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…and a partridge in a pear tree

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Though the New Year is already slightly less new than it was and term has already started, I find that I am still trying to get up to date with posts that I had intended for the twelve days themselves.

This one – for example – features a visit that we paid with dearest friends before the New Year to Butcharts Gardens, to view their illuminated Christmas extravaganza. We have been trying to get to this annual celebration for the past four years, failing each time for one (good) reason or another. Well – this time we have finally been successful in so doing.

This festive flight of fancy is unsurprisingly based on the Twelve Days of Christmas – some elements of which can be seen in the photos below. See if you can spot them…

A very jolly and appropriately seasonal event it was too…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

Loafing with intent

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“Review your work. You will find, if you are honest, that 90% of the trouble is traceable to loafing.”

Ford Frick

It has become my habit at this time of the year to post two missives: one in which I look back over the year just ended/ending and one in which I look forward to the year ahead. If I draw a comparison to the equivalent exercise from the previous new year then it is possible to gain some perspective as to the progress that has – or has not – been made over the preceding twelve months.

Without further ado…

Last year I outlined our plans for 2019 thus:

  • The Girl was going to take a brief break in Mexico during January, to recharge her batteries with a little sun-filled R & R.
  • I would not be able to accompany her because I was just starting my third term teaching computer literacy to post-secondary students. I was open to the prospect of teaching two terms – the Winter (‘Spring’ to us optimistic Brits) and Fall (Michaelmas to ‘public school’ types) terms during the year.
  • The main event of the year would be our first trip back to the UK since moving to Canada, which would take place during May and June, followed by a little recuperative diversion to the Greek islands for afters.
  • The Girl was going to step back somewhat from her current job – dropping from four days a week to three – instead putting more of her time into her new venture.
  • I was hopeful that I would be able to mount a theatrical production in the autumn and that I would also have time to expand my music making endeavours.
  • We naturally hoped that we would have a good year – a good summer – and that we would spend much time with friends and dear ones enjoying this beautiful corner of the world.

How did we get on?

Well – the trip to Europe was undoubtedly the highlight of the year. It was lovely to see everyone again and indeed to enjoy re-unions with those whom I (in particular) had not seen for decades. I wrote extensively about the trip in these pages at the time – as well as uploading many, many photographs of the expedition – so I will not repeat myself here. Should such things tickle your fancy there are several month’s worth of postings about the trip starting in mid-May.

On our return to Victoria The Girl duly reduced her days at the coalface and – having earlier in the year most successfully finished her studies (‘hooray’ for The Girl!) – set about getting her new concern on the road. Good progress has been made but – as is ever the way with these things – it all takes longer than one expects. This year’s intentions will doubtless feature further thoughts along these lines.

I duly completed my fourth term teaching just before Christmas, a task to which was added some student project supervision during the spring. Seems that College are at the moment still keen to avail themselves of my services, so more of that also in the new year’s aims.

I did not get to stage my play! Not for want of trying… I put a fair bit of effort into rewrites and setting up a website and suchlike – and then set out to try to find some eager souls who might be persuaded to apply their time and talent to the enterprise. At that point things faltered. I met a good number of interesting folk and pursued a fair number of leads – but at the end of the day found myself cast-less and unable to proceed. It is clearly just not the right time for this particular project to happen and I must thus be patient.

My musical efforts – on the other hand – went from strength to strength and I found myself unable to stop writing songs. No sooner that I had finished recording one than another idea popped into my head. I was greatly assisted in these efforts by the Chanteuse of whom I wrote back in April. Our recording efforts continued apace throughout the year and will – I am sure – also feature strongly in the prospects for the new decade. We were finally able to get some of our creations online and thus available for any who wish to investigate further. They may be found on Bandcamp at:

https://anamdanu.bandcamp.com

Do sign up as a follower on our Bandcamp site if you would like to be informed of new developments as they occur.

