The Final Chapter

Jumping for joy on the bungie trampoline at Mt Washington during my fabulous visit with Sharon and her two lovely daughters.

Having given it some thought, I've concluded with immense gratitude that this has been the best summer of my life. I spent six weeks entertaining enthusiastic audiences at festivals and other venues in so many incredibly beautiful places where I met many fantastic people, rode horses and swam in lakes and ocean. I had two weeks of sheer vacation time spent with dear friends — one week on an island in Georgian Bay, a few days on Gaiano Island in BC and two days at a beach house on Vancouver Island visiting some dear new friends. The past week I was happily engaged in the last module of my holistic massage course on Denman Island and I have just mailed my beautiful certificate home to myself. One of the delicious aspects of this experience was receiving hours of bodywork each day as we traded positions of giver and recipient. My only complaint is that I succumbed to a minor illness which has had me bothered by a persistent tickle in my throat. I have been thankful that I have generally felt fine other than the coughing.

These long days of study were exhausting but I was motivated by such a keen interest and desire to become very good at the work. I am recognizing that I have come to a point in my life where I spend most of my time engaged in things that I am passionate about and am very aware of the privilege of this, even while it has cost me in certain sacrifices at times — financial stability being one. But I am far more interested in richness of experience than material wealth and in this I am wealthy indeed.

My Galiano pal Onli is on her way to Denman and we shall spend the weekend bumming around Hornby Island before I fly back to Toronto from Victoria on Monday. I'll re-enter my Toronto life refreshed, cleansed by moist, forest and ocean air, with new skills, new friends and an enthusiasm for the next chapter. This chapter begins with hunkering down to my first opportunity as sound designer for theatre as I begin work on a beautiful play called Wild Dogs. Concurrently, I'll be working hard at learning a set of material for a new musical project called The Bhadra Collective.


Breakfast with Sharon on the last morning of my visit at her grandmother's adobe in Comox


Sharon's younger daughter Melissa and I became fast friends. She pressed me repeatedly for "gross-out stories" and I delivered many of them over the two-day visit. Here we are returning from having placed some beached starfish back into the ocean.


Galiano rocks


Approaching a grotto in a cliff face during a kayak outing in the waters surrounding Galiano Island


Beautiful reflections on the ceiling of a grotto in a cliff face along the Galiano shore.


My nest in the verdant woods on Denman Island. I slept deeply here after our long days of study.

Leaving Atlin

Atlin Lake, BC

July 18

Wow. Six days in this exquisite place. Three raucous Festival days followed by three more just to relax and enjoy the area and our new friends here who have enthusiastically shown us a quintessential mountain and lake experience. Yesterday we were taken out on the gloriously azure Atlin Lake to fish for our supper. We caught two Lake Trout of about 5lbs each. I was relieved to see how quickly and easily they died after a swift clubbing to the head. I'm actually wishing I had asked for the opportunity to experience that task to know how it would sit with me. I strongly believe that if you eat an animal, you should know that you could kill it without undue spiritual trauma. I've been a little distressed since I began eating fish in Africa (2002) as I'm really not sure how I would fare with that duty. In any case, it was good for me to witness the whole process in reasonable peace and with the knowledge that these fish that I would take into my body had a good life in a pure glacial lake and the most humane death possible. They were well appreciated by six hungry bodies.

The first catch went from lake to pan within fifteen minutes and we ate it right on the boat. I have never tasted more delicate and delicious fish. The second we took to the firepit near our RV and roasted it in the embers while Len, our hunter-fisher-mountain man host, fried up burgers made from a wild buffalo he had killed near Takhini Hot Springs outside of Whitehorse. This hilarious, friendly man regaled us with stories of his life in the wilderness. Earlier in the day he had helped us accomplish many errands and he left us with the most perfect gift -- a set of moose antlers which he handily affixed to the front grill of our vehicle.

As I write this, the Dodge Lark has developed an amusing new quirk. She is blowing her horn repeatedly at irregular intervals as we proceed along this bumpy dirt road back to Whitehorse. What a Lark! She is a jolly old RV!




Out on the lake


John (RO's trombone player) the pin-up boy




Can you believe the colour of this lake?!

Atlin Festival

Random Order's Saturday night audience

July 15
Atlin Festival Grounds
Atlin, BC -- just south of Whitehorse

I am moving through my days as if in meditation. We have three days off after the festival in Atlin, one of the most picturesque places I've ever seen. Yet I can scarcely feel grounded in the moment for this place seems almost too exquisite to be real. I am elated by such constant, monumental beauty.

