Today ended up being a beautiful day. There was this consistent mist that just begged for us to wander.We are finally starting to learn the area around us. Everywhere we go is so colourful. There are deep forest greens with spots of electric and saturated colors; the overcast sky’s caused all of the colours to pop brilliantly.

It is very different wandering on the coast. There is no flat, dull areas, every place has a story to tell. Roads curve , rise and fall. Trees and shrubbery create overarching tunnels and gateways. There is a life to the city and streets that is so welcoming. The city seems to embody the wanderer’s spirit that resides in us.

~Dusk||

The cloak of night, and shroud of the June rain create a magic in the air that begs us to wander. The rest of the world is sitting in a deep slumber. People never could understand the enchantments that begin to show in the midnight hours. A shame really, people need more magic in their lives.

The few who listen to the call are never disappointed. The over saturation of colours make the world seem almost black; the rain cools the skin and heart. The night reaches out its gentle hand and eases the burdens that the harsh daylight places on the shoulders of the people.

The day, in contrast, is busy, restless. It offers little chance to show the bright pinks and purples of the flowers; there is no time to catch the crisp scent of the birch and cedar that hangs in the air. No the magic has to hide in the world of automobiles and technology. Magic has no place there after all.

But as the twilight hours turn to coal black nights, the Fae that hide in the scents and colours start to dance and play, creating a world hidden to all but the select few. The ones who listen to the call indeed see a more livelier world

The days have been odd – a weird mix of restlessness and not wanting to do much. So we sit and relax. A day for reading and writing it seems.

To me, the weather seems to accentuate this. It is sunny out, but there also lies a chill wind. It is hard to believe sometimes that the ocean air can reach this far in. We lie a good four kilometers from the ocean.The scent of the the ocean still reaches us though.

It would be nice to have some rain to wander through. We don’t see as much rain as we would like, seems Victoria does not see near as much as the mainland can. Almost like we have a little shelter. It stays temperate though. rain or shine it stays warm, quite the change from the prairies.

We still need to explore this area. We know downtown, and the area we live, but have yet to really explore the city.

The city is small. We almost want to laugh  when people give disdain about driving to Victoria from Sooke. It is a half hour drive during busy hours, but everyone here seems so used to the short distances. Two of the major roads are only a block apart, and the blocks are much smaller than they are out east.

We will most likely be wandering later today.

The hummingbird we saw keeps coming back to my mind. We saw it one of the first few days we got here-it was drinking nectar from one of the many vivid clumps of flowers around the Inner Harbour, and at first I thought it was a bee or a dragonfly, or even another flower bobbing in the breeze. But then it turned towards us, and hovered vertically in the air. It could have been posing for a picture, it was in one spot so long. It had bright black eyes, large for its size, and it was wings were a blur they were moving so fast. It didn’t look like it had any feet either. Its back was bright jewel green-dragon’s green, emerald iridescence. Since we didn’t have a camera, or even a sketchpad, we just looked at it as it watched us, and then it lost interest in us and zipped away for another flower. Made my day.

Played GO in a Starbucks in the mall today-beautiful day. Great game. The final “shape” after we’d counted it all looked kind of like a (black and white) pinwheel. Remember pinwheels from summer holidays? Made of bright tinfoil, with four fat arms, and it’s on a stick and it spins in the wind or when you blow it.

I like how GO is organic-every game looks different and you can never play the same game twice.

Three people asked us about the game, which never happened before in Alberta, and it was so refreshing to have people curious about it. One woman showed a lot of interest-said her husband’s really into it, made his own GO board, plays online all the time, and she gave us his number to contact him.

Maybe we can start a GO club-meet every Saturday in a coffee shop somewhere or in a park, or on the beach.

Cherries are the rubies of summer. We bought a bag today because they’re cheaper in June than in May, and sweeter too.  They always remind me of picnics and bright plastic beach balls and salty driftwood and pebbly shores, and traveling. I was expecting the Safeway to sell BC cherries, seeing as we’re in BC, but no, they sell cherries from Washington. These are not the golden-blush cherries they sell in little bundles as a treat, these are the blood red scarlet cherries where you bite into them and the juice dribbles down your chin.

I find it ironic that in Alberta you can find BC cherries as an early summer staple, but in BC they come from further south. It’s like they export all they grow and save none for themselves-I wonder at the value of doing that. Can you imagine the flavour of cherries locally grown?

The very thought reminds me of when I went to the Farmer’s Market in Old Strathcona and bought a basket of fresh peaches. They were huge-as big as my two palms together, grown at a farm somewhere just outside of Edmonton, and thoroughly delicious.

Like most fruit, cherries put me in a summer mood, and I find myself thinking impossible things again and my mind starts to drift and dream under the hot golden sun.

I have confirmation of my new job now. I will be starting on Monday. It will be nice getting full time hours and a decent wage.

There is still a lot going on for us to get settled. We have finally managed to unpack some of our stuff now that we know we will be staying at Andrew’s for an extended period of time (we are planning on taking over the lease) We are still trying to get a rhythm down however.

One of the biggest issues I think we have been having with the settling process is pacing ourselves. There are many things we both want and need to do, but we have been exhausting ourselves trying to get them done. As such, we haven’t had much in the way of free time, and when we do we just collapse in place.

We still have lots of things to do, but we are both working on taking time for us, creating more of a plan so we can make sure we have time for us.

~Dusk||

I  have my bike up and running again. I love being able to take to the road, coast down a hill and let the wind cause jackets and hats to billow. So tomorrow will be “ride to work: take two.”

On other news, I have a new job – back to being a phone jockey. I will be starting as soon as some leg work is done. With any luck that will be Wednesday. It will be nice to be doing work I actually want to do.

I am looking forward to taking the bikes out on more of a ride. With any luck we will be hitting one of the trails come Saturday – not sure which way we will take it yet. Hopefully we will get some photos, and I will figure out how to add them to the posts.

~Dusk||

on break today, there was a young crow that couldn’t fly yet, that wandered behind a garbage bin and got stuck. It parents were making a huge fuss and racket as one of my coworkers went to help, and managed to shoo it out.  And as he’s walking back to us, one of the young crow’s parents comes swooping at my co worker’s head, and only barely pulls up at the last minute. We all thought this crow was going to take a swipe at him.

Turns out there was a pair of young ones, twins possibly, who proceeded to sit docilely on a ledge by the garbage can while their parents watched/scolded from above.

plus, got off work early and the wharf was lively with mimes and music and colour. And living statues.

Bought ourselves bikes, very cool bikes actually,…and lights and helmets and backpacks and locks…no PST on them because it’s considered a form of transportation, yay. Thinking we’re going to get a lot of use out of them, thinking we’ll use them to get to work and back, for the many trails that snake all over the island. Took the Goose into downtown to test them out, and oh, it felt good to glide again. Stunning view of the Gorge against the setting sun.

We’re all set to bike into work the next day, and we do get halfway there. Sweat is just pouring off us, it’s a bright, blazing day, and I have a stiff, burning ache in my legs and a dull ache in tender places that are not used to the feel of a bike. Dev’s pedal suddenly goes clattering off as we’re on the trail, we need a wrench to fix it, and, hey, we didn’t bring one. So we end up walking the rest of the way to work, we get there drenched with sweat, and walking home again in the deep dark. But it was a very mild, very warm evening (still 28 degrees when we got off work) so that helped. We had ice cream when we got back, and then I went and crashed.

I think these bikes will work out just fine.