Birthday swim

Warmest birthday swim ever for Caitlin. The water was like a bathtub and the sky is brilliant blue. A northwest swell but no wind. A pair of horned grebes on the sea. Settled high and another brilliant summer continues.

Location:Roger Curtis Lane,Bowen Island,Canada

The calm after the storms.

Thankfully the major storm we expected on Saturday night was further west, further north and less organized than predicted. We had good winds, gusting near 100km/h but no significant damage. This evening the sea is calm, the air is cool and the Sound is full of cloud.

Home in the murk

Watching the weather develop and evolve these past days is amazing. Every fall I feel the liveliness of the energy in the October storms. There is life in them: they clear the leaves and fall trees and fill the creeks with water for the salmon to find.

This evening is murky. There is a lot of water in the atmosphere and it's warm. The forecast is also murky, and we look forward 36 hours to what might be a very bad typhoon remnant if it its us in just the right way. For today though, last night's storm has moved on and a second is building in, the preludes to something truly magisterial.

Clouds are building in now and the first of three storms is approaching tonight.

Location:An uncompromising sky

The light comes through

The sun continues its travels south, cresting over Eagle Ridge as seen from my house this morning. I love the dark cool mornings of fall. This morning's sky is laced with cirrus clouds as the clear calm weather we have had begins to break down. Three big storms are coming with damaging winds expected and up to 20cm of rain. It is going to be wet and scary for a few days, especially for folks new to Bowen. Their first major wind storms.

Inquisitive morning

A calm morning before some storms we are expecting. The gulls are agitated by the eagles flying high above them over the mouth of Mannion Bay. The towhees have changed their calls from garrulous cries to inquisitive whistles. There is a chill in the katabatic breeze.

I love this place

I love the Indian plum blooming in February.

I love the glassy transparent green of Mannion Bay in the evening.

I love the smell of soil coming to life in the forest.

I love a local cafe covered in blue hearts.

I love the creeks rushing into the sea, over waterfall and between the roots of cedars and firs.

I love the way people's shoulders drop and the way they take lungfuls of air after walking off the ferry.

I love that I can't go anywhere without being interrupted with a hello.

Just gratitude this morning.

We lost a big one today

Piers Hayes, our village maitre d' and man of the house at the Snug died today.  This came out:

Blue

So many of us never had a name

when we walked through the door of the snug

but it was all the same to him;

he knew that you 

would always respond if he just called you “Blue"

He was a blue eyed charmer

a maitre d' for a whole community

a casual character that buzzed like bee

from table to table, knitting together strangers

with his self-deprecating humour

but with a laser focus on what he could do

to make the world a little less blue.

I heard him once tell the story 

of how he left the azure skies of Africa

and shipped his family on the turquoise sea

and for years they saw every colour it could be - 

the greys and greens and dark blue deep

storm tossed and washed in adventure

held in the currents that carried them between continents.

He never entered quietly

But he blew into a room

like a Salish Sea southeasterly

or hollered out hellos and bellowed greetings

from behind the bar, meeting

each customer as a friend,

tending tender connections

The day he died, the rain was steely grey.

As if the blue had seeped out of the sea and the sky

and pierced every heart that broke and every soul that cried

with the news that he was gone.

He left us stories and affection

and a recognition that we will always remember

how we belong.

A bit about the deeper reasons beneath the work I do

A couple of years ago - back when I had long hair - I was doing some work in Estonia, where I was part of a team of people that were leading a week long workshop learning about leadership, complexity, dialogue and belonging.  I was interviewed under a tree one afternoon about some of the concepts and the deeper implications of what we teach in the Art of Hosting workshops, which itself is, at its simplest, a set of practices to help facilitate participatory meetings better.  I talked a bit about what the Art of Hosting means, the need to dance with chaos and order and the learning from the deeper patterns of how life works.



I share this here on this blog because a lot of what I have learned about living with change has come from living on Bowen Island.  The bulk of this ten minute interview is basically my operating principles when it comes to living in my community, dancing between chaos and order, welcoming change and bringing helpful form and cultivating the belonging that the heart truly desires.

Big atmospheric river

This is a photo of the atmospheric river that is currently drenching us in wet, warm and windy weather.  It extends all the way down to and west of Hawaii and is one of the biggest atmospheric rivers to ever hit our coast.

