We're halfway through the the six week run of ON and QC. The weather and humidity is escalating daily. Yesterday Toronto was 40 degrees. Even now at 9 am I'm melting - enhanced by this lap top baking my lap. OMG, I miss the west coast...and the dog...and riding bikes with Bill.
But really, the trip has been fantastic so far. We even took a little detour to Quebec City for a couple of days of being total tourists. SUCH a great adventure. Until yesterday, this has been a perfect time of year to tour these parts. We try to take the back roads instead of the terminally boring major routes and have seen some gorgeous countryside. We even played in a barn in Perth! We've met so many remarkable folks and the phrase "I rely on the kindness of strangers" comes to mind daily. "The kids" are playing and singing stunningly well and there's lots of silliness in the van.
I'm writing you from the train - somewhere in the middle of Manitoba en route from Vancouver to Montreal. Now, I have hopped from coast to coast across this country so many times, but never traveled from the coast of BC to points east via the ground. It's a whole different experience to watch the topography change - from the Fraser Valley through BC and the Rocky Mountains and the fields of Saskatchewan to the rolling green plains of Manitoba. Well, that's as far as I've gone so I have no flowery descriptive words for the rest. All I can tell you is - I'm feelin' the love for Canada! Cue the emotional patriotic music. Truly. As a person who chose this country, to experience it in this way is very moving.
Read MoreThis is the point in winter when I start to think it is always going to be like this. Wet, grey and cold. I did finally learn several years ago (after a mere 40 years of living here) that the trick to surviving and even enjoying Canadian West Coast Winters is all about condom-izing oneself in proper waterproof clothing. And when one has a dog, this is imperative. So I don't really mind the daily walks in the elements, but "chilled" is not my favourite state and it does wear me down a bit. But as with all trivial complaints, I remind myself daily how fortunate I am that I live in a place where there are no bombs dropping or soldiers pillaging our homes - where there is food and clean water and the basics that we all take for granted. To say nothing of the spectacular beauty of this place. So I guess the whine fest must cease.
Read MoreFirst of all, though I always apologize for the long silence, this one was LONGER than usual. Fortunately it's only due to life being so full. But still...I've been trying to get to this letter since the summer, which is kind of pathetic! And now I'll be hard pressed to even remember everything I wanted to tell you...also kind of a sad statement.
Maybe I'll work my way backwards....which means today's news is:
Okay - I know some of you are literally roasting in oven temperatures across the country, and if I had
to choose between that and the perennial grey fall weather we're having on the West Coast, I'd rather
be cool. So I guess whining is out of the question. I'll refrain. And those in the east - you have my
sympathy.
Julia and Ted and I spent the last couple of weekends touring the gulf islands - including with UHF
on Mayne Island and a house concert with Julia & Ted on my old stomping grounds on Saltspring
Island. Touring the Gulf Islands in the summer is my idea of gig heaven. It's always a strange and
wonderful feeling to return to Saltspring.
I am writing from the home of lifetime family friends of Julia's McGill pal and pianist Ted Littlemore in Patricia Bay on Vancouver Island, looking out over the Bay as the rest of the house sleeps. I love getting up before anyone else and writing and planning and ruminating over the last evening's show.
We had a house concert here in this lovely home last night, where Ted and his brothers spent every summer since they were born. His Grannie Annie and our host went to school together. There were about 60 people in their living room for the concert, and love hovered everywhere. It was the first show Ted's parents and brothers had attended and it was delightful to see their reaction to hearing their Ted in a musical ensemble unlike anything he's ever done. Hey, it's unlike anything I'VE ever done!