It's a beautiful morning, clearing and still cool, but today will be hot. I walked to the Cove to catch an early morning ferry, smothered in birdsong. The Townsend Solitaire's are carving the air with their spiralling song. My breakfast was a handful of salmonberries and a shot of espresso at The Snug.

Boats are on my mind this morning. There is a day tripper ketch moored at the government dock, and my friend Markus and I were speculating about it. The masts look older than the hull. Markus himself discovered a video of the boat he is salvaging on the CBC archives. Apparently it was owned by Greenpeace founder Bob Hunter, who died in 2005. If you watch the video, you can see a full shot of the boat at the :29 second mark. That's quite a find for Markus.

The final product.

It has been raining for the past could days, and cold like autumn. It happens like this every year, and every year people wonder what happened to summer. We always get a taste of summer in May and every June we get the rainy season's last gasp. I've been sleeping out on the porch for the last couple of nights, mostly due to Caitlin having a terrible throat infection, but I would be out there anyway...it's beautiful at night in the cool air with the rain falling and no wind. And to awake in the full light at 5:30 am with the towhees madly trying to attract mates is a beautiful alarm clock.

I was thinking today how much Bowen has changed in the nearly six years I have been here. I'm in that spot now where people start to say "the Island isn't what it used to be." Of course that's true, it's always true, but there is a time in seeing change when you become aware that the change that is happening has changed the way you see things too. What is lamented is the fact that we don't see things the way we used to. So I am conscious, having spent so much of this year away from Bowen, of my new eyes, curious to see how things will be in the summer when I sink into the rhythm of this place.

The salmonberries are ripe and the harvest has begun. On Wednesday the family went out picking and we loaded u. There are tons of berries around, huge in size and the bushes are just dripping with them. These ones are destined for jam and whatever else we harvest will get frozen to use in smoothies, on yogurt or in breads and muffins.

This year's Bowfest is getting a much needed overhaul. The committee even has a blog! Hooray!

Just a note to say that I'm currently also blogging at One Day Bowen, a website dedicated to sustainable living here on the island. Go there and join the conversation!

This is the traditional beginning of the summer season here in Canada, and typically on the west coast the weather varies from being quite summery to reminding us of the winter that has yet to entirely lose its grip on us. There is still a little snow on the mountaintops, and the temperatures are cool at night, but mostly we have just come through a week of lovely sunshine and shirtsleeves.

And then, yesterday around noon something cold rolled in and this morning it has been positively pissing rain. The fire is blazing away here and my efforts to find some moments to cut the grass have been dashed. That is the way May goes around here.

The salmonberries are plentiful this year although not yet ripe. Some of the bushes on our usual haunts seem to have twice as many berries on them as usual and there are a few down in the cove that are starting to develop some colour. It won't be long until we are cruising down the cove with containers in hand to harvest the bounty of the land.

In news around the house we have been making a few changes here. The front deck fell off the fascia board it was flimsily nailed to, a result of water damage and poor construction and so we are getting that redone, looking to build a new deck along to front of the house that opens on to the bottom of our lot. Aine had the idea to put a small patio down there which might be nice, among the salal and the blackberries. At the same time we are strengthening the support for the house, which could use a seismic upgrade. Also, we are going to build some supports into the back deck to be able to hold a hot tub, which should arrive this summer. And to complete our outdoor work, we bought a trampoline for the kids and built a firepit in the back of our place which already has proven to be a nice spot for late night conversation in the chill air of spring.

May begins...can you believe it?

I have been travelling so much away from this place that I love. When I am here I have been so present on the land, enfolding myself into Island life. Yesterday the kids and I had a great day, log hopping and building a small beach fire at September Morn beach on the east side of the island, checking the status of the emerging salal and salmonberry patches around there (and they are some healthy!) and then heading to Snug Cove filed to catch a baseball game, as the men's fastpitch season has started.


Nice to be home, for a short time, to touch down and feel the balance on this place. I'm son to travel again, but every moment I am on Bowen, I savour.