We spent an enjoyable weekend celebrating a friend’s 60th birthday. Some of us are slightly older, some of us (me) are much younger, but we mostly all agreed we’d hardly changed from the vibrant young things we all were last week, or last century.
Celebrating something, and why not? How about still being here?!
It’s likely we have fewer springs and summers ahead than we’ve already enjoyed, so each one left to us is one to look forward to but not rush. With that in mind, we’ve been planning a few spring and summer camping trips. Unbelievably, at least for someone who likes to pretend he knows a bit about camping and being outdoors, I don’t think I’ve slept in a tent since autumn 2022. Goodness!
Palatial
Part of the preparation – it’s getting to mud season here, no more skiing or snowshoeing so we might as well look ahead and be prepared – is checking out what equipment we have and what state it is in. We’ve had to acquire a new tent – our palatial green one seems to have gone missing. Hopefully it’s getting well used out on the wilder parts of the west coast of Vancouver Island!
My “work” tent! Retired, like me!
I do have and absolutely love my “work” tent, a tiny one person camping miracle perfect for backpacking and carrying onto small boats, but not one for two people and a dog. So a new tent it is.
Remote remoteness
For this coming season, we’ll be front country camping in sites accessible by truck. It’ll be sometimes somewhat remote, but not the remote remoteness we enjoyed on the coast. My brother has a new tiny teardrop trailer, and we’ll be meeting up somewhere twelve hours north of him and twelve hours west of us, to test out his new rig. I don’t think he’s done too much camping in the past, so I did mention there’ll be at least three (and maybe as many as five) mosquitoes where we’re headed. There, now he can’t complain about not knowing…
Find us here – twelve hours north and twelve hours west – you know the place!
So do your worst, mud season, we’ll get through whatever you throw at us the next few weeks – late season snow or rain or late season snow and rain – because we’re almost prepared to spring forward and land right side up, ready for the big outdoors! Boing! Squelch! Smile! Why, we’re hardly any older than the last time we were hardly any older…
Let’s wait a few more weeks. No need to rush…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Hidden dangers? Sounds exciting – they could be anywhere and everywhere. Goodness, let’s explore this some more – follow me into PlaidCamper dangerous daydream territory…
Lose yourself here? No…
I’ve rarely found outdoor places to be overly intimidating, preferring instead to enjoy and be amazed by the beauty of the natural world, at least as I’ve experienced it. I’m sure if I was ever truly lost in the woods, or really caught outside in an immediately life threatening situation, then I’d certainly feel trepidation, and be afraid. I don’t leave home unprepared, but perhaps I’m getting complacent? I should snap out of it, because maybe it’s not so safe out there…
Mostly though, I’ve been outdoors in relative safety, often due to the company of more experienced fellow travellers, people who’ve taught me, as necessary, how to safely navigate the genuinely wild and remote places we’ve found ourselves. I count myself very fortunate to have been taught and trained by so many tremendous individuals.
A touch sinister? Follow me, it’ll be fine!
But what about those hidden or unexpected dangers? Do you ever wonder how you’d truly fare if you found yourself in a serious and dangerous wild situation? I think about this quite often, although I don’t go out of my way to seek danger. It’s just… suppose danger finds you? There’s always something lurking in the woods, isn’t there?
Recently, I’ve noticed that sometimes I’ll wander along and daydream, somewhat inattentive, almost complacent because I’m walking in woods mere minutes from our current home. I’ve yet to see bear or wolf tracks, so it’s all good – isn’t it?
Calm down, imagination – just shapes in the snow, they aren’t creatures…
A little while back, I fell behind Mrs. PC and Scout, mostly because I’d been dawdling, stopping to take a photograph or to look at a particular tree up close. Distracted, I stepped off the trail in a spot a bit more overgrown than the surrounding area. It was heavily blanketed by recent snow and my snowshoe went down and then down some more.
Deeper snow off the trail
Struggling to extract myself, something on the far side of the nearest tree positively exploded into motion, up, off and away. You should have seen me jump up, out and back on the trail, heart hammering. In this place I’ve never seen tracks for anything larger than a deer or another person, so I’ll assume it was a deer. I didn’t see what it was – too busy waiting for my overactive imagination (everything ran through my mind, so many possibilities – fortunately, nothing ran out of my undershorts) and my pulse to calm down…
Yup, deeper snow – anything over the edge?
