Life's a Stitch

The local Hotel Bellwether describes its surroundings:

The Bellingham area has an embarrassment of natural riches, and it’s all about location, location, location. In a single day it’s possible to beachcomb, wander a rainforest, take in a glacier, and still make it to town for fresh-from-the-boat seafood.

After a morning of torrential rain, it cleared enough for us to hike the rain forest, bringing back memories of our North Vancouver trails. We got deep enough into the woods for that luxurious quiet you seldom find near the city. No sounds of vehicles, planes, or even barking dogs, just total silence.

The trees were covered in their mossy coats.

The mushrooms were thriving.

Tiny ones in a stump’s notch looked like a miniature fairyland.  Notice the penny placed for scale.

Damp leaves have their own beauty. I’ve sold both my spider web/leaf paintings and I found leaf models to create new ones.

The chill of the autumn afternoon was perfect for cooking soup.

 Yellow Curry Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

3 T olive oil

2 potatoes sliced thin
2 peeled tomatoes chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 quartered onion
7 carrots
1 or 2 zucchini
1T grated fresh ginger
Curry flavour: 1t hot curry powder or 1 T mild curry powder or equivalent curry paste

2qts chicken broth

1 can coconut milk

Procedure:

Sauté veggies and spices in the olive oil until it just starts to brown.

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until veggies are very soft.

Either blend w/ immersion blender or use a regular blender.

Add coconut milk and heat on medium low until hot enough to serve.

Makes about 4 qts.

We usually served it with scoops of cooked ancient grains.

 

 

Years ago we bought a vacation condo, just over the border in the state of Washington; about 26 years ago. As per advice we received prior to purchasing a vacation property, it has not realized a substantial increase monitarily over the years, but the value has been in the experience.

It always felt like the trees lining the community of Sudden Valley's driveway served as a filter for life's burdens. Leave your troubles at the entrance and pick them up when you leave; the time in between being somewhat carefree. 

Located on Lake Whatcom, 12 miles long, there are two little beaches in our community named for their sun exposure in the morning and afternoon, AM and PM beaches. If ever asked to imagine my happy place, this was it:

The deer roam freely. When we were here shopping for a property with our realtor, he jokingly commanded "Queue the deer," and sure enough out pranced a mom with two speckled fawns. Yesterday on our walk around the smaller lake, we spotted eleven of them. 

Made up of seven units we became friends with the other owners and Camp Heatherbrook has watched as the children have grown. One unit is now on its second generation of family ownership, in turn enjoyed by their kids and grandchildren – third and fouth generations of Camp Heatherbrookers.  It's a magical place for the kids, allowing them the freedom to roam safely in nature. Our crew and the neighbours, 25 years ago:

We've assumed a variety of roles. Chuck, a former executive director of a summer camp was designated as director, and I as the relief cook at said summer camp, am the Heatherbrook cook. Time in the kitchen is enjoyable so its a role I've filled enthusiastically. Blogless Marsha's David is the property manager, extending his real role in life, and Marsha is my "disher," the camp term for sous chef and cleaner upper. She and I also fill the role of craft coordinator with our knitting and my painting, both of us currently working on shawls, Marsha, an Easy Pie Wedge shawl and me, a Drachenfels, utilizing long stashed 100% cashmere laceweight yarn.

Last week was was Blogless M's birthday, and bouillabaise was on the menu. The other Heatherbrook campers joined us for Pavlova birthday cake.

As we will soon be moving to our new house, close by, but back on the northern side of the border, the time has come to think about giving up our share in Camp Heatherbrook. A wonderful place, it might be time though, to let someone else have a chance to enjoy it.

 

 

Warning: this post has formatting issues beyond my control. Typepad's numbering system gets messed up once you insert a picture. I give up trying to fix it. Apologies.

Years ago I managed the positive mental health aspect of a public school system continuing education AKA lifetime learning AKA edutainment program. I'm a firm believer that you never stop learning and should benefit by the acquisition of knowledge, intentional or not. Well, this major renovation has been an educational opportunity par excellence. Granted it's a course in First World Problems.

