August 27 – Gimli, Manitoba

These past months have been an interesting time for most of us. We have nearly all made changes in our regular routines and patterns of behaviour. For us, one of the changes has been with our travel and holiday plans. We did need to cancel some international travel but on the plus side we managed to see some parts of Canada that we hadn’t seen before. Gimli, Manitoba was one of those unexpected treasures.

After the initial cruel thrust of the coronavirus into our lives, Lyle and I began to sort out some priorities. The first of these was to work out just how we were to see our family while at the same time keeping everyone safe. Camping and outdoor living seemed to be the answer. 

With our Calgary family, we were able to camp in our driveway and eat meals in the backyard. It was a little different with our Winnipeg family. At first out of province visitors were discouraged and out of province campers not accepted. Finally, these restrictions were lifted and in late July we were able to travel to Manitoba for a camping adventure. This is when we spent some time in Gimli.

Our campground was actually about a 20 minutes drive north of Gimli on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Hnausa Provincial Park was a great spot – campsites weren’t crowded together and washrooms were open. It was also an easy drive to Gimli.

Gimli has an historical beginning. I’m not sure how the Icelandic pioneers made their way to this rather remote spot or how they connected with the original inhabitants of the land. I do know that today there is still a connection with Iceland and its traditions and culture. This is very obvious on the weekend of the Icelandic Festival in August.

The downtown area is contained within a few blocks and is just off the shore of Lake Winnipeg. There is a wide boardwalk along the shore and a dock that stretches out into the lake itself. The town is a bit off the beaten track but also commercial enough to host numerous fast food outlets and even a Tim Hortons.

One of the best things for us was an amazing outdoor swimming pool. The pool was quite spectacular with water slides, a tidal circle, lane swimming and a low diving board. Gimli is really only a small town with small town population so the pool is really quite awesome. I must also add that one of the benefits of the coronavirus was that admission was reduced to 50% capacity and so the pool wasn’t at all crowded.

If you go to Gimli, you should really find your way to the very large Viking statue – or as our grandson called it, the statue of “the Big Man”. The small area is well maintained and the statue itself is impressive. There is a picture with this post with me standing in front of the huge Viking. It should give you some idea of its size –nearly three times taller than I am.

So, Gimli was great and Lyle and I enjoyed our Manitoba camping trip. However, truthfully, the best part was spending time with our Winnipeg family. We would like to repeat this special family time but I guess that we will just have to wait and see what the future holds. 

 

Sue with Gimli's Viking

 

 

 

 

 

August 16 - Bubbles

When our children were young they would sometimes play with soap bubbles. It was an innocent childhood game. We would all sit on the back step and dip a little wire ring into a soapy container. Then, holding the ring up, we would blow through it creating transparent bubbles that floated away on wafts of air. Big bubbles, little bubbles would all drift away towards the back fence.

These days it is the adults who are creating bubbles – not the haphazard bubbles of childhood games but bubbles of people. These are usually created very specifically as a small group of friends or family. The idea is that we should be limiting our contact with people who are outside of the bubble.

Lyle and I are part of three separate bubbles. One small sphere contains a group of friends with whom we indulge in outdoor coffee get togethers.  We are also in a bubble with our daughter and her family and in another bubble with our son and his family. Beyond this, we keep our social distance from other people.

I’m not sure just who is protecting who by this strange arrangement. I think that our children feel that they are protecting us, and by not associating with other people, Lyle and I in turn feel that we are protecting them.

I do feel somewhat isolated in the bubbles of relationships that we have created but at the same time, there is a feeling of intimacy. If the truth were to be told, I much prefer the childhood game of blowing out soapy bubbles in the back yard, but in this crazy uncertain time of COVID, I will have to be satisfied with this new game of bubble creation.

July 19 - Face Masks

In recent days, there has been some debate about legislating the mandatory use of face masks inside public spaces. The proponents of such legislation state that if we were all to wear face masks, this would help prevent the spread of the virus. Those opposed say that this legislation would infringe on their human rights. Others seem to waver between the two extremes. On the one hand, we would be told what to do for our own good. On the other hand, there are those who claim that they live in a free country and nobody can tell them what to do.

