Oh Victoria!

I have been meaning to write this blog about the uniqueness of this city where Keith and I now live.

The idea for it began when when Keith visited me the first year I lived here.  It then expanded when he moved here. 

After each vignette please roll your eyes and  say out loud "Oh Victoria!"

Everything closes at 5! 

A few months after I moved here I decided to walk over to a shopping mall after work.  It was a Tuesday night and I arrived at the SEARS entrance close to 5:30. I walked in and went up the escalator. There was a cashier serving a woman and child. I walked by them and was approached by a Security Guard who said "Sorry Madame, the store is closed.  Please follow me out."  Most stores are closed by 6 every evening.  

Small Town

One weekend when Keith came to visit we went to the grocery store and ran into someone from my work. We went to the liquor store and ran into another person from my work shopping and the husband of someone from the college working there. Then we went out for dinner and you guessed it.  Keith said "This place is too small for me!"

"I'm not driving to ..."

People complain about driving a few kilometres.  We were at the service desk at a lumber store and overheard a women, in reply to being told she needed to go to the other larger store 20 minutes away, indignantly say... "I'm not driving to Langford!"  That has become our mantra when we're told we need to go to the suburbs!

Fog

The second month Keith worked here was October, notorious for thick morning fog. He was at work but his Administrator wasn't there. He received a text from her telling him that photography was her hobby and the fog was amazing that morning so she would be in later.  

Older population

Early on in his employment Keith led the change of the phone system.  As people tend to dislike change there were complaints and a common complaint was "But we have our doctor on speed dial. How will we phone them now?"

Getting to know you! 

Whether at the grocery store or a trades-person at our house to provide an estimate, it seems that everyone loves to talk, ask about you and tell you their story.  We know more about people we don't know than we ever did anywhere else we've lived!  At first it drove us crazy, especially when we're waiting in line and the cashier is chatting with the customer.  Now we actually appreciate how friendly people are and how interested they are in us.  

WOR

Every summer I look forward to my return to the Rocky Mountains where I’ve spent many days hiking, skiing or driving through to the coast. I have always marvelled at their immensity and beauty having grown up in other parts of Canada. My love of these mountains is one of the reasons Keith and I chose to get married in Canmore amidst these amazing giants of western Canada.

Since 2005 I have hiked the trails and paths of The Rockies with an amazing group of women, known as the Women of Rock (WOR). This year was no exception despite all the other things I had going on.  I ensured that neither a birthday party nor wedding interfered with the well planned trip.  

In the past 13 years I have participated in 10 hikes, including one in Glacier National Park, just off the Trans-Canada Highway on my drive out to my new life in Victoria. 

View from Beauty Creek Hostel

This year we stayed at the Beauty Creek Hostel, about an hour south of Jasper and a few minutes north of the Columbia Ice Fields.  I had not been to this portion of the Icefields Parkway in decades and noticed how much the glacier had receded and the many new buildings to accommodate all the tourists.

Stanley Falls

Columbia Ice Fields

Some of the WOR overlooking Saskatchewan Glacier 

Twenty one of us hiked over three days at Stanley Falls - similar to Maligne Canyon without so many tourists; Wilcox Pass overlooking the Columbia Ice Fields; and Parker Ridge where we could see the Saskatchewan Glacier.

Due to the many forest fires in BC, as you can see we were hiking in haze but fortunately not smoke.

Another view from Beauty Creek Hostel

As you can imagine, over these 13 years we have all aged. The oldest members of the group are now 71 though you’d hardly know it. They hike as fast and look as young as the rest of us!  Although we used to hike many kilometres into the hut we now plan locations where we can drive up pretty close. Apart from less difficulty packing in all our stuff it allows us to bring more variety and fresher food - a definite plus! 

Some members have left the group, new women have joined in, a couple of women have had hip replacements and sadly, we lost a member of the group to cancer last year. 

But we continue and we are already planning our trip for 2019!  I can't wait! 

Stefanie’s wedding

On a hot, sunny August day last week my youngest daughter Stefanie married her sweetheart, Cody Charon. 

It was a small wedding in a beautiful location, a garden in bloom with roses, lilies, hydrangea and lots of verdant trees and shrubs.

The beautiful bride and her handsome groom were surrounded by community.