What I've learned to date:

1. It's difficult to keep track of our stuff given that it is in storage in four five locations. A tarped stored vehicle counts as a storage unit.
2. A contractor's approach to the buying process is different from mine. Example: you are taken to a plumbing fixture supplier with no visible price tags and told don't worry, you get our discount. Then the estimate arrives. I would much prefer to be told the price of items in advance and shop accordingly.
3. The budgeting process in the building world is much different from the non-profit universe, where I spent 39 years of my life. In my professional role I used to write multiple page grant applications worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, so my hackles were up at an estimate that was entitled "proposal." Beware the nine page "proposal" for low voltage electrical items, which were budgeted at $4,000, and came in at $13,000. Really? 
4. It's bad enough that we don't know where items are in storage, but when Chuck wakes up unsure of his location… We have stayed in eight locations since the end of May. OK I'll give the guy a break. Here are some recent photos of our stay in West Vancouver, apartment/kitty sitting for our Camino Pal, Denise. The first is the Capilano River shrouded in the smoke of BC's forest fires:

Sunset at Park Royal Mall on our way for a Five Guys burger:

Watching the ships go by from Denise's balcony. Who knew that Disney cruise ships, when leaving port, sound horns that play "When You Wish Upon A Star" ?

          5. You can teach an old dog new tricks AKA maybe it is possible to outgrow cat allergies. Here is C sharing some kitty lovin'. His words: take a picture because you may never see this again. She was an easy cat to love. Plus that crystal kitty litter makes life with a feline a pleasant, non-stinky experience.

          6. "On the fly" costs money. When a builder suggests that it's easy to make adjustment during the building process rather than planning ahead,      someone's got to pay for it, one guess who?

         7. There are bound to be mistakes. Expensive mistakes. So many decisions concentrated in a short period of time. The house was framed, but we    didn't note the window placement. We bit the bullet and agreed to pay for a new larger window so I could see out one side of the house. 

         8. No house doesn't mean no stash. We creative types still manage to amass supplies despite no place to put them. Yarn, art materials, they fit in a Rubbermaid. But a woodpile? C did a good job of building a shed and sealing away his wood stash in preparation for our move. But during our recent stay in West Vancouver I noticed weatherbeaten boards occupying a place next to our car. So much that it required a special trip to the woodshed, an hour each way, for storage. West Vancouver was paradise for a beachcomber.

         9 . Denial doesn't work. How many of you told me that building projects never come in on time? You are correct. I really really believed that we      could be in our house for a family Christmas. Magical thinking that was. We're working on January.

       I'm not complaining, some life lessons are harder than others, but I know they turn out well in the end.

 

A double entendre, what could this post be about? Flavours or colours?

The picture gave it away, it's about the colour, blending red and yellow. When we're together, daughter Mari, cousin Lene and I take time to do online painting tutorials. In Calgary we did a fall scene, mixing a variety of proportions of red and yellow, choosing a spot for a light background and adding a variety of tree trunks. 

When I showed it to my friend, Denise, who we met on the Camino, she pointed out that we had passed that scene while hiking. She showed me a photo she had taken in Spain and sure enough there was a resemblance. I thought I was painting the tutorial subject, and adding a bit from my imagination, but what I added was a treasured experience buried in my memory. 

Denise is currently on a part of the Camino Portugues, that C and I did last year. This year we've had to stay close to home while the house is under construction, but after two consecutive years of Camino walking, it felt as though something was missing. We've remedied that with plans for a shorter hike in New Zealand in the fall, and Denise and I are planning the Canadian version of the Camino together in June, 400 km. 

 

Last fall I wrote about the animals we encountered while walking the Camino de Santiago Portuguese route.

