Swimming With The Beavers

 By Maryanna Gabriel

Well the island is flooded with tourists. We almost forgot what it is like here on a long weekend. Ganges in chockablock because today is Market Day. I have learned to adapt. I never go to town on a Saturday morning and for my lake swim I wake up early. It is usually quiet but only if I arrived at dawn.

Sometimes a Bald Headed Eagle surveys me from a tall dead tree but yesterday I was surprised by a quickly moving form in the water. It had a large head, too big to be a mink. Maybe it was an otter. Do otters live in lakes? I made as little movement as possible and studied him. Suddenly, he saw me and veered, and then dove. Slap, went his tail. Then it came to me. A beaver. A brief survey of the shoreline confirmed what I was looking for - the beginnings of a lodge. Close to a high traffic area too. Not the best choice of location but then maybe he was a cosmopolitan sort of fellow. One wonders how far he has traveled and from where. 

Modern Homesteading

 By Maryanna Gabriel 

It is the time of year when the garden is producing and decisions have to made quickly. Here are a few of mine, shared to inspire. Once one gets going it is easy. 

Oil. Add good quality olive oil to everything. 

Sundried Tomatoes 
Enter: garlic, baby onions, whole pepper, lemon peel (thin slices) and olive oil. The marinated oil  is delicious straight from the jar onto a salad with fresh lemon and black pepper. 

Red Peppers
Enter: red peppers, thinly sliced garlic cloves, basil. First roast the peppers until blackened then peel of the skin and thinly slice. Alternate.

Pickles In A Jar
Enter: Cucumbers, red peppers, onions. Soak in water with course salt in the fridge for a couple of hours. To make brine use equal parts vinegar to sugar and add pepper corns and mustard seed. When cool, place the vegetables in a jar, add brine, then refrigerate. No other cooking necessary. I also added dill. The brine is wonderful for poaching salmon, any other fish, or eggs, or for adding to a slaw dressing recipe. 

Day Twenty - Wahooo!

 By Maryanna Gabriel

"Anyone who says writing is easy, isn't doing it right."
-Amy Joy

The book. Focus, focus, focus. 

After more than two years of intermittent progress, I have just had twenty days straight, working five to ten hours per day on the manuscript. I can finally feel I have the bones down, more than just the bones actually. I could be onto tendons, flesh and hair. I can't tell you how good it feels. I have even written an ending I feel good about it. 

I have lots of middle bits left but at least I feel like I know where it is all going without being mired in the middle. Wahoooo!!! Dream of a lifetime nearing closure. Not sure if I have any friends left though. 

Boat Explosion On Salt Spring Island

 By Maryanna Gabriel 

Not the most relaxing walk. 

I have been working hard with the writing. So I scribbled this note to myself last night and left it on the kitchen counter to make sure I did it. Today, for some reason I did not park where I normally do. I drove to the ocean and parked where I never do. Definitely weird given the theme of my last blog. 

With a loud BOOM, black smoke spumed from a boat off of Hudson Point. I could see pleasure boats turning and stream towards it but there was nothing they could do. That guy is a goner. As I stood and watched, the smoke funneled upward like a tornado. The air reeked. 

Along came the fire engines. Four of them. I didn't even know we had that many on Salt Spring Island. The ambulance came without a siren or lights on. Not a good sign. They all converged at the spot I normally park on. Thank goodness I was not caught in the middle of it. 

The odd thing is, this is the fourth emergency call in a very short time. First the lumberyard went up in flames, then a resort quite close to where this accident is caught on fire, and now this.

It is a relief to come home to my peaceful forest without much excercise, but at least I managed to find some raspberries on a roadside stand. A bit of comfort. 

Writing and Synchronicity

 By Maryanna Gabriel 

"There is no rule on how to write.
Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly;

sometimes it's like drilling rock
and then blasting it out with charges."

- Ernest Hemingway

I am up at dawn, listening to eagles up on the mountain as I write. 

The heat has abated, thank God, with a wave of deaths in it's wake. Tears welled up as I saw the drumming at parliament in Ottawa for Canada Day, something about the passion of the singing. The situation is unconscionable. I am beavering away on my manuscript after working terribly hard to clear the decks so I could get to it. A series of assignments are now completed. Now it is a question of focus. I am so grateful to at last concentrate. The book requires a lot of thought and is with me day and night. I am worried I am going to be interrupted. Ten or so hours per had now ten days in a row and I have made encouraging progress. Dean Koontz writes this is his style as well, to live with the story lest the finer details of character and plot drop away. 

There are weird coincidences around the writing that are quite striking. I read a part of the book out loud to a friend who is referenced in it. Just as I said a "shirtless man appeared on the path" a shirtless man actually did appear in her yard. A beautiful looking man at that. We stared at each other. What are the odds?

Again. I had a renter break the door to the fridge in the cottage. The next person to stay was a refrigerator specialist. He was able to help me with a specific application. What are the odds? He and his fiancée are the loveliest people. A conversation with them yesterday helped spark some missing pieces I need to slot into place with the writing. She even noticed the synchronicity and said it was all meant to be. It makes me feel as though I am on track and although I am alone on this writing mission, I am not really.