Bus and I settled into this beautiful little community of Nanaimo quite easily. Roy pointed out a nice walk and we did that two or three times a day circling a block encompassing their strata complex and a section of detached homes near the Oliver Woods Community Centre. The centre itself has a gym where we passed a steady stream of pickleballers, a beautiful playground, a wooded area complete with a natural duck pond and hiking trails, and an outdoor exercise facility.
I helped Alixe set up some screening to protect her blueberry bushes from hungry birds. In the evening I saw a deer stroll by checking out her strawberries and a rabbit who looked like he was not suffering any hunger pangs. I watched an eagle soar overhead one morning and Alixe wasn’t even amazed.
On Wednesday Alixe and I took a trip to Comox to visit Dan Strickland who has been here studying the grey jay population, capturing and banding the young ones and collecting blood samples. The rain worked to our advantage that day and kept him from heading up the mountain so we were able to visit for an hour while Roy enjoyed some Respite time with a lovely young woman named Danielle.
Comox was particularly nice – a quaint town with a nearby Canadian Forces Base. Dan has been coming here for months on end to do his studies of the grey jay (Canada Jay?) for a few years now and stays in a gorgeous cottage-like place within walking distance of town that he found on VRBO. Right now he has a grad student with him though we didn’t meet the student. Our visit was short but Alixe and I enjoyed ourselves.
When we got back we took Roy to one of his favourite restaurants where we had a delicious meal then headed over to visit Joyce and Per – friends that I have met on previous visits to Nanaimo. Per had just had a birthday so we helped eat his delicious chocolate birthday cake.
And that night I happened to discover a couple of completely engorged ticks on Buster. Alixe and I performed some minor day surgery and removed them carefully with tweezers. Bus was not impressed by the procedure. I’m wondering how long those things have been on him. Do they go back to when he was first sick in Alberta?
Thursday morning I joined Alixe and a large contingent of women who put together a nutritious community lunch at the St. Andrews Presbyterian church. We diced vegetables for a huge soup and constructed 22 loaves worth of ham and cheese sandwiches. These women have been doing this on a regular basis and they have it down pat. I just did as I was told and before I knew it I was part of an assembly line. There are numerous rules around food preparation that have to be followed and these women gently taught me the proper way. It was both fun and enlightening.
