Category: Uncategorized

January 7th–11th

The first week back at school after the Christmas break was intense with full on teaching and returning to life in snowy winter conditions. Although the snow and ice covered the grounds and required shoveling (again!), the days were often sunny and winter recreational sports were calling my name! It was exciting to see the days lengthening after the winter solstice . I was so excited to arrive and depart from my schools in some light (instead of dawn/dusk or darkness). Students were all getting measured for the correct sizes in both snowshoes and x country skis! School newsletters home included information about the evolution of my 2 libraries into Learning Commons and my photo was sent home to parents 🙂

Students enjoyed creating snow forts and sliding down the slopes at both schools. Decker has 4 snow shovels that children enjoy using in the mornings to clear the stairs and sidewalks. One morning while working in the Learning Commons I heard this strange scraping sound outside my windows. Of course, I had to find the answer to this mystery.

A miniature tracker like vehicle with a front scoop was zooming around scrapping snow and then expelling the snow (like a snow blower) over the edge of the garden area.  It was fascinating and I was entranced! With low temperatures, new powder, and a weekend by myself…It was time to step out and explore more adventures in this area. Check out the next blog post!

January 6th and 7th, 2019

The plan was to drive back up north together in our truck (with studded tires), and explore winter recreation during my final 2 months and 9 days of this District Teacher-Librarian/Learning Commons Specialist position in Burns Lake. However, due to all the storm damage on our home and property, plans changed.

The flight from Nanaimo to Vancouver was uneventful. While waiting in the Vancouver airport, though, I was fascinated by the FN sculptures covered in plastic. I had to investigate. Believe it or not….there is a crow in the terminal which is roosting and leaving excrement on artwork! The airport has accepted and embraced the crow, but covered artwork with plastic!

As we all sat waiting for the next flight the crow’s incessant cawing was incredibly irritating. Personally, I hope he finds the exit door before my next trip!

A fellow teacher working in Burns Lake also was returning north from the Nanaimo area. Thankfully, My brother was there to meet us when we arrived in Prince George. We had returned back north to the snow, dig out your car, engine heaters, pre-heat your vehicles, shovel driveways, wear ice cleats, gloves, toques, type of winter!

It was an exceptionally slow drive back to Burns Lake as there was fog in addition to ice and snow. When we returned, Brat (the cat I am house sitting) was anxiously waiting for my arrival. Once I had emptied my bags, Brat jumped in and wouldn’t get out for hours! lol

 

December 30th and Jan 3rd, 2019

December 30th, 2018. The sun is shining. There is NO snow. There is a brisk wind by the ocean. We must be on Vancouver Island! Let’s go explore the trails beside our glorious ocean! We drove to one of our favorite spots in Nanaimo–Piper’s lagoon!

Apparently, quite a few people had the same idea. There were even 2 guys in wetsuits who were kite-boarding in the brisk wind. I vicariously felt chilled each time they dipped into the chilly waters! Brrr! But it was certainly entertaining. I must admit, the snow piles of Burns Lake were melting away in my mind as I explored the rocks with my husband on Dec. 30th in Nanaimo.

On January 3rd we set out to visit friends in Lake Cowichan, normally about 50 minutes south of Nanaimo. However, due to high winds and torrential rains, the detour and reduced speeds, resulted in a slow trip and memories of Vancouver Island winter weather came “flooding” back!

However, when we eventually arrived we had a lovely visit. Their property is on a riparian zone and is about double the size when the waters subside. It is a fascinating river area supporting much plant and bird habitat.

On the return trip we stopped in to explore Ladysmith park by the water.

It’s lovely! As we approached Nanaimo the sun returned and we were blessed with some brilliant rainbows!

Late December 2018

Based on the previous blog post, you now understand why I am late posting this. But I’ll work hard to catch up again 🙂 Leaving all the snow, -19 degree temperatures, and definite winter conditions of Burns Lake and Prince George to arrive to rain and wind storms of Vancouver Island was initially a bit of a shock. But we settled into stopping leaks, piling branches and preparing for Christmas.

Mom arrived on the bus from Port Hardy the day after we returned to Nanaimo. It was a lovely reunion for us all. We even saw Port Hardy friends and ex students when we went out for dinner one night.

Christmas day was quiet with only 3 of us this year.

After Christmas we enjoyed visiting friends–from Assisted Living situations to celebrations of tiny new babies.

Joy is connecting! Congrats to one of my young colleagues, Amanda. Leif is so handsome and cuddly!

When the rains ceased…It was so lovely to explore the trails and spend much needed time with mom and then alone with my hubby, by the ocean, once again. I always miss my son (in Thailand),  my brother (in Prince George), nieces and nephews all over in Ontario, and cousins and family all in Australia! Mark’s family is also in the lower mainland and throughout Alberta. It’s a time of the year when it sure hits home that our loved ones are all around the globe. Happy holidays and Happy New Year 2019 with love to you all!

January 2019

Before I ever heard of Tiger Woods…the only famous athlete I knew named “Tiger” was my Uncle Harold in Tasmania! He was a sports icon down under (under) in Tasmania for Cycling and Aussie Rules Footie…I haven’t been able to write this blog post for a month…I’m ready now.

My Uncle Harold brought smiles, love and laughter to so many. He always made us feel important and he cherished family. He listened, loved, played hard, and worked even harder. His expectations were extremely high….but we all worked so hard to meet them and make him proud. 🙂

He adored footie and was so proud of his son and grandsons who excelled in this sport. He also loved golf (ironically!). Uncle Harold was mom’s only sibling (and younger brother). She phoned and connected with him regularly. They always had a special, loving kinship. We even traveled over to Tasmania to surprise him on his 80th birthday on Halloween, 2017. I’ll never forget his reaction when he saw mom in the elevator that night!

