Christmas Newsletter 2009

Brackendale, near Squamish, on a cold and crisp January day, is a place to bring in the new year and to see eagles. Did you know that bald used to mean white and that is why they are called bald eagles? In December, salmon nearing the end, head up the Squamish River where they attract eagles by the hundreds if not thousands. Just the place to start the year.

On March 4th we got to celebrate Carolyn’s 60th! Yikes!! Lisa and Glenn had to leave early, as Lisa had school work to get back to, so we left Carolyn with her good friends Marie and Priscilla to party into the night.

Vancouver Film School is where Lisa spent long hours as she worked to complete the Digital Design program. Lisa, along with Aaron who hails from Italy, Toru from Japan, and Hendy from Indonesia accepting an award for their Vancouver Film Project, ‘Iran a Nation of Bloggers’. If you have not seen it check it out by clicking here. Later in the year Lisa would travel to the Berlin Film Festival where this video project was nominated in two categories for awards.

Where else but in the trees can one find peace and serenity! Carolyn continues to pursue her passion of climbing trees. The only thing that brings her greater joy is introducing tree climbing, and other elements of the natural world, to others. Whether teaching fellow students from the Wildneress school, or friends and family who have a spirit of adventure.

Family picnic in Anacortes. Jeff’s girlfriend Lucie and Jeff’s grandmother, who turns 83 in January, get acquainted on a summer day at Washington Park.

It is mid August and Jeff and Lucie are dropped off at the Vancouver Airport as they set off for more travel adventures. They are headed for France to go WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) which allows them to work in exchange for their room and board. They had hoped to have an extended stay, but Europe has a 90 day limit for visits, so Jeff decided to head for England just before his visa expired in mid November. However the authorities had other ideas and with justifiable suspician that Jeff might be looking to work, he was detained at the airport and put on a plane back to France the next morning. Then with only a few day remaining that he could be in France he grabbed a flight to Belgrade. Unable to stay in Serbia for very long, he had to quickly come up with new travel plans. He set his sights east, and after a visit to the Indian consulate he had a six month visa in his pocket. The next day he was on his way to Istanbul to catch a flight to Dubai and then on to Chennai, India. Here is an extract from a recent email:

Everything is going great in Auroville. It’s not really Auroville, it’s actually a place called Sadhana Forest. It’s a reforestation project. It’s a lot of fun. There’s around 100 people living there now. You can check out the website at www.sadhanaforest.org. I’m thinking I may stay a few months. We wake up early Monday – Friday. 6:00am. We then work from 6:30 til 8:45am, followed by breakfast. That work is usually the reforestation work. During breakfast we then choose second work which is usually something more for the community. So cooking lunch or dinner, cleanup, gardening, cleaning toilets (I haven’t picked that one yet), and many other options. That lasts until about 12:00pm. Next is lunch and then after that, unless you signed up for a chore after lunch which is rare, you have the rest of the day free. or until six for dinner. It’s amazing. We go swimming in the mud hole, or just relax, or take a scooter to one of the nearby villages and drink chai. People have been digging a ditch to build the new dormitories that are going up, and lately I’ve been walking along the ditch rescuing all the things that fall in. Its a lot of fun. I’ve rescued three snakes, one very large lizard, and countless frogs, though there’s still millions more frogs in there. The food is decent. It’s a vegan diet and they follow the ayurvedic belief that spicy food spawns tempers so the food is usually somewhat bland. So probably over half the people have their own stash of peanut butter and bread, or something vegan, and most people go out fairly often to get the food they need. Usually I’m fine, but sometimes I just really want to feel full. The volunteers are mostly Israeli, French or American. There are three other Canadians, including one from North Vancouver. But of course many nationalities are represented.

One of the great thing about Vancouver in August and September is the thermal wind in Squamish. Lisa and Glenn getting ready for another windy day in the glacial cold Squamish river at the ‘Spit’

And here Lisa is having a great run at Squamish. Earlier in the year she took lessons as part of a graduation present for her hard work at Vancouver Film School. In the summer we took a family camping trip to Nitinaht Lake which is an amazing kitesurfing spot on Vancouver Island. You camp along the lake in your tent with few amenities in the midst of a rugged BC forest setting. Carolyn loved the abundance of trees, so while Carolyn challenged the trees by doing the things she loved, like free climbing (no gear, no fear), up a 50′ cedar. Lisa took some kitesurfing lessons and as you can see by the smile on her face the lessons went well.

September is also for weddings and we enjoyed getting together with everyone in the historic (founded in 1797) city of San Juan Bautista which is located just east of Monterey, California. My nephew, Erik, took the big step as we welcomed Melissa into our family. It was a classic wedding and a lot of fun to see family together. The setting was old California and an interesting side note was that at the edge of town you could look out at a very flat farm valley which appeared to be separated from the town by a distinct change in geography. A nearby sign confirmed the reason. The San Andreas fault line.

September is for birthdays and here we help Carolyn’s nephew Evan celebrate turning 30 by seeing how many laws we could break, without getting arrested, as we pedaled around Portland Oregon on bikes following the clues. We competed with friends and family in the ‘Le Tour De Swanny’ which is a fancy name for a scavenge hunt. This photo shows Evan drinking in the parking lot of a convenience store. Management promptly threw us off the property threatening to call the police. Evan took it all in stride as it brought back memories of his youth.

In October Lisa headed off to Berlin for the film festival and to spend some time visiting family. The ‘Iran Bloggers’ was nominated in two categories but did not win (obviously rigged judging). However, Lisa made the most of it as she immersed herself in the culture of Berlin. Lisa had arranged to sublet an apartment near where the Berlin wall once stood, which she was able to use as a base for her explorations. She also had a bicycle at her disposal and felt very much like a local as she cycled around town. After a month in Berlin, Lisa caught up with family as she visited Glenn’s aunt in Birkenfeld, a small town in south west Germany. From there she flew to Modena, Italy to visit cousin Daniela and her husband Pier Luigi. Taking the train to Rome she had a unique, but quick tour with cousin Jacopo Benci who is very involved in the art scene in Rome. They had lots to talk about and later the same day Lisa hopped on a boat to Barcelona where she spent the last week before heading back to Vancouver on December 14th.

Maui in November was almost too nice. It is so warm and pleasant, it just does not seem fair to anyone freezing back in Vancouver. We were there for 10 days and Glenn did take one day off from kiteboarding to go sightseeing with Carolyn. What a great guy! Of course this is how Glenn chose to celebrate his 60th birthday. Yikes 60!
So Carolyn went off to the big island by herself to take in some Hawai’ian scenery besides kitebeach. She took this photo of Halemaumau which is part of the volcano on Kilauea which is on the big island.

Here is a sand sculpture photo Carolyn took while at the Pacific Sands in Tofino celebrating our 33rd aniversary. 33 years! Again…yikes!

Sometimes in the ocean, sometimes in the woods, often on the road, you can see our family stays on the move! This past year has had many special moments, a year filled with travel, family, friends and great appreciation for this world we live in. Lisa and Jeff seem to have been bitten by the same travel bug that nipped their parents ever since they met on a barkentine in Mazatlan. The year was 1973 and the travels together were just beginning.

We still thrive on new horizons and it seems whatever drove us back then has been passed on to the next generation. We are left wondering what the future holds as we see our family going in different directions. But it is mostly geography. We may not be in the same city or even the same continent but we are all together in spirit. That is what makes this time of year so special!