Once I’d steadied myself and caught up with Mrs. PC and Scout, (my outdoor cool and nonchalance restored, acting like I’d never been, you know, even slightly startled) it was back to daydreaming, asking how I’d cope in a dangerous or unexpected situation?
Seems like being taught and actually learning might be two different things. As for what might really get me out there? Well, why worry about a bear when a deer combined with an overactive imagination might do for me. How would I really cope? Hmm…
Daydream territory
PlaidCamper caught daydreaming – I’ll say I had a wake up call! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
…and a novel idea, inspired by one of the greats. Be warned, I’m an all over the place PlaidCamper at the start of this new year – little of what follows makes any sense. Cabin fever?
Earlier this week a sprinkling of overnight snow and a bright blue sky morning created the glass tree:
The glass tree, in the next door garden
Given the absence of significant snow for most of December, we were happy to see the shiny and shimmering tree! It didn’t last, but what a sight to lift the spirits. Now, as I write this, it appears we might be at the start of some proper snowfall for the next day or two.
From the office, looking out over our street – snow (and a happy snowman)
Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be heading out on xc skis next week, or even sooner? I can picture it, two confident characters gliding across pristine snowfields and under glass trees, the very essence of beautiful wintry elegance. Like, like, oh, I don’t know, two romantic yet annoyingly likeable figures in a great Russian novel?
Wintry dusting
Where did that come from?! Due to the lack of snow (have I been mentioning that?) we’ve spent more time than usual indoors. Industrious and happy to be in the kitchen, I’ve kept up with baking and eating mince pies. I have to say, they are generally easy enough to make, but my second batch was woeful. Woeful I tell you sir! I’m so terribly, terribly sorry. If I keep baking so badly, whatever will become of us?! Oh, and we have been watching the BBC adaptation (first broadcast 2016) of War and Peace.
I’ve never read the novel, and have to say, knowing nothing of the story before watching, the drama was a blast. The major real events aside, I had no idea what was going to happen, and enjoyed guessing – quite wrongly most times – what might unfold. There were quite a few coincidences and contrivances as the plot barreled along, and these were sometimes hard to accept. To get to better grips with this, I’m going to have a go at reading the novel, and also see if the characters are a bit less broad and maybe more nuanced compared to the adaptation we saw.
Here’s a character!
These were minor quibbles in the grander scheme of the overall experience. It was certainly quite the production, and must have been an expensive enterprise. The grand palaces and houses, the elaborate sets and astonishing costumes were all marvellous, and the large scale battle scenes were convincing. Far better than the usual “five men running past and then around the back of the camera to the front again through the smoke” effect some lower budgeted productions suffer from. The acting was pretty good (to be fair, there was also some capital A “Acting” from one or two, but I always enjoy that in a costume drama) across the enormous cast of characters. Highly recommended if you’ve got an hour or six to spare this winter. Fabulous entertainment!
Before I finish my comments on War and Peace, I do have to mention one thing. I wasn’t going to, but honestly, it’s been haunting me. It is one of the all time great novels, PlaidCamper, and as such, full of insights into what drives humans to do the things they do – for love, honour, greed, power, revenge and so on – we’d expect you to have questions and be haunted. Well yes, all that stuff and the other things I wrote above about high production values, little expense spared, and good acting etc. But, and this might just be me, was I meant to be quite so involved with Prince Vasily’s wig? (Played by Stephen Rea – Prince Vasily, not the wig) I say wig, but was it a wig? Maybe it was his own hair? Bouffant? Coiffure? Sculpture? Creation? Hair piece? Small cat or spaniel? It was a thing of beauty, and I couldn’t stop staring at it. It captured my attention immediately and almost completely. What story? A mighty battle at Borodino, thousands of casualties and Napoleon’s army is approaching Moscow? Uh huh, sure, whatever, sounds serious, but will Prince Vasily’s wig be safe? Will it volunteer to fight the invaders? Now, bear with me, but had it volunteered, I think Vasily’s wig, acting independently of Vasily, could have ended the war. Both sets of soldiers would have been so distracted they’d have forgotten about the bloody fighting… Honestly, it’s on such small details the course of history can change. In my head, anyway.
