Another year has flown by! Hope you have weathered the pandemic well… slowing down has helped me to value even more my bond with others, including you of course 😉
I’m writing from Crescent Beach, 45 minutes south of Vancouver, near the U.S. border. We had a little tear down here during my marriage. My neighbours remain good friends. They arranged a housesitting gig for a few weeks which gets me out of the rainforest and onto the mainland. Crescent Beach is reminiscent of Toronto Island – very walkable, next to a bird sanctuary, many older cottage homes, some now replaced with modern homes.
This home is next to railway tracks used to ferry coal from Washington State to a nearby terminal port (not permitted in Washington!). A few times each day and night a train whistle blows outside my window and a train rumbles past. Sorta like the Woody Allen film where he lived under the Coney Island Roller Coaster.
Lachie is home for Christmas and we are heading back to Victoria to spend Christmas with my former brother-in-law Howard (like a brother) Jane his partner, and other friends. Meantime I have rented out my lake home until the end of February. I love the lake in the summer but it’s a little dreary during winter.
I’m including a photo of my spring time view – plenty of flowering trees.
Lachie’s Ontario friend, Will is coming along – we’ve rented a condo in Victoria’s Chinatown and will head out from there. Before the vaccines, all socialization was limited. I kept busy with an online course on story telling and by summer, we were socializing again – mostly outdoors. Fortunately, it seems, I was raised to be hostess. Growing up, home entertaining was the norm. Both my grandmothers and parents had lake homes where they often hosted others. I learned at their knees. Good thing, because I had many guests this summer – including four Latina women who entertained the local fly fishermen and my neighbours by dancing to loud Latin music on my waterfront.
My brother Jack visited from Toronto. One evening we lay in the dark, staring out the solarium windows at the bats swooping for insects below—I told him of our joy when he was born – the youngest of 5. The scene transported me back to childhood summers at the lake. We would join our mother in the middle of the night, snuggled together under quilts, marveling at the magnificent lightning displays over the lake. A moment etched forever in my memory. This past summer included some wonderful road trips:
- A visit to Telegraph Cove – at the top of Vancouver Island.
- Nearby native village.
- Alert Bay, housed a native cemetery with the totem poles and a museum featuring this haunting image – painted on the door of the residential school.
- A hike to Mount Robson near Jasper, with Cousin Nancy Taylor.
- Fabulous outdoor concerts on Hornby Island.
- Cycling the Kettle Valley Railway bed (before the wild fires) near Kelowna.
A constant pleasure during the pandemic has been my online Spanish classes with my Colombian maestra Denisse pictured here on a hike near Bogota last Christmas. Lachie left for Madrid in April to complete his masters in Data Analytics. He finishes in March and is expecting an offer from a Canadian firm expanding into Europe – we’ll keep our fingers crossed! He hopes to work remotely after a couple of months in Toronto HQ.
Lachie’s presence inspired me to spend November in Lisbon.
A major recent change was the sale of my Victoria home—it had flooded last December with $80,000 damage (fully insured thank heavens!) The flooding was caused by defects in my new system to remove surface water. The system included a dry well and sump pump with several installation defects, Fortunately my long term contractor, responsible for the fiasco, has now retired. I remedied the problem, (installing a high water audible alarm plus 3 back up sump pumps) and was able to quickly sell and move on. It’s been a huge relief and frees me up to travel — Covid willing! I enjoyed renovating and beautifying that home but it was time to move on!
I still return to my former James Bay neighbourhood however, to visit my next door neighbours—theatrical types who invite their theatre crowd over for a Friday 5 pm “sip & bitch”. It’s like landing in the middle of an improv session. Kathryn is a puppeteer and puppet maker and says I have inspired her to create a new puppet – the “wacky neighbour”. We’ll see…. Wait for the photos. Here’s a couple of her creations.
Hard to believe I’m trying to keep this letter brief—I expect to start an online blog in the new year (once my boat litigation is settled) and will keep you posted. Meantime these letters help me record some of my memoirs.
One last series of anecdotes—enroute home from Portugal I met up with up with Elizabeth Acker, a kindergarten friend. Her family moved to Montreal at the end of Grade 5 so we had not seen each other in almost 60 years. We used to have great chats walking down the back alleys of Regina. Apparently I explained to her the facts of life in a memorable fashion – I’ll spare you the details as this is a family letter 🙂 I do remember comparing our mothers’ respective breast sizes. Too funny in retrospect. In any event, Elizabeth brought along our kindergarten class photograph showing us side by side. We agreed, we liked each other then and we still like each other now! Elizabeth rekindled other kindergarten memories—like how I learned to love an audience. In Regina schools, the year’s biggest event was the Christmas Carol concert. Our kindergarten class was asked to perform at the downtown Rotary Carol festival – big leagues for a 5 year old. I was auditioning for a solo part singing our recital piece “If we could go to Bethlehem” Alone on stage, at back of the large auditorium was the vice principal, Jim Gordon (my grandmother’s lodger – I liked him) and my teacher. “Yes! We can hear her from here!” And so, I won the part – my first moment of glory!
My final vignette (which I’m likely repeating – please forgive me) Mrs. Murdoch my kindergarten teacher wrote… “Judy is one of the most vivacious children I have ever had the pleasure of teaching, she is aglow with the joy of life…..now if only she could learn to be a little more quiet during work periods. This will ease her transition to Grade 1. I only mention this for Judy’s own benefit.”
I remind myself of these comments from time to time. Both to maintain a positive perspective on life and to curb my occasional social over exuberance. 🙂
With much love and warmest wishes to all of you!!!! Judy
