This morning I woke up in my own bed and it felt good. I love to travel but I’ve been away a lot this past month and have missed the rhythm and routine of ordinary daily life. There has been way too little time lately to just be.
Having said that, we spent a wonderful week on Vancouver Island. The weather could not have been more perfect. On Tuesday we took Cameron’s mom to Port Renfrew to see the tree the family planted a few years ago in memory of my late sister-in-law. Afterwards we walked the Botanical Beach loop trail, where we admired the rugged coastal scenery and spied some sea creatures in the beach’s tidal pools.
Then it was off to Nanaimo for a few days by ourselves. Our hotel was right by the waterfront and we took several walks along the pier. The fishing boats brought in fresh seafood daily and we ate our fair share.
We weren’t the only ones craving seafood. One morning we spied this seal near the dock, hanging out alongside some crabbers, hoping for a handout.
On Friday it was onto Courtenay, where we spent the weekend with Cameron’s brother, Trevor, and his wife, Linda. On Saturday we took in the Filberg Festival at Comox and on Sunday we played a round of golf at Arrowsmith, near Qualicum Beach. My lucky number must be seven because I sunk a birdie on the seventh hole; the same thing happened the only other time I played this course!
Our campsite was right by the water and on Saturday night we saw the Zuiderdam cruise past on its way to Alaska. It’s hard to believe that it was just a month ago that we sailed past this very spot on the same ship, as we began our own Alaskan holiday.
Behind our site, high up in the trees, was a bald eagle nest, which was home to two juveniles and their parents. It was very cool to hear the eaglets’ insistent chirps and to observe the adults’ comings and goings. What a treat.
Of course, no knitter’s holiday is complete without souvenir yarn. I had planned to visit one of my favourite LYS’s, the Beehive Wool Shop, in Victoria but it turned out to be closed the day we were there. I’d already checked out the shop in Nanaimo when we were there in January but I’d done my homework and knew there was an as-yet-unexplored yarn shop in Courtenay. We stopped by Uptown Yarns before meeting up with Trevor and Linda and I scored a couple of skeins of locally hand-dyed sock yarn. Imagine my delight when I spied a booth featuring the same Sweatermaker yarn at the festival the next day. Naturally, I had to add a skein of laceweight to my collection.
Now that I am home for a while I am itching to sink my teeth, or rather needles, into some serious knitting. Besides working on my current SKA project, there are a couple of other sock KAL’s I want to cast on for. And then there’s the half-done Brandywine shawl and the languishing Twigs and Leaves cardi and the umpteen prospective projects calling to me and, well, you get the picture…
If this blog goes quiet again, you’ll know why. Just sayin’.
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