It is what it says it is.  A river of moisture coming along the upper atmosphere driving tropical moisture on to our coast.  We're due 50-80 mm of rain over the  next couple of days, which is 2-3 inches.  It is currently cascading off the house.

I went out for a walk this evening, down to the Cove to get some food for dinner, in the dark and the wind and the rain.  I had only a t shirt on under my rain jacket, it was so warm.

There is no such thing as bad weather.  Only bad clothing.  Enjoy the rain.

Under the volcano

Beautiful sunrise this morning with a rare twist. About 150 Kms to the east of us is Mount Baker, a 10000 foot volcano that sits on Vancouver's eastern horizon. This morning's sunrise cast the volcano's shadow on the mamatus clouds in the eastern sky.  

Wind and snow

Our stretch of sunny dry and cold weather has come to an end and big fat flakes of snow have been falling on and off over the last couple of days.  At our altitude, it's been a boundary conditions between snow and rain, as it so often is, so very little is sticking here, but everything is sticking higher up.

It already feels like a much more typical winter than the arid ones of the past two years.  We've had ice on Josephine Lake where a shinny game broke out on the weekend, probably one of the few lakes in the lower mainland of BC where you can skate when the conditions are right.

Only on Bowen.

It's a hoarfrost kind of day, kind of cold out and the ground is covered in snow, frost and ice.  Sitting in The Snug having lunch when a weekend visitor comes in saying the he blew out his shoes hiking and all he has is flip flops. Nothing's open. 

We were about to post in Facebook and the forum when Will, the cook here, heads to the back and comes out with his pair of spare shoes. Fits perfectly. Stranger will bring them back tomorrow when he leaves. 

Does that happen where you live?

New Year's Fog

We have an inversion on the coast today as we continue with this fine clear and cool weather.  Lots of fog over the sea, rolling in all morning.  Here is a bit of it, featuring the 1030 ferry zipping into it halfway through.

Killarney Lake New Years Day

A pair of hooded mergansers feeding in the lake. Cold weather has brought clear skies through which we glimpsed a hint of the aurora last night. Hoarfrost coats everything. In the stillness Ravens calling and the splash of a few flowing streams. 

Happy New Year. 

Complaining

Things that will not change if you complain about them:

• The weather.
• Falling Trees
• The ferry schedule and its daily implementation..
• The colour of the tap water
• The price of firewood in December
• Ferry line up jumpers
• Tourists

Things that might get better if you complain about them to the right people:

• A power outage
• BC Ferries service
• A cross walk design
• Speeding
• The temperature of your soup.

Things that will get worse if you complain about them:

• Your neighbours
• Snug Cove plans
• The quality of discourse on the Forum 
• Anything happening at the Cape 
• A server who has busted her butt to heat up your soup during a power outage because you are late for the ferry that's running way off schedule due to the weather.

What a newcomer learns in 90 days

We're working on a whimsical yet practical guide to being a newcomer on Bowen Island.  Islanders are whimsical yet practical people, after all.  In doing some research about what newcomers want to know, we've been posting questions from time to time on one of the better read Bowen Island facebook pages.  

Today one of our new neighbours made a list of what she has learned.  It's really good:

1. It's not a case of "if" the power goes, it's "how long" the power will be out.
2. Flashlights and candles are invaluable commodoties
3. Don't get embarrassingly drunk at The Pub because EVERYONE will know . . .unless everyone else is drunk, then drink up.
4. If #3 happens, Glen and Meredith have your back
5. Everyone knows who Glen and Meredith are
6. Everyone knows who you are, where you live and what you plan to do next Tuesday
7. The mainland is officially known as "town"
8. You can walk into Knick Knack Nook with $5 and walk out with a massive bag of stuff
9. Directions rarely include road names and mainly revolved around "you know the red chicken coop past ___'s farm? Turn left there"
10. Everybody has chickens
11. You suddenly have the urge to own chickens
12. You don't know the first thing about chickens
13. Burger Night. 'Nuff said.
14. Hitchhiking is a legitimate form of transportation
15. When someone asks for your help, they actually need it and don't plan to mug you
16. Never trust BC Ferries sailing times. Ever.
17. The speed limit is actually 30 km/ hr . Respect it.
18. Driving around the North Shore is simply too hectic for you
19. Driving in downtown Vancouver gives you a panic attack
20. If you do venture off to 'town', you want to get back to your cozy little island ASAP and return to the life of a hermit.

