peaceful day

mainly sunny, mild, temps 25

Clearing up and getting warmer. Great sleep last night after the barbeque. As it turned out, in the past they've had a salmon BBQ but have now decided the logistics are just too great - so it was terrific burgers, and salads and fruit, and cake.

Lonnie and Susan - our guardians - came and picked us up, looked after us, and dropped us off. Funny how close you get to people who had been perfect strangers, when thrust together in an event. A shared, unusual, experience. Like a life boat, or fox hole. or literary festival. There're no atheists at lit fests. Actually, I imagine there're quite a few.

Had a lovely day today spent mostly reading.

Oh, about the shouting kids from yesterday afternoon...I spent this morning waiting for them to wake up and shatter the peace. But it didn't come and didn't come. Then when Nancy served our scrumptious breakfast of a sort of bread pudding with cinnamon apples - but first a warm orange and cranberry homemade scone and fresh fruit salad - I asked about the kids. Seems they weren't checking in, but belonged to a couple coming next week...and leaving the kids at home. This is a kids-free Bed and Breakfast. Phew.

I honestly don't mind children...but when I've been longing for peace and quiet, and in this tranquil setting, it just would have been a disappointment to have had someone else's children shrieking around.

But - didn't happen!

Tomorrow's a big day...a six hour private cruise on the b and b's yacht, around the coast, including stopping at a beach accessible only by small boat, and a swim, lunch in the cove, then more yachting. And more suffering!

Then back by 4pm - and checking out of A Place by the Sea B and B (the best B and B we've ever stayed in!!! - as nancy, one of the owners told us when she served breakfast in our 700 square foot suite - if you have a B and B you need to get two things right. The bed, and the breakfast. Seems obvious, ludicrous to even mention, but so few B and B's really get both right. Nancy was made for the hospitality business.)

So - check out of here, and move to the Literary Festival official hotel - the Driftwood Inn, in downtown Sechelt. has the advantage of being walking distance to the fest - which offically beings tomrrow night with a cocktail, followed by Lawrence Hill's event - but the Driftwood hotel, by all accounts, has one major disadvantage.

It's a dump.

So we're lapping up as much luxury as we can get, until we move.

Hope you're enjoying the trip so far! We're having a blast.

A Place by the Sea

overcast, rain, now mostly sunny and warm, temps 25

We're in British Columbia, in Sechelt, on the Sunshine Coast.
This picture was taken this morning - when the rain was just about to begin. They get a lot of rain in Vancouver, but not much here...the name is meant to be description, apparently, not ironic! It was sunny and hot all july. Too sunny and hot. Forest fires broke out. In fact, when we arrived in Vancouver yesterday Lonnie and Susan (the amazing Sunshine Coast Lit Fest volunteers who met the plane) pointed out the what we thought was mist was in fact smoke from the fires.

They've had rain the last couple of days, so that's a blessing. But after this morning's rain it has cleared and now it's a lovely day. We're sitting on the verandah looking out over the sound. The small boats, the warf, the island where the float planes circle after take off and before landing. It really is magical.

Our B and B is called A Place by the Sea. We're staying in the Sea Breeze Suite. Two hour massage this afternoon. Then dinner in front of the fire place, relaxing and reading. We were going to go on a six hour private cruise of the coastline but the weather's looking a bit dodgy so we've delayed until Thursday. Tomorrow and Wednesday just quiet days. I'll read my manuscript. Michael will sketch, and read his book. While we look over the sea, at the cranes, and sea gulls and huge numbers of eagles. So different from home.

Had a terrific flight from Toronto. About 5 hours, very easy. The lovely festival people plumped for the upgraded seats at the emergency exits so we had scads of space. One of the flight attendants sat beside us during take off and we got to chatting. Her name's Mimi. Young - works the long hauls, married to a pilot, two small children, and she's writing the music and lyrics for her first album - to be recorded in October!! We felt like slugs. But what a lovely young woman.

And, her mother-in-law has written her first book and gotten it published! Her name is Carolyn Muir Helfenstein and the book is called 'Why Not? A memoir In Black and White'. It sounds terrific. I plan to ask Danny and Lucy, at Brome Lake Books to order it for us.

Tomorrow the only thing on our agenda is a salmon barbeque for the volunteers at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. The organizor of the fest - Jane Davidson - has kindly invited us. We're so looking forward to it.

I'll tell you, when I was writing Still Life all alone it never occurred to me Gamache, Clara et al would take us around the world, including a salmon barbeque on the edge of British Columbia.

How lucky are we? Speak to you tomorrow! And if you ever plan to come to BC you must consider the Sunshine Coast - and stay at A Place by the Sea. If an exhale had walls and view, this would be it.