Week 11 ~ Warm Thoughts

Winter has arrived. It's not much of a snowfall but those first flakes drifting down blanketing the world surrounding us seems to intensify the silence. Not a ripple on the bay nor the slightest movement of branches among the towering hemlocks and cedars, makes it seem as if time is standing still.

 

I won't keep you in suspense much longer about the barge as I'm sure you’re wondering how long that first hot shower was. An email Saturday afternoon informed us that the barge was indeed in Haida Gwaii and up at the “Clubhouse”. We could quite possibly be seeing her sometime Sunday, an update later in the evening will let us know of the captain's plans.

In anticipation of their arrival I put on the baking gloves. I always like to have a “snack” package for the guys since they do a lot of work in the short time they are here. I know they have their own cook aboard but who doesn't like to get a package full of freshly baked goods.

These are butter tarts. Simple ingredients...butter, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla.

So sweet they can make your teeth ache, flaky pastry that crumbles... leaving behind incriminating evidence.

 

This is a bucket, as in bucket showers, as in the barge did not make it in.

Marine weather forecasts were calling for winds of up to 50km and you don't want to be in a vessel travelling down the west coast of Graham Island in that, in fact the whole week is to be one big blow. What now?

The “Christmas plane” as I called it last year because it is the plane that is scheduled to fly in sometime in December will be making the trip a couple of weeks early. Indeed it will be delivering the best present of all....the new parts for the furnace.

Slick wasn't around this week, either were any of our deer. Where has everyone gone?

Ingram (Princess as we call her) is always good for a photo shoot.

Last week I was talking about how some things are different than last year. This is a picture of my library from last year, a result of lugging up half a dozen boxes of books. You can never have too many books because how do you know what you'll feel like reading.

This is my library today.

I bought a Kobo e reader this past summer while we were out and I love it. I did kinda miss going to the used book store sorting through boxes hoping to come across a favourite author or a book I've heard about but now I search on line for books which offers up it's own treasures. There are some fabulous sites that let you download hundreds of books , most of them from recent NYT bestsellers lists. It really is amazing that this one small unit can store up to 1,000 books.

When it came was time to start packing up and getting ready to fly back to the Outpost it was the strangest feeling just to put my Kobo in my purse, knowing that I had more books with me already than I would ever read in the next 9 months.

Just finished a book called “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, it's a true story of her extremely different and difficult life growing up. What caught my attention was this line in a summary of the book.... “in the beginning they lived as nomads”. Great read.

Gale warnings, snow warnings, 8 metre seas, all were listed on the marine weather forecast. We must be situated in such a protected spot that none of these events happened here, so far. All in all we had not a bad week and we are thinking warm thoughts until the plane arrives.

Till next week,

Heather & Mike