Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Salt Spring Fibre Festival 2005

The Flame, Melanie and myself headed out Thursday morning for Salt Spring Island, home of great food, great art and, as it turns out, great fibre. I love so many things about ferry travel - the views, the pace, the relaxation that occurs when your body knows you are on vacation. None of us had signed up for any classes as we had friends coming and going for the weekend and all of us wanted to enjoy as much time together as possible.

The indomitable Karen biked(!) from the ferry terminal and met up with us at the farm. You can imagine her delight, and ours as well, at a dinner of farm-fresh produce and fresh wild sockeye salmon.



After dinner, plans for exploring the Island were made, there was some knitting, some spinning and then it was off to bed for all of us.

The resident rooster turned out to be an afternoon-crower, so the natural alarm clock turned out to be the baa-ing of the sheep next door as they waited for their breakfast. Feeling a bit like sheep ourselves we puttered about the kitchen before pulling ourselves together and heading South down the Island in search of bread, cheese and any galleries we could manage to stop by. Our first stop turned out to be Mt. Maxwell Provincial Park - no food here, but Mother Nature sure provided us with a great art show.


Then, back down the gravel and dirt road we bumped and onwards to the Salt Spring Cheese Company (David Wood) and the Salt Spring Island Bread Co. (aka Heather the Bread Lady). I was delighted to find some hard cheeses that are not generally available in Vancouver and the lunch plan of bread, olives and cheese was born. A quick stop at the Willow Web made me realise that basket weaving has entered the computer age.

The ferry pick-up team misjudged the time to the ferry terminal which meant that a detour could be taken to Ulrieke Benner's studio. A worthwhile detour as I couldn't leave without some of her work. Back at the farm, Kim and Holly had arrived just in time for lunch nibbles and a brief meeting with Karen. Karen deserted us for travelling plans out East in Toronto and Montreal, but I'll bet she'd gone with us on our afternoon drive to St. Mary Lake Alpacas.

A 13 day old cria, sigh...

We're sure it's dinner time...

The rest of the weekend passed in a fibre-enduced haze but highlights include the sheep magnets the Flame picked up for the group, wandering the Saturday Market with my friend Georgina and the fibre-shopping. No fibre-flashing here though.

And our final view as we sailed away on Sunday night. I'm ready to go back already. Anyone want to join us next year?

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, for goodness sake...what a beautiful place. That looks like the perfect vacation spot for a fibery foodie, Miss Angela. It looks mighty mighty tempting, indeed. What gorgeous weather you had!

Now, I must say that it is wonderful to see your blog. It will go right on my list. :o)

4:03 PM  
Blogger Sam said...

Oh, fine - just rub it in. ;-) Honestly, that looks beautiful, and I'm really sorry that I couldn't make it this year. But, there's always next!

Sam

4:06 PM  
Blogger Kim said...

Yeah - nothing like traveling with potential felons. I really don't think the two of you should be left alone near alpacas of a certain age.... The "really nice fleece" in the trash was one big highlight of the weekend, too....hee hee

4:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

with any luck in the planning department, i'd love to go! btw, me and a bunch of knitting buddies are planning on a Vancouver bc trip the 2nd weekend in sept. going to be around?

7:29 PM  
Blogger CatonsvilleCats said...

Aw cute little guy! You don't think you could convince anyone he was a dog??

5:16 AM  

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