Life's a Stitch

…well maybe not all the rain, which wouldn't be a good thing. Taking a break from the Christmas sunshine in California stories, to report on our break from the rain in beautiful British Columbia. When we moved to Canada, 32 years ago, people asked us why we would choose to relocate to such a cold Canadian climate? They weren't familiar with BC's lower mainland temperate rain forest weather, similar to the Seattle and Portland areas. We wanted to live in a place where generally, precipitation didn't have to be shovelled.

I heard an interesting simile on CBC (Canada's public radio), that people in BC are like ants. When it is rainy, they walk in straight lines. When the sun suddenly shines, they come out in droves and scatter. Our neighbourhood is located in an area where most streets lead to forested mountain hiking trails. Within minutes of a sun break, dozens of folk appear, generally oriented toward one trail or another. I can understand the lone person, noticing the change in light, but there are often small groups. I need to discover how to get on that text group, those who are not at work and are able to hoof it with little advance warning. 

Really, though, I don't mind walking by myself, listening to the birds or an audio book. Boys in the Trees, Carly Simon's autobiography, is my current walking partner. Complete with background music, I highly recommend it. My other walking interest is photography, in search of painting subjects. Here is today's favourite, which reinforces how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful area that it includes scenes like this within blocks of our house:

Back to California in the next post.