So, face masks – yes or no? Face masks can be hot and uncomfortable to wear. They can be inconvenient to take off and put on. It has been said that wearing a face mask can aggravate certain skin conditions.

What I really don’t like about wearing a face mask is that the mask seems to limit my field of vision. To see anything looking down, I need to move my head in that same direction. I am reminded of a young woman I met on my white cane connections walks back in 2012. This woman could only see out of one side of her eyes. It was as if a vertical line was drawn down the middle of both eyes and the left side was a complete blank. Apparently this same condition could affect the sight as if a horizontal line were to be drawn across the middle of the eyes and the field of vision would be only the top half or bottom half of sight. In a temporary way, this is what I feel like when I wear a face mask.

Those are the negatives. What about the positives? There is really only one. It is possible that wearing a face mask might help in preventing the spread of the virus.

Would I wear a face mask? Absolutely! Would I need to wait for legislation in order to put on a face mask inside public spaces? Absolutely not! Knowing that health authorities claim that if we were all to don face masks, we might help in preventing the spread of the virus - that is reason enough for me.

Our daughter had an interesting comment. Face masks really protect others from when we sneeze or breathe out air vapors. Jen wondered if attitudes might change if the face masks actually protected the wearer. Are we such a selfish society that we would need this as an encouragement? I would hope not. Let’s be smart and do all that we can to protect our friends and families.

 

 

 

July 7 - Fifty Shades of Green

Last week we drove our friend, Jo, to an appointment. She sat in the back looking out the car window. It was a beautiful day and one of the few times that Jo had been out on the road since the onset of the pandemic. As we drove along I heard her say, “Have you ever noticed just how many different shades of green there are?”

Truthfully, I had not! When we are whipping along in the car, I am lucky if I can discern a tree from a horse or a large rock. On some days and in some lights, I find it difficult to see the horizon and the difference between land and sky. Colours...well, they belong in the realm of people who have more vision than I do.

I remember at the beginning of my sight loss journey, I was trying to explain to a friend what I could and couldn’t see. My friend asked, “Well, can you see colours?”

“Oh, yes” I replied gamely. “For instance, I can see that you are wearing a green sweater.”

My answer was followed by a brief silence before my friend informed me that the sweater she was wearing was blue, not green at all.

I know now that I do have problems telling the difference between blue and green, or black and brown, or grey and...well, you get the drift! Almost all muted colours are difficult. Perhaps that is why I like primary colours. I like to wear bright vivid colours myself. I also like it when Lyle wears a brightly coloured shirt or sweater so that I have a better chance of picking him out in a crowd.

In spite of all this, I did take Jo’s comment to heart and next time I went walking, I resolved to pay more attention to what I was seeing. As I walked down the river trail, I stopped to look more closely at my surroundings. Indeed, when I looked with greater care, I could see that there was a difference in the shades of green. I could see that there was a difference in the shades of the trees and the green of the grass. I could see that the evergreens were a dark, almost black green. The grass was brighter and in some places almost a lime green, while in other places a muted mossy green. Some of the green leaves on the ground were already tinged with yellow.  I tried walking the same trail at different times of day and noticed that sunlight or shadow also made a difference to what I was seeing.

So, many shades of green – perhaps not fifty, but so many shades that it would be difficult to count them all. My favourite of all the greens was the close up view I had of the milky green of some sage bushes. I like this spot on the trail particularly because of the scent of the sage in the late spring.  

 There is a picture with this post of the milky green of the sage.

Milky green coloured sage bush

 

June 30 - British Virgin Islands Part 3

This will be the final post about the British Virgin Islands. We stayed on Tortola for three weeks, so you might well imagine that I would have lots more to say, but I think that I will finish with these last few memories.

