The day after a great Bowfest, sunny, well attended, busy parade...the perfect community fair.

Today it's rainy and cooler, and the garden is enjoying it. Peas are still producing and the zucchinis are finally flowering. I spent the day inside making bread, and came up with this
inspiring and tasty trio. That's a half loaf of whole wheat at the back, some cranberry-pecan whole wheat rounds on the right and some fougasse on the rack cooling.

Time to make some soup.

Our ferry causes us no end of pains and trouble, but it's worth remembering that those folks who work on board are trained to save you life at a moments notice with no questions asked. THey don't care if you yelled at them or grouched at the perfromance of the Cap or anything else. When there is a an emergency on the water, the luxuries of customers' narcissistic puffery go out the window.

Life saving hapens on a regular basis for the BC Ferries crews, and the most recent event for our guys was a couple of days ago when they had to stand by while a boat ran into trouble off Tyee Point in Horseshoe Bay. No one had to get wet, but here's a timely thanks anyway to the crews that have marine safety on the top of their priority lists.

Great day at the ball park today. The Men's Fastpitch League tournament wrapped up with the final two games of the tourney played this morning and then the semis and the finals played this afternoon. In the first game, the Diggers miscalculated the amount they needed to win by and let up on the Celtics who squeezed into a playoff spot as a result. The Cruisers cruised to a victory over the Shakers and the semi finals were set.

Game one saw the Celtics playing the Firemen. The Firemen had a good start but their bats went cold in the second and third innings allowing the Celtics to catch up. They never fully caught them though and the Firement rallied well in the late innings to win. In the other semi, the Cruisers made a valiant attempt against the Twins, but no to no avail and the game ended on a mercy rule.

Going into the final the Twins were the favourite over the Firemen, who have won the last three years in a row It was a tight game early on, even tying up at one point, but errors killed the Firemen. They made four errors in the game, all of which scored runs, and the Twins fielding was impeccable. Other than catcher Zak Ma letting a runner advance to third in the last inning, they played perfect ball. There were a lot of homeruns, the traditional streaking incident (this year by the Blomberg and Thompson ne'er do wells) and the Twins pitching was great, playing the umpire's wide strike zone to great effect. The Twins walked away with it after a couple of five run innings and the Firemen were left out of gas, despite a final inning rally in which the made 5 of the eight runs they needed. A great final altogether.

Bowen Island baseball is one of the treats of a Bowen summer. The season starts in May and concludes in August with the tournament. The games are played on a gorgeous field in the Cove, kids are paid a quarter for every foul ball they return (or 50 cents for a homerun ball). It's free, it's local, it's non-toxic and it's community building. All the right requirements for perfect summer entertainment. The league has been around forever and many kids have grown up with dreams of playing for one of the six local teams. It's all volunteer, from the commisioner to the scorekeepers, enjoys great support and, despite the occasional outburst, the games are tough fought between good sportsmen.

(More photos from Graeme Campbell)

Men's Fastpitch Tournament is all on weekend down at Snug Cove Field. Tomorrow is the playoffs and finals starting at 9am.

I caught two games today: Cruisers and Celtics and the Firemen and Twins, both of which ended in a tie. The league is close this year - closer than ever - and the three ties today were unprecendented. Should be great ball tomorrow.

One GOOD thing did appear at the forum recently...this story of our local vets heroically saving a nursing doe from abroken leg.

We have pretty much moved out here for the summer. THis is our front porch which faces out over Mannion Bay and the Queen Charlotte Channel. In the fall and winter, this porch lies between us and the gales of the autumn, but in summer, the covered deck keeps the sun off and drinks in the cool air off the water. Even on days of 30 degrees or more, it's never more than 23 or so on his porch.

As a result, our lives have become focused on this space. We are all sleeping out here at night and as you can see from the foreground, the office has moved here too. Meals are eaten on our little teak table and we look down upon the garden and the sea and just relax into summer on this beautiful island.

And it has been a great summer. Weather has held steady and unlike last year, we've had hot and sunny days punctuated every couple of weeks with a burts of rain. We're expecting more this weekend, during the Men's Fastpitch tournament.

In news, the turf war is proceeding full on. The debate centres on the installation of artificial turf at the BICS field. Different groups of people are taking each other on over process, cost, environmental impact and the removal of trees. These four issues seem to be hot points.

For me, it's interesting. Many people I know and like are on both sides of these issues, and the thing that keeps me from getting involved is thatI'm hearing lots of personal comments and attacks against friends of mine on both sides. It's strange because the stories I'm hearing don't equate with my reality. So in general, in case you want to know where I stand, I'm with folks who are working on finding good information and working with each other to see what can come from co-creative planning and collaboration. I am put off by rants and people trying to convince me of the merits of their position, and I'm especially repelled by people who are just making up suppositions and implications about people I know. So if you're reading and you think I should agree with you, or line up against so and so, please hold your thoughts to yourself. If you'd like my opinion on how to work together, I can help out with that.

Our innocuous little forum has become toxic over the issue and I don;t even go there anymore. The link is on the sidebar. Visit at your peril.

Bottom line: at the end of the day we need each other. There is a mega earthquake scheduled for this part of the world at any time, and given that that might happen tomorrow or in 100 years, we need to be on good terms with one another. And anyway, this issue will pale to that one. There are many other things facing this island that need neighbourliness to be intact, ike affordability, sustainability and other good things. So my advice to the combatants in this is do your best to get a good resolution, but if you find yourself alienated from neighbours over this issue, put it in perspective. Bring them a gift of a jar of jam, or some fresh baked bread and apologize for offenses intended or otherwise, and remember what is most important here. Getting along is more valuable than any other solution to the turf war.

And that's my piece spoken. Back to enjoying the summer.

The Undercurrent is delivering great online stuff finally. Along with Bowen TV, we're rocking...

This weeks wrap up:

• Coverage of Ross Carter's memorial, from Lois, his wife, who write the Island Chronicles column.
• Controversy swirling about the installation of an artifical turf field at the school, and the subsequent loss of trees.
• Nice review of Canada Day.
• Our first annual writers and readers festival was a success!
• Bowen TV coverage of the forest fire.
• A tour of the Marina