Waves and Words

It's been so great seeing everyone's photos this week. I think cynthialord deserves a big round of applause for the awesome idea!

Our town is long and skinny, stretched out along the coast. So on one side, we have ocean; but on the other, there's forest. I went walking in the Beaver Lodge Forest Lands today and took a few pictures to share with you for "Where I Live" photo week. :)

I took Son3 and his friend into town to Discovery Pier today, which means giant ice cream cones for them - and a diet Coke for lactose-intolerant me! - and a stroll down the pier watching fishers at work. Or play. ;-)  They regularly catch 4-5 pound pinks and occasionally catch 30-40 pound Chinooks (or "Tyee" salmon, which is a Chinook or Spring over 30 pounds) right from the pier.

Here's a pic of the pier. You can see someone fishing patiently, and also the ferry that runs back and forth between us and a smaller island.

Two posts today cuz I was behind a day. (Oops.)

The last weekend of June, our town has an annual chainsaw carving competition called Transformation by the Shore. The creations from previous years are all over town, decorating storefronts and parks and yards. Here are a couple of this year's carvings:

When there's a really low tide, you can walk out to a reef. I went there this morning with Son3 and took a few pics to share with you. This first one is a Painted Anemone:

I'm supposed to be on #3 today, but alas, I was having internet issues yesterday. Maybe I'll post again later today to catch up. For now, here's a bit of an odd pic, but it'll give you a taste of how ubiquitous the ocean-love is around here.... Many of our traffic signs are surrounded by driftwood and tied to look like marine pilings. Some people may think that's a bit silly, but I love it! :)

From cynthialord  , a Daily Photo challenge -- post a picture each day this week to show your LJ friends where you live. I think this is a great idea! I've already seen some great photos today of where some LJ friends call home, and I'm looking forward to seeing more throughout the week.

I live on the east coast of Vancouver Island in BC. Here's a picture taken from the beach (a ten-minute walk from my house), looking across to the mountains on the mainland. This beach, with its treasures and smells and peace and storms, is my favourite thing about living here. My DD took this one.

 

I didn't want to do it. Every part of my being screamed that it was wrong. But I had no choice. I turned on the heat in mid-June! *gasp* I'm wearing a hoodie and jeans and slippers, and I'm cold. So I did it. But it's so not right. I mean, summer officially starts tomorrow! But our weather has been so crazy, I wouldn't be surprised to see snow one of these days. Hey, stranger things have happened....

You know when people say that? When they say stranger things have happened? This is what they're talking about (NOTE: not for the faint of heart... or stomach). Our province's most bizarre news story even made international headlines. I'm not even gonna speculate on this one. Very creepy.

I came across another less creepy but equally bizarre foot story from my part of the world. This one is just sad, really. Weird, but sad.

Hmmm. I don't suppose I'm helping promote my lovely province with this post. Hey, let's go to BC -- it's freezing there, and they have a foot fetish. Oops. There goes my future with BC Tourism. Seriously, though. You should come. It's gorgeous here! And we're very polite. (Oops again. Sorry tourism people.)

Come to BC this summer. I'll lend you a sweater. :)

In case you're curious, here's my current To Be Read pile. :)

Got any recommendations for books I should add to the pile?

My daughter and I spent two wonderful hours exploring the reef this afternoon. Wanna see some pictures?

Cross-posted from www.sharigreen.com.

A warning, dear readers: I’m about to climb onto a soapbox. I rarely do that, however, so I hope you’ll bear with me.

Recent tragedies in my small town have touched my life and broken my heart. They’ve also made me think much about community. Old John Donne had it right: no man is an island. We can’t do life alone. As my DH pointed out recently, our deepest human need is for community. (Sorry if I’m misquoting you, honey – I know it was something like that!) My point is simply this: we need each other.

I’ve often seen communities reaching out to help others in times of need and tragedy. And I’ve been the recipient of gracious acts of kindness myself. People are so often good at offering a needed helping hand. What we aren’t very good at is asking for one. Somehow we think we have to be independent, that asking for help makes us weak. It doesn’t. It makes us human.

