Ups & Downs

A month ago I left on this adventure. I’d been wishing and hoping and planning for so long that when it finally happened I ran full tilt on adrenaline. But life has a way of slowing you down. Living at a lightstation is kind of like living at the cottage with all it’s amazing scenery and wildlife, seclusion from the rush of the world, and time to ponder and create. It also has its down sides. Since coming here I’ve been fighting a battle with cottage mustiness to which I am allergic, and I seem to be winning. The upstairs living area is habitable now, as I open up all the doors and windows all day long to let in the sun and sea air. I’ve disposed of several moldy culprits and washed down the place with vinegar. Also, a dehumidifier and air cleaner is on its way. Score one for the lightkeeper.

My legs, particularly my ankles, have been well munched by nasty demon flies that relish the fact that I’ve been wearing shorts and sandals in this glorious sunshine.The calamine lotion in our first aid kit did nothing but my lavender essential oil did the trick. Score two for the lightkeeper. 

Finally, I strained my mid-back yesterday (thoracic, I believe it is). It started the previous day when I went exploring and kind of slid on the dry grass bumping and bruising my ribs along the way. I had something of a stiff back but it was not a problem. Then yesterday I picked up a large piece of plywood and OUCH--it literally took my breath away. Now, we are separated from the rest of the world by 25 km of nasty gravel road and trees on one side and sea on the other, but within an hour, a couple emerged from the dock and wandered up to chat. I’d gone to tell Geoff that I was injured, rather badly--I felt like I’d been skewered through the chest. Turns out, Brian and Darcy, are boating in their floating A-frame cottage, and it turns out, that Darcy has been a nurse for thirty years and is now a nursing educator on the coast. Thank you Universe! She explained that my back muscles were likely grasping and pinching a nerve, and told me to make an ice pack and apply it for 15 minutes every hour. An ice pack was simple to make by wetting a towel and freezing it in a plastic bag on a cookie sheet. RMTs, this worked amazingly well, as it molded to my back. So between ice packs and my heating pad, tylenol, and rest, I am much improved; at least, the skewer has lessened (though I know if I lift anything it will reappear). 

The universe has a way of slowing us down. Today is a day for pondering the shapes in the clouds, the shades of smokey mountain curves, and the ripples in the sea. Score three for the lightkeeper.

Internet!

Holy Smoke! I just figured out how to use my iPhone as a network to get wifi for my laptop. As I type this I am sitting on a rock overlooking the bay with my laptop on my lap and my iphone beside me on the rock. Contemporary Thoreau, no? Of course, this will only work while the weather is good--I can't be doing this in the rain and fog:)

It's been an interesting week getting settled into Chatham Point and a movie will follow. Some highlights:

I drove the boat. Whoohoo!

We saw about fifty Pacific white-sided dolphins that same evening, travelling up and down the channel with the tide. I took some video footage and hope it will show a little of what we experienced.

Saw my first black bear here last night. It was a calm evening and I was reading when I noticed the tree branches shaking just outside my window. When I peered out, there he was, standing up and checking out the plums for ripeness. I gather he'll be around often as the fruit ripens. There are several fruit trees here. We noticed this morning that he'd also been in the apple tree, as he'd torn a bunch of leaves and apples on his way down.

All week we've been scraping and painting the zillion stairs from the station down to the boat dock in Navajo Red, which went well with the Tony Hillerman "Joe Leaphorn" mystery I was reading.

I left my computer mouse at Cape Scott so I haven't made a movie or played with my photos yet, but I will get on that now that I can upload to my blog. Life is getting better.

I Love the Coast Guard

Just a really quick post as it's been a very long day. Yesterday, I learned to drive the John Deere tractor -- very exciting -- and drove it down to dump my compost/kitty litter away from the station. At a station with so much wildlife and hikers regularly visiting we have to discourage them from foraging nearby. And after seeing that old bear, I wasn't much in the mood for another trek through the woods with my treasures in hand. What you see below is a Coast Guard strategy for transferring luggage to the helicopter--and guess who got to drive?

I love the Coast Guard, I really do. These are some of the nicest people you ever will meet. They make sure you are safe and well looked after without every making it seem like it's an effort. They're skilled and respectful and we should be proud of these folks who represent Canada. Wow. Where did that come from? It's true. I really am impressed.

Anyway, the fog burned off, thankfully, and it turned into a gorgeous day. I saw this fabulous white sand beach coming out of Cape Scott. Who knew BC had beaches like this? As well, we passed over a couple of fish farms out in the ocean and a large wind turbine project cut into the forest.

On the way to Port Hardy we stopped at two other light stations to drop off mail bags--I mean literally "drop" off mail. I love this shot -- here's Ivan catching the mail bag at Scarlett!  It may not sound like much but when you live in a remote place, getting a mail bag is a big deal. Almost as good as groceries; maybe even better depending on what's in it. 

Well, that's it for now.  Tomorrow I'm off to another station -- my fourth station since July 1st. Chatham Point is about 40km north of Campbell River. If you look at a map of Vancouver Island, the farthest eastern point, where the land juts out into the ocean and Johnson Strait meets Discovery Passage across from Quadra Island is Chatham Point. I hear there may not be cell phone service or Internet, so I may be right off the radar for awhile. I'm scheduled to stay there for about three months. Someone asked me if I would bored. So far there's been no time to be bored. Lightkeepers are busy people. 