Nice.  There was widespread consensus that she has "become one of us."  Burger Nights at the pub will do that for a person.  Especially the way she experiences them.

Affordability

There has been a good facebook discussion on affordable housing prompted by Wolfgang Duntz's Rezoning Proposals for Parkview Slopes.  This development proposal is for a couple of lots on Cates Hill below and west of Rivendell and Artisan Square.



A feature of this proposal is affordable housing of different kinds, including housing intended to be affordable to own through a leasing arrangement.  There are a number of issues with land leasing (including what happens if the leaseholder ever goes bankrupt, because there can be liabilities for municipalities in these cases).  But in general ANYTHING we can do to provide affordable housing option on Bowen is a good thing.



However, that doesn't mean we can't be strategic.  And that means understanding our context.  As I see it we have two kinds of affordability challenges on Bowen.  We require housing for people that live and work on the island as low wage employees, making something between minimum wage and say, $20 an hour.  These are the people that staff the bricks and mortar businesses on the island and make it possible for us to be more than a bedroom community.  In general these people rent housing and are unable anywhere in the Lower Mainland to develop equity in property.  They are island-based renters, although they are increasingly commuting from cheaper digs on the east side of Vancouver.  Several of your favourite people on Bowen make that reverse commute every day. Currently the on-island renters are living in the few apartments we have around Bowen, or in basement suites or shared houses.  Their housing situations are not secure or stable, and the rents are essentially set at the level that allows the owner to cover the costs of the building: mortgage and taxes.  They get kicked out when the market spikes and the owner wants to sell.



The other kind of affordability need we have is for affordable ownership.  This is a Lower Mainland problem and because of that it creates a special problem for our first class of renters.  Whenever an "affordable" home comes on the market (and I'm talking less than average, let's say $3-500,000) it gets snapped up immediately by folks looking for affordable home ownership.  These are people capable of paying a downpayment, which in general is not your labourer, cashier or retail staff person.  The result is that we could build 1000 "affordable" homes that would do nothing to create any new housing stock for on-island renters.  It would just bring 1000 new people to Bowen who previously were struggling to make ends meet in Vancouver.  Belterra is a recent example, and although several islanders moved there, several more also arrived to be a part of the co-housing development (and don't get me wrong, they're awesome!).



So how to fix this?



Well, there are a number of things that we could try but they would be counter cultural on Bowen Island.  One major reason for this is that they have to operate outside of the market, and that makes these proposals a non-starter for some people.  Some of these things include:

• Subsidized social housing
• Trailers owned and rented out by a housing authority
• Restrictions on AirBnB and VRBO rentals which take available housing out of the rental stock in order for owners to rent their places out on weekends.  (San Francisco is already confronting this)
• Allowance for liveaboards on boats. 
• Encouragement and perhaps subsidy of some kind for business owners to build apartments above their businesses to house their employees.

It is just not going to be enough to build more houses that are smaller and cheaper than the existing stock.  We need low rent housing that is protected for on-island workers.  This is so totally out of the box in BC right now that I expect lots of push back for an idea like this.  But it is common in many other parts of the world, and perhaps our new federal government will have a different and progressive take on addressing affordability in market-bubble zones.  Not all housing has to be market based.  And part of ensuring that your own home has a high value is that you live in a community with the kinds of amenities that can only be provided by the folks that serve your coffee, beer and sandwiches, that fix your roof, repair your boat, clean your house look after your kids and take care of your elderly neighbours.



What do you think?

Calling out a made up "tradition"

I want to do something really unBowen: call something out directly.



Today the Undercurrent published this article: Campaign road signs not 'the Bowen way'.  It describes how there is a tradition on Bowen Island of election campaign signs being restrcited only to the sign corner at the crossroads.  Apparently, it is "Not The Bowen Way" to place them on lawns or in windows and candidates that do "receive a polite phone call" presumably inviting them to do something else.



This makes my skin crawl.  I frankly don;t care one way or the other if you want to have an election sign on your lawn.  In fact there is something about the rambunctious chaos of electioneering that somehow captures the colourful energy of a democracy in full sail.  On the other hand, its dismal when, weeks after elections are over, signs are still littering public spaces.



But what really bothers me is the self-appointed community standards police who enforce this policy year after year.  It is not really a tradition; not like slug races or the Black Sheep marking a store opening, or not telling anyone where Alder Cove beach is, or dropping off Halloween candy in the homes of Deep Bay residents you don't know.



