On Sunday my parents and I went to Salt Spring Isalnd to visit my mum’s cousin Pam, and her husband John. They have lived there for about 20 years now, and used to have a huge farm on a lake. Now they own a waste holding site, and recycling centre.

The ferry ride was nice and the weather was perfect all day. We used my parent’s sat nav system to find Pam’s house, and we we got there she was washing windows. We chatted for a minute, and I told her I was interested in rammed earth as a bulding style, and that I’d heard there was a school or something on the island. She said she didn’t know of a school, but that her friend up the road had bult the first rammed earth wall on the island, and that he does teach workshops from time to time. She lent me her scooter and I went for a little tour.

When I came back I convinced my dad to jump on the other scooter Pam had, and come for a ride with me. We explored for a bit then went back to meet John. He took my dad and I to tour the island, and showed us the farm property they used to own. Then we hit the beer store, and John introduced my dad to “road pops”. A Gulf Island tradition I’ve become quite familiar with.

When we returned I went for a tour of Pam’s garden which had a few things growing in it that I’ve never grown before. Eggplant is the only one I can think of right now. Maybe that’s because she fried some for dinner and added some cheese, and it was unreal. She also made really good potato salad and some sort of rice, then we had crepes for dessert.

After dinner we sat on the porch for a bit until John started to fall asleep, then we walked over to the recycling centre where Pam and John hooked me up with all kinds of good stuff for the trailer!

*My mum will probably be pissed about this photo, but I thought it was funny how the three of them are making silly faces.

Maybe this photo will make up for it. (Clark Cobra Family – 1)

And of course the sunset on the ferry ride back to Nanaimo was beautiful. I want to swim in the ocean during a sunset like this.