Along the Merry Way....

Poor little Tony has been told and teased multiple times that he looks like a piglet. Unfortunately, this has sunk very deeply into his impressionable little pysche. Anyways, the boys had been studying falcons and other birds of prey, so Jane decided to take them to a local birds-of-prey sanctuary, where they could watch the falcons and bald eagles swooping around. When they arrived, Louis, the smaller of the two boys, was ecstatic. He is naturally very curious and spent hours investigating the critters in the pond out back, drawing birds, and voraciously learning as much as he could about local wildlife. Tony, however, was petrified. He had read that bald eagles eat small animals, which includes small rodents, which probably includes little-boys-who-closely-resemble-piglets. Tony is small and round and very cute, and his nose is slightly upturned, but he very definitely looks human, and eagles are smart enough to tell the difference between piglets and cute little boys. Nevertheless, ...

I moved from house-sitting in a creepy old house with a sordid history of crime and a high-tech alarm system (another story), to a cozy apartment on the edge of Fernwood, the funky village within Victoria. Fernwood, as I mentioned before, is the hang-out spot for artists, musicians, and Bohemians. Community gardens are a source of food for the people who live here, and the musical gather in the gardens to play together on Sundays. I've moved in with a potter - a wonderful, adventure-loving, and peaceful girl. Our place is filled with clay mugs, pie-plates, plates, vases, jugs and anything else that can be whipped up on a potter's wheel. Here are some pictures of the "pink snowstorm" or "cotton candy trees" in Victoria: This is for you Mary and Will - the street is right next to my home: The Fernwood Inn: The Belfry Theatre in Fernwood: Funky Victoria architecture: Craigdarroch Castle (a little fairy-tale castle on a nearby hill): A...

“Think that it's fun, that you're guided, and that all is well. Think that there's time, that life is easy, and that the best is yet to come. Think that the reasons that elude you will one day catch up, that the lessons that have stumped you will one day bring joy, and that the sorrows that have crippled you will soon give you wings. Think that you're important, that you cannot fail, and that happiness always returns. And think that you're beautiful.” ― Mike Dooley

Last year at this time, my former fiancé and I had recently gone separate ways. Feeling pretty grief-stricken, I decided to do something constructive: Operation Spread the Love . I made valentines and gave them out to strangers - street bums, lonely-looking people, and anyone who appeared sad in downtown Ottawa. It was so much fun, that I decided to do it all over again here in the new and lovely city of Victoria on Valentine’s Day this year. It's a lot easier on the laid-back West Coast! I gave out almost two dozen of them within a very short time, and people glowed and laughed and thanked me! One lady was a bit defensive at first, thinking I was targeting only lonely-looking people, but she thawed a bit when I said they were for anyone! Another couple chased me down afterwards and asked me why ? So I explained that it was a tradition to Spread the Love a little bit. Another ricketty old man, sitting alone, was really happy to get one, but only after I assured him that there was...

I was walking down the street today and hit a wall of perfume! Flowers! Growing on February 1st :) It made me love you even more, Victoria :) Actually, they started blooming on January 1st, to be more precise. You know it's Victoria when......double decker buses drop you off closer to your home just because...it's closer to your house. Flowers bloom almost all year round. You can look at the mountains of Washington across the strait and clamber onto a tall ship if they invite you on board. People play keyboard in the park or double-bass on the beach just for kicks. There is always someone more oddly dressed than you. Elizabethan homes with stained glass windows! Veggie gardens and obssessive-composting everywhere. Little mountains poke up throughout the city, shaking off the homes near the top, hard-core rock-climbers and joggers still clinging to the top. You can sit by the ocean and have a chat with an inquisitive harbor seal. It's the abode of healthy neo-hippies...

Well, several people have been asking lately that I tell them about the swing-dancing here. The specific style is called Lindy-Hop, which originated in Harlem, New York, and involves a pulsing foot-work that is almost primal. The dance is upbeat and fun, and the dancers tend to be upbeat and cheery too. You can't help being a bit bouncy and happy when you spend several hours a week dancing to Big Band music :) The dance itself is all about connection between partners: sending and receiving subtle messages so that you have effortless transitions between moves. Then there are the aerials, or “air-steps”, which means lifting, jumping, and being hurled in the air. This is terrifically fun and involves a lot of hilarity when things go wrong! We usually try to have "spotters" (people to catch) just in case anyone slips when working on the flips! Here are pictures of some of them: Fancy Dip: The Frankie Flip: The starfish: Once you develop a taste for swing-danc...

Well it has been a while since I posted! I decided to try my luck in the lovely, funky city of Victoria until my money ran out. Here, I have had so many adventures that I'll have to write a book about it at some point :) The first few weeks I lived in a boarding house that would have been inspiration for a Dickens novel. My fellow in-mates (as I fondly think of them) were for the most part completely crazy, and I arrived once to find the police rummaging about the place and investigating a theft. At some point or other, I was pulled aside by almost every boarder, who warned and gossiped against each other: "Don't trust Bill," or "Never leave your door unlocked or Nancy will get in," and "Never make a deal with Tom." People's food was going missing, and at least one person was well, how to put this politely.....not entirely trustworthy, so I rigged up an alarm system for my bedroom door (I was quite proud of myself) to prevent against theft. ...