Our current lifestyle, hopping here and there, leaves no room for pets of our own. Although we loved our animals dearly, there is a freedom that comes with not thinking about getting home for the dog, or who's on late night walk duty. It's sort of like loving your children, but realizing there will be no more of your own. In our year of drifting though, some special creatures have played a role in our lives. 

This is a very pregnant Pepper, a Belgian Shepherd, close to her due date. She was the house dog at the very interesting Air B&B where we stayed near our construction project during its framing stage. One day we woke up to find that there were now 14 Belgian Shepherds occupying the house, equalling weightwise, about a peck and a half of Pepper puppies.

My son-in-law commented that they looked like a drawer full of socks.

The other residents were ten week old kittens:

That accommodation included 100 blueberry bushes, in season, where you could pick and eat to your heart's content. There were equal quantities of raspberries, strawberries and peas. 

Besides the human actors on our most recent day of work on set, there were two dogs. I wonder what they were getting paid? This one deserved a bonus for personality.

And now we're kitty sitting dear Miso, while her mistress is trekking on the Camino Portugues.

That is one easy going little cat.

 

 

Vancouver is known as Hollywood North, as the Canadian dollar and landscape variety lend itself to reasonable film production. Within the Vancouver area production companies can shoot city scenes to rural settings within a half hour drive at a 25% discount as compared to the US dollar. 

When I retired I was asked what I was going to do? Many people told me of my potential to work as a consultant in the nonprofit field, given my years in management. Retirement means no work I'd reply. But, lo and behold, work in some form or  another, seems to find me. I've done some helping out other non-profit managers and I've sold my pantings and taken on an occasional commission. The one I wasn't prepared for was the work Chuck and I have secured in the film industry as skilled extras.

There is a demand for extra work here in Vancouver. Paying higher than minimum wage, it's an interesting way to spend a 12 hour day and the food is fantastic. Possessing a skill in demand, doubles your pay rate and currently the demand is for real artists to act as vendors at craft fairs. The beauty of this is that both C and I can work at the same time, he as a woodworker and me with my watercolour art. I understand the craft fair thing in the wholesome American greeting card company movies for which we've been hired, but this last one was for a science fiction TV show, premiering this fall. 

We're getting used to the drill. Show up at your call time, sign in, hit wardrobe and makeup, eat brekkie, set up your booth and report to holding until you're called for filming. We recently had a 15 hour day with not one minute of filming, it was all eating and hanging out. The days usually top out at 12 hours, and include two meals, snacks whenever you want, and most of the time spent socializing with interesting people including a fair number of knitters. 

We have just been booked in for our 6th film shoot.  Here are some examples of our setup:

Look closely, the entire process results in a blurry glimpse of us and maybe our artwork:

It's given me an appreciation for the complexity of film production. And I thought Taking My Parents to Burning Man was a complicated process.

I guess we're moonlighting, retirement being our first job. Literally moonlighting. Last night we arrived home under the light of a 1:30a.m. moon. Not a bad thing.

This house building stuff comes with its own learning curve. So many items, so many explanations needed. Slow closing telescopic toilet seats are a selling feature. Who knew? All it means is that the lid fits around the bottom so the seat isn't exposed in any way when closed. Couldn't they have come up with a better word?  

We've lived out of a suitcase since the end of May, housesitting, staying with friends, Air B&Bing, visiting children. We're limiting our days south of the 49th parallel due to US rules. On this continent anyway. Did you know that if you stay beyond a limit of days prescribed by the federal government and individual states you can become a resident for tax purposes? Do you know how they count the number of days? You might think that an easy task, adding up the days over the border that you checked on a calendar. Nope. The US government counts the number of days present in the current year plus one third of the days you were there last year plus one sixth of the days from two years ago. A formula only a government bureaucracy could think up. It requires an Excel spreadsheet. 

I do like being close to our project, not always possible. This past weekend we even had a picnic in our bedroom:

Mmmmm Trader Joe's Bacon cheddar cheese.

Here you can get an idea of our progress:

Before:

Current:

Note all that fresh new wood.

