There’s been a lot of controversy about this tune of late, so I thought I might give it a bit of a personal twist based on past experience.
You see, when the temperature on the dock dips low, the waterlines tend to freeze up unless you leave a tap running just a wee little bit. If you don’t keep an eye on the weather forecast, you might wake up to a dry tap otherwise.
So then, a version of “Baby it’s Cold Outside”, but with that “beginning of winter” float-home and live-aboard flavour.
December 20th is a day that will likely be well remembered here in Cowichan Bay. A powerful windstorm lashed the entire south coast of British Columbia, winds gusting at times to 100km/h caused major damage in communities all along the coast.
Several nights before Christmas, all through the Bay, Not a power meter was stirring, not even at Ray’s;
The trees were all hung on the wires with care, In hopes that BC Hydro soon would be there;
The people were nestled all blue in their beds, While visions of steaming showers, electric heaters and hot cooked turkey dinners danced in their heads;
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month one hundred years ago, guns fell silent all along the Western front. Armistice day. The Great War had been won, and lost. There would never be such a conflict again, of that they were all certain.
Well, we all know our history. The child born on this eleventh day will be the same age at the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, as were those young men who fought and died in it at the time.
So today at that same hour, on the same day in the same month of the year, we have “Remembrance Day”, a day in which there is perhaps a moment of quiet refection where we “Remember”. We try to conjure up an image. We try to come to grips with sacrifice and loss and experiences we can never fully comprehend, endured on our behalf by people we will never truly know.
Originally published November 2012: Nothing has changed.
In the late spring, through the summer and into early fall, the Vancouver Island Marmot is a restless creature. Having been cooped up all winter, he feels the need to stretch his legs, to venture forth from his burrow and so often goes in search of something interesting to spend his money on. He gets up on his hind legs, sniffs the new clean air, pockets his Visa or MasterCard, takes his family in hand and sets off for places undiscovered.
He wants an ice-cream. He wants to drink some very expensive gourmet coffee. He wants to go kayaking. He wants to put on a yellow floater suit and to hire a very fast speed boat to take him to see the whales. More than anything, he wants to be somewhere other than where he is at the present time.
The Sea Lions have arrived! We can see them, we can hear them, and before too much longer, we’ll be able to smell them too.
Every year they come to dine on the salmon that return to the Cowichan River to spawn. They are also elusive at times. Today when I went over to their camping spot to take a picture, they were all out fishing.
So long as there are people living near Cowichan Bay in the numbers that currently occupy the space, I believe this bay will never be “pristine”. It’s simply not possible. Everybody contributes a little bit to the overall picture. Nobody is exempt from blame.
We have the waste water outflow from Duncan, treated with chlorine, in the main river. We have microplastics, much of it from laundered synthetic clothing in that water as well, none of which is removed.
We have a productive farm field which is regularly manured on the other river. So long as people enjoy keeping lawns, there will always be an excess of lawn care materials filtering down with the runoff waters when it rains.