As I wrote before, our cabin had no radio, television or other means of entertainment. However, we were fortunate in that the cabin was almost next door to the local Baptist Church. At least two evenings a week, the Baptist youth group gathered there to practice for a planned musical tour on the US mainland. The singing was absolutely excellent and after supper, we would usually walk down to the church, sit on the fence outside and listen to a free concert.

On the last night before their tour, we listened as the choir master gave the group last minute instructions for their trip. We smiled to each other when we heard him tell the youngsters that they needed to bring packed lunches for the flight. This was twenty-five years ago when the airlines still catered meals to passengers. Looking back now, I see that this choir master was actually ahead of his time. These days we are lucky to get any sort of refreshment on flights.

Lyle and I were especially aware of this on our last trip back from Australia. In pre-COVID days, it was usual to get two full meals and drink service on the long flight across the Pacific. At the beginning of the virus spread in March when we travelled we were given a bottle of water which we were told to conserve as much as possible because there was a limited supply on board. The “meal” consisted of a sandwich, and cookie or square in a plastic take away container. We should have followed the choir master’s advice of 25 years ago and packed our own lunch!

In the Caribbean, storms aren’t unusual and during our stay we experienced one of some magnitude. In the late afternoon, we had watched as dark clouds began to gather and by nightfall, a tropical storm was in full force. The noise of the thunder was deafening and brilliant flashes of lightning lit up the sky. Even though it was dark otherwise, the lightning flashes were bright enough that we could see the ocean through the trees in the cemetery across the road. I have witnessed quite a few storms in my lifetime but I would venture to say that this was the most spectacular.

While the thunder and lightning took our breath away, it wasn’t until we were nearly ready for bed that the wind and rain took up their turn. As they did, we heard another sound – a big bang and a loud rattling noise on the roof. We were just starting to wonder about the sturdiness of our little cabin when we recognized the sound for what it was. Coconuts from the surrounding trees were being whipped off the tree tops and flung onto our tin roof. Bang, rattle, rattle and then a short silence until the next coconut made its perilous journey down the sloped rooftop.

The next morning we saw coconuts scattered all around the yard. Our son tried to crack some of these to get at the fruit inside but they were tough nuts to crack. Each coconut had an outer layer of fibrous husk and no matter how often Jonathan threw the fruit on the ground, it made no difference. Finally a fellow came by carrying his machete and he easily lopped the tops off for us.

I thought of this storm a couple of years ago when I heard on the news that a proper hurricane had passed through these same islands. When I think of the damage that just a tropical storm can do, I can barely imagine the damage and destruction that a hurricane would cause. Very, very sad for the people who lived through the violence and destruction of that hurricane.

Three weeks on Tortola was a great holiday for our family, but there were moments! Our little retreat was remote from busy civilization. This kind of holiday is not for everyone. We realized this one day when we looked outside to see our thirteen-year-old son sitting in the rented car, listening to a Spanish language station on the car radio and rereading for about the third time the three day old newspaper. Perhaps looking back, the experience might have been a lesson in how to cope with the isolation that the virus has now imposed on many of us. We are needing to find alternate activities to fill our days.

There is a picture with this post. Actually it is my favourite from our BVI holiday. The picture shows a vast spread of water and sky, but I see something more. There are four legs sticking up out of the shallow water. Our kids spent some time coordinating underwater handstands for this photo. They succeeded and the photo is my favourite because of the happy memory it evokes.

handstands in the ocean

June 23 - British Virgin Islands Part 2

Aha! You are back and hopefully ready to read more about our British Virgin Islands adventures. As you probably already know from previous posts, I like to travel. I like to see new places, meet new people, and have new experiences. I prefer to do this in person, but on occasion, I also like to indulge in armchair travel. This has the bonus of being convenient, inexpensive and in the present age – safe. So, as I indulge myself in reminiscing about an old trip to BVI, I hope that you will also enjoy some armchair travelling with me. I hope that my descriptions will help you see the things that I saw some twenty-five years ago.