“Is he still going on about that wig? I think I’ll stay asleep until he stops…”
I believe Stephen Rea was aware of the hair because he kept waggling and raising his eyebrows and smiling at me in a knowing way – he really shouldn’t break the fourth wall like that. Outplayed by a wig, perhaps Stephen was asking for help or trying to dislodge the competition? Mrs. PlaidCamper wasn’t getting the same wiggy vibe, and, if you watch the series, maybe you won’t either. I said to Mrs. PC it was hair loss (that bit works best if read in a heavy Russian accent) she couldn’t see what I could see…
Canada winter – is like Russian winter, no?
Goodness, that was a long aside, almost like a, like a, oh, I don’t know, an unlikely contrivance in a nineteenth century novel.
Where were we? Oh yes, gliding across the snowy plains. In truth, at least one of us will be absolute-ski exhausted after the first half hour and wondering where the nearest cafe is. Our plan is to tackle the flattest trails on the Plains of Abraham, so finding a cafe nearby won’t be too difficult. A very well earned hot chocolate, and if there’s a pastry, why not? With all this new snow, we’ll be needing extra pastries to maintain a sensible calorie balance. (My thumbs are already on – or is it off? – the (nonexistent) scale, like an unscrupulous merchant in a nineteenth century novel…) Are you tired of this yet? Tired, like you can get reading a long nine- Please, stop it PlaidCamper!
Almost done! I went out with Scout a little earlier, and she was thrilled to be able to dig, even if the snow wasn’t really deep enough:
Digging it“Oh. Nothing there. Somewhat shallow, PlaidCamper! Could you turn the camera away – I’ve dug the hole, might as well pee in it!”
Scout! We are out in society! If you behave like this, whatever will become of us? Consider our audience, madam! And what’s this about shallow? You certainly know how to wound a fellow…
I shall leave it here for this week, ego bruised, feeling fragile but not shattered, like a, like a, oh, I don’t know, a glass tree or an overwrought character in a – I’ll stop, you know how it goes…
Goodness, you’re still here and have a question? What about the novel idea, PlaidCamper – you mentioned it at the start? Oh, that. I’m no nineteenth century novelist (no, no, really, and thank you, you’re so very kind) but I was inspired by old LT to have a go at a short story of my own. It’s about a famous actor, his wig, a down on his luck baker and his incontinent pooch. The title? “Woe & Pees!” Yup – when the BBC drama department comes knocking, I’ll let you know.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
“Oh come on, PlaidCamper! Wounded? Really?! Stop sulking – I forgive me! Now, have you seen the new snow? Let’s get out there!”This was the new snow yesterday – phew! Let’s get out there!
We were planning to spend chunks of the long weekend on snowshoes or xc skis, but the strangely warm weather through last weekend – it rained and washed away most of the snow pack – means waiting for fresh snow and the return of proper winter sometime around year end. Here’s hoping…
No snow? Try one of these instead…
In the meantime, we’re fully engaged with mince pies, winter beers and a good book/good movie or two!
Fully engaged
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great (long) weekend!
Looking in the old town, there were some bright sparks:
Sparky
I think this old fella might know a thing or two about it:
“Just you listen to me, young fella…”
The chap above seemed to have some competition from the chap below (we’ve been keeping an eye on him, looks the sort that might attempt a chimney-based home invasion, and he’d be tough to spot…)
“Come back, young fella – I can tell you where to find ho-ho-holiday spirit – I’ll drop in later!”
