R.I.P. Don Mellor

I heard that Don Mellor, a long-time Salt Spring resident, died in September at the age of 81.

This reminded me that I met Don in the parking lot of Moby's pub when I first arrived on Salt Spring in October 2008.

I didn't know him well but I interacted with him enough to feel sad when I heard of his passing. He was very fit and I always imagined him living into his 90s.

Rest in Peace, Don.  

Here's the blogpost I wrote when I first met him. Karin Jones and I went sailing with him on the L'Orenda one day in the spring of 2009.

Salt Spring and Christmas Memory Lane

I admit it. It's been ages since I've blogged about Salt Spring. It's pretty hard to do when I don't actually live there anymore. The photo above shows the steps to Moongate cottage, the first place I lived on island. I loved that little place, especially the hot tub on the deck but  I nearly froze my you know what off the first year. I couldn't chop wood like a girl fast enough to keep warm. That was December, 2008 and January, February 2009 when the snow just kept coming and coming.

Does it count that I'm going to see It's Snowing on Salt Spring at the Art's Club theatre tomorrow with a real live Salt Springer who, by the way, has never actually seen this play before?  I won't rat her out, but her name is the same as mine, spelled a bit differently, and I guess after 25 years of living on Salt Spring, the last thing you need to see is a play about the place you know better than the person who wrote it. 

In the spirit of the season, I thought I'd re-post a few links to my favourite winter Salt Spring moments that I wrote about when I still lived on island.

I have to admit it, I really, really miss the rock at this time of year. So much community spirit. Santa's fly in. The way the little village is decorated. The lights on sail boat masts. New Year's Eve at Fulford Hall. Inhaling the aroma of Pauline's baking. The conversations that took place in the line-up of the Salt Spring post office which grew longer every day closer to Christmas and where people would start offering up enticements like roast beef dinners just to try and get to the front of the line faster.  The craft fairs at Beaver Point and Mahon Hall. Stop. Stop already! 

So, just to torture myself, I thought I'd take a little trip down memory lane. Here's a few of my favourite posts from year's past:

Is Santa a volunteer firefighter?

Pauline's Christmas Kitchen

Dangerous Cookies

Merry Beginner Band Christmas

Gwen's amazing snowflake

It takes a village to care for the most fragile

Christmas window competition

What about Crowd-funding to Change Homelessness?

What’s the right thing to do when you are acquainted with someone who finds himself living in a tent at almost sixty years of age? Do you invite him to come to live with you knowing that’s not what you want and it wouldn't work for him either? Do you help him try to solve his housing problem? Do you give him money? Do you know that giving him money, when he is without employment, isn’t going to fix what led him down the treacherous path.

He moved to Salt Spring in 2005 or 2006. He worked at a variety of places before he remained with an employer and worked consistently for about three years. He didn’t make much money. He lived on a boat. He became very depressed. Mentally and emotionally, he couldn’t return to that job. In a very long story, mostly related to depression and his way of being, he lost the boat he lived on. He then managed to find a rental for $400 per month. He was receiving EI and that ended. He was evicted. He was given a two-person tent and has now set that up on a wooded property offered through the empathy of a young couple in the community. His TV set is now situated beside the campfire.

There's a new site called ShareSpring that describes itself as community crowd funding for Business, Organizations and Personal Causes. The giving is dedicated to the Salt Spring community and projects and people that live there. As it says on the website, ShareSpring is a project of Virtuous Circle Social Venture Corporation, a company incorporated in British Columbia, and owned by Michael Contardi, a Salt Spring resident. Ky Fox provides video and video editing support.

Most recently, the community stepped up through ShareSpring when Kilaya Singh, a three-year old girl, was killed during a tragic car accident on the Fulford-Ganges Road. Sharespring sprang into action and the community, near and far, raised funds for her family and for the driver of the van involved in the crash. It would have been easy to say, well, one or both people were driving at inappropriate speeds for the road conditions, and then, to do nothing. Instead, there was an outpouring of compassion and dollars.