My mother performed the ceremony with a personal and inspirational blessing for the couple, talking about their personalities, choice of work and life together. Her husband signed, for those who cannot hear, some of the blessing.

My sister read Corinthians 13 - Love is patient, love is kind… and her sons, my nephews handed out little vials of soap so that after the vows the crowd blew celebratory bubbles.

Photos were taken by Joy, the groom's sister and Rob, Stef's dear friend. 

Everything was personal. They chose the menu, there were photos of the couple and a collage with funny and poignant photos of each of them over the years lovingly put together by their mothers.

Cody’s Mom made a sweet table bringing a variety of goodies from Oregon including salt water taffy - a testament to Cody’s sweet tooth.  The cake was a tower of many flavours of macarons - Stefanie discovered this delicacy in Lyon, France in 2010.  Each guest received a Roger’s chocolate, a Victoria favourite, as a thank you gift.

The MC was my older daughter, Andrea who also organized the music playlist.  Her husband Jason pitched in and did many odd jobs as did my husband Keith.  Stefanie did her own flowers and she and Cody with Andrea, my friend Marlyn and I decorated the venue.

There was a photo booth, some speeches, lots of good food and drinks – some from Portland - and dancing.  

It was a great day and the beginning of a life of love together

!

عيد الفطر‎

I haven’t blogged in quite a while as I either haven’t been inspired or when I am I never seem to have time to get to the computer.  I felt the need to blog today but wasn’t sure what to write.  It’s Sunday, Father’s day in western culture. My father has passed away and my husband’s children are miles away so there was nothing planned. 

The mother of the Syrian refugee family I sponsored has recently achieved two milestones. She got her driver’s license and she graduated from an English as a Second Language program from Camosun College.  I wanted to give her a card and a little something to acknowledge her success and arranged to meet her and her family at a park today.

The weather was quite warm and sunny here so I decided to ride my bicycle.  As is typical in Victoria, I was able to ride mostly off road and for part of the way along the Gorge – a scenic inland part of the ocean.  It was only a half hour, mostly pleasant ride although I always forget how many hills there are here.

When I arrived at the park there were hundreds of people who resembled the family – lots of men and boys with dark hair and women in hijabs, some a dark solid colour and some, like my friend, covered in bright flowers. As I locked up my bike I realized it was EID, an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Yesterday they gathered at the only Mosque in Victoria and today they party!

I was worried I would never find my friends but quickly spotted one of her sons, then her husband who pointed me in the direction of the women who were sitting in groups in the shade.  Gaggles of teenage girls hung together, boys and men were playing soccer and badminton, some men were sitting in groups, children were lined up for candy floss or for the bouncy castle!  

This family - mother, father and three children ages 5, 7 and 10 and the father’s mother and sister arrived in Victoria 2 years ago. Since then the family has become fluent in English. The father has a full-time job at a fishery and the mother works part-time at a grocery store.  The grandmother has not learned much English and although she was employed in a factory for a period of time that is no longer. The sister was betrothed to the son of friends of the family in Victoria and was married shortly after their arrival. She and her husband and young son now live in Cranbrook, BC.

I was offered a seat, a beverage and some delicious roasted nuts and corn. I was introduced to the grandfather for the first time. He arrived from a refugee camp 5 months ago and is receiving medical care. He speaks no English except “Thank you” which he repeated several times to me. I also met lots of the family’s friends who, in many cases are also Syrian refugees. Happily, I heard of other Syrian refugees still coming to Canada.

When I said I needed to get on my way I was told that I couldn’t go, I needed to eat first and was promptly brought a plate of food made by the mother - Fatouche salad, pickled beets and a barley, rice, lentils dish and for dessert a plate of 6 kinds of cookies, some like shortbread. Well it is like Christmas! 

The Syrian people I know are friendly, generous, kind and like to have fun and get together in community.  It was a wonderful celebration and I feel grateful to have been part of it. 

Morocco

When I was backpacking around Europe I came close to going to Morocco.  The fellow I was going to travel with never showed up and being too timid to go alone I headed north to Portugal and never went back to that part of the world.

Yet Morocco has always captivated me.

So some thirty odd years later and with my willing and dependable partner I took a ferry over the Straight of Gibraltar to this mysterious, ancient, north African country.