This is what we had to replace on all three levels:

But that's all behind us now.

Off to see the world, there's such a lot of world to see

We're after that same rainbow's end, waiting 'round the bend,

my Huckleberry friend,

Moon river and me.

A very romanticized view of our current situation, those lyrics. Two drifters, not exactly seeing the world, but lots of the Northwest, while our house is nearing the halfway mark in its rebuild. Our time has been filled with so much good stuff, the biggest being daughter Mari and KC's wedding in beautiful Canmore. AB, after a three year engagement:

More to come: living out of a suitcase (three months down, three and a half to go), the house before and during photos, life as artists on two more movie sets, a new painting and at long last, a completed Taize scarf just in time for fall.  It won't be so long in between posts. I promise. 

A sudden thought startled me awake at 3:00 a.m. Oh no, where is my garden angel? The one at the house in the rain forest, who for 18 years, protected our periwinkle, iris and bamboo. The guardian angel that watched over a sweet sixteen party, our games of bocce and the white tented wedding rehearsal dinner. She witnessed painful conversation while we sat on the Allan block wall, out of earshot of the kids and Gracee romping all crazy doglike in the grass or bunny hopping through the snow.

The next morning:

"C, did you remember to take the garden angel when we moved?" 

"No," he replied, a panic inducing simple two letter answer.

Those two letters turned me into a woman on a mission. A rescue mission. So off I went on a sunny day determined to recover a small, but significant part of our former life.

Stealth would be required, good thing it was Sunday when the construction crew was nowhere to be seen. Are you kidding me? The construction crew seemed to have given up quite some time back. What a mess:

As I got out of the car, I spied across the street neighbour, J. Within seconds we were accomplices; two women on the same mission. Nobody was going to mess with us.

"Anything else you want while you're here?" 

"My hostas." Some from our previous house, making them thirty years old when I met their acquaintance. Who knows how old they really were? How many houses they had seen?

"OK, you get the angel and I'll bring over shovels and a pot." 

First glance revealed no angel. Then I spied the tip of a wing protruding from the periwinkle. A slight tug and here she was, green with moss, but all in one piece.  I would have taken her wingless. In fact, when I arrived back home, C offered to pressure wash her. No, I said, I like her mossy accumulation of experience. 

In total, we rescued the angel and five hostas. J egged me on and we actually attempted a Japanese Maple heist and, although we really wanted to try, we left the fifteen foot tall palm trees. That's what neighbours are for. To help preserve physical proof of the memories we shared in a now rapidly changing neighbourhood. Me, because we left, her because she remained, staying in one of the last houses standing on the corner of Canyon and Cedarcrest, in the rain forest.

Mission accomplished.

 

It was a good thing that I scheduled the Chinese brush painting for earlier in the month (my posts have been a week or two late), because the latter half was moving mayhem. How did we open so many boxes while at the house for such a short period of time?  And if we acquired nothing while there, how is it that I had to buy an additional 20 moving boxes? It's Murphy's law of moving house, I suppose.

Now we're settled in back in North Vancouver for a brief while. It's strange being closer to the city again, in the midst of the turbulence of ongoing construction and traffic. We are staying close to where we lived when the kids were little, but the small nearby shopping centre, framed with woods and mountains, is being transformed to a community of high rise apartments. One surprise was that our previous house in the rain forest has been issued a stop work order due to permitting issues, or lack thereof. So there it sits, stripped naked and at a standstill. Very sad.

On a more positive note, our current house has received all necessary permits and deconstruction begins on Monday.  CONstruction begins in under a month. Believe it our not C and I are are still happy and grateful to be involved in this all encompassing retirement project. Ask me again in December when our builder told us we'd be putting up a Christmas tree. The project foreman commented that we should listen closely to what he said, not that we'd be moving in by Christmas, but that we'd be decorating a tree. Hmmm.

For balance I ended the period just how I began, bookending the chaos with a weekend painting class. This one was of Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Provincial Park.