There’s a new restaurant called The Gathering Place. Helping it with start-up was a project. The abattoir which is so vital to those who are raising animals, making it so that the butchering and all that entails of selling meat locally is more economical and feasible is a ShareSpring project. 
The description on the site about what it supports also mentions “personal causes”.

This friend’s current state could be a personal cause. He has lived on Salt Spring for more than seven years. It’s easy to think, well, that’s his problem. He got himself into that situation, he’ll have to figure out how to get himself out. I mean, it’s not like he’s twenty-something.

But, at what point is that distancing just not good enough. It’s too easy. Especially given that something could be done if people came together to help. He could be offered a helping hand to get back on his feet. There’s a place for everyone and the “right place” where he can contribute and continue to live on Salt Spring can surely be found.  

It’s so easy to take the self-righteous road. But when there’s a crisis, regardless of how it came to be, what’s the virtue in judgement? What does that solve for this man? Do you think that this idea is a good one or way off base? I’d be curious to know. What would you suggest?  

Salt Spring's Newest B&B: Thistle Dew Guest Cottage

IT'S A GIVEN. When you live in a beautiful place, people like to come and visit. And, that's a good thing. It's especially good if you happen to own a palatial mansion to put them up in. Or, come to think of it, that could actually be a bad thing because then the hoards would descend and keep on descending throughout the entire Spring, Summer and Fall. I recall meeting one islander who specifically created a guest cottage so tiny and minimalist, not to mention separate from the main house, that only two people at a time could be accommodated. Sorry, love, we're full!

When, however, you live in a small space with no extra bed, then you need to have some really reliable recommendations about where all those visitors might consider staying, unless that is, they don't mind roughing it. Got a tent?

I mentioned a lovely step back in time a couple of blog posts ago called The Cottage Resort. There's also the Wisteria Guest House. which is super comfortable with unparalleled breakfasts and lovely hosts. And,here's another: Thistle Dew Guest Cottage owned by Pauline MacDonald. If cottages could write, this one would be in the running for the Stephen Leacock Humour Award full of contentious stories to tell about what it took for it to get built. But, it's done, finally, and it's brand spanking new. Maybe when Pauline named it, she was actually thinking of the work ethic of too many pseudo carpenters on the island as in "Ack, Blimey, Sweet Jesus, This'll do!"  The name is a double entendre that I really like. Thistle Dew or This'll do?

The week I was packing up to leave the island, Pauline was generous enough to let me spend 4 nights acting as if I owned the place. It was such a wonderful thing for her to do. Pure relief descended as the chaos in my own tiny space ramped up. So, let me just say, having stayed there, I do have some "cred" when it comes to describing the experience, although, it wasn't the full on guest treatment scenario since, can you believe it, she neglected to serve me a home-baked organic breakfast, deliver a glass of Port on a tray at the end of the day, or draw my bubble bath. (I'm kidding, of course!) Just so you know, she won't draw your bubble bath either. 

As the web site says, the location is really perfect. If you like to golf, you can race the deer across the street to the fairway. It's about a 4 minute drive to a liquor store (an important criteria) and the grocery store is right in the same location although drive a bit farther and visit the liquor store on island with the best BC Wine selection and staff/owners who actually know what they're talking about at The Local.  A beach is about a 5 minute drive down Baker Road, totally walkable. The iconic and charming Fritz theater named after a now deceased cat, (just ignore the no personality owner who isn't even friendly when you buy a ticket)  is about a 10 minute walk. Heck, if someone, God forbid, should die there's even a cemetary out back.

Attention to detail is what sets Thistle Dew, and let's face it, every other quality establishment, apart.Thick duvet covers. Soft, smooth sheets. Velvety sumptuous robes and socks to match. Wood furniture with a history. Stained glass windows with leaded glass snug above the doorways between rooms. Dainty, romantic bejeweled handmade curtains. A heated floor in the bathroom and a chandelier above.  A washer/dryer. Ornamental birds perches decoratively on a window sill or a ledge. And, these interesting stairs up to the loft which are awaiting installation of a handmade  iron banister.