Yikes, I found him a little scary and way over my head. I turned to these friendly looking types, but to be honest, whilst they seemed to be in good spirits, it was all rather wheezy and too smoky to get to what they were saying:
Holy smokes…
Before the big glitter of the big town got too much for me, we retreated into the woods:
“Follow us, OPC, you’ll be fine!” They seemed friendly enough…
I have to say, for me, it was a touch more manageable. A breezy day, so the wind whistled through the treetops, and if I couldn’t make out the words, well I was happy enough with the tenor and tone:
A chilled tune…
In fact, with a whisper of light snow, and the rattle and rustling of dry leaves, I’d say there were plenty of spirits in the woods. Holiday spirits? Who knows, but it was pretty and peaceful:
Small sounds, happy spirits
To finish, we absolutely found some holiday spirit:
Full(ers) of good things
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
A brief piece this week, celebrating recent bright and brilliant weather days – we got out there when we could. Most of the past ten days has seemed somewhat overly (but necessarily) medical, from getting COVID and flu shots (never doing both at the same time again, didn’t work too well for me) to meeting every eye doctor in town (or so it seemed), as we went from one escalating appointment to the next, each doctor wanting a second opinion to the previous second opinion.
Bright and brilliant
Fortunately, once all the information had been gathered, the most senior opinion won the day (or week) and declared all was well, with no new news and to please come back in twelve months. Phew…
All is well
I hadn’t been experiencing any symptoms, but once one doctor took a look, they all wanted to peer in there, and really, can you blame them? If you’ve met me, and gazed into my beautiful grey-blue-green (that’s right, can’t even get agreement on this) eyes, you already understand the attraction. If you haven’t met me and you’ve yet to gaze into my eyes, well, join the line and you’ve so much to look forward to…
I think on that modest note it’s time to start wrapping this up. Most importantly, thank you doctors – always better to be safe than sorry…
Well chilled
We celebrated the eventual no news is good news with some still and some sparkling, and goodness, it was very well chilled. Minus 10 was the daytime high midweek – cool! To my lovely eyes and clear sighted thinking (huh?) these are the very best sort of winter days, with fresh snow, blue skies, and barely a hint of wind. It was wonderful to be outside this week, on the Plains of Abraham and in our local woods in near perfect conditions – some truly splendid sights for sore eyes!
Splendid
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
A bit earlier than we expected, and it didn’t stick around too long, but it was a welcome first sight of what we hope will be an enjoyable outdoorsy winter. (Ask us about that again in late March…)
A light dusting!
Scout was absolutely thrilled to see the snow and couldn’t get out of the house fast enough. Fortunately, our door and front gate is each wide enough to accommodate one excited canine and one excited human at the same time. C’mon, Scout, it’s not a race…
“It was, and you lost!”
The total amount didn’t top out much over a handful of centimetres, but it was enough to kick and slide around in, and it remained cold enough to still look pretty the following day, quite dazzling under bright blue skies.
It’s melting… (photo: Mrs. PC)
Mrs. PC managed to calm Scout (and me) down, explaining that there’ll be plenty more snow the next few months and wondering if we might be a little less excitable, ‘cos it’s a long winter? I can’t speak for Scout being less excitable about snow, but I’ll try. Although, whisper it, it was Mrs. PC looking up local xc ski trails and searching out the snowshoes in the basement. Cool!
Cool
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Very coolA few days earlier……and a few days later!
By happy coincidence, thanksgiving more or less marks our anniversary for when we moved to Canada, a decision we’ve never once regretted. With each passing year, we love the place we call home more and more – we’ve so much to be thankful for here in Canada!
Live here? Sounds good!
Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate this holiday!
Home
Keeping it short – we’re heading out to visit friends and family the next little while, with off grid and in the woods cabin time involved, so not too sure if there’ll be anything posted for a week or two or three.
Cabin time? Sounds good!
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great (long) weekend!
That’s not a word, but it is an attempt to convey how much we’ve been enjoying the season. Being up with or even ahead of the latest thing is so very much us, haha. Identifying fall is beautiful? Couldn’t be more on trend… Moron, you say? No, but I’ve been called worse, by worse…
Trail starts here
Where was I? Clearly, you’re not going to get high quality season-centric (huh?) writing here (see “fall-tastic” above) but we really have enjoyed our eastern woodland leafy fall into autumn.
What a mood enhancer! We’re pretty chipper anyway most of the time, (don’t judge a book by it’s cover; it’s a smiling – on the inside – visage I present to the world) but being out in the woods the past few weeks has further boosted our generally sunny outlook. Each recent morning we’ll approach the local trail and murmur “that’s beautiful”, then a few yards on and a few turns into the trail, say again “that’s beautiful” and on and on we go.
