Chilling on Bowen Island

I had planned on staying over on Bowen until Monday but I got a call from work (starts Tuesday), informing me of the need for black pants. I have black EMT (paramedic) pants, and black tuxedo pants. No good. So I decided to come home early and go shopping Sunday and/or Monday for pants and black shoes to accompany them.

I had a nice 3 day stay on Bowen. I did very little. I read a bit of my European Union textbooks, went rowing five times, and hung out with my Granny and Uncle David.

I take the ferry so often that I rarely take photos during the ride, while tourists snap away madly in good weather all around me. The wind was really great though, so I did take one photo:




I really enjoy going rowing alone and relaxing on the float, below the boathouse:




The rowboat is a bit over 40 years old now - my mom used to row it when she was young! It's called Jaro (all boats have names), which comes from James + Rosemary, my uncle and mom, the two youngest in their family.




While out rowing, I spotted this bird (I think it's a shag, but I'm no ornithologist) sitting happily on a buoy.




Then it became less happy and left!




There was a fierce storm, the worst in decades, several weeks ago. It did a lot of damage, including ripping the ramp of our neighbour's float off. It also destroyed part of the wooden floor outside our boathouse. This has never happened in the 48 years my Granny has had the place.




Uncle David, Mr Fix-It, has been working hard to fix supports under the boathouse which were washed away - they hold up the boathouse, so they're very important.






I had a bit too much time with not enough to do (there are limits to how much rowing and studying I can do) so I ended up doing a LOT of thinking, which at times got me feeling a little bit blue, kind of like this puppy which is up on the wall of the cabin I stay in:




There are some really random things in that cabin, and one of the things that always makes me laugh for some reason is this one:




Today I went rowing in the morning for about half an hour. I was going to go rowing again at about 1pm when the sun came out and it was super windy. After 5 minutes on the water I decided it was too rough and that, if the waves got much higher, it would be too difficult to bring the boat back in without help. As it was, it took me about 5 minutes to get the boat in after several failed attempts, when it normally takes all of 30 seconds.

The ferry and bus rides home were pretty smooth and uneventful, the way I like them. Took me a total of 2 hrs 20 mins to get from the cabin to my house in Vancouver. Not bad.