Rainforest Picnics & Goat-cheese Sandwiches

It was a perfect weekend of relaxation...a lazy Saturday meandering Inland Lake in the tin boat (Josh fishing, me sleeping & reading), enjoying a wonderful book, and a hike into Kelly Falls along the Blackwater Trail for the best picnic EVER!

Bring on the goat cheese & grilled zucchinni sandwiches, nectarine & mint-chili zest salad and pesto pasta salad (with a fresh squeeze of lemon)! Mmmm, the perfect end to a wonderful weekend....

Good Friends

It’s such a blessing to have friends that no matter how far you live apart in distance or how many years linger between your visits, no matter all the changes you go through in life ... will always be good friends.

Elissa & I have a friendship like that. In high school we were inseparable. We worked together, played soccer together, spent weekends at each other’s places, and even vacationed together (Elissa had the ‘honour’ of coming to Europe with my family back in 1998!). We always dreamed that we’d end up living in Burlington, teaching at a Christian grade school and coaching the sports teams together.

Little did we know then that we’d end up living 20 time zones apart…Elissa on the shores of New Zealand and myself on the shores of Canada’s Sunshine Coast.

However, one thing remains: our friendship. Time zones, oceans, continents separate us, but Elissa will always be a dear dear friend.

Here’s to a wonderful visit from Sean & Elissa – to strolls down the Willingdon Beach Trail, catching fish with Papa Jimmy on the ocean, rescuing jelly fish along the white sandy shores of Savary, and just simply ‘being’ together.

Coast in Focus

One of the best parts of my new job at Tourism Powell River is gaining more & more knowledge of photography. Darren, my boss, is an extremely talented landscape photographer.

A few weeks ago, Darren & Kelly Funk (another extremely talented landscape photographer whose imagery is found on the covers of many of the regional guides in BC) lead 'Coast in Focus'; a photography workshop right here in Powell River.

While I love my camera, Stacy (Darren's wife) lent me her's so I was able to fiddle with appature, shutter speeds and the odd lense filter or two. At first it was overwhelming, but with D & K's help I was quickly taking photos which captured the most detailed rain drop and most dramatic flow of rushing rivers through the rainforest.

Enjoy the images!

Since the Goal of Living is to Grow

We pranced through the gardens and petal sanctuaries of local Powell Riverites. We inhaled the honey sweet scent of the wisteria, tapped the water droplets off the leaves of the bleeding hearts, and stood in awe of the perfect lupins stretching to the sun.

Beauty is everywhere.

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
~Emma Goldman~

The Earth laughs in flowers.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

An Ode to May Longs' Past

It wasn't until 2008 that I experienced my first real 'May Long' weekend. Josh had just moved to Merritt, so I'd made the lonooooooooong trek (two ferries, one looong highway through the mountains, a Coquihalla toll booth, and a whole lotta beautiful scenery) to the Interior. We'd had a weekend of bliss in Naramata, camping along Skaha Lake, tasting every white wine this side of Calgary. BLISS!

Until then, the entire concept of a 'May Long Weekend' was foreign to me. Foxwood Greenhouses would have none of that! It was a weekend to pump endless truckloads of hanging baskets, bedding plants, and pots out the door.

From the middle of April until mid June, I'm pretty sure my Dad gets about 7.8 hours of sleep total. He's busy zipping from the Toronto Market, back home to the greenhouses, on the road with the truck, back home, then on the road again.

The Jentje-i-nator would always remind us not to complain when, in high school, our friends would all go camping and we'd have to stay behind to work. "Kids, this is our bread and butter..."

I've started up a little 'business' in Powell River digging & weeding people's gardens in the evening. I love it - for one, some of the gardens overlook the ocean (and what's better than being in a garden watching sun set?). It also is the good old fashioned idea of getting back to the earth that sustains us...and playing in it, seeing the grace of God in the flowers, just sheer joy & beauty in creation.

It's funny - because for all the years I wished I could just get away, I now wish (ache!) to be back there squeezed between tables filling up geranium flats, craning my neck (eyes squinted in the sun) pulling down hanging baskets.

So family, I'm sending my love & you can be sure that I'm there pushing carts in spirit. xo

Grow flowers, grow! ...

....................and better yet, Sell flowers, SELL! xo

Grandma Zubah's Tea Cups

Lemon waffles, a vase full of fresh pink alstromarias, and real whipped cream were on the menu for Mothers Day brunch. After church, Grandpa Jack & Grandma Kay, Papa Jimmy & Nana Tida, Ken & Deb, and Uncle Lenny poured into the kitchen for a wonderful morning of celebrating the women in our lives.

I'd set the table the night before. I'd peered into Deb's china cupboards and found stacks of beeeaaautttifffuulllll tea cups. Each tea cup had a story -- this one was from Grandma Zubah (Papa Jimmy's mom) and had been given to her from her friend in China ... and ... this one was from Grandma MacKinnon (Grandma Kay's mom). What a joy to sit around the kitchen table on a beautiful Sunday and be able to sip from cups of amazing women of generations past!

I only wish that my Opa & Oma Vos, my Opa & Oma Reinink, and my Mom & Dad could've joined in the celebration. (You can ask Josh, I may have had a few tears later that night)

Once the dishes had been put away, Josh & I headed to the woods for a hike along the Cable Trail. We walk run, then walk, run and then walk and then run again along the loamy trails, over rickety wooden bridges, past waterfalls and up old abandoned logging roads. It was bliss!