Pauline's soothing colour palette brings an instant sigh of relief as soon as you set foot in the little getaway which can accommodate up to six people. Yes, it can do romance. Can you? But, it's also really perfect for a girls' getaway  in the winter where even  a full-on downpour  won't prevent the ability to order in a massage, attend a yoga class, take in a concert at Art Spring or while away the day doing studio tours.If only there was a Limo on island to do the touring with the bubbles in your champagne glass being your main concern.

Above the french doors is a Georgia O'Keeffe styled skull.  

If you've been out all day, maybe you've stopped in at Bruces Kitchen to pick up a casual dinner or spent the afternoon compiling ingredients for your evening meal from the island's three wineries. Add cheese, bread, farm fresh veggies and perhaps some island lamb to take back to the small kitchen if you're keen to showcase your gourmet creativity. That last sentence is directed at a man or whichever partner doesn't normally cook. It's a getaway. She ain't going to want to cook you dinner, silly! Like she hasn't done THAT before. So be discriminating. If you've never cooked in your life, do the smart thing, if you're interested in getting what you want later in the evening, and take her (depending on budget) to Hastings House or Harbour House.

A cute and functional kitchen

I just love this chair and the mirror tucked into a corner of the downstairs bedroom

So, there. When you've packed more into a single day than you normally would in three, it's time to collapse into this bed (photo by Pauline) and have yourself a few sweet, sweet Thistle Dew Dreams. There is this queen bed in private room, a window seat that sleeps one and a pullout trundle under the window seat that sleeps one, two foam chairs that make into two single beds in the loft - and one rollaway bed in the closet that would fit - tightly - in the living room.

PS: On the off season (Oct. 15 - March 15), the nightly rate is up for some negotiation but typically runs around $115.  And, I got it all for nothin! Lucky me. 

Salt Spring's Fernwood Dock as Rural Water Cooler

More often than not when I stroll down to the Fernwood Dock on the north end of Salt Spring Island where I live, I'll meet someone there to chat with.  I like to think of it as the water cooler of the North End, although that description is a stupendous stretch from the reality of what might take place around an office water cooler. To be honest, however, I don't recall ever really having a conversation around an office water cooler. Do you? The photocopier on the other hand, now that's a hotbed of social activity!

The weekend before, I met some new landed immigrants from Korea who were using chicken thighs as bait inside crab traps to catch small, bright red rock crabs that honestly, must have about as much meat in them as a sparrow's leg.

On  this beautiful Thanksgiving day, I met Elena Johnson and Joe Nagy from Vancouver. Initially they were talking to other Salt Spring residents also out for a stroll on a sparkling Thanksgiving Sunday. When the others moved on, I continued talking with them.

They were here from Vancouver and staying at The Harbour House Hotel. Elena is a poet. She relocated from a little village in New Brunswick of 222 people (221 when she left) when she was accepted into the MFA Creative Writing program at UBC a few years back.  Of course I was interested. She has had great personal success in the past couple of months getting her poems published in various literary journals in Canada including: the Literary Review of Canada; Dandelion; Arc; and This Magazine; as well as being included in RockSalt: An Anthology published from MotherTongue Publishing run by Mona Fertig here on island.

Joe has been in his chair for 13 years after a forestry accident and together they have this wonderful energy about them which I think comes through in the photo (above).

Tuesday, I dropped in at Bruce's Kitchen as I usually do to touch base and they showed up right behind me. We all had lunch together and we were speaking about writing programs and various other things about Salt Spring (which for the record they found to be really, really friendly) when a woman sitting next to us interrupted us and asked if we would like to hear one of her own poems. Of course, we agreed and she proceeded to recite this...

LOST IN THE MOMENT

by Laura L. Lang

Lost in the moment
Fear rises to the surface
Like the head in your glass of beer...

You blow it away
Choosing not to drink it
Becoming part of the haze

VIctory for a moment
But fleeting it would seem
For fear that has not been dealt with
Will crawl back on its knees..