On and on, into the woods!
The crisp air, the bright blue sky, the green through yellow through orange and into red leafy splendour, plus Scout’s bouncing gait, the wet-dry smell of leaf decay, and the satisfying crunch and scrunch underfoot? We add it up and our answer is “that’s beautiful!”
“Bouncing? Me? I’m far too dignified for that. But if you wanted to say beautiful…”
Yup, here we are this week struggling to find words and phrases to describe our autumnal adventures. Fall-tastic? Fallsome praise? Autumnulent? Why I autumn do better… Hmm. Should I stop, leaf it for now?
Just leaf it
If you’re looking to read about fall – about any season – with thoughts on the joy found in the natural world, then head over to Walt at Rivertop Rambles. He posted this week, and, like always, it’s a great read. I’m not blowing smoke from a leafy bonfire up his a- … read him, and you’ll see.
Joy
Anyway, it’s far too nice outside to be in here writing. I can see the trees from my office window, glowing in sunny autumnal glory, and let me tell you, it’s beautiful!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend!
“His vocabulary really is limited, isn’t it? I mean, bouncing?! What’s wrong with regal, majestic, purposeful…”
Oh this past week or two! I mostly (mostly!) avoid the political sphere in this blog, but recent political news locally and globally has been something else, hasn’t it? Goodness, the whining and bleating of many of those on the right, the far right and alt-right! Avoid and avoid! What a void… What is it with the never taking responsibility, it’s always somebody else’s fault, and othering whoever doesn’t share their groupthink? Alternative facts, gaslighting, lying, doubling down on a lie and then blaming their supposed victims and targets if they answer back, so terrified of any comeback in case it turns out they have underachieved and are at fault? Don’t they ever stop to look at themselves and listen to what they are saying? Climate change deniers, election deniers, post truth – huh? – fact deniers, “we’ve had enough of experts”, lies on the side of a bus, promising sunlit uplands knowing the impossibility of such promises, putting immigrants on unsafe barges, denying basic human rights, and encouraging a hostile environment if you look or sound different. Painting over cartoon murals for children in immigration centres because that is too welcoming?! Who can support that?! Lies, lies, denials, and more lies! What is wrong with these people? It’s inhumane to behave in such a way. What do they hope to gain or achieve by being thoroughly unpleasant? It is so tiresome…
How to explain it? Perhaps they are weak and very likely personally ineffective, utterly and drearily so… Yikes, try to imagine living such a scared and self loathing life, appeased by fearful cronies and projecting their shortcomings onto others, completely unable to take any responsibility for messes of their own making. Sad little conservative nobodies clutching their pearls if there’s a different opinion expressed… Only feeling like they’ve achieved something if they’ve belittled or lied about someone else. Pathetic. Thank goodness we don’t have, in our very immediate circle, to put up with anyone like that. I feel rather sorry for anyone who does, particularly if they are afraid, and find themselves appeasing these awful people. Being so scared that they might turn on you, being so scared that you condone them, even enable them. Yes, how sad, although, scared or not, I suppose they choose to do so. If you lie down with…
Enough of these dreary people and the bad news they create! No more politics today! On to more interesting items!
Ever since we moved here, one of our favourite activities has been to wander through the Old Town streets. A friend (thanks, JH) recently mentioned how pretty parts of this city are, and she’s right, so I thought I’d share a few more sights and stops we’ve enjoyed the past few weeks. You don’t need a destination; it’s enough just to let your feet point in a direction anywhere in or near the Old Town, and it’ll be interesting. (Most of this past week has been spent in and out of various government offices completing and filing applications for health cards, driver licences, and car number plates – we didn’t take photos of the government office edifices as they weren’t so attractive!)
Stock up on essentials hereAnd here!Found at the end of a cobbled street – worth the potential turned ankle!So colourful!People watching spot near the parliament buildingVery happy to be here!Cheers!
Yes, very happy to be here, particularly as the paperwork and other dreary stuff this week is firmly in the rear view. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
OldPlaidCamper 