The Heat of Summer

It’s been a hot one this summer. Lots of 30+ days back to back. It’s made my house suffocatingly hot. It also means the heat rises on my temperament. I have a tipping point where I lose my patience and good humour. 

A few weeks ago, with the August long weekend looming before me, I realized that summer was nearly half over and I hadn’t really vay-cayed yet. Oh yes, I had done some fun things on the weekends (Hello! Bocci Ball Champion, remember?), but I hadn’t left the Valley. Changed the scenery. I hadn’t taken a breath. So - near the end of July - I said I would help B3 on his grown up paper route and I trudged all over parts of Victoria I had never seen before. I had booked us into an Air BnB for those days and because it was the middle of summer, finding a place with the certain specifications I was looking for (Read: a private suite with enough room for the two of us and not sharing a bathroom with some creepy people from Arkansas) for the entire week proved challenging. It meant I had to find two locations to rent over those 4 nights. 

One night, I booked us into a place called Blue Sky Retreat which was a little out of the way, high on Triangle Hill.  What we found when we arrived was (to me) glorious. A large private suite with a deck that overlooked a valley, a glittering lake below. The hillside is adorned with a grove of craggy Arbutus trees where deer feed in the early hours and late evening. A delightful wooden swing hangs from the rafters and next to the little bistro table for two is a hummingbird feeder. The resident pair of hummingbirds hang out in the Arbutus trees and drink greedily from the feeder, but are polite enough to stop, engage with you, and chat for a bit. Because I do these things, I named the pair Cecil and Cecelia. Inside, our hosts had thought of every little detail a traveler might need. Coffee (they roast their own), water, milk in the fridge for said coffee, snacks, maps,  and chocolates on the pillows. The place was impeccably clean. I fell in love with it. When we left early the next morning, Rick, one of our hosts - not expecting us to be up so early - was roaming their beautiful garden in his bathrobe, holding his morning cup of coffee for dear life, and mortified that we had caught him looking unkempt. I expressed to him how much I loved their place and how I knew I would be back - somehow - someway - because it was the perfect place to write. 

So - I have escaped work for a couple of days, post-long weekend, and made my way back to Blue Sky Retreat. As I did so, it hearkened back memories of those couple of summers we spent at Dore Lake in Northern Saskatchewan. I knew an author there. Bernard Palmer was his name and he wrote the Danny Orlis books I read as a child.  He and his wife Marj had a cabin on that lake and would drive from Nebraska to Dore Lake every spring. He had a little writing shack about 30 steps from the cabin and that’s where he wrote the Danny Orlis books. Bernie was the first author I ever met and I always hoped that one day I too would have a writing shack. 

Well - Blue Sky isn’t mine - but I thought of Bernie and his little shack as I made my way down Island and hoped that the cares of work and relationships and the world might slip away for a time and allow me to do what feeds my soul. Write a blog or two. Or - more importantly, begin again, on the book I am writing next. I’ve been tap dancing around it. Summer has been a big distraction - because who wants to stay inside and write when you could be outside soaking up the sun and the blue sky and the flowers and the warmth while having conversations with hummingbirds. Here I get to do both.

So, it was a relief to me when I made my way down the steps to the little suite and felt such excitement that I had made it back. The first thing I grabbed was my computer to write this blog. I can type and write while watching Cecilia fill her tiny belly with nectar. Children are playing below on the lake in their inner tubes and rafts, swimming and splashing - their laughter wafting up to me and making me smile because they are having the kind of summer every kid should have. I’m not sure how far I will get on this book but it is time to feed my soul. To unplug, let the peacefulness of this setting wash over me. I expect it to feel as cool and refreshing as that lake on a stifling 30+ day.

I must say, I was touched upon my arrival. Doug and Rick had provided me with a lounge chair on the deck so I would be comfortable while I wrote. A little package of chocolate was left for me in the kitchen too. Having made inquiries previously with B3, Rick was pleased to learn my favourite drink was a gin martini. Shortly after my arrival, I was invited upstairs for cosmos and conversation in their little garden oasis, I visited well into the evening, starting the adventure of meeting new people and making new connections. And perhaps it’s fitting that in this context - of new acquaintances - that I will begin to write about my journey with loss. 

Is it weird to say, I can’t wait?! 

Photo Credit: Annette Moore