The brand new port for cruise ships and yachts

When we arrived at the port in Tangiers, before we were out of the terminal, we were met by men offering tours, taxi, sim cards for our cell phones and other services. We declined them all for fear of being ripped off and began to walk to our hotel.  As we walked, several taxi drivers stopped and offered a ride.  The map said it was a short distance.  In fact it was short,  but most of the distance was up a steep hill! 

We found our hotel, with French and African decor and furniture from the 1940s.  On the walls were large signed photographs of Rex Harrison, Rita Hayworth, Christian Dior and other famous people of that era. The staff were all men, except for the housekeepers, and many wore a fez on their head, knickers and red suede slippers.  Since Morocco was a French Colony it was a great opportunity to brush up on my francais!

We ventured towards the city centre in search of the sim card we had declined to buy earlier. Outside a Cell Phone store was a table with young men selling sim cards. Keith bought a sim card from them - very inexpensive - and gave them a bill. One of them took the bill and ran off,  to our confusion! He returned with change.  The young men asked us many questions about where we lived and about Canada. They sadly spoke of the lack of opportunities for them in Morocco. 

We asked them where we could find a couscous dinner.  It was Friday, the day families get together to eat this meal. One of the fellows offered to take us to a restaurant, but again being skeptics we said it was too early (which was true, it was about 4 pm and most Moroccans eat after 7 pm).  We left them and explored some of the town and shops.

Couscous

Refreshing mint tea

As we were walking back to our hotel, we heard yelling. We turned and one of the fellows ran across the street and offered to escort us to the restaurant with "the best couscous."  We followed him and had an amazing meal. We had such good food in Tangiers!

Legendary Moroccan Sandwich

Delicious food cooked in a tagine

We spent lots of time exploring the Medina.

Bees on the honey filled sweets! 

We even purchased a locally made rug which we had shipped to Canada.

We rocked the Casbah!

Ceiling of the Casbah Museum

I'm so glad I finally got to have a taste of Morocco.  We met kind, friendly, helpful people; ate delicious food and experienced a very different culture from Canada! 

Felines

In Morocco and Portugal there were cats and kittens everywhere.

We noticed "street cats" first in Morocco, unfortunately most were scrawny and unkempt. We spotted them on the street, then in the Medina, a Mosque, beside a market stall and in gardens. 

Apparently the prophet "Muhammad surrounded himself with cats and doted on his favourite Muezza.  One day Muhammad woke up for the dawn call to prayer and found Muezza asleep on the sleeve of his robe.  Rather than disturb his pet he cut off his sleeve and went on his way.  When he came home later, Muezza bowed in gratitude. The prophet stroked Muezza three times thereby granting her nine lives and the ability to land on her feet.  Muhammad was known to give sermons with a cat on his lap and to share food and a water dish with Muezza."* 

I couldn't bring myself to take photos of all the unhealthy cats so here is one of the healthier cats in Tangier.

In Salema, Portugal we were old that the resident cats are wild. They looked healthy because visitors feed them in the tourist season but they go hungry in the winter when no tourists are around. Our hotel manager said she buys kibble for them in the winter.  Here is a Tabby patiently waiting for scraps under our restaurant table - she was rewarded.

The remainder of the cats in these photos are in Lisbon and Porto. Unlike the stray dogs that followed us in Mexico and elsewhere as you can see from these photos the cats ignored us.

* https://www.followmefaraway.com/

Doors

When I travel I like to take pictures of doors, especially in the Mediterranean.  Since people live in apartments or attached row houses it is their door that often distinguishes their home.  In the Iberian peninsula and Morocco there were lots of interesting wooden doors in homes, palaces and cathedrals. I love the different colours and textures. In some cases the photo is more about what is around the door than the door itself and in some cases the door compliments it's surroundings.  Here are some examples.

Tangier, Morocco

 In the Kasbah - Tangier, Morocco

Portimao, Portugal

Portimao, Portugal

Salema, Portugal

 Castelo de Sao Jorge, Lisbon

Decorated door - Lisbon

Porto, Portugal

The following are doors in cathedrals and palaces.

The Alhambra, Granada

Interior door in the Real Alcazar, Seville

The Granada Cathedral 

 In Jeronimos Monastery, Lisbon - around the door are faces of people from 
all over the world , seen by Portugese explorers.