone...
Being 'tucked in' behind the ferry terminal like that will cut down on the nasty south-easters that blow in here in the winter.

To the left...
.. and to the right is a bit of an 'alternative' community:
... where a few folks live 'below the radar'.

This is the driveway in to the house .... the marina is below the bank almost dead centre in this photo. And from the house, here's the view out of Fulford Harbour, looking back toward Schwartz Bay and Victoria ...
We've already had a visit from a friendly neighbourhood otter...
... and we've seen mink and eagles and kingfishers and oystercatchers so far.

I have no reception at all right at the marina, but yesterday we cruised out to Russell Island Marine Park and I have great reception here! Russell Island is less than half an hour from our dock, and it's beautiful ... when we arrived, the Pacific Swift was anchored here -- like being greeted by an old friend! Here's a link about Russell Island ... and another one. (When I was taking this picture last night I realized that those are the Olympic Mountains in the background .... the same ones I've looked at from Clover Point for the last seven years!)
You'll be happy to know that much knitting has transpired! First of all I've completely replenished the Wind Walker's supply of dish cloths...
I also finished the 'Branches' test knit lace socks - I'm calling them my Fulford socks, though, because I finished them as we pulled in to the harbour, and I'm keeping them for myself!
I'm also almost finished another pair of 'plain jane' socks for Michael -- and I have a new shawl that I'm designing on the needles.

Here's the sunset we watched last night ... this is the view from our anchorage here at Russell, back in to the Harbour -- our dock is behind the point of land almost directly under that setting sun!
I'll post more updates as I can .... all's well aboard the Wind Walker, again. :-)