I had a wonderful weekend of playing with both Evalyn and Random Order. It was so lovely to meet Ev, Brad and David (drums & guitar) here in a world so far and different from our Parkdale stomping grounds. The sound crew were a dream and the audiences as enthusiastic as one could possibly wish for. RO's Saturday night closing set was attended by such a packed throng that crowd surfing ensued. Such fun to watch from the stage!

I enjoyed meeting many of the other musicians and hearing some great new music. We had Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand, the bassist & wooden flautist from the Quebec group Genticorum join us for our Sunday afternoon set. Foxy Lady was never heavier than with twice the bottom end! We had a fun time goofing around with our moves together. During a long instrumental section, I jumped off the stage and crouched to dance eye to eye with a gaggle of toddlers. It was so sweet to witness the thrill this gave them even while some were made shy, running to the closest parental knee as they grinned widely at me.

Yesterday our new friend Athea took us on a tour of the area. We all soaked in the enchanted little warm spring pool where the view was spectacular and I fell in love with a husky puppy. (Damn, but do I want to share another chunk of my life with a dog one day, if and when my life settles some from this galavanting fast pace.) We harvested peppery wild watercress by a wooded glacier stream. We ambled through the last resting place of early settlers, reading the stories of their demise burned into their weathered, wooden grave markers. One poor 16-year-old was shot to death having been mistaken for a bear. We were all awed by a view which included the Lewellan Glacier slowly creeping between two mountains.


Evalyn Parry and band at Atlin


Random Order at the Warm Springs outside of Atlin




Random Order's Sunday afternoon show at the Atlin Festival with guest Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand from Genticorum

Yukon Territory

July 8
Haine's Junction, Yukon


Kluane National Park -- Gateway to Alaska


Random Order in the midnight sun of Haines Junction

The RV is parked for the night at the Visitor Centre in Haine's Junction, the gateway to Kluane National Park a couple hours west of Whitehorse. I am literally writing this by midnight sun. The Kluane Mountain range dominated the scenery during the whole day's drive. Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak, is among these. Here the human population is the minority surrounded by teeming wildlife. I shall not be able to enjoy a solo run on the trails here for the dangers posed by Grizzlies. We are advised to hike in noisy groups and to carry bear spray. Speaking of bears, we stopped for water at an RV campground this afternoon which had a taxidermy museum in its giftshop. At once quite fascinating and horrifying, there were grizzly bears, black bears and cubs, moose, caribou, wolves, several kinds of foxes, wild boar, squirrels, rabbits and birds. If only it were the case that all these beautiful animals died of natural and not human causes.

We stopped at Takhini Hot Springs just outside of Whitehorse. It was disappointing that they were contained by a fenced-in cement pool and that the enjoyment of the mineral properties of the water was seriously compromised by the addition of chlorine. All a far cry from my experience in Oregon at Cougar Hot Springs. All the same, it felt great to relax in hot water on a gorgeous day with a most splendid mountain view.

I am feeling a wee threat of something unwelcome in my throat. No big surprise after so many crazy late nights with our wild friends from Smithers, some of whom even tagged along to Prince George and kept us partying. I had a fantastic time but now I'm reeling in. The other four did not hesitate to take up an invite for drinks at The Fish Hook, a bakery-bar-restaurant specializing in smoked salmon that is just across the road. Instead I have chosen to spend quiet time with you!


These poplar-like trees are casting their cottony fluff into the air all over northern BC and the Yukon


Off the beaten trail at Takhini Hot Springs near Whitehorse


Waterfall near Whitehorse


The gig in Haines Junction, Yukon

Horse crazy forever!

July 2nd, 2008
Smithers

I don't believe I've ever seen a photo of myself looking any happier than this. This fiery mare named Sheen gave me that old familiar, delicious thrill of sitting on and with blazing gallops down dirt roads and through wide open mountain meadows. Such wild exhilaration as I played with the balance between awareness of the potential dangers of the situation with the yearning to unite with the horse in sheer trust and ride like the wind. By this age, after so many years of riding and so many injuries, I admit to having lost a bit of my nerve -- or perhaps it has been a gaining of wisdom? In any case, by the third ride I had pretty much shed any fear as I'd gotten to know the horse and the terrain. Her wee foal came along this third ride and amazed us by keeping up so well on his tiny legs. Today was hot and still. i loved getting Sheen's sweat all over me. I came back to town with arms caked in dust and a glow shining through it.




Betty and Sharon of the Smithers band Damsel. Two of our wild and wonderful hosts who showed us a wonderful time!

