Anakana Schofield

Came home to a beautiful bunch of flowers on my kitchen table.

The other evening when visiting friends on Saltspring we all, en masse, watched an instructional video on swimming. I was surprised at how captivating it was. The audience of all kinds of ages were impassioned with views on the content, on the science, on the fashion and more.  The night before we had watched a BBC Sherlock Holmes film (filmed I swiftly noted in Dublin) so perhaps were in the mind of investigating every detail.

The farm we stayed on had a long history. I was particularly captivated by an older out building which had at one time and for a long time housed the farm workers (Japanese workers and orphans from Victoria according to a history book chapter our hosts gave me). I clambered into its rickety and collapsing lookin structure to explore. There were two buildings in fact and both of them were curious. You could see the pantry arrangement and some remnants of the bunks. There was a big old geysir in the bathroom of one house and a lovely looking old Stanley style range. That house had been habitable up until 1986. It bought home to me how quickly dwellings dilapidate when there’s no one to live in them and upkeep them and give them a reason to stand up. Also the small spaces groups of workers inhabited and I wondered how at the end of a hot day of intense physical labour how they kept their heads about them in such close proximity to each other.

My post box investigation has proved fruitful. I’ve discovered the post boxes have not been removed entirely, rather they’ve been relocated and it’s a matter of locating the relocation.

There does not seem to be a pattern, sequence or hint at information, but eyes open and they soon alight on the post boxes.

I am so glad I raised the issue because I have noticed new post boxes! And had many interesting conversations.

I am visiting friends on a 100 year old farm on Saltspring Island

Today I learnt to build a wall, which I really enjoyed. I like the slapping down of the cement and the slanted turning of the trowel.

We swam in a lake where they released a blue heron earlier that day. The lake is on the farm essentially or on the edge of the farm.

The garden is wonderful. One day I hope to have a garden like this one where the vegetables grow in entire gangs rather than lonely twos and threes.

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