We have experienced some pretty dramatic weather conditions in the last 6 or so months.  From drought in the summer to Atmospheric Rivers bringing record rainfalls in November.  I will admit, enduring pounding rain for 36 hours was a first for me, but we do not live near a river or in a flood plain, so we are nice and dry.  On the Island we have fared far better than those on the lower mainland.  We had some flooded roads that prompted temporary closures.  And while there is still some remediation work being done, and there are some shortages in the stores, life is pretty much normal.   Our Amazon and other deliveries seem to be waylaid, but that is a first world problem.  We are concerned, however, since there is more rain (2 more Atmospheric Rivers) forecasted for the next couple of days and we can only hope that even with the saturated ground, enough precautions have been taken to prevent further misery for those who have suffered already.   

So we have gone back to the practice of maximizing the “in-betweens”.  When we see a break in the weather, we figure out something to do outside, and we have  had several great outings over the last week.

Last Saturday, even though it was not bright blue skies, it was not raining, so we did a lovely paddle from Ladysmith to Elliott Beach.  The clouds are always interesting to look at and the lack of wind made it a relaxing paddle.  On the way back we got to get up close to a log boom that was being towed in.  From our house a log boom always looks to be ‘organized’ but in reality it’s just a massive jumble of large logs, topped by hordes of seagulls taking a free ride.  

On Tuesday we had a bluebird day with lots of sunshine so we climbed Mt Tzhouhalem and enjoyed lunch on the rocks, soaking up the sun and enjoying the views of Cowichan Bay and the valley.  Such a great hike made special by having friends and family with us.

And today we woke up to heavy fog obliterating our view, but we could see clear blue skies above, so we headed back out on the water since there was also no wind.  We decided to launch later in the morning, hoping that the fog would burn off.  Even as we were getting ready, the fog patches would roll in and out so we were curious what we would find as we paddled.  We started in pretty dense fog, and had to make sure we didn’t run into the ferry out of Chemainus (we didn’t).  Then the fog did lift and we had some interesting clouds and mirror-smooth water.  But it was temporal and always changing.  A highlight was being surrounded by 40-50 seals that were happy to come and say hi to us as they fished for lunch.  We have never seen so many seals in one place.  It was a highlight.  After lunch any vistages of blue sky were replaced by heavier clouds and some wind.  We did have some chop and wind on the way back but nothing too difficult.  Overall, the day was quite magical with the different moods, cloud shapes, mountains that peaked in and out, seals and just plan feeling good to be on the water.  

We store these ‘in-betweens’ in our memories as we get ready for several more days of rain and storms.  It keeps us going until the next break in the weather when we can enjoy being outside again.