Powell River cabin

This is the Powell River, BC cabin we are housesitting thanks to friend and photographer, Ron Smid (http://www.ronsmid.com/).
It is the perfect writers' retreat, at the far end of road 20 minutes outside town and situated on 12 acres with a meadow and a bear who likes to play there, shaking trees not yet ready for fruit. Behind the meadow is old-growth forest shooting impossibly high into the sky.

In the morning, the dogs and I like to sit on the porch - me with my coffee or tea, the house copy of The Artists' Way and my morning pages.

 As you can see Wolfie and Owl enjoy the freedom of our new locale and there are plenty of oceanside beaches and backwoods trails to explore. On the weekend we drove up the Goat's Mountain Lake hookup to take a swim at one of the Powell River canoe portage points. It was bit harry on the way back as the normally single lane logging road was temporarily used for both lanes, with the Stillwater road that circles back to town blocked off. Picture clouds of dust coming at you fast around a corner and only revealing a car with living beings in it at the last second. It was an adventure and we'll get ourselves a backcountry map and be back to check out more of the 32 nearby lakes.

I'm working on getting Wifi in the cabin via a Telus stick, but as luck would have it, they didn't have any in stock at the "town centre" and had to order one in for me. It may come up by boat later today, or tomorrow. Powell River is accessible only by ferry, we came across via Comox but it is indeed part of the Sunshine Coast - there has been sun for all or part of almost every day we have been here so far. (The Sunshine Coast is on the mainland north of Vancouver. For more info on where we are check out www.discoverpowellriver.com)

We hope to go exploring the coast by heading north to Lund, a fishing village only an hour away. We can also take a ferry hop south to Sechelt, where the annual writers festival is held, and Gibsons, famous as the home of the Beachcombers.

I've been to Gibsons to eat at Molly's Reach almost two years ago now - great seafood and oversized baskets of fries.
btw my friends at writerswest put me on to the best local place for coffee and WiFi in Powell River- Breakwater Books downtown at the corner of Alberni and Marine Drive. From the window where I'm writing this post I can see Willingdon Beach, quieter now during the week and with the carnival rides taken down to reveal wide stretches of shoreside sand. I'm feeling about as relaxed as Owl, camped out on the air mattress below, after my great swim at the local complex. Now that Owl's back is on the mend - she's swimming again, running in short bursts and has a lot more stamina and just general frisky Owly-ness, I can begin healing the damage to my back from our car accident last winter. And I can sit on the cabin porch and just breathe, dream, write and plan for the future.