Cape Scott Days

Wow. It's Saturday. I lose track of days out here with nothing to mark them but differentiated weather. Is it still overcast? Yes. Is that fog or a rampant cloud? Funny, how soon I have adapted to life without people (except of course for my work partner here on the station). Yesterday, I had some yahoo hikers sitting outside that reminded me of life at the condo. Why do people have no respect for what's going on around them? Today I had to tell a woman, mid-twenties at least, not to perch on the uppermost rings of the light. "Oh, can't we climb up here? I thought we could climb on the lighthouse"? Yes. Well.

Apart from routine duties and watching out for silly hikers, I've been working on my garageband and iMovie skills. What follows is my very first movie soundtrack--it's really just me playing around on a synthesizer (thanks again Ivan) and recording several tracks--but I needed to learn how to do that. It's called "Cape Scott Days" and really just chronicles my journey into this station and a little bit about what it looks like around here. 

There are two wonderful cats here, who I'm quite fond of, and who have convinced me that when I get my own station a feline, perhaps a Bengal, will be resident there. I talk to them and cuddle them and between the three of us, life is grand. 

One of my duties is to take a pail of their cat litter and my compost about a mile through the forest to dispose of it. Well, I went off the other day singing, "she's walking with her cat litter, she's ok" --it was something like a Monty Python movie loop--and all the while thinking that I was walking alone in bear/wolf/cougar country carrying a basket of goodies. I made it back, of course, but that same evening I had my first glimpse of a bear in the backyard.

I was actually talking to Tara on Skype when I happened to look out the window and saw him standing up getting a drink out of the rain barrel by the greenhouse. I almost dropped my iPad and after much fumbling managed to get a snatch of video. The next day, I asked my boss to let me fire the bear banger, so I'd know how it worked and felt when it went off. Ah pyrotechnics! I don't want to be fumbling with the bear banger when he's standing in front of me. This lifestyle suits me. I feel it. Hurray.

PS. Due to uploading challenges, it's best to view this as is. Blowing it up affects the picture quality. If this keeps up I'll be needing a Youtube page:)

Starry Starry Night

Yesterday, we were obscured upwards of a half mile by fog for the better part of the day--only finding some relief in the early evening when the sun magically appeared. If my writing sounds like a weather report, it is because I have become a keen observer of the elements. 

Tonight, as I lie in bed, I cannot sleep, for the clear black sky scatters stars outside my window. I cannot help but stare out as they stare in at me. My bed lies along a north-facing window, so all I have to do is glance out to come face to face with Ursa Major AKA The Big Dipper. This flirtation continues for an hour or more. By 3am I concede, get dressed, grab my camera, and stumble outside into the darkness, startling a deer browsing by my front door, as she startles me. I assume, perhaps wrongly, that a deer will not browse in the vicinity of a bear, and feel some comfort in the darkness.

But my little camera is no match for the celestial heavens. For a time, I watch our light revolve in the night and wonder what it must have been like before there were lighthouses and technology, when mariners navigated by the stars. 





On a night like this, they would surely find their way, north at the very least. The two stars on the outer edge of the Big Dipper’s bowl point to Polaris, the North Star--a yellow-white Supergiant, it has 1800 times the luminosity of the sun.

An hour later, when I wander outside again to do my first morning marine weather, Ursa Major has vanished. Clouds have formed and a fog bank hovers over the channel. Later, tucked back in bed again, slashes of pink break the distant sea blue clouds and birds begin their morning music. 

5:20am Cape Scott

map courtesy of: Remote Sensing @ CES

PS. I've since been told that where there's prey there's most likely a predator. Since we have wolves and cougars here, that's a good thing to know.

Sunday Hike at Low Tide

Leaving Scarlett again is sad. This is my third visit and I always love it here ... good friends, good music, and the scenery, well, how can it get any better? Yesterday, Laury and I went for our traditional hike to Grassy Point. I am something of a rockhound--am fascinated by the colours, the shapes, the striations, and the effects of the Elements, of Time and Sea. I've always been a collector, even brought rocks across Canada when I moved from Ontario to BC. But now in my very minimalist life, I'm leaving rocks where I find them, and just taking images along with memories.

And so, of course, I made another movie:)

You'll see here my fascination with shape and colour and all of the natural world.

When I hit my frustration point, trying to add iMovie sound clips and make it all come together, Ivan came to the rescue and graciously offered one of his recordings, "A Lightkeeper's Lament". Composed and played by Ivan on mandolin, I think it fits very well. And, not only that, he gave me a wee keyboard to use with GarageBand, so here we go ... a foray into creating music.

I've had to export the smallest size in order to upload it, so I hope that it works.

Making Movies Take 2

I'm not sure whether I love iMovie or hate it. I felt much the same way about knitting--and my filming is just about as good as my first couple of pairs of lumberjack socks.

Anyway, on Friday I flew 60 miles south by chopper from Addenbroke Island back to Scarlett Point, where I've been staying mainly since July 1st. Riding in the little helicopter is like sitting behind the eyes of a very large very red dragonfly. It looks something like this:

And my film is a little shaky, but hey, filming in a wee helicopter is like that. Today, I'm packing up again, and then I'll be heading off to Cape Scott come Monday.

I still have no phone service, so I'm not being unsociable, I'm just in a "no service" zone.