August

Hello again,
August has been on and off busy and unexciting. On the first I caught a variety of ferries and buses to Pender Harbour to crew with Uncle John on the 'Carlisle' back to Victoria. Gran met me at the ferry and I spent the night at her place, helping her a bit around the house and the garden. The next day we drove up to visit Alice and Aunty Lisa and were rear-ended in the car outside the driveway. Everybody seemed alright, and there was only minimal damage to Gran's car. We went up to John's garden. He and I rowed across the harbour to the wooden boat show at Madira Park where my Great Aunt Shendra had her little sloop 'Balandra' on show. John and I set off early the next morning and had a glorious trip to Aunty Mary's up Finlayson Arm. The sun was shinning and the tide and wind were very cooperative, so we made record time! John and I camped with some friends to celebrate the eighth day of the eighth month of the two thousand and eighth year with a Peruvian Dispatcho ceremony. Over the rest of the month I played music, helped several friends with home renovations, shot archery tournaments, hiked, celebrated, wrote, read, gardened, built, pulled invasive plants, looked after animals, played Risk, etc., etc.... Bill and Maureen volunteered to host two participants of Canada World Youth, girls from Calgary and the Ukraine. I'm spending the last week of August and first of September at Aunty Mary's to help her out while she recovers from nose surgery, so I've been either bale-tossing, animal feeding, cooking, burdock lopping, or something else of that manner. Tomorrow Carter and I clear out the rabbit trailer, and I help Matt and his friends to help put up the walls of Dee's cabin. All the while, the coming year looms ominously on the horizon. Bring it on! I'm ready.