 In my last post, I left off after our trip to Road Town. With the rental car, our range of travel extended exponentially. Along with the car, we acquired a basic map of Tortola and we set off to explore every corner of it. One memorable drive was out to Smugglers Cove. The road turned out to be what can only be described as a dusty track. We weren’t even 100% sure that we were on the right road, but as there wasn’t anywhere to turn around we just kept going. It was worth the trip when we emerged to a beautiful grassy treed area by the ocean. We had a lovely day playing on the sand and in the water. There was even a bar – can’t remember if it was open or closed, but parked beside it was one of Ernest Hemmingway’s old cars. What history!

I don’t remember the names of all the beaches we visited but mostly they were off the beaten track and mostly fairly isolated. At one beach a local fisherman called us over to see a barracuda swimming in the shallow waters. It was a very nasty looking fish with huge pointed teeth. We didn’t go swimming at that beach.

At another beach, we were very surprised to see a line of cows come wandering down the sand. We spoke with one of the two young men who were leading them. Apparently the beach was a short cut from one field to another and the cows made the trek each day to the greener pasture. We didn’t swim at that beach either.

One of our best days was a trip to Virgin Gorda. We took the inter-island ferry to this neighbouring island. Other tourists on the ferry planned to do an organized bus tour but we had opted for independent travel plans. I’m not sure just how we came up with our own plan but we did. We had arranged for a taxi to meet us when the ferry docked and we took off with our picnic lunch and snorkeling gear for a more secluded beach.

When the taxi driver dropped us off at the side of the road he promised to be back in time for us to catch the last ferry back to Tortola. We waved goodbye and then followed a little bush track at the end of which was the opening to a cave or grotto. This was what we were looking for.

Inside the cave there was a short stretch of sand and an area of shallow water to the back of the cave. We had been told that at the rear of the cave there was a hidden exit around the bend in the rock and if we followed this it would lead us to the ocean and then around to an adjacent beach.

I was a bit hesitant but Lyle and the kids were excited and were soon wading out to the hidden exit and whatever lay beyond it. When the three of them disappeared from sight, I gathered up our dry belongings and headed back through the bush to the beach. It seemed like forever before I saw them coming towards me from the waves. They were even more excited than before and encouraged me to swim the ocean loop back to the cave.

Although I’m a pretty decent swimmer, I’m not one for snorkeling. I don’t like the feel of the mouth piece. Anyway, I was talked into doing the trip in reverse. Jonathan and Jenny stayed on the beach and Lyle led me back into the water.

I am so glad that I got my nerve up to do this. The swim was amazing. I think that I have mentioned that my sight was already diminished, but the goggles seemed to magnify the brilliantly coloured fish and coral formations.  Lyle swam beside me to lead me back to the ocean entrance of the cave. It was fantastic. When we finally caught the ferry back to Tortola, while the other tourists were talking about the fish they had eaten for lunch, we were still filled with the remembrance of the fish and coral formations we had seen underwater.

 We had another chance to do some snorkeling when we took a sail boat around some of the smaller islands. Because of the cancellation of another family, we ended up being the only passengers on board and we had a gloriously relaxed day. The boat was crewed by the owner/captain, his friend and eight-year-old son. Around noon, the captain dropped anchor near a small, uninhabited island. He invited us to put on our snorkeling gear and explore while he prepared our lunch.

Once we climbed down the boat’s ladder, we found ourselves in the middle of a school of tiny silver fish. It was like swimming in a capsule. The fish would move out of our way as we stroked forward and then swarm in behind us again as we passed. In retrospect, it’s likely a good thing that there weren’t any larger predators – sharks or maybe barracudas around. Fortunately, I didn’t have this thought at the time and was just able to enjoy the underwater experience.

There are lots of little snippets that stand out in memory of this unique family holiday. I am enjoying remembering so if you are also interested in reading of my memories, I will share a couple more in my next post.

There is a picture with this post. The picture is a view of Cane Garden Bay on Tortola. This is the area where we had our cabin. The ocean was really as blue as it shows in the picture.

Cane Garden Bay on Tortola