And when you think you've beaten it
Fear rises to the occassion
You've only second guessed it
Now it is part of the equation..

All you are and ever would be
Are lost in the the fears we refuse to see
In order for your dreams to take shape and form
You must face your fears, by riding out the storm.

You may or may not know that Chef Bruce Wood loves poetry. One of his favourite poems is by Pablo Neruda, it's called Your Feet.

Meanwhile, Elena is working on a book of poetry and it will be good to look for that when it gets published. Always nice to meet the visitors who are drawn to the island for some R&R.

Salt Spring: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'

 My sister, June, came to visit and as a result I took the opportunity to eat out on Salt Spring during this busiest month of tourist season. It was very interesting.  When I first arrived on island, I was always eating out but that was almost 3 years ago now. This past year, I really haven’t eaten out much at all and it's usually just coffee or lunch. Now, after a really nice visit of eating out a lot, I noticed some things about service. While it isn`t brain surgery, I know for certain that it's way harder than it looks from the receiving side of the table and yet if you have to serve somebody, you might as well get it right.

 

Help me figure out how to behave when I grace your doorstep. Is it okay to sit down? Should I take that table over there even though it’s huge but it’s the only one left? Am I supposed to wait at the door? Why is there no sign telling me what to do? How come nobody is coming up to meet me even though I’m wandering through the restaurant? It’s so much more comfortable for patrons when they are clear on what to do as soon as they arrive.

Acknowledge my existence. I’m not saying that I need a dedicated greeter. I don’t need to feel like I’ve just entered WalMart, but you know, if I wanted to be invisible, I’d stay home. If I’m going to give you money, I want you to pretend to care. 

Menus should be enticing. Maybe it’s the writer in me. I don’t want to just know what it is. Otherwise, menus could just say hunk of meat, piece of lettuce, some kind of root vegetable.  I want you to make me want it by using descriptive language that helps me imagine it. Here’s the difference. 1. Chicken. Chef’s daily potato. Seasonal vegetables  or 2. A Juniper & rosemary-brined breast with a Tuscan heirloom tomato bread salad and roast fingerling potatoes.” Which one do you think you’re going to order?  

Let me read it for a moment, already! If you’re a server and you just handed me the drink menu, unless I eat at your establishment weekly, I might actually have to look at the wine list which will take me longer than 5 seconds. Give me a couple of minutes to examine it without hovering and awaiting my decision.

Ask me what I think.  One of the restaurants handed us a survey with the bill. They asked the question, "What is one thing we could do differently?" That’s a great question. More restaurants/coffee shops on Salt Spring should have comment cards or dedicate one month to specifically giving out very short (no more than 5 questions) surveys. They could offer a chance to win one free dinner as the prize for filling out the survey.

This tip is for patrons in choosing a place to eat. If you go to a restaurant that has a communal lay-out where everyone eats at the same table, don’t sit down across from me with your newspaper and your crossword puzzle and not even acknowledge me. Work with "the concept. At the very least, say Hello. I mean, really, if you want to be alone, get take-out or sit outside. Maybe you're just pathologically shy but if I wanted to sit across from someone doing a crossword or reading the paper while I’m eating at a communal table, I could choose to put myself in that situation; sometimes they call it marriage. 

Everybody deserves a second chance. It’s easy to pigeon-hole restaurants based on one bad experience and decide forevermore that a particular place is crap. It’s the death knell of restaurants, especially on a tiny little island. People have bad days. So do businesses. I was surprised when we ate at one place (chosen for its deck) that I’d pretty much written off a few years ago as not having good food or service. Lo and behold, they changed my mind.

Bon Appetit!

Food and Travel the Ingredients to an Adventurous Life

I've started doing some Tweeting for a restaurant here owned by chef/owner/teacher/radio personality Bruce Wood of Bruce's Kitchen or @bruceskitchen on Twitter.  Now, in spite of the fact that I love to eat, my own expertise with food preparation and menu planning and anything related to hosting others for a meal has grown even slimmer in the past few years than it used to be as a result of being completely out of practise.

