Erin's Journals

Just a thought… Don’t change Salt Spring – Let Salt Spring change you. [Bumper Sticker seen on ferry to Salt Spring Island]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Hello – and welcome to a new month here and a journal I’m just hoping you enjoy as much as I did experiencing it.

I told you last week that Rob and I were going to Salt Spring Island – about a 35-minute ferry ride from here – and we did! With a population of ten to eleven thousand, it’s a delightful, mountainous island filled with artists, crafters, farmers and a great many people who left a faster-paced life in search of a life closer to nature and with far more contentment and peace. And, oh, did they come to the right place!

A visitor comes in search of those gifts as well on this piece of land that is only 74 square miles: 17 miles long and 9 miles wide. I ticked a lot of items off my summer bucket list while here, from kayaking – which I haven’t done since we moved away from Ontario five years ago…

…to finding a few of the fairy doors while hiking part of Mount Erskine. (Didn’t do the whole thing; months of sitting and writing, recording and editing haven’t done my stamina or my butt and legs any good at all this year.)

We took our bikes (not the e-bikes; couldn’t port them safely on the MINI) but it was too hilly for this kid. Did lots of walking and convertible driving in the dusty, parched countryside, though.

By far, my favourite part of our getaway to Salt Spring was our stop at one of the lavender farms that adorn the island.

No one more perfectly embodies getting away from the rat race, than Awatief and Ben, the couple who founded Lavender & Black after having worked in health care and engineering respectively.

Established in 2016, some 4000 lavender and immortelle plants have been nurtured and harvested since then. There’s a self-guided tour of the farm and its contemporary studio/essential oil distillery/greenhouse facility…and, of course, a shop where you can buy the fruits of their labours.

I picked up summer lavender diffuser oil and reeds for us, and an immortelle/lavender balm for Rob’s shoulders. It smells gorgeous.

Immortelle is related to the sunflower and boasts several healing properties – its botanical name is Helichrysum.

I was delighted to taste some creamy and lovely lavender ice cream, too. Have you ever known me to pass up ice cream?

Now, they do ship their products (not ice cream, of course) but you can check out their website at LavenderandBlack.ca. I’m SO glad I went, and I SO recommend a visit – in fact, I think I’m going back later this month when I visit Salt Spring with a friend who is hopefully coming to visit!

I’ll leave you with this shot and a toast to the beauties that Canada has to offer from coast to coast to coast. I know the pandemic has had very few pluses, but one of them has been forcing us to explore our own treasures. Here’s to you, Salt Spring (with fruit juice!).

And I’ll be back, not on Thursday, but Friday with a special good-bye to a friend who’s taking a huge step that day. Talk to you then.

Just a thought… I don’t want to live in the kind of world where we don’t look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can’t change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit. [Charles de Lint] 

I hope you’ll go to my video journal today, either on my Facebook page or on YouTube, because I shot something special to precede the long weekend. Yes, it’s even in the kitchen (a tad echo-ey but worth it, I promise).

Give it a watch and then give it a try; I’ve converted so many people to this simple mess- and heat-saving trick that you’ll be glad you did!

In the meantime, take good care this long weekend and I’ll be back with a journal with highlights from Salt Spring Island on Tuesday.

Just a thought… Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change. [Thomas Hardy]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Before I forget, I have a special video for you here on Thursday, ahead of the long weekend. I promise you’re going to want to try or share or both!

To today’s – thank you for the comments and feedback on the basketball blog I did here a week ago. In case you missed it, I was kind of gobsmacked about the MALE that was printed on the side of the box of the Spalding basketball that we purchased for Colin (or thought we had – but I’ll explain in a moment).

Spalding very kindly responded that they are following league guidelines and that there are male and female basketballs based on sizes; they assign gender so that people who are buying on behalf of others (hello Grama and Grandude Banana) know what we’re purchasing.

I get that. But I also agree with the many people who commented on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter that it was time for Spalding to lead the way and, yeah, get with the times.

