At One with an Island - Salt Spring Revisited

I never intended to write a memoir, At One with an Island, Salt Spring Revisited, about  my time on Salt Spring Island. I mean what hasn't already been said? 

Salt Spring is one of the southern Gulf Islands in British Columbia, 35 minutes by a BC Ferry from Victoria, B.C. 

Too many years ago between not intending to write the  book and finally finishing it, (which took me forever),  I took a course at SFU's Writer's Studio program, and then another one, and I needed to write SOMETHING back then.

The first thing that came to mind then, because I'd just returned from living on the island, was to try and capture some of my island experiences. 

Then, to frame why the island has meant so much to me, I felt I had to backtrack. I had to explain some of the life stuff that had really impacted me to put me in the mindset of mid-life escape, not that it ever takes much to get me into that "escape" mindset.  

I first set foot on the island and Ruckle Provincial Park  and Ruckle Farm more than 30 years ago and my many "revisitings" have been some of the happiest times of my life. So I set out writing about some of my experiences, and some of the people I encountered while living there.

It gives me a lot of pleasure to re-read these experiences and revisit that time. I wrote it mainly for myself, to have a tangible legacy of that time in my life.

It's scary to put a book out there about a real place and real people, even if some of their names have been changed.

I thought about it for a long time, too long for sure. Gave up, went back to it and finally finished it a few months ago.

If all goes well, it will be available through Amazon.ca books one week from this posting, beginning Sept. 17, 2024 at 5pm Pacific Daylight Time.

Feel free to buy it. Because you're curious, because you're a mid-life female looking to shake things up in your own life and want to read about someone else's experience, or because you might even be in it!

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1778354262

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.