With the intent of picking up some ideas for Tweets,  I've been tagging Bruce a bit like I'm some kind of groupie (which, for the record, I'm not, not that he's not interesting.)  I really enjoy listening to his local radio show (Thursdays 2-3pm) on Salt Spring's radio station CFSI-FM. 

In a stream of consciousness delivery, he'll  talk for an hour about what he's going to be doing for his Friday night communal dinners (for max. 18)  and other cooking tips. Sometimes he makes reference, in French, to ingredients that I've never even heard of. I really love to hear him describe sauces and what to do with all the fresh produce not to mention his love affair with goat cheese. I've discovered that his favourite word is stunning! The whirled peas are stunning. The risotto is stunning. The salmon in fig leaf then smoked is stunning. And, you know, they are.  

 Bruce's Kitchen is based on a communal dining concept and you just never know who you might sit beside. One day, a woman who had worked for the American embassy in Paris for 10 years came in with her father and we enjoyed our soup together. Strangely enough it was the morning I had been doing some Google research on where a friend might possibly stay on her upcoming trip with her husband and daughter on a wonderful month-long journey to Paris, Normandy, Brittany, Scotland, Wales and London.

These two events - my Tweeting for Bruce's Kitchen and also enjoying the smallest bit of research for my friend's upcoming trip - combined to  take me down my own memory lane. Ten years ago, I backpacked through London then over to Paris for 5 days, then back to London and on to Oxford, into The Cotswolds, York, Bath, Edinburgh, Stirling, Oban,  the Isle of Mull and full circle back to London over a 5-week period.

Rage Against the Plague of Conformity

A long time ago now, I was involved with a man who lived on a floating home on a river.  He and his neighbours were real characters. One of them was the well-known maven of Wreck Beach, Judy Williams.  When he was still alive, his neighbours used to be annoyed by the fact that he lived in such a run-down floating home without the means or motivation to fix it up. Between his place and The Cricket Lady's place, oh my, what eyesores the neighbours were assaulted by daily. Or so they thought. 

Then, he died and his place was drydocked and perhaps sold. I actually never learned what happened to the little floathome.  When that happened, I have no doubt that his neighbours (who are lovely people) missed the little two storey float home in the way you might think back and miss that crazy boy (usually a boy) in elementary school who did the stupidest, most outrageous things or the poet who glued those plastic magnet letters all over her Volkswagon Beetle (was it Susan Musgrave?) or anyone you've ever met who is just a little different or outrageous, yet lovable.

  

Where four retail shops used to be: Acoustic Planet Music, Windflower Moon, Admiral's Specialty Foods and Salt Spring Soap Works were housed in small shops here. Soap works will relocate into the new space. Marks Work Wearhouse is expanding slightly and taking over the space which displeased some people. The most fascinating thing with the excavation was the discovery of 6 skeletal remains which meant under the Heritage Conservation Act  that all digging had to cease immediately so that the RCMP, the architect, three archeologists from Millenia Research in Victoria, 12 First Nations' Bands, (one bone reader?) and the property owner could negotiate the proper relocation and burial ceremony. That took a month which, considering the number of stakeholders, seems pretty good to me.

 The Shell Station now closed, allegedly put out of business by a new Co-op Gas undercutting their gas prices, but really, the most awkward place for a gas station to exist so any future development has to be an improvement but I liked the funky old design. It was just in the wrong spot.  You can still get your car fixed by them and I was always pleased with the service. They relocated the shop to Alders Road.

As I stand at the Saturday Market, with my back (thankfully) to the eyesore of two empty lots on the main Fulford-Ganges road surrounded by wire fencing,  I can't help but think of the reasons that drew me and so many others here, first as tourists, then as residents. It was of course, first and foremost,the natural beauty but it was also the charm and uniqueness of the small shops selling crystals and patchouli and music or whatever. It was a way of life that enough people romanticized enough to want to grab a piece of,  if just for a weekend excursion to a Gulf Island.  And, it still exists at The Saturday Market to a certain degree.