The alert reader may have noticed a lack of anything boat-related in last year’s summary. The good ship Dignity suffered the in-dignity of having her main canopy split by the weight of snow upon it in the weather that featured strongly in my February postings. I suffered the indignity of trying and failing throughout the year to get a replacement made – or indeed to recover my deposit from the bounders who failed miserably so to do. I would name and shame them but I suspect that, if they have not already gone out of business, it is a matter of but a short while until they do. Hopefully a new canopy will be forthcoming this month from another source.

We had – as ever – many other wonderful days and experiences throughout the year and we continue to thoroughly enjoy living in this lovely place. It has been difficult – even in this Eden – to avoid one’s mood being affected by the troubles and tribulations that are being experienced in so many parts of the world right now. We can only hope and pray that the new decade will put the old one to shame – in these respects in particular – and that a new, more generous, caring and considerate consensus may eventually emerge.

Turn of the decade

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Just as we did at the same time last year we approached the portal to the new year yester-eve with considerable trepidation, stuck our heads nervously around the door before tiptoeing through with extreme caution into yet further uncharted territory…

‘Unwritten’ indeed – and given recent history our ability to compose and to craft a coherent script for the New Year – let alone for the new decade – would seem at this point to be somewhat in doubt.

Personally I have never been much of a one for celebrating the New Year, preferring instead to raise a glass and to proffer a small ‘huzzah’ in grateful acknowledgement of our having survived the one that has but recently expired.

Let us now, however, be optimistic and to imagine that this year – this decade – many wrongs will be righted, that many false steps and unwise choices will be revoked and that the peoples of this fragile planet might start – by taking in the first instance small and tremulous steps – to heal the ills of the world.

But let us also be mindful that things may well get worse before they improve and take accordingly the necessary and serious precautions that might facilitate any actions required to set things right.

Cheering the birth of a new year is a heavy responsibility. Cheering that of a new decade is many, many times more so.

With this in mind The Kickass Canada Girl and The Imperceptible Immigrant wish you the very best possible new year and – of course – new decade.

Christmas walks – 2

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A second walk in two days – during what I gather is now called ‘Twixtmas’… Who knew? (well – those who pointed it out to me, clearly!).

This expedition was to somewhere that we have driven within a few hundred yards of on many occasions (on the way to Costco; to the Rugby Centre of Excellence at Westhills; on our way up island) but to which we have not actually been for some considerable time (or indeed ‘ever’ in my case!).

This is Thetis Lake – and very gorgeous it is too, as I hope you will agree…

Happy Twixtmas!

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

Christmas walks – 1

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Last year on Christmas Day The Girl and I took a constitutional upon Island View Beach which was blessed with pleasant sunshine and a mild temperature. This year the weather was less obliging but a visit to the same locale proved efficacious in blowing away the cobwebs that always seem to set in at around the halfway point.

As with the weather the images that I snapped are less dramatic than were those of last year, but I offer them none the less:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

That time of year…

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Yes indeed! It is the night before Christmas and thus the time that I ‘traditionally’ roam the house with a camera – looking for Christmassy images to capture… so that I might post a seasonal pot pouri of ‘ph’estive photographs.

How am I doing?

As ever at this juncture…

…to friends, acquaintances and gentle readers…

from the Kickass Canada Girl and the Imperceptible Immigrant.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a splendid Hogmany!

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

Socked in

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The first thing that came into most people’s minds (of those to whom I divulged our impending move to Canada some five years ago) was the thought of the Canadian winter – as though that somehow defined the country. Further, it was reasonably clear that their preconceptions ran primarily to winter sports. Maybe in the back of their minds they conjured up this sort of image:

image via <a href="http://www.peakpx.com">Peakpx</a>Now – of course – Canadians don’t exactly always go out of their way to discourage this sort of stereotype and it does have to be said that in parts of the land there is a fair bit of winter to be had.

But not so here on the Wet… pardon me… West coast. Our winters tend to look more like this:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidNice weather for the ducks – though the cormorants don’t look so impressed. These photos were taken today in Sidney by the Sea on the umpteenth (seemingly) day of apocalyptic gloom and ceaseless and torrential rain.

With us right through Christmas apparently!

