Dragon Boat Festival 2011

The superheated sidewalk dancing days of a west coast summer have largely not lived up to the promise offered up by Environment Canada in late Spring ... but there have been moments of brilliant clarity.  Our annual dragon boat festival was one of those weekends that stretch out forever and just as in your childhood, leave the kiss of watermelon and splash of golden sun in your memories.

Surrounded by thousands of paddlers and spectators, this dog's only concern was a log sized stick and whether
his owner would throw it again.  And again. And again ...

The Nanaimo festival is also well known for one other thing that sets it apart from other festivals .. a theme, with this year's being Caribbean.  Teams are encouraged to get behind the theme, decorate their tent, dress up and enjoy the fun.  This particular Victoria team has obviously been planning for a long time .. the entire team dressed and paddled in these outfits on Saturday.   They're used to dropping jaws ... last year, they all showed up as Vegas showgirls.  This is one of the teams we raced in the final.

It's all about the drum.  Oh, and style.

The KVL team this year has not been consistent with the numbers of people who show up, mostly due to the fact that the paddlers all work at a health care facility - Kiwanis Village Lodge - and are on different shifts.  My steersperson, the team captain, would often disappear for a week as he fulfilled his obligations at work.  I remember one exceptionally calm night with barely a ripple on the water, I took a crew of only seven people out for their workout.  My coaching intentions were constantly changing due to the number of people in a boat.  I'd plan for vigorous training drills and race peices, only to find a minimum number of paddlers .. and my carefully laid out plans would go out the window.  Or I'd find practice called off at the dock because of too much wind.

Early Sunday morning, the promise of a bright day is playing peekaboo with the cloud cover.
This gives you an idea of what the docks look like during a well organized heat changeover. 
The Namaimo festival enjoys a reputation all along the coast as one of the better organized and laid out sites.

So it wasn't with a great deal of hope that I went into this year's Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival.  I was realistic with the team when I laid out expectations, noting that I was looking for personal bests, that we'd treat this like a practice.  We'd all concentrate on the things we had to work out and we went over them carefully .. as a collective team, as a row, as a 'pod,' and as an individual paddler, drummer or steersperson.

On the way out to Saturday's first race with Kelly at the helm.

The pictures I have here are mostly from the first race of the weekend, where I was watching from shore.   We were not a seeded team and came in third in that race, I think.  On the first day, teams are seeded, meaning that many teams such as our rec team come up against the more competitive teams .. it often makes for wins by large margins.  We look at factors such as our race times vs past known times to gauge how well we're doing.  And of course, we watch the times of all the other teams.  We did pretty much as expected on the first race, then we settled in for the afternoon race where we placed third, but shaved a whopping 12 seconds off our time from the morning .. a really unexpected and encouraging sign. 

Crossing the finish line in good form!

 Collective times from the first day are used to place teams into race divisions for Sunday, where the races are much more tightly contested.  There are no runaway wins .. all the races are hard fought alongside the other boats.  This is what racing is really all about.  When there is a team alongside your boat and hungry for a win, it gives you the push to come up with surprising results.  It was with some startlement that we found ourselves placed into the Gold Division, despite our placements on Saturday .. and not only that .. but seeded as the highest placing team within that category.

Rock on girls!

Our first race, we placed second, good enough to get us into the medal round for the afternoon.  The team was plenty excited at this point, since many of them had not raced for medals before.  Nerves were well quashed with a bit of shopping at the site and the now team tradition of poutine before a big race.  (Last year, I couldn't find part of the team as we were called to marshall for racing, only to find that they'd leisurely strolled away to get poutine and sit to take in the sights, sounds and racing.  So on the way to the start line, they were still gobbling down last bites of poutine and dealing with the adrenalin of  watching their coach explode, but not before turning blue in the face, then red, then purple.  They saved grace by winning and now its a funny page in their history books.  And a must do before a big race.)  It worked really well because not only did they shave 11 seconds off their morning race time, but won by so large a margin you'd have thought we were a Saturday seeded team.  There was much dancing and purchasing of drink tickets in the beer garden .. when I left many of them were slightly weaving and parading their first gold medals.  So once again .. they showed me how much heart they had and where it could take them. Well done, ladies. I'm sooo pleased.

Sunday morning site

More Wedding!

Ralph, Deb, Sam, DeeWynn .. if you want the original files for any of the photos, just let me know and I'll shoot them your way.

I posted a cropped version of this reflection photo, but I really liked the one with the two bridesmaids as well.

I tried not to take photos staged by the professional, but this one was endearing ...

... for this reason!  Isn't this an amazing tale of brides and grooms?

Debbie and Samantha share a giggle over a cigar
I have one with Jessica and  Charmain that's also good, but still need to work on removing
the catering semi-trailer from the background.  Really!  How could I miss that?

Beaverlodge

The treat about visiting small towns is that they're usually got some sort of landmark for which they are known.  That, and they are full of family.

