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musings of mark since 2001

Yowsa. busy little morning at the Snug Cafe! A smattering of rain for an hour starting at five o’clock this morning, barely enough to keep the ground wet for an hour afterwards. Crippen Park overnight for the first time, good place to have a cup of coffee before the shops open.

Another little bit of rain later in the morning, again the ground is drying up quickly from the sun starting to peek out from behind the clouds. Plants are sure loving it, and just a little cooler too for those doing the projects around the house on Saturday so it’s all good.

Glad I got a swim in yesterday, you never know on the west coast when summer going to decide to go away and then grey skies are the norm, water is cold enough as it is and need that full on sun to warm up quick like coming out. Janice came down with me and she talked for a couple hours about her past, made for an interesting afternoon.

Now there’s a girl for me; “Elizabeth” got off the 8:15pm ferry and walked past where I was sitting on the dock of the bay and headed up the old path to Bowen Bay with a couple of other women following her, hoping she knew where she was going. She didn’t, and the directions given to the other two women with B&B reservations had them take an immediate, instead of waiting until Cardena Rd., right turn off the ferry. It was easy enough to point out where the road was to take the right, and they were on their way.

Elizabeth didn’t have any reservations though, and had set off for Bowen Island completely on a whim and asked me if there were any other places to stay other than where the other two were going, such as an inn. Explained that the first inn was still in the approval stage, and that the bed and breakfasts on the island were scattered all over, but we could go down the list on the Chamber web site and use my cell phone to find something.

Undaunted, she decided to see if the Cove House had anything available and so far hasn’t returned to The Pier. Hope to see her around the island tomorrow, first person I’ve seen in a long time skipping (yes, actually skipping!) in the rain not knowing where she was going to and where she would end up next.

It’s not exactly a warm summer evening, but still is nice sitting on the dock of the bay at Bowen Island. Between ferry landings it gets quiet enough to hear the people talking over at he government dock across the water and kids playing on the hillside behind.

Finishing off the last few days of the month in the van and back up to Valhalla for the long BC Day weekend coming up. There’s still a gap after that until the 15th starts another two week stint at a new place on Cates Hill. Thinking earlier with little brother number one it would be nice to fit another little road trip in there somewhere up to the Chilcotin using his vehicle this time but having just sold their house and moving now, seems unlikely at least in the immediate future.

Still have two weeks to fill then, so would be good timing for my latest client that has a larger site to put together (in English and French) to dump all their content on me.

Summer 2008 on Bowen Island is much sunnier than in recent years, something like fifty plus days without any rain which must be some kind of a record. The new old van doesn’t get a lot of miles on it, mostly just moving it from one parking spot to another. Sure is nice to have, real comfortable sleeping in it and for the house sitting gig I’m on at the moment am sleeping in it rather than the house itself, it’s just that much more comfortable.

Regardless of the weather, the community is having a summer much like all the others. There are kayak and sailboat races, book sales, wedding parties on the USSC Marina lawn and local musicians playing Sunday afternoons at the Bowen Island Marina. The annual garden tour and mid-summer “Bowfest” that includes a parade and events in the park for families of kids, swimming in the ocean and a fireman’s dance are repeated as usual.

Didn’t take long to save up enough for an inexpensive older van, version number one of the nomad mobile is a 1986 Ford E150 that came from the factory with a fibreglass roof for extra headroom along with a propane refridgerator and heater. The original fridge and heater have been taken out and using portable models instead, but the break-down table and fold out sleeping arrangements are intact and functional. It’s real nice to be able to stretch out at night when not house sitting, the Mazda Motel can get cramped after a few days.

The drive train is in pretty good shape for being over 20 years old: an oversize transmission attached to a “straight six”, one of the real work horse engines Ford produced. Good tires on the back, fronts will need replacing before winter and the starter motor has seen better days but still manages to crank it over with some TLC and a prayer. There is some rust of course, it’s a Canadian vehicle driven on winter roads so inevitable but not so bad that things are falling apart and this is just van version one so if I get a couple years out of it will be happy.

This evening I’m parked almost at the top of a hill near the edge of an ecological reserve on Bowen Island, the sun has made it’s path across the sky and the scenery is much nicer than at Cates Hill where I was house sitting earlier in the day. Was to be about a two week gig, but their vacation has been cut short with a death in the family and the house will be filled with relatives tonight. The same house sit may continue and at any rate they are paying for the entire time anyways wether there or not, which is really nice of them.