Pootling

By Maryanna Gabriel

I am reading Bill Bryson and he is using a most wonderful word... "pootled". If he can do it I most certainly can. After leaving Hornby Island we pootled up to Courtenay for a wonderful Eggs Benedict at one of my favourite restaurants there, The Atlas. It comes with an attractive stack of fruit topped by a tomatillo which always delights me. Happily smacking our lips we meandered into historic Cumberland. It used to be desolate and haunted looking. Not any more. I was surprised to see the place bustling and thriving with nary a For Sale sign visible. Pootling over to Coombs we were able to visit the market there where goats are supposed to be on the roof and aren't. I was able to get some Sriracha Sauce for half the price. This sauce seems to be a food trend. I have no idea what I am going to do with it but I have been seeing it called for lately in a lot of recipes. Maybe I will make pootled eggs with Sriracha Sauce while doing the cha-cha. 

That said, after eating ice cream , we visited beautiful Rathtrevor Park in lovely seaside

.Rathtrevor...  I usually avoid the place because of crowds. 

Parksville. I usually avoid the place because of the crowds but as we explored I began scratching my head.... I remembered more sand for one and I was puzzled for awhile because I recalled camping there with my children at the brink of ocean's edge. That is no more either. Sufficiently enlightened and updated by our wanderings we pootled our way home to live happily ever after. Now on my island here, the rains have come and it is time to burrow in quietly by the fireside with the cooler days.