Canada: summer 2015

We arrived back in Canada in time for Roxanne's parents' 58th wedding anniversary.

At the beginning of May we attended the annual North American Sanbo Zen retreat (this year in Cornwall, ON) with Yamada Ryoun Roshi (http://www.sanbo-zen.org/).

At the end of May we went out to Calgary to visit John's Mom and attend a pre-wedding reception for John's nephew Damien and his wife-to-be Claire.

Most of June was spent in within walking distance of Bancroft, ON.

While we were in Belize we ran into Ron and Rhonda, who run a very unique and interesting shop called Primitive Designs in Port Hope, ON. (http://www.primitivedesignscanada.com/) We took a few days to go down and visit them - great fun!

At Primitive Designs they built a life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex out of used car parts. For fun! We zoomed around in Ron's old orange VW Thing.

We've starting stomping around in the bush looking for a big hill with a south-facing cliff, to build a home base.

We thought we were getting pretty close when we heard about a 400 acre farm that was for sale with an amazing view. A real estate agent took us tramping through the bush out to this cliff. We drove away plotting and scheming how we could talk the owner into severing 100 acres around that cliff when we received a phone call 2 minutes after we left. The real estate guy had showed us the wrong place - this was Crown land that is tied up in an Algonquin Indian land claim and will never become available...!

Bancroft 1: We're.... off to see the wizard ...!

Bancroft 2: Buddies.

Family get-together.

Vancouver Island looking towards the mainland.

We've been on the road for a couple of years now. At the beginning of this blog we tried to express that we were attempting something more substantial than an extended holiday. To our surprise and delight it’s beginning to turn out that way. Coming from 30 or 40 years of living and working in a society, it becomes pretty difficult to tell what you personally think and believe anymore and what is just adopting the habits of that world. We’re starting to see the lives and situations we now encounter a bit more objectively and are often finding moments of beauty and joy. We consider that progress!

We spent most of July 2015 in Gail’s big Airstream trailer on Lasqueti Island - what a delight!

If you don't have your own boat, the only way on to Lasqueti is via a passenger-only ferry from Parksville.

Lasqueti doesn't have a permanent doctor or nurse on the island, so there's a sign to let you know when the nurse is in.

We took the ferry off Lesqueti Island back to Vancouver Island to get some groceries, and went to a little town called Coombs. There is a ig grocery store and restaurant there with goats on the roof.

800 -year old tree in Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island.

Lasqueti market 1: Tolling and Kay selling coins from the Lasqueti mint. Tolling decided to start minting his own currency and produced stunningly beautiful silver, gold and copper coins over about a ten year period. The coins are now collector's items (http://lqmint.com/).

Lasqueti market2: Bruce the carver, with Roxanne.

Our favourite spot on Lasqueti Island.

Roxanne's father, Spencer Stanutz, died on July 20, 2015. We returned to Ontario to be with her family and attend the funeral.

Roxanne's brother Cal.