As an uncle….Tiger couldn’t be beat! He made me laugh and always made me feel important to him. He was warm, welcoming, and always an imp! Never a dull moment with Harold.

This Christmas was quiet (just my husband, mom and I) and challenging as mom lost her only brother, and I lost my last remaining (and oh so special uncle), on Dec. 21st, 2018.  Uncle Harold, or Tiger Dowling, as he was known in the Australian Sports circles–particularly in Tasmania–sadly lost his battle with cancer. RIP Uncle Harold…You will be deeply missed… but your sparkling eyes, quick smile and wit, and heavy punch in the arm accompanied by “little matie” will always be near and dear to my heart.

Love you Uncle Harold forever and always xoxo

Bonding and connecting is crucially important to me in life…it really is the blood that pulses through my veins.

 

 

December 22nd, 2018

It’s been nearly 4 months since I was last at home in Nanaimo and I was really looking forward to relaxing and spending time with Mark and mom. Burns Lake is over a 1,000 km away and we were exhausted after the long trip home. (Although Mark was pretty pumped sitting in the front with the pilot on the final flight over to Vancouver Island).

What what we discovered when the taxi pulled into our driveway was shocking! We had heard of the Hurricane force winds that hit Nanaimo 2 days before we arrived home, but we were lucky…we had power! However, as the insurance appraiser stated when he arrived…”Catastrophic!”

Well…Actually we were grateful that we did not sustain even more damage and we were still able to stay in our house after Mark temporarily plugged the roof holes in the house and the cabana. Our property is surrounded by many very tall evergreens on adjacent properties. One large branch speared through the roof until it hit a 2×4. It’s still stuck in there! Our 130 foot trees were still standing. Mark’s truck hood was dented, but still ran fine. Massive tree branches and broken brush could be hauled out and removed. However, our plans for January and February were changed completely now.  Ah well….2 days until Christmas. There was much to be done. We started immediately!

December 21st, 2018

The last day of school prior to Christmas break was Friday, December 21st–Also known as winter solstice! The temperature on the shortest day of the year was brisk… -19.5 degrees Celsius, but beautiful! I started out on morning duty at 8:05 a.m. with many students trying to come inside while administration reminded them “No. It’s not below -20 degrees. The final day was lovely, students were reading, making crafts and lounging as it was p.j. day at school.

After school I rushed to my “home base”, parked my vw, then Mark and I pulled our cases along the icy sidewalks to the Chevron gas station which doubles as the local “bus depot”.  The roads were really slippery and the bus driver left early!

After a quick visit with my brother in PG, we flew the remaining distance home the following day.

The first flight from PG to YVR (Vancouver) was full. The second flight was a small Harbour Air plane and Mark got to sit up front as co pilot! 🙂 as we flew over the water to Vancouver Island.

When we finally arrived in Nanaimo, we were in for quite a shock!

Mid December 2018

Short days, long nights, frozen lakes, and lots of snow! It must be December in most of Canada! However, being a Vancouver Island gal this is a new experience for me!

My hands and face are drier than I’ve ever experienced and my fingers keep splitting around the nails. But the low temperatures are quite tolerable, which surprises me;  as the damp cold from the coast (with added wind factor) often chills my bones more than this crisp cold–so far!  I keep being told it is a mild winter so far, so my opinions may well change in the coming months.

Meanwhile, I have purchased an annual membership to the Omineca cross country ski club; and ice fishing and snow shoeing with friends are on my bucket list. The bears are hibernating, the moose population is low this year, and there are NO MOSQUITOES! Wahoo!

 

December 2018

I haven’t added blog posts for a few weeks due to a number of reasons…But I am now ready to return to my computer keyboard and photo collection. There is much to share on this adventure of life!

This blog post is about the beauty of the first big snow fall to hit Burns Lake area.

Around the winter solstice (December 21st) the days grew so short that morning duty occurred in the dark! My duty starts at 8:05 a.m. so I had the opportunity to watch as the sun rose and shared its spectrum of beautiful color and soft hues and enhanced the sparkle on the snow flakes and snow banks around me.  Students are not permitted to go inside the school buildings here unless the temperature (at the bus shop) reaches -20 Celsius or lower. We reached -19.5 degrees one morning….but apparently it was not low enough in sd91!

One school has about 6 snow shovels which are really popular with some of the energetic students as they help clear sidewalks and areas around the school grounds. I am learning about different types of materials to melt snow. Lava rock type material is really popular at one school.

Snowballs are not permitted, but snow people and snow forts are popular structures in our fields.

I have plugged in my vehicle at the house a few times when temperatures drop below -15, but I haven’t used the vehicle heater plug ins in the parking lots at school yet. I find that many staff depart earlier up here. I think it is partly due to the early darkness. When it gets dark about 4:00 p.m. it’s not much fun walking home on slippery streets that are narrow and not well lit! However, others dash off to go skating on the frozen lakes or enjoy outdoor activities before we lose the light. It’s great to see so much enthusiasm and involvement in outdoor activity up here. I have added several outdoor activities on my bucket list during my time teaching up in the Burns Lake area.

December 20th, 2018

Another first for me was attending Christmas concerts in the afternoon. Both schools in Burns Lake held their Christmas concerts at 1:00 p.m. and the gyms were packed with very appreciative parents and families.  Today was Decker Elementary’s concert. Wow!

Original songs were written by students in partnership with local musician Rachelle van Zanten. In the grade 1/2 class one young student played the violin while others accompanied on xylophones and FN drums. There was variety from poetry to original and classic songs, from candle lit Hallelujah to Dancing with the Stars type variety show checking talent at the North Pole. It was fun and entertaining. You could feel that Christmas was approaching quickly–especially when the following day was P.J. day at school!