But, I can't help but wonder,  if I was to set foot on Salt Spring for the first time experiencing it now in terms of the overall look and the shops that currently exist, would I come back? Would it be appealing enough to be the kind of place that left a lasting memory the way it did for me some 20 years ago?

I have no problem with redevelopment if it's done with a big picture vision and sensitivity  to what makes a place unique and desirable in the first place, but when I look around Ganges, I just don't get it. The opportunity to create something beautiful and imaginative and a little out there exists doesn't it?

We need only turn to Chemainus and its murals to see how an immersion in local history can be the fuel for an economy. Think of Anne of Green Gables on PEI and in a completely different way, Steveston or Vancouver's Coal Harbour, a model of  community planning that has led to an enviable (albeit exhorbitantly expensive) yet non car dependent lifestyle with accessibility to all local amenities and to nature.  I lived within 5 minutes of Coal Harbour as a renter in the West End and I have to say, it was a pretty darn sweet place to live.

It's hard to fathom why a community as creative as Salt Spring has been stuck with architecture that is so run of the mill, common-place, ordinary in most of its retail spaces.

What's Your Definition of Poverty?

 Living on Salt Spring Island has given me some minor insight into how it might feel to live in a developing country, always being judged or being felt sorry for by citizens of financially wealthier countries.

We feel sorry for them, peering in as outsiders and yet, perhaps, their lives are rich with family connections we've long ago lost and gratitude in simplicity that so many can’t find.

I'm not saying that being financially poor is all that desirable, but we so often forget how many other forms of poverty exist when our metering stick is only related to bank accounts.

I've been thinking about living here lately and not having much money and how that leads, by sheer necessity, to living a more environmentally-conscious existence.

You can't afford to buy new clothes so you shop at thrift stores and in that way you're recycling perfectly good items/clothing anyway. Your wardrobe can be small here so you need fewer items. Thrift stores have cool stuff.

Aware of how much gas is costing, I try to limit my visits to town re-arranging my visits to coincide with other activities or ensuring I do everything I need to do at once, as much as possible 

The market on Saturday's provides immense opportunities for socializing with other islanders and with visitors.

Creative pursuits require a turning inward and my mind is alive with the content and possibilities.

It's so easy to get to where I need to go not having to worry about traffic, parking, getting on the freeway to get downtown and therefore, I partake in as many, if not more, activities.

It’s true, I won’t be jetting off to Hawaii or Mexico or Tahita (because I can’t afford a plane ticket) but I won’t be contributing to global warming in that way either.

I can go to the library for books and videos or when I drop off my recycling, I can pop into the little hut where everyone drops off books and magazines and get some for free.

This week I spent a lot of time writing queries, completing two articles for a magazine and because I get up so early, usually around 6:30 am, and I’m almost always at my computer by 7:00 am, by 2:00 pm, I’ve put in a 7 hour day. If there’s work that needs to be done, I can usually focus on it.

In the afternoon on two of those days, I went for a walk and spotted four eagles on the beach at low tide and watched them in awe for quite a while. I lucked out and managed to get a decent shot of the one above as it flew off the tree right above me. While there, I had an enlightening conversation with a man I’d never met, also an islander, named John. We talked about the election and what’s been going on in the U.S. and there was no ranting to be heard.  On a second afternoon, I went to a favourite barn and ran into a friend, also taking photographs and managed to get into the zone, that place where you’re not longer getting in your own way and immersed in the moment. 

I was invited to dinner by two different friends. I took in a jazz concert at ArtSpring, sold some photographs at the Saturday Market and now will get to hear Alexandra Morton speak about salmon in a talk she's giving tonight at Fulford Hall.

If I had a garden, I’m not sure where that would fit into my dailiness.  If I really want a garden, it’s possible to have one. Other islanders offer their land in an exchange for some labour.

It’s true, my financial resources are extremely limited, and yet, I am busy and engaged and like most people on the island that I know, can barely keep up with everything they are working on.
 
Is that poverty? I don’t think so.

