Canadianized

If, like Ralph and Debbie, you've traveled to Nanaimo and spent a few days with us, you'll likely have met our friends Cécile and Richard, whom Bruce affectionately calls "the Dutch Kids," despite the fact that Richard wears an Old Dutch cap given to him for his birthday a few years past. 

While both are incredibly nice people, Cécile represents all those things that you want to be when you make up your resolutions at New Year.  Active, a good cook, a thrifty person, and quite beautiful, she is a 'granola,' sworn to making us all conscious of the small things we can do to safeguard our planet for the future.
 
Richard himself is quick to laugh at himself or at you, and his grin lights up the room.  He's bent on becoming a redneck and so we encourage him in these endeavors, because .. as former Albertans .. we have familiarity with the subject, and can offer opinions with some authority.  As of this writing, Richard is still attempting to bag his first bear.   An environmental engineer dedicated to cleaning up the planet, he shares Cécile's tendency to granolaness.

This year marked their third in their new country, so they tossed a party on the property they've been lucky enough to rent.  It's a sunny beach home that is a bit worn at the edges and the large sunroom lets in rain during the winter months, but it has charm. Dutch doors!!  Very appropriate for these two.  And the scenery is always interesting.

Wooden clogs or small boats?  Richard's shoes are well worn, either way.

Our invitation arrived via email with this bit of fun attached

Bruce and I both attended the party Saturday evening and were fortunate enough to be invited again the next day to kick back and help them clean up the leftovers from party night.  It was certainly our pleasure.  I took lots of pictures to show you that, with enough money or luck, you might also be able to live like this.

This rooster was given to Bruce by Doug for a Stampede party we threw;
it made its way back for some other occasion, and now -- regifted again --
sits as a welcoming sentinel in the front of Richard and Cécile's house.

Foxglove to the side of the house brighten up a concrete retaining wall

Roses bask in the sun and heat at the front of the house.

The transition from side yard to back yard takes you across a footbridge that crosses a small
pond home to an impressive collection of water lilies.

There is nothing quite like a relaxing glass of wine
while watching the water

The shoreline immediately below the yard is partially theirs, partially public access to the ocean. These bushes hide a
family tossing a stick for their dog and enjoying a picnic on the beach.  You can pick up loud chatter from below when the
wind is right, although normal conversational levels cannot be overheard

On a clear day, you can see the mainland quite clearly.  There are so many shades of blue here, its hard to name
or even count them all!

The sun brings out the boaters and Sunday afternoon was exceptionally nice .. sailboats, pleasure craft, speed boats,
fishing boats .. we saw them all.

Although the fawn that ran through the partiers on Saturday
evening was on his own business, these little guy was hoping
that we'd take our eye off the table for just a few minutes.

Paddlefest 2011

The last couple of weeks have seen me out on the water working with my team to get them ready for racing weekends.  Saturday was Paddlefest 2011, which is a fundraiser for breast cancer, and also a warmup for the big festival on July 10th weekend.

The KVL team was terrifically undercrewed with only 16 paddlers, but we looked upon the day as an opportunity to get in racing practices and by the end of the event, we had a much more seasoned crew who are eagerly anticipating the two-day festival.

PFDs and club paddles are provided for racing crews.

 

This is the crew that will be using the boat after we dock.
Switching in and out of the boats quickly is an art form in itself.

The boat in the forefront is one of the many cancer survivor teams .. flagrant use of wild pink is encouraged!

We bring our own tents for small festivals like this and get chummy with our neighbors

KVL Kruisers (the team I coach) marshalling for races.

The view from the seat behind the drum.
This was taken on our way out to the last race of the day

Ferdi

We received some sad news last week upon our return home from Alberta ... Ferdi had a stroke on Tuesday and passed away on Thursday.

When talking to my friends about my mother in law, I'd sometimes describe her as the original militant feminist, which was not true, but she was the first woman I actually recognized as a feminist .. and she changed my life in that regard.  My own parents taught me to stand up for things I believe in and to stand up for others .. Ferdi taught me to stand up for myself simply because I was a woman.  She'd had a rough time growing up as the daughter of an poor immigrant farmer and she painted some rather vivid pictures of growing up in the cold and wintry Peace Country. 

I first met her when I was sixteen and she was a mother worried about what kind of situation her son and I might get into.  That was Ferdi .. there was concern for him, but also for me.   She was not an interfering woman in our marriage .. she left us to work things out for ourselves.

She taught me the delight of a Scrabble game hard fought and won ... and how to lose graciously at the hands of a much wilier woman.  Oh, I got my own back, many times .. but the thing was, she was always proud of me for beating her.  I loved that game because of her.   Lol .. "medical terminology" .. I still think she cheated.

She made me welcome in her family and we spent wonderful holidays .. the Christmas jigsaw puzzle that the whole family worked on, the relaxed atmosphere, the afternoon nap or quiet time with a book.  Her fried chicken was wonderful .. well, except for the time she tried to kill us with glass in the gravy.  *wink*

She loved to play cards and I recall her exact vocal pitch with the word "gimme" when she finally nailed down her winning rummy hand and wanted a card off the top of the pile.  She was fiercely competitive in a fun way.

I remember the time I first heard her use the f-bomb and I almost fell off my chair laughing.  I'd probably known her for a dozen years at that point.  She really didn't like that paperboy.

Oh, how proud we all were when she graduated from the University of Alberta .. she'd taken up womens studies after she retired from nursing at the age of 65.  We shared a love of books, although our reading material often differed.  She could always recommend something topical and current.

There are lots of things that I recall including the soft grey hair that always seemed to have a willful style of its own, the motherly concern, driving skills that truly made you want to hide in the back seat and her sense of style when it came to dressing.

We'll miss you, Ferdi.  I hope, wherever you are .. there's a Scrabble game going and you get to lay "quizzes" across a triple word score.

Edit:  today, her obituary was posted in papers and I think it was beautifully written, so I'm sharing it here as well.  If you click on it, it will open larger for easier reading.

Elaine

While I was in Northern Alberta, I bid farewell to my mother.   All of us kids and grandkids in the area, along with Dad and the rest of us who'd come along for Samantha's wedding, got together on the rambling deck of their house and shared our memories and photographs.  There is one of Ian I'm dying to share .. preferably on a 6 ft poster frame when it would be most embarrassing.


I spent weeks avoiding the actual writing of her eulogy ... I'd sit down to do it .. then get drawn aside by something .. anything, reallly .. that caught my attention.  Writing a eulogy is fraught with scores of memory bogholes - both the good times and bad scenes are there to drawn you in as you wander the meandering path from childhood to where you are today.

It was easier in that I've had a year to sort through my emotions and come to terms with threads that were left to dangle, things unsaid, things undone .. as well as things that were said or done.   It was a tad harder in that I didn't want to gloss over all the hard parts either, because they do paint the full picture of the individual. 

I thought that going to my brothers and Dad, and her sister with whom she shared a special connection, would  help the process, and it did.  Thank you all for your contributions and the time you spent with me on the phone. 
The writing came easy after that as I went through the individual recollections and popped in bits that their thoughts brought back for me.  The process was cathartic for me .. and I hope some of that came across as we sat on Dad's deck and remembered her.

Rest in peace, Mom.