There is a wonderful collection of photos of Bowen Island being compiled at Flickr.

You can view them seperately or, my favouritie, as a slide show.

If you are up for it, tomorrow night down at the fabulous Bowen Island eatery, Blue Eyed Mary's, I will be performing with my fiddle partner Randy Vic, some acoustic jigs and reels to accompany your special Irish meal.

Stephen and Carol have a fixed price menu whipped up that is NOT about green beer and leprecahns but rather about excellent repaste, beautiful wine and a tribute to some unknown treasures of Irish cooking.

And live music to boot.

Reservations recommended. For a sample of what you might hear, here is Hawtin's Return, a tune we recorded in 2003 for the Bowen Island Music Exchange CD.

Finn on the dock

Finn on the dock

Spring is coming...

Eight days in the North in Prince George, preceeded by four days in Kelowna and I'm finally back home on the rock, sitting at Cocoa West, sketching designs for learning journeys and facilitation processes. Good to be home.

The robins are back, the towhee's are giving their whistle call in the mornings and the dawn chorus is with us for its annual three and a half month songfest. The weather has been balmy lately, with sunshine and temperatures in the high teens. No wind, a little rain. El Nino dries out the tail end of winter, and we're already fearing a drought.

The Snug, my favourite little coffee shop on the Island has closed while it gets a minor renovation. Tanya and Chris sold it to new owners this month, preferring to opt out of running a small business while they welcome their first child into their lives. As long as I've been on Bowen I've seen the Snug owned by four owners and they have all kept it as a great little place for coffee and meeting friends. It is my on-island board room, writing space and lunch counter all in one. I wish the best for the new owners, and for Tanya and Chris and their little one.

Weeks since I last posted here. We have had two weeks of beautiful spring weather, marred only in the last few days by the fog and rain of late winter...the herring rain that falls when the herring are running on the coast. In First Nations communities up and down the coast, the winter ceremonies are ending and the food seasons are beginning: herring, oolichan, salmon, shellfish...The berries are showing life, with the salmonberries starting to shoot. They'll be followed by the thimbleberries, huckleberries, salal and finally the fat, juicy non-native Himalayan blackberries which will end our summer with purple stains and sweetness.

All of this promise is at hand. We even have foreshadowing of what is surely to be a summer of drought. After the storms of this winter it's incredible to see the creeks already receding.

A time of palpable change.

Here's a great article on Bowen's own mountainbiking superstar, Dangerous Dan Cowan.

Reflecting on recent posts at Bowen Online and letters in The Undercurrent bemoaning our situation here on Bowen...

Call me crazy...some of you will, but you know what? I like the ferry as it is. I like the current Snug Cove configuration, with one lane of loading and one lane of parking - I thought it was the most elegant compromise of the summer of 2003, and I'm pleasantly surprised by how well the new lane works. I like the busses on both sides of the water. I'm happy with the existing shelter, and I enjoy standing in the cold air in the morning cuddling a cup of coffee and talking with friends.

When I'm old and creaky maybe I'll feel differently about these situations, if I have trouble walking on, or such. But for now, I really like living on an Island, I like our messy little Cove and I like what we have.

In the chorus of complaint I so rarely hear folks appreciating what's here. I take a lot of pride in living on this rock and I see all of these quirks as adding to the character of my home.

My greatest fear is that Bowen doesn't get "fixed" beyond recognition and that we sacrifice our real, deep satisfaction with our Island for the "narcissism of small difference."