quite a busy weekend
"The weather continues to be below freezing" , she said as a true Brit who put the forecast above all other topics. Yesterday was a bit of a challenge but I won the day. This was the event of Valentine's weekend at the local farm and sauna. They were promoting wood fired pizza and that was a must. I have not had pizza of any kind since Pizza Luca in Staunton and so the 30 minute walk through the woods was a definate. yes.
with my red, "fur"lined gardening boots to deal with all the muddy trails I would encounter was a sensible plan. The farm was further along the road that i have walked several times but I made it up the slushy dirt lane, past all the parked cars until I got to where the gift shop, the pizza tent and the crepe food truck were parked. Here was the field of lavender, all mounded and rounded ready for spring growth from which many products are made here,. The large barn was presenting various locally made products from leather bags to jewellery and even bamboo socks. I purchased hot apple cider using my entrance coupon to pay to it. The pizza production line under an awning was a well oiled machine based on good practice and a pleasing rapport with patrons. I got a custom-made version made to my order that removed the pepperoni and replaced it with pineapple. The apple cider, pizza and people watching was a lazy way to wile away the afternoon until it started spit with rain so i gathered myself with 1/2 a pizza folded into my back pack and started to walk home . (I checked to see it there might be a bus due but that was a 77minute wait). The walk was not bad until the small bits of sleet morphed into snow at which point the umbrella was put to work and the walk felt longer than usual .
Home and wet, the kettle was a welcome sound as it came to the boil and the tea brewed .
And then we move to day- Sunday Feb 10. At noon Wendy from Art Pod came and collected me and drove me to downtown Victoria . This was my second visit to the capital of British Columbia and today was also Chinese New Year; Wendy gave me directions before going to her art class. Shortly after i found myself in a street with a ton or loud drums, and clanging of cymbals doing some kind of dragon event at the door of a bakery. It seems that the dragon was maybe blessing the bakery and the youths playing the dragon seemed somewhat engaged in the project but i was not convinced. After they left and a man was busily sweeping up the remains of a lettuce that the dragon had ceremoniusly thrown down i could tell this was my kind of coffee and sandwich shop, with or without temporary smokey mist inside . The roast chicken and avocado sandwich was perfect and the single shot coffee was a dream that i did not need to change. The Deer &Dough was a true pleasure to find and i sat for almost an hour just enjoying the pleasure of being in a comfortable welcoming place that felt as though the purpose of its business was to provide just that. I even made a quick sketch, that was not good but it was good enough for me to be pleased to have it as a reminder of being there.
As i wondered with no particular objective i found a shopping centre of sorts and that took me to Shaan
from Hyderabad . He replaced the battery in my phone, While he worked snd i waited because there was nowhere to go without my repaired phone , we talked about his journey form India to this place just a few months ago , his good English, and that he likes Victoria better than Toronto. He offered me his chair to sit while he worked and declared that now i was his boss!! checking on his work. I was trying to imagine the courage required to cross such huge cultural barriers as he had done while all I was doing was walking into different places.
Phone fixed with new battery ,I met up with Wendy and drove home because just i handed my phone to be fixed, i noticed a new text from Jane the neighbour. She invited me to join her and Keith with other friends of my hosts for a "NOT SUPER BOWL" tacos dinner. So Wendy, who is so very kind , dropped me off at the house, I dropped my shopping and walked down the road for dinner. Such a lovely evening with such a great group of people, including a 15 year boy who is as nice as pie. I learned a bit more about Canada and we managed to only briefly refer to th horror of USA politics.
Laura, Sean and Issac offer to drive me home because its very cold and there is a wolf in the neighbourhood !!!
This is so long i may give you a week long break!!!
Sunday There is a dragon in there somewhere 
Really nice entry- it’s almost like I’m there! Lovely photo of the lavender too.
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