It is a kind of conspiracy hatched by the original candidates in our first municipal election and enforced by some of them and their friends to this day.  Newcomers to our island should know that this is not an official policy of our local municipality - nor could it be, for legislating this kind of thing would probably be unconstitutional, if Elections Canada had any teeth left to fight this kind of thing.  instead it is a policy with a genteel veneer that sometimes has the nasty effect of suppressing the ability for new candidates to indelibly mark your brans with their names, for better or worse.  It serves incumbents and those with name recognition.  In short, a policy like this serves the very people who tend to be most supportive of it (and those who tend to support the workings of free markets except when it comes to promoting democratic choice)



It is quaint, which is very much "the Bowen way."  It is also elitist and exclusionary and that too sometimes is "the Bowen way."   So I'm going on the record, and I know I'm not alone, in objecting to the sometimes sanctimonious way this little tradition - with all of it's nuanced sneakiness and possibly dark sideeffects- is retreaded every time an election comes around.  I fjndamentally distrust people who, through tradition, coercion, influence or otherwise, work against participation in democratic process.  Even if it's a bit messy



If we really want to see if it's "the Bowen way" perhaps leave it alone, stop enforcing it with "polite phone calls" (Those sinister scare quotes) and see if Bowen Islanders, free of the pressure to conform, choose to continue this custom, or evolve something entirely different, and entirely Bowen.

Epic hike to end the summer

We're blessed on Bowen with a small set of hiking trails which offer challenges to folks of all abilities.  Many of these are marked and official, and there are a few that are not official.

Yesterday Caitlin and I marked the end of summer with perhaps the most challenging hike possible on Bowen, the Mount Gardiner circuit.  It's an epic six hour trek that probably got us upwards of 1000 meters elevation in total.

We bagen at 1pm at the gate on Hiker's Road, on the north side of the mountain.  Climbing up a road for about 20 minutes takes you to Handloggers Trail (marked as the Midlevel trail on the map).  It's a 200 meter climb right out of the chute, but once on Handloggers heading west around the mountain another 120 meter climb takes you to a fantastic lookout over Killarney Lake and Mount Collins.

From there, the trail climbs a bit more before bending around the mountain and opening up views to the west, over Keats Island, the Paisley Group and the Sunshine Coast.  At 1.5 hours into the the trip you join the Bluewater reservoir trail, a high flat section of older growth Douglas fir and beautiful mossy forest floor gives you a chance to rest the legs for a bit until you join up with the Handloogers trail proper trail and begin steadily to move down the hill.  Some of the down hill sections are challenging, going on extending descents along cobble strewn creek beds, which were thankfully dry this season.

The Bluewater section of Handloggers crosses some impressive canyons and gullies as it makes it's way around the western side of the mountain.  After about 1.5 hours of this you arrive at the split and a decision point about whether head down to the Laura Road trail head, or complete the second half of the trip, which is far more gruelling.

At 4pm we headed up towards the South Summit of Mount Gardiner.  Having lost about 220 meters in elevation, we now headed almost straight up to recover it and more.  The 1.5 hour climb takes you up two impressive gully systems with some great views across the south part of Bowen Island, Apodaca Ridge and the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island.  You gain 440 meters in a little over a kilometre, which makes for a steep ascent in some places.

The trail comes out at a lovely flat saddle between the two peaks of Mount Gardiner.  From her eyou have the choice to climb to the summits, but yesterday we were pressed for time and we could feel the weather changing, so we decided to head back down again towards Skid Trail on the south flank of the mountain.  The section off the top is really steep and switchbacks take you back and forth along contours with blufftop view points opening over Sung Cove, Apodaca Ridge and towards Vancouver and the Lower Mainland away in the distance. You are now in the business of losing 600 meters or so of elevation, and the knees are knocking pretty hard by the time you get down to the Skid Trail.  The forest is all cedars and the forest floor is bereft of ferns and salal.  In the murky distance are Dangerous Dan Cowan's mysterious bike jumps.

It takes a little over 1.5 hours to go from the saddle back to the starting point, but Skid Trail becomes a friendly lovely way out.

It has been on my bucket list all summer to complete that circuit.  I estimated six hours and we were right on the dot, with time for one wrong turn that was easily corrected.  The legs feel good this morning which was a surprise, perhaps aided by a little bit of celebratory Laphroaig.