I’m eating fresh bread, from the local bakery/cafe/gelato/cheese/pastry/European deli in the Village. I’ve covered it in a layer of Island Farms butter and locally produced honey. Next, I’m going to go demolish another pint basket of Saanich peninsula strawberries. For lunch, there’s Mom’s squash and barley soup. For dinner, there’s going to be Saltspring island lamb.
Fortunately, I don’t gain weight here for the same reason I didn’t gain it in Paris. I’m out walking a lot when I’m home. Especially since our golden retriever, without the neighbor walking him, has become a little chunky. By which I mean fat. He looks more like a small, golden brown bear than a dog now, due to lack of neck and waist. I have a fat orange cat at home, and a fat golden retriever here. But at least I can take the dog out for exercise.
But it’s very good to be back home in the Northwest. I went for a walk last night, a little after eleven, and the sky was still dark blue, not black, to the north. And I could see stars to the south! To see a blue-black sky, not an orangey brown sky, at night, is simply wonderful. I was listening to Ulrich Schnauss and skipping for joy as I dragged the dog along the southern edge of the Island. Home, clean air, no traffic, no freeways, just the overspilling English gardens and narrow streets of Oak Bay. I always want to move back to Seattle after I visit the Northwest in the summer, because I’m not ready to leave the States, but I miss living in a part of the world that for five months a year, is as perfect as anything I can imagine.
I’m going to go eat my soup and vegetate for a while now. I admit, I miss my life in Los Angeles when I have to leave it – especially since there was a Sing-A-Long mass bike ride last night, and tonight is the debut of Malediction Society on Saturday night, and I wanted to go to that party. But I need the time on the Island every so often. I need to come home to the Northwest. And someday, I’ll move back to this part of the world for good, when I’m ready to leave the big city. That just won’t be anytime soon.
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