We had our last weekend out on the boat this weekend – a trip to Angler’s Anchorage Marina in Brentwood Bay. We got there on Friday afternoon with weather warm enough to encourage us into our shorts. And to just unwind and relax on the boat (one of us might have had a nap in the cabin as well!). We strolled round to the Arbutus Room at Brentwood Bay Resort for dinner and a glimpse of normality in these strange times. It’s funny how quickly showing a proof of vaccination just becomes part of the routine.
Saturday was another lovely day for some thrift storing, a boat ride with a friend and lunch with Emma’s parents. Finally we headed home, pumped out the holding tank – one of the joys of boating – and then I went to grab the truck and trailer. My tenacious old workhorse once again went above and beyond to haul us all home.
Now the boat (we really must think of a name) is on our ‘upper’ driveway. There are still a few things to do to get it ready for a winter. Taking off things that will get damp. Dismantling the canvas and putting the storage cover on. Draining and winterizing things that might freeze. But for us, boating season is over for this year. There might be a few nice days left to be had in October, but amazingly our weekends are full from now to November – maybe another sign of some kind of normal.
Today it’s raining so it feels appropriate to be putting the boat away for the winter. It marks the change in the seasons and I like that. I like living somewhere where the seasons change, each with its own character, each with a change in our own habits and preferences. It’s almost time to cozy up, slow down for the winter, and practice some hygge (we also both just read A Year of Living Danishly!). So I don’t mind the rain – it’s been so very dry here rain is a welcome relief from dust and drought.
And it makes me think about how amazing the rain is – this natural phenomenon that we take for granted. It nourishes our land and ourselves. Without it I imagine our planet as oceans with blobs of dead dry desert where there is land, the only life in the seas, if there was any life at all. But instead the rain gives us trees and grass, lakes and food, rivers and fish. And beyond that it puts snow on top of high mountains, creates glaciers and fills up the lakes that spill over into rivers that erode their way down mountains, through valleys and back to the sea. In so many ways the rain creates our world around us, and for that I thank it.
So as I sit here writing, with the woodstove dying down to embers after taking the morning chill off the house, I embrace the rain, the changing of the seasons. I feel no need to flee further south to find more sun. This is my place, these are my seasons and I am ready to enjoy this one. Especially with the first hints of anticipation for getting the boat ready again next spring, ready for more adventures to see other stunningly beautiful elements of the place I call home.