Work through the Ages

Help yourself to flourish

When you're young and you've never had a job, the criteria is pretty simple. 1. Don't have job. 2. Want money. 3. Some experience could be useful. 4. Try and get job. 5. Miraculously get job. (Usually a "bad" job). Now, of course you're not going to start "at the top" (wherever that is) but I now know that choosing a job, even when you have no experience, is critical. You don't want a job that is going to make you hate yourself.

I feel quite experienced to speak on this subject.  I had many, many less than stellar jobs when I was young. I worked in a factory making door locks one summer. (Someone drive a spike through my head now. Please!)

I worked as a temp which included tons of office work and even in one instance, a salad dressing factory filling up ice-cream buckets with home-made mayonnaise, Lucille Ball style.

I worked as a dicta-typist in an ICBC bodily injury claim centre. (Think of cows. They are hooked up for their milk. Dicta-typists are hooked up to machines and inundated with information that's barely decipherable when adjusters mumble into handheld microphones about drivers and their injuries.)

I worked at a paint store (well, I actually liked that job). I worked at Telus on their 411 repair lines (a job that makes you want to either kill yourself or the caller). I worked at Canada Employment when it was called that, first as a student placement officer (cool job) and then just doing mind numbingly boring filing work. I've worked at London Drugs as a cashier. I worked as an au pair in Finland for a few months (which wasn't really a job, it was a great experience so that doesn't count.) but, in general, my early job history is one that was personally tailored for someone destined to be a writer or a mercenary. In short, it sucked. It did not give me a positive feeling about working at all.

These wrong jobs (for me) didn't give me much needed experience as much as they gave me a feeling about work that was coloured with frustration and hopelessness. Honestly, I'm not overstating this.

In my case, it took way too long to get to the "good" jobs, even when I got out of university and much of that was related to confidence and not having anyone to "guide" me appropriately. As a result, I am vehemently opposed to the attitude of parents who might say to their kids, "just get a job".

Yes, definitely get out of bed before noon and get a job already. But, get a job that has some element in it that you actually like if at all possible. Just because you've never worked before, shouldn't mean you have to be tortured. If you have to, create your own job. Just do it.

Now, all these years later, when I think about seeking the right work, the criteria is almost at the other end of the spectrum. It's like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Even if there are a lot of possibilities, which there are, there are really very few that fit the stringent list of criteria of this mid-life job seeker.

Examine the precious nature of your life energy which you have taken for granted most of your life. Assess, in the best case scenario, the number of years left on the planet (barring unexpected death she jokes) and then really think about what it means to exchange that life energy for money and as importantly, tme. That's the mid-life dilemma.

The criteria is huge.

1. Do I think I want to spend my days with you and all those others already there?
2. Is what you're doing something that matters to me one bit?
3. Would I feel like I was doing something positive for society in general?
4. Am I going to learn something new? Huge. Huge. Huge.
5. Is there possibilities to be creative in some way?
6. Can I see how this job might provide me with opportunities in a new direction when I leave it?
7. Can I work as part of a small team and yet independently within that team?
8. Is the job going to pay me appropriately for the amount of time it's asking of me?
9. Do I want to live where the job is?
10. If I give up my lifestyle on Salt Spring, is this going to be a worthy trade-off?

Do you see what I mean.? Had I started asking these questions much earlier, I truly believe that looking back, the work picture could have been so much better.

What do you think about when you're exploring new work opportunities, especially if you're going to work for someone else? Share your wisdom.

What Can You Do with Someone Else's Catastrophe?

It's impossible to fathom how people in Japan are coping.

I've had to tear myself away from Twitter and YouTube because I can't take watching any more of the catastrophe.

If you're a very visual person, it's best to limit that imagery if you can. Even if you're not, if you can't change a situation, is it really wise to consume yourself in it? It's good to be informed. It's overwhelming to be glued to your TV and the Internet.

I don't know the right answer or if there is one and of course it depends whether you have family/friends in the situation but I'm thinking a few things.
 
Here's five things I'm going to do.