The beaver in Beaverlodge with his toothy welcome

Mom loved all things Holstein and managed to incorporate cows and pigs
into her home décor.  This friendly lady meets you on the steps to
the wrap-around porch at the farmhouse.

Sweeping manicured lawns require hours of maintenance, happily put in on the back of a riding mower

The wishing well at the front of the house covers a cistern

Ian and Bruce share a laugh

Dad recounts the tale of being mistaken for Ralph's brother

He'll probably grimace at me for saying this, but I love Larry's smile.

Ian, Myranda, Ryan, Dad, MaryJane, Darren and Colton
I loved this old photo treatment.  Hope you like it too Ian.

Confession time:  I didn't take this photo and I'm not certain who everyone is.
I cleaned out my email inbox and Kelly had sent this to me. 
Centre left is Kelly, of course, and centre right is his beautiful daughter Trina.

Last picture of this post belongs to a family member I've decided to adopt since she looks
after my father on a near daily basis.  Kerri works at the Beaverlodge Motor Inn and
sees to it that he gets good meals served up with side dishes of sass.  Thanks, sis.

Gideon Homestead

The Northern Alberta trip contained a number of really terrific photographs  .. I just pulled 21 more from the files.  In order to not overly tax your download times, I'll break them up a bit.

This batch was taken around Ralph and Debbie's wonderful yard which had been accessorized with plenty of floral options for the wedding.  Debbie lacks a green thumb, she says, but I'm pretty sure she and Ralph have a handle on natural beauty.

This is the Gideon front porch with a view of the extensive deck

Just across the drive from the house sits the original Halcourt blacksmith shop.  This building oozes character
and it home to two litters of kittens and their mothers, including one very friendly cat who craves pets ..
but only if she can have them at the front door, thanks very much.

One basket of flowers .. two treatments.  This hanging arrangement was on the back of the blacksmith shop.

Ralph is plenty proud of managing to get his name on his farm address sign.  In rural areas, its often necessary
to have farms identified by a numbered address in the event that emergency vehicles need to find the place.

The sandbox and little red wagon create a warm vignette of childhood

The waterpump fountain creates a focal point in a shady area of the yard

Ralph and Debbie .. thank you again for the amazing time and the warm reception you gave us.  We felt welcome and included in all the activities over the weekend.  Debbie, I hope those shoes didn't leave lasting damage!

July Garden

I was out weeding my garden the other day and yes, that's probably momentous news, given how often I actually get to it.  Given a choice, however, between a vacuum or a lawn mower, dusting or weeding, you'll find me outside clipping, trimming, weeding and getting a tan.

I shot some pictures of my early July garden to share with you.  The lilies are just coming into bloom and I'm while a couple of the smaller varieties are showing off, I'm waiting for the Casablanca lily to fill the neighborhood with its gorgeous smells.  In the meantime, the double mock orange is the darling of the backyard.  Our balcony sits right above these two shrubs so we get the beautiful fragrance all day long.

Double Mock Orange
We really do get blue skies out here .. sometimes!

It's hard to clean up the yard when things look this beautiful.

The lily garden is my favorite flower bed.

The Hansa Rose is the queen of the lower garden this time of year.

This is our 'lower 40'

Interests

As I was going through some recent personal stuff for my mother, one of the things that struck me was that we often don't know the things that make other people squee with excitement, make them happy to watch or particpate in, the things that pique their interest or simply make them smile.

I thought I'd create an "I like" portion of my blog for those times when I'm lacking other creative drives .. something we can chat about or you can say to yourself .. "omg .. me too!"

I started googling images of something that makes me happy in the morning ... fun salt and pepper shakers.  I own none of these, but hey .. if you happen to need to send me something for oh, say .. my birthday or just because its Tuesday and you like me ... here ya go.  Any of these would make my day.

Some are nautical in nature, some harken back to my days on the farm, some are colorful .. a few are sleek and others just made me smile.

On the water

The last couple of weeks have been spent getting ready for the Nanaimo Dragon Boat Festival, which is, without a doubt, the nicest venue I've seen all in my years of padding -- and I've been doing it for a great number of years.  This festival, the KVL Kruisers are hosting Namaxsala mixed team out of Port Hardy and  Alert Bay ... if it turns out like other teams where I've participated in the hosting program ... this could turn into lasting friendships.  Its wonderful to travel to other venues and meet up with friends who you've not seen since the previous year.

In other dragon boat news, I rather thought Bruce was shitting me when he told me that William and Kate would be taking part in a dragon boat race.  After all, its a stroke that takes quite a long time to get right .. that, and Bruce is prone to pulling my leg -- oh hell, anyone's leg.  So yea, I call "bullshit" a lot.  It wasn't until my Aunt Sandy sent me a note that I checked in on the Royal tour and sure enough .. there they are. 

I'm impressed with how well Kate fits in wherever she goes ... doesn't seem to be 'trying' to be normal .. she just 'is.'  I'm also impressed with how much time in their schedule these two have made for ordinary things.  Should be a new huge group of monarchy enthusiasts after this visit.