a perfect weekend

another bella coola wildflower picture, this being one of my favourite flower pictures from the trip (the colours are much-more vivid when not “web-safe”)

of course we are in the full-glory of that which is the sunshine coast summer – warm days and swimming and wild berries and beach fires and visitors galore. as a part of my scant days up here in-between travelling, i just had what can only be described as a perfect weekend.

a few good friends have been here over the weekend which gave me an extra excuse to explore more of the community in which i live as well as get out and show them the favourite things i have found already – so here is a recap of a perfect sunshine coast summer weekend (and if this doesn’t make you want to live here, i don’t know what will):

friday evening – got home on the ferry, went for a swim at high tide at secret beach in the late-afternoon heat. went for dinner at opa, the japanese restaurant in gibsons. ate tons of food. went for a walk on the docks and looked at fish boats. sat out on the deck, drank beers and looked at stars before bed.

saturday – went to visit a friend after a leisurely breakfast and we all drove up to the chapman creek swimming pools which are in the community-watershed above davis bay. talk about the most beautiful place i have ever been swimming in my life! chapman creek has flowed this path for thousands of years, creating several pools and waterfalls which are carved out of the granite into giant canals and bowls. the water is clear and cold (really cold, this is a place to visit only in the afternoon sun on a hot day if swimming is the goal). dozens of large trout from the hatchery swim around and bump into you. locals know about this place, but i’m pretty sure that few other people do which makes it a really special spot (i need to take my camera back there so i can show you how amazing it really is). i swam for an hour, significantly lowering my body temperature in the process…. then my friend david and i picked salal berries from the bushes overhanging the creek. in the evening i met up with some other friends at the gumboot for dinner where we feasted on organic food and conversation.

sunday – my visitors were off in the city, so i had the morning to myself and got some house chores done. i picked several cups of blackberries from in front of my house and then made jam from those and the salal berries we had picked the day before. i did some research on the internet and found out that salal berries are extremely high in pectin so i believe that if i make salal berry jam in the future i won’t add extra pectin. after that i made a bunch of potato salad and cooked up a mess of steelhead that was in my freezer (the last of the big fish caught by my friend george for me). in the evening we went to the beach and i had a swim while my friends made a fire on the beach after which we ate yummy food and drank wine until two other friends joined us as the light was fading. once the stars were fully out a couple of us took another swim in the phospheresence-filled waters. (in case you haven’t seen this phenomena – phospheresence is caused by the disturbance of certain algae-critters that glow neon green when you stir up the water. when you swim in it, it looks like thousands of stars are all around you each time you take a stroke. diving into it, all you can see is light within the dark black sea….)

came home around midnight last night which was fine because i am working from home today so i didn’t have to get up uber-early to deal with the commute.

as an added side-attraction on the weekend, there was a subtle, possibly romantic subplot that i haven’t quite determined the full extent of yet. one of our friends was staying with someone i had met a few months back who lives in roberts creek and so he was a part of last night’s picnic on the beach and the dinner at the gumboot. there was some definite flirting going on – and now i am intrigued about the possibilities. we’ll see if that goes anywhere – as it was, it added a nice undercurrent to my perfect weekend.