As for that ball…Rob wanted to take it back to the store and exchange it for one without a slow leak. Well, that’s where it got really sticky: we found the receipt and – gah – the ball wasn’t on it. They hadn’t charged us!

So, rather than just go and get another one and keep the “free” one, Rob took it to Canadian Tire, where the poor gal at Customer Service literally was speechless. She didn’t know what to do, so she just put it behind the counter and Rob went and got another basketball. Same size, same brand, different colours, and three dollars cheaper.

But I started to fantasize: What if Spalding is so grateful to me for bringing the tone deafness of the size thing to their attention that they offer me 100 basketballs to donate to different kids’ clubs and Big Sisters and Brothers and stuff…and then we can’t prove that we bought it? What if they think we stole the dang ball to begin with?

Now, obviously, none of that happened. But wouldn’t that have been something?

Thanks, too, for your comments about the Snowbirds video. Many folks remarked on how clear the skies were and, yes, here on the island – touch wood, but don’t make a spark – although we are tinder dry, there have been no massive wildfires such as the ones they’re experiencing in the BC interior.

I know some folks think Vancouver and Vancouver Island are the same place, but one’s on the mainland, like much of the rest of Canada – that would be the city of Vancouver – and the other is an island (of course) and it’s where the provincial capital of Victoria is. And that’s where we are. Except this week we’re on Salt Spring Island and I’ll share moments with you next week.

Be well, stay safe and thanks for coming by. Have a great couple of days and don’t miss Thursday’s vlog!

Just a thought… Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

We had a very special treat outside our windows (off the deck, actually) the other day and I just had to share it with you.

Please do make a point of watching this video of the gorgeous diamond formation of the Snowbirds and their #OperationInspiration. Notice the 1:30 mark; it’s at that point that they turn over Sidney by the Sea, and it was breathtaking.

Hey – I also managed to kick a planter while shooting (within the first minute or so) and not even swear! Is there an Oscar for cinematography in my future? Or just a planter’s (sic) wart?

Do enjoy these moments of zen: the blue sky, the majesty of the mountains, strait and islands beyond and, of course, Canada’s Snowbirds.

Have a lovely weekend and my journal returns on Monday. Thanks for the fly-by, my friend!

Just a thought… Sexism goes so deep that at first it’s hard to see; you think it’s just reality. [Alix Kates Shulman]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Oh, I hope you had a good few days. Here, it was an amazing weekend – we had Colin with us for a double over-nighter and our place turned into Banana Camp for a young boy with a love of games and sports.

On Friday night, although he and his Grandude just went to Canadian Tire for batteries, I think somehow they stumbled into Sporting Goods; by the time they got home, Colin had leg pads, a trapper and glove for street hockey (and perhaps to prepare him to be a goalie on the ice), as well as a soccer ball (which he persuaded Grandude to buy by telling him it was a “good value”) and a basketball, which was also on sale.

When it came time to play outside, we took the ball out of the cardboard packaging. And that’s when this struck me. Right here on the box.

Okay, Spalding, I don’t get this in 19 different ways, but let’s start with the first two and I’ll do the less obvious one first. Age 13+? I’m sorry, but I had a six-year-old who was dribbling, passing, dunking and sinking shots with this basketball, so…yeah, a hard “no” to the age limit.

And an even harder “aw hell no!” to the “Males” on the box.

What on earth makes THIS ball for males? Because it’s blue and black and not, I don’t know, pink? Yeah, Spalding sells a pink and purple one; I looked it up.

In fact, I went on the Canadian Tire website for our local store (lovely, lovely people, by the way, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart) and there are other basketballs. The Raptors’ “courtside” edition in red and black also has ages Youth and Adult. And gender? Says right there: Male.

I know it’s picky, some would say pedantic – even for me – to get my court shorts in a twist. I don’t care. It’s all ridiculous.

Hey, Spalding, it’s 2021. Why are you selling basketballs and assigning their users a gender?

And if you’re going to call them male, shouldn’t you sell ’em in pairs?

Have a good day and I’ll back with you on Thursday.