After doing this column for a hundred weeks I finally did something I never did before, I took two weeks off! Well, now I have some catching up to do so I’ll just do it in bullet points:
• Bears: yep, we got ’em. Like some pandemic-bound bread baker, they are plunging headlong into weight gain, knocking over fruit trees and searching out your attractants, so don’t make it easy for them, eh? A fed bear is a dead bear and you don’t want to see what they can do to the inside of your car when you leave a granola bar on the front seat.
• Speaking of pandemics, it’s 2021, so try not to die of a preventable disease like some medieval serf. Get your vax. In light of the current hospital protests, I have seen a call to restart the 7 p.m. howl in support of our health-care workers (although Cheryl Anne Park and Crowe Road crew, among others, never stopped). I’ll be howling with you then.
• Workshops at Beth Hawthorn Ceramics: not just ceramics anymore, but morphing into a centre of craft knowledge for those who want to express themselves with their head, hands and heart. Two scheduled for September: Sunday, Sept. 12 (Indigo & Shibori Dye Workshop with Natalie Grambow) and Wednesday, Sept. 22 (Intro to Modern Rug Hooking & Needle Punch, with Colleen Gould). Twelve people max for each workshop. Register at bethhawthorn.com/workshops-events. Held outside on a covered deck and within B.C.’s COVID guidelines.
• Garbage service: When is your pick up? You could try Cartomancy – fortune-telling by means of playing cards – or the SCRD website: scrd.ca/curbside-schedule. Personally, I will try Oneiromancy: divination by means of dreams.
• Little pig, little pig; please come in. My neighbours have assured me that their four little pigs, who are on the loose at the moment, are hanging around the Little Red Wagon Farm and, being all female, are incapable of breeding an army of feral swine. If you spot a runaway porker, call the piglet tip line: 778-458-2302.
• Back to School: slow down. The area around the elementary school is designated as playground, which makes it a 30 km/h speed limit in effect from dawn to dusk, 365 days of the year. Drivers must stop for pedestrians who are occupying the crosswalk on the half of the road the vehicle is travelling.
• Slow Sundays: shout out to Ed Lands and crew for another great year!
• Creek Daze: unquestioning success! Many hands made light work and I am impressed once again by this community. Artine and Elin surprised even themselves, I am sure. Cheers!
• Only seven weeks to Halloween!