1. I'm going to make a donation, no matter how small but equal to my financial abilities, to a reputable agency that can help. It's important, no matter how small. We are one world.
The Canadian Red Cross
Network for Good
Global Giving



2. I'm going to visualize positive outcomes related to the nuclear reactor situation happening in Japan. If you don't believe in the power of intention, then read Adam Dreamhealer's site. If you can't get your head around that, in this type of situation, then at least visualize positive images of people helping people in Japan and people finding each other. Visualize positive outcomes for families. Close your eyes and see it until you feel their overwhelming happiness at finding each other.

3. I'm going to make an extra effort today to bring beauty (flowers, nature, whatever you deem beautiful) into my daily life and someone else's and stay present.  Do something small for someone else.

4. Remind yourself of The Golden Rule and try and move towards living more compassionately. It's a daily struggle. Listen to this fantastic interview with Karen Armstrong, a religious scholar who has written the book steps to leading a compassionate life.

5. I'm going to get prepared already! Make this time the time you finally do get prepared for an earthquake/tsunami (as much as you can) given that we all know, those of us who live on the coast of British Columbia, that the same type of catastrophe is expected (tomorrow or hundreds of years from now) to hit British Columbia. Write it in your daytimer. Decide what you need to buy. Keep it in one of those large transparent plastic bins.  Just do it finally.

Highland Water District's Bonnie Blue-Green Algae

Every time I hear the term Highland Water District, I keep thinking that somebody forgot to tell me that tucked away in a magical pocket of Salt Spring Island there are fantastic looking swarms of beefcake-strong men wearing kilts and running around participating in ancient Celtic rituals heaving massive poles as they do in the Highland Games.  Doesn't it sound like that? Don't you wish? Then there'd really be even more reason to visit here, live here, stay here. Alas, it's only in my imagination.

I know this because I live in the Highland Water district and even though I'm surrounded by water, not only are there no kilted hunks but there is a don't drink the water advisory from the Vancouver Island Health Authority that has been valid for the past month.

There is blue green algae in the water of St. Mary's Lake and the filtration system that exists for the Highland Water district is not able to filter out the microcystin toxin produced by it. Walk alongside the lake and it has a smell to it. It's not possible to just boil it and get rid of it. The Chief Medical Officer for VIHA says that they are erring on the side of caution by imposing this ban. They say you can, however still brush your teeth and take a shower although if you have a vivid imagination, as I do, then you can't help but think of the green slimey things that may be invisibly crawling over your body and your casserole dishes.

For the past month, residents in the Highland Water District have had to go to a tap in front of the water building across from the cemetary and fill up containers of water for cooking/drinking. I was filling mine up the other day and for a split second I was transported to Africa, cracked earth under my feet. I was wearing a beautiful colourful sarong and carrying a jug on my head. Nope. Can't picture it. Can you? 

Do we take H20 for granted or what? 
I just get this uneasy feeling that other than the message, "Don't drink the water," I don't know very much about how they actually test our drinking water here on island and what type of training/qualifications are needed by the person who does it. Who monitors the person who is monitoring the water?

The Pumphouse

I notice that the little shack pumphouse on the side of St. Mary's lake is where this water district's water "headquarters" exist. It's not exactly a stunning edifice to instill confidence. Is the monitoring that is taking place done in such a way by a qualified individual that we can really "trust" the results? Who are they? How long have they been doing it? What exactly is involved in the process?

Umm, why are dogs allowed at all? We drink it!

Just now, (I'm a slow learner), I realized that I'm drinking water that is coming out of a lake that swarms with babies and toddlers and bathing-suited bobbers in the summer, cars lining the windy road that snakes along the lakeshore. Sobering thought that took way too long to sink in. Questions. Questions. Enquiring minds want to know.

• Health Canada has more information on blue-green algae. 
• This report on the quality of St. Mary's lake water was written in 1996. What's changed since then I wonder? For the better? For the worse?
•  Water Sustainability Project, Salt Spring.
•  Stay informed about B.C.'s Water Planning.
• The Nature of Things documentary on Lake Winnipeg