We went to Gina and Matt’s wedding in the middle of the month – beautiful ceremony out at Eagle Rock Golf Course. It was set against a small lake with a fountain. There was beautiful weather over the ceremony. The reception was also beautiful, aubergines and grays covered the room with these wonderful centre peices – tall, thin glass vases with wood and little flowers hanging from the sticks. We danced up a storm.

All in all we are glad to be back in Edmonton, we are getting ourselves well on track. Victoria was a nice vacation, and did treat us well. It was just not what we wanted.

Tomorrow is packed with a museum trip – Something I have been really looking forward to for a bit now. I have heard nothing but good things about the Royal BC Museum, and it has been something we have put off seeing for a long time. We will also be seeing the 2 latest IMAX films – We figure we might as well see them all before our trip.

Thursday we plan on going to Parksville and Qualicum for the day. We have been up there twice since we have been on the island, and I find it stunning. Before moving to the island, I have only experianced lakes, and rocky beaches. I love having the opportunity to walk along the sandy shores, that strech for miles.

On Friday Rhian and Alan will be flying out. I am looking forward to seeing them again.

Closely linked is the tidbit that apparently Canadians have always loved to dance.

This is just a brief, sort of little river of thoughts instead of a nice thick thought-torrent. There’s not a lot of detail in this post, and I expect it will be expanded later, but I just wanted to jot some quick impressions about music in Canada.

West coast music tends to be gentle, an easy walk on the beach with the tide lapping your toes. East coast-Maritime-music tends to have in the beat the memory of waves crashing onto tall rocky shores, harsh seas and constant motion. Music from the plains is mixed, sometimes it’s pretty industrial, concrete cities stretching against big stormy skies, sometimes I feel a sway of wheat and grass in a strong wind. I think generally speaking, a lot of distinct music comes from the coasts, where people cluster and inspiration seems to be more directly influenced by the surrounding landscapes.

Victoria’s SKA fest is one of my favourites-there’s a lot of good mixing of musical styles, great jam sessions, and I can clearly see the influences in some bands; whereas other groups’ musical roots are more directly defined by what individual members bring to the gig.

Just a blurb, I will define this post better later.

~H

Today we finally had the chance to go out and enjoy the bikes. I am glad to find that we didn’t lose to much of what we had gained from the bikes last summer. We had little issue with the hills. This time last year we would have never been able to ride like we did today.

We were out biking for close to 4 hours. we ended up going down to the rocky beach down in Oak Bay and sat on the beach for about half an hour, before continuing down the scenic rout down to Ogden Point (where the cruise ship launch from) We ended up down on Fisherman’s Wharf and having this wonderful meal of fresh local fish and chips, while the harbour seals played just bellow us.

The Wharf itself is an interesting sight, wonderful fresh local fish can be bought to take home, or eaten right on site, whale watching and harbour tours launch from there as well. The character of the building at the wharf was amazing. there were some 30 “floating homes” of all different colour, size and shap. Some ranging from little bachelor sizes homes to a massive 2 floor home with the roff as a large balcony. Definitely a sight to see.

All and all, we spent about 4 hours in the lovely 32 degree weather biking around this beautiful island. It was a wonderful day, and a real treat.

Haven’t yet seen the sandcastle competition in Parksville yet, but the summer is still young.

I like the fact that this blog is both Dev’s and mine-we can each say what we want, and it’s cool.

Went wandering, and you should try ice wine gelato! Delicious stuff, made with real ice-wine.

We stumbled onto fresh fruit sorbets in 1/2 fruit shells when we were grocery shopping once,  and they’ve become one of our favourite treats. They’re so refreshing. I want to throw a party and have those fruit sorbets for a light lovely summery treat. I like them all but I think the lemon sorbet in the lemon 1/2 shell is one of my favourites.

…Also, boning up on dinosaurs again, and here’s an interesting link about pterosaurs.

http://naturalhistorymag.com/samplings/292036/sailing-ancient-seas

that website has some fascinating articles-at least I think so because it lets me explore my geek side a little bit. (I’m discovering I’ve always been big geek anyway, but I’ve kept that side of me quiet for a long time. What happens when I let the geek out? Oh the fashion nightmares….)

We saw one also, before, when we were playing Go on the peninsula. It was silent and smaller than I thought it would be. I almost missed seeing it because I thought it was a gull, there are so many that fly around, but it was darker, so then I thought it was a hawk, but then I saw its unmistakable “bald” head. Tres cool, because I’d heard there were a lot of them on the island, I mean, they even have a sightseeing package where you can walk along their known flight paths, but I hadn’t actually seen one prior to that. Reminded me of the vivid azure Peregrine Falcons that live on the roofs of some businesses in downtown Edmonton…not many people know THEY exist either.

On the UVic campus, they have all these domestic-looking and really cute bunnies, but I found myself comparing these adorable nibblers to the wild, long eared, long legged hares that range over Edmonton, and for some unfathomable reason I prefer those rangy boxing Alberta hares to the cute BC bunnies. I twitch whenever I think of that. Summer is ripening. May 1st was technically the first day of summer, we had no maypole, but there was no snow here;  we had strawberry milkshake pink and white cherry snow and  starry drifts of white daisies, and shocking electric purple violets clinging to drab cliffs. Now, the darker wild pink roses are starting to bloom, and hot orange and yellow flowers I have no name for, burning mini suns everywhere, and the leaves are turning a graphic glossy green, and all summer the blackberries will ripen and swell until they burst into crow-black, juicy berries to stain any mouth or stray fingers in the fall.

Storytellers have value. If they have the courage to use their voice, they really can change the world.

Every musician whose lyrics you never listened to, because you were caught in the beat, in  the cheery rhythms, every incomprehensible poem, abstract art piece, cubist painting, every dance, all these things matter. They are all stories, all songs, all art pieces, and performances and showcases, and lovely larger than life warm sustaining things; even the crazy hippy wailers, strumming their one string guitars in the rain and mist, wearing  bright colours and lovebeads, and wonderful hats, they have something to say too.

I can hardly believe that once, I used to try to make myself to be nothing, small, insignificant, when that’s so clearly just not where my heart lies.

Drew is actually the only long distance relationship I have ever really had. Then again, we have always spent a good deal of time on the phone–that makes things easier for sure. It sounds like he is having a great time, and congrats to him for making it work. Hopefully next trip Kate and I will be able to join him.

Been a year since we moved here and we’ve both come so far and been through so much. I think there is much still to go though as we let go of the shackles of our old lives and see that we are stronger for it.

My view is full of green and fresh scents and flowers and beautiful sky. I can see layers of blue hills in the distance, I can smell the sea.

I’m enjoying this easy life with Dev, walking along a beach, or down the throat of the Goose, or just meandering wherever the road takes us, it’s good we have each other.

I went into the film not expecting much. Not looking at the source material before hand, I expected a campy psuedo-parody of the comic genre. Instead I saw a wonderful deconstruction turn into a great comic movie.