God is good, so good.

Is it weird that I like the smell of 'skunk cabbage'? I think so.

Isn't it so beautiful though!? These grow all throughout the swampy areas of Powell River.

We may (or may not) have gotten a little lost, but we found our way back to Cable Trail! It's always an adventure...or, as Josh likes to say, and 'adventastor'!

MacGregor Falls pours into the river below.

Dreaming in Colour

I love colour.

I think it's because ever since I was little, my mom would dress me in rainbow colours with rainbow bracelets and rainbow necklaces with rainbow (do you sense a theme?) scrunchies to match (of course!). Even now, I do my best to have 'mature' and 'sophisticated' taste, but the second I walk into a store I'll run to the display bursting with colour. Colour just makes me so happy!

So....I can't help it, I'm addicted to colour.

Last night I came home to an amazing package sent all the way from London! My good friend Kelly has been teaching in the UK and has spent lots of time travelling across Europe & beyond. She'd visited Malta & Holland and had sent treats from each! She left a note about the package details and tales from her trip on a postcard featuring the colourful tulip fields in the Netherlands.

I cannot wait to one day walk through the fields of tulips in Holland! While I've been there during the winter and during the summer, I've never managed to catch the tulips in bloom (only the onset of spring with the fields of crocuses). With Josh's background being Maltese and mine being Dutch, it's a trip that we definitely want to make one day...again, one of our goals...to walk through the fields of tulips in & then eat pastizzi along the rocky shores of Malta. Ahhh, I can't even wait!

So, in ode to colour...and in hope of future walks through fields of tulips...some pictures! Enjoy!

Natural Cauldrons & Fiddlehead Ferns

One of the joys of working Tuesdays through Saturdays is, well, having Sundays & Mondays off!

My father-in-law Ken usually has Mondays off too so we've dedicated our Mondays to exploring the unadventured in Powell River (well, at least to us). One of my goals this year is to do at least 3 new hikes every month. Today we decided to hike Sweetwater Trail (which, for you Powell Riverites reading this, is in the Mud Lake Trail System). One of my dearest friends, Mary Mitchell joined us for the hike too!

The trail was beautiful as it meandered through the rainforest alongside Sweetwater Creek. Like so many of Powell River's hikes, we encountered waterfalls (MacGregor Falls), creeksides covered in blankets of moss, and old gigantic stumps which indicate the Old Growth forests that once stood there.

Our favourite spot was called 'The Cauldron' where we watched the river bubbling and boiling from a bridge high up above. I l-o-v-e creative names like that!

Enjoy the photos. xo

Mary & Ken overlook an area at the beginning of the trail where portions of the forest have been clearcutted.

Oh look! A wild pansy...a wild johnny-jump-up!

We watched the waters churn, bubble & boil in the 'Cauldron'...

...from the bridge built high up above!

Creation speaks of God's glory & love for the details in the fiddlehead fern.

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you ore exalted as head over all."

I Chronicles 29:11

S'more of Ireland Lake, Please

In the midst of weddings and traveling between Merritt & the Sunshine Coast, Josh & I had failed to even get one (not even ONE!) camping trip in last summer. We promised that wouldn't happen again this summer!

Last Sunday after church, Josh & I packed up the ol' Ford 150 and trucked our way into Powell River's backcountry. Destination: Ireland Lake. Mission: First camping trip of the year.

We found our site, pitched the tent, and spent the duration of the afternoon floating on the lake in Grandpa Jack's tin boat with the electric motor. We both started out fishing, but after about ten minutes it was just Josh fly fishing and me napping (or reading). Once the sun started to set, we putted our way back to the site and roasted Smokies & s'mores.

Bears & cougars in the backcountry won't stop me from camping. However, when it's dark and you're in the middle of absolutely nowhere...sometimes it does get a little scary. I think Josh would agree because he nearly peed his pants when my stomach gurgled and he thought it was a cougar outside the tent. Luckily, he had his axe and knife ready beside him should anything actually attack (no joke).

During the middle of a game of crib, Josh felt a sudden urge that 'the big one was calling his name'. He lept up, sent one cast of his fly rod into the lake, and hooked a decent sized trout (well, in comparison to the minnows he'd caught earlier!).

"I caught one, I caught one -- I CAUGHT ONE ELLY!"

(Elly is his nickname for me)

In my excitement, I tripped over a lawn chair (or two) to find my camera and ran over. Just as I took the shot the fish lept off the hook -- to leave Josh looking down in disbelief and a fish looking at me straight on. Hilarious!

The only thing missing is cheesies.

Reflection.

Fisherman Husband.

Spring along the Sunshine Coast

One of the joys of living along the Sunshine Coast is that spring comes early and then lasts forever.

After work, I'll zip over to Mother Nature and meander through the greenhouse aisles touching, smelling, loving the flowers. I already planted my herb garden in February and my tomatoes are crawling up the bamboo poles (and enjoying the rain). Each week I pluck a new tulip or wallflower from the garden to showcase at the Visitors Centre.

Last week I'd picked a vase full of flowers for Debbie. As I placed them on the table, Debbie had to laugh. "Elise, sometimes it's like the flowers actually speak to you." I think they do, they really do as they hold their petaled faces to the sky.

in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
~e.e.cummings~

Clovers grow between the rocks at Mermaid Cove.

Apple blossoms are sooooo beautiful.

Oh, grow green grass ... GROW!