Still – a good excuse to stay indoors and snuggle up…

A nip and a tuck

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Photo by Andy Dawson ReidOur arborists paid us another visit last week, in part to remove the remains of a Doug Fir branch on the boundary between our humble abode and that next door to one side, the which had been broken in the bad weather last spring. During the year there was little danger of it coming to harm but the season of winter storms is upon us and we must needs be prepared.

The other apparently trivial task that we sought of them was to restore one of the two openings through which we are lucky enough to have distant vistas from the back of our house. This is the one through which Mount Baker may be seen (on a clear day!) and a determined cedar – which has clearly been cut back many times before – was making multiple skyward bids from the various shoots that had emerged after previous none-too-clever hatchet jobs.

“Like the forest fight for sunlight, that takes root in every tree” – as Genesis would have it…

These operations are always delicate, not because of anything forestry related but because of the necessary interaction required with neighbours. In this instance the tree concerned was not on our property and – having been the subject of attention in the past – there was the possibility of an awkward history to be considered. This neighbour’s property is, however, probably going on the market in the New Year and we estimated that only minimal resistance might be encountered, which fortunately proved to be the case.

As can be see from the composite image below the the works were relatively subtle, though a surprising amount of foliage was borne away to the chipper. The picture does not do justice to just how much difference restoring the bottom right of the opening has made.

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

It’s not too late!

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I have tried very hard (Oh – how I have tried…!) not to write anything about the UK general election, voting for which will be underway before many get to read this post.

This, however, must be said:

I am shocked at the numbers of people who are apparently intending to vote for the Tory party as led by Boris Johnson.

Their reasons for so doing can have little to do with policy. Aside from Brexit the Tories have done their best to be as vague as possible when it comes to any detail that they may wish later to disown. Further, even the most rabid of Brexiteers must be aware that promises that all will be rapidly over and done are also not worth the paper they are printed on. The process will inevitably drag on for years whatever course it takes.

No – the real worry is that potential Tory voters are doing so for one of two reasons… they either like the idea of a full term of Johnson’s ‘leadership’, or they simply can’t abide the notion of a Jeremy Corbyn administration.

I must entreat any such folk to consider most carefully… before it is too late!

Can you really elect as leader of such a distinguished sovereign country a man who is an habitual liar – fired at least twice for being so – a serial philanderer – a blaggard, cad and bounder of the first order – a man of no apparent principle who appears not even to be interested in the responsibilities of the office, rather just desirous of holding it… or even just of having held it. A man who will do and say anything to get what he wants. A man whose vaunted Brexit deal is not only worse that the one that was previously voted down repeatedly, but also contains elements that he himself previously opined that no prime minister could possibly accept. A man who illegally prorogued parliament to try to stifle debate, who lied to Her Majesty the Queen… and on, and on, and on…

This is the man who would be trusted to ‘get things done’?

Those inclined to take a chance on such insincere and mischievous populism should take a long hard look across the Atlantic at the reputational damage that is being done to the USA (which is at least yet a superpower) by the Orange One – and wonder how Britain (which is not) might survive five years of such fifth-rate reality-show shenanigans.

To those who complain that a Corbyn alternative would be worse I say simply this: Corbyn is not going to win a majority whatever happens. Under certain circumstances he could just find himself at the head of a minority government. In such a case he would not be able to carry out those policies that some might fear and could in any case be removed in a subsequent vote – probably sooner rather than later.

This option has to be better than the Johnson alternative. It has to be!

It is not too late! If you are in the UK get out and vote. This is one occasion on which it is ok to vote against rather than for something…

This England!

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With the future of the United Kingdom still hanging in the balance as a result of the massively divisive Brexit exercise and with the prospect of a potentially disastrous election result to come within the next week, I have been asked with increasing weariness what on earth is going on back in the Old Country. Whether you still live there or are now happily resident in another part of the globe I recommend this piece by Pankaj Mishra in The Guardian as a means of gleaning some small understanding. It is quite a long piece but well worth the effort:

“England’s Last Roar: Pankaj Mishra on nationalism and the election” 

‘Enjoy’ seems somehow the wrong thing to say…

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