Walking on the beach last Sunday with F, we came across a pirate as the sun turned away and made all the beached arbutus burn as if on fire.

I am very good at making to do lists. Sometimes I even write items on my to do list that I have already done, just so I can cross them off (I know I’m not the only one). Last week I got home from a particularly long week away. Work, appointments and other obligations had me in the city until Wednesday. When I got home, I was so happy to see my desk at the window, so I sat and looked out the window and made a list. #1: figure out life; #2: finish application to Banff Writing Studio. Lately I have felt this pull of paid work and volunteer obligations become so heavy I feel I can’t breathe. I need to get back to writing and the manuscript. My #2 related to my #1, so I finished the Banff application, (fingers crossed!) and got back to working on an improved plan for paid work that will allow me to focus on the manuscript.

Suddenly it is fall on the coast. In mid-september I went from sandals in the sunshine to dew on my bare ankles. Now I am wearing wool and gore-tex. I never thought i’d make it this far. October and I am still in my little apartment overlooking the sea. The leaves are turning everywhere and it is brilliant. Last week, F and I went to see if there were any salmon in Angus creek, near Porpoise Bay in Sechelt. (A lot like the salmon, we returned to the spot we met). However, there were no salmon in the creek, and very little water in the stream.

I have also returned my mother’s gift to me: use of her car for the summer. I have lived for almost 10 years without a car in Vancouver and Toronto, but in a small town, I know it is different but I am up for the challenge and will post my thoughts about it over the next few months.

After a weekend at the Vancouver Film Fest, I arrived back to find a new window installed. Along with my new window and new season that arrived over the weekend, there are other new things in my work-writing life: macbook, music (Iron & Wine), and a writing plan (real deadlines).

On Thursday last week, I took a mixed media class, taught by Arleigh Wood to see if i could inspire my writing. It made me think in textures and layers, which is much like my writing. I layered a photograph with washers, protractor and then scratched engineering equations into the wax. Producing a new piece of writing wasn’t the goal, it was to be creative in another genre again, something I need to fuel my writing. Now some friends and I are planning our own encaustic workshop November 17th in Danielle’s garage. If you have an old electric griddle, let me know! Oh, and if you haven’t been to the Eastside Culture Crawl (Vancouver), mark November 16,17,18 and be sure to check out Arleigh’s studio.

My old/new friend Colin asked me a while ago, “what is it like to live in Gibsons?” Then he answered his own question with, “I guess we were all there on Sunday nights right?” The answer is yes and no. Gibsons are very community-minded and friendly but I rarely see a lot of work happening on the water. The odd fishing boat goes by, but it is mostly sailboats and powerboats. So today, I was more than a little excited to see a real live beachcomber! Complete with a boat like Relic’s, he pulled up in front of the house , hooked the log on the beach with ease and gunned the engine! It made my heart sing.

On Saturday (22nd), F and I went to the New Moon Festival, a relatively new event to celebrate Asian arts and culture. Only $5 to enjoy Sawagi Taiko drumming (the first all-women’s taiko drumming group in Canada), Japanese textile dyeing by Yuki Blackwell, A mini-concert by Alcvin who plays the koten honkyoku (original zen pieces for shakuchachi) a lantern festival and the best shadow puppet show I’ve ever seen by Mind of a Snail Puppet Co.

In between the kotan music and the drumming, we walked to Mike’s Place to get gelato (mint chocolate for me, black forest for F) and watched the pre-teen boys and girls skateboard and roll down the big grassy hill behind the library. We both smiled at the pure joy of just being a kid!

With all this summer weather in September, I decided to ride my bike to the beach and write for a few hours. Instead, I should have brought the book I am reading: Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood by bell hooks. It was just that kind of writing day; the kind where I should be reading instead of writing. Sometimes, when I am stuck in my writing (and I have to admit I am at the moment) it is always best to go back to reading what is in your genre and what speaks to you. Sometimes this reading can cause further despair, more questions of “What was I thinking? I can’t do this!” But for me, it often spurs valuable thinking time and a resettling of what I am trying to achieve.

While I tried to write and very little sputtered out of my pen, I kept looking up at what was hanging on the tree. A child’s hat? No, it was a bikini top. Size Large. I smiled at the story it presented: a late-night skinny dip full of passion and fire that the top was lost once it’s owner was back on the dark shore.

“Welcome to summer!” an elderly woman said to me as I walked home at 1:00 pm along the road from the ferry.

Indeed, I thought to myself. Such gratitude that I don’t have to be at an office on a day like today.

F and I kayaked all around my neighborhood this past weekend. Saw seal pups in Paisley Islands, and teenage campers on Keats Island, and we met the nice couple from Calgary who left city life for an opportunity to own a piece of land on Gambier Island and run the general store.

Exodus all around me.