Random Order Tour 08: 1st leg - Smithers, Vanderhoof, Houston, Nadina Lodge

Magnificent Mount Robson

June 19
Yellowhead Trail, BC
It's so nourishing to travel through such a vast and dense manifestation of life. I look out on these mountains and ooze love and wonder as I imagine the infinitesimal stories of the lives that are lived there by bears, wolves, eagles and all the other creatures great and small. There is also the thrill of knowing that this land is too rugged for human dominion. Here there is only humbling and awe and feeding the wild in me in a most delicious way.


On the way up to Smithers we dropped in on our friends who live in Dunster and run the Robson Valley Festival, one of last summers's highlights. That's our luxurious 1976 Dodge TEC Lark in the background.


Manny and Miranda relaxing in the bus.


Practicing with a view!

June 23
Smithers, BC
Midsummer Festival


Random Order's day set at the Midsummer Festival

We were treated like royalty the entire weekend at this wonderful festival in the middle of the mountains. Our night show saw us looking out on a crowd of dancing revelers that injected such an energy in us that we gave 150% of ourselves after the long drive straight from Toronto. The Sunday afternoon performance was equally fun for the gang of kids hulahooping on the grass as we played. Lots of great food and people, late-night jams around firepits, and such a relief just to be in one place to relax after driving from Sunday afternoon till the wee hours of Thursday. Enjoyed some great performances by others, too. Particularly Hungry Hill, a bluegrass group with members from both Smithers and Whitehorse. Also loved an act that played a sort of Persion fusion. Took part in a workshop they gave and got to play along on my cello. This was after giving a workshop in cello chopping for which I had a surprising 3 other cellists and a few fiddlers. Before this I took part in giving a bass workshop with two other women bass players (upright players) -- Dina D from The Kerplunks and Nadine from Hungry Hill.




Soundchecking on the Midsummer mainstage


Rocking out!


Singin'


Just a few of the wonderful group called Crazy Strings, inspired and taught by Oliver Shroer


John learns some breakdance moves at a Midsummer Festival workshop

I met a gal who took me to her friend's ranch for some riding. We wound up spending two hours hunting down and then rounding up her runaway lamas. That's me: Lamagirl! What a hoot!


June 29 3:00am
Houston, BC

Tonight I experienced from the stage such an onslaught of drunken party energy from a bar full of Nova Scotian treeplanters. What began as festive verged on oppressive. We were on a tiny stage only inches from the floor and the revelers were crashing into mic stands (I got a mic in the teeth) and yelling (all with positive exuberance) right into our faces. They threw their hands at us for high fives between every song and drank straight out of personal pitchers. It did feel good to provide them with the entertainment they needed after weeks of hard work in the bush. I can claim familiarity with that! But it was all a little overwhelming. Such a contrast to the focussed, meditative audiences I experience in some of my other musical pursuits.


Dude beer in Vanderhoof

June 29
Nandina Lodge, outside of Houston

Today I lay on the sun-warmed surface of a lake, slowly spinning and relishing being in the place and the perfect moment that was presented to me. As I turned, the view made a gradual shift from Nadina Mountain iced with snow to pastoral grassy hills with clumps of forest and low-growing shrubs, reminiscent of sights I've seen in the British Isles. My body moved as it need to and the chilly water sent my whole vital system thrumming. John and I celebrated this exhilaration with some enthusiastic howling as we dried off at shore.

June 30
Nandina Lodge

We've got a couple days off and have been given this gorgeous wilderness lodge to unwind at by the owner of Happy Jack's, the venue we played at in Houston. Half an hour from town, nestled in the hills, it's a beautiful, rambling log structure with a dining table that could double as a surface for a game of shuffle board. Lit at night by large candelabras (there is no power or plumbing), the large main room is warmed by fire in a hearth facing a crescent of couches. I slept deeply for a good 10 hours and now, after a nice breakfast and some yoga, write this half naked on a blanket in a field of daisies in the midst of a symphony of birdsong. Better take cover soon, though, as this city gal's skin has been quite a stranger to the sun thus far this summer. But damn if feels great!

This afternoon's plan is to hunker down to some cello practice and to going over Evalyn's material for the Atilin Festival. I've got such the perfect little studio space for this (see photo). The cello will sing conspicuously in this remote environment. I hope our Grizzly neighbours will enjoy it! Apparently there are many in the area. We've not seen Grizzlies but passed by three black bears on the way out hear and have seen a plethora of moose and bald eagles.


Hanging with Naomi at her family's incredible Nadina Moutain Lodge


Practice studio of my dreams!


Swimming at Nadina Lodge


Breakfast table at the Lodge


Nadina Lake