I guess what I mostly want to say is this: keep reaching out. Keep watching for those who are stumbling under the weight of life’s difficulties, and walk with them. But if it’s you that’s stumbling, if it’s you that feels like you’re going under, tell someone. Say hey, life’s really rough right now and I’m having a hard time.

Sometimes we don’t know who to tell, or we just can’t bring ourselves to admit to our family or friends that we’re struggling. So tell a stranger. Pick up the phone and call a crisis line. In fact, why don’t you look up that number now and stick it on your fridge or doodle it on the front of the phone book, just so you’ve got it. There’s an organization for teens called Your Life Counts! that offers online help, too. Why don’t you check it out now? Bookmark it. Share it on Facebook. Equip yourself and your friends, so someday if you need help, you know where to find it.

Take care of each other. Take care of yourself.

Thanks for reading. Peace....

Does anyone have any recommendations for some great picture books? My nieces' birthdays are coming up (they'll be 2 and 4), but I'm pretty out of touch with PBs these days. Thanks for any suggestions!

My dog understands the concept of "take a bite", as opposed to "grab whatever food they're offering you and scarf it down". Such a well-mannered mutt....





And he loves watermelon, apparently. Ate the whole piece, one bite at a time. Funny dog.

1. I have the flu. Not the icky barfy flu, but the every-bone-in-my-body-hurts flu. Ouch.
2. I read through the whole ms of FC while lying on the couch today. Happily, there are not as many holes to fill in the ms as I'd anticipated. Yay! Perhaps tomorrow I will feel less ouchie and will fill some of those holes.
3. I read lurban 's A Crooked Kind of Perfect yesterday and loved it. Delightful!
4. I ventured all the way to the corner store for milk today, which seemed a very long journey indeed. However, it was worth the effort, all because I got to wear flip-flops and prove that spring is truly, finally here. :)
5. Feeling ouchie calls for comfort food, so I made bread pudding this afternoon and am eating some right now. I feel better already.

Yesterday, the dh, sons, and I went on a short road trip from our home on the east coast of the island to visit my daughter on the west coast of the island. Along the way, we saw a couple black bears, a bunch of deer, and a ton of these:

( more under cut )

(Cross-posted from www.sharigreen.com.)

... never apply mascara when you have the hiccups.

Never.

That is all.

Today there were Orcas... and I MISSED THEM! My dh saw them, right out from the beach where I saw the eagles yesterday. He zipped home to tell me, and I grabbed my youngest son and the binoculars and headed down there. We were too late. No action in the water at all. We hung out at the beach for a while anyway, cuz you know, it was the beach. I overheard a woman mention to someone that she'd heard there were killer whales down at Stories Beach (south of us). Coulda jumped in the van and raced down there, but I probably would've ended up chasing those whales all the way down Island and still never seen them. Oh well. Another time.... For now, this will do:

:)

I had good intentions. I headed out this morning for a timed training run. When my route took me down by the beach, I intentionally stayed away from the ocean side of the road so I wouldn't be tempted to stop and wander along the beach. But... (you knew there was a but, didn't you?) from my across-the-road vantage point, I saw four bald eagles resting on the beach -- three adults and a juvenile. So much for the timed run. Off I went to have a look. There was a seal carcass on the shore, but it was quite a ways from where the great birds were. Maybe they'd eaten their fill and were just doing the post-dinner, loosen-your-belt-and-kick-back-a-while thing before flying away. I had my dog with me -- he's a bird dog, but was infinitely more interested in the seal than the eagles -- so I kept back a good 50 meters or so. They just stayed put. Eyed my dog and me briefly, then ignored us. I watched for a while, then finished my run.

Doesn't matter that I blew my time today. (Like wldhrsjen3 was talking about the other day, sometimes you just have to say to heck with training schedules.) After all, if I don't stop to smell the roses -- or watch the eagles -- I'm kinda missing a really BIG point, don't ya think?

Okay, here's one more for your viewing pleasure... best part is Josh Duhamel's laugh at the end:


Ahahaha!

I'm getting back to work now, honest. No more surfing. Not me. Nope.

 

P.S. No, I can't say the title of this post five times fast. Can you?