Almost heaven

I spent the day yesterday with my brother and his daughter in a place that seems very close to heaven—Saturna Island. It is the southernmost of the Canadian gulf islands off the coast of BC. My uncle and his family have been farming on Saturna since the 1940s and still live in the little house they built with the original wood stove.



The cabin that we stay in is high above the farm on a ridge looking down over the ocean and Vancouver Island, the Olympic peninsula and both the American and Canadian Gulf Islands. I don’t know how high up the cabin is but it’s often possible to see eagles flying below the edge.



We spent some time playing with the dogs at the cabin and then drove down to the farm to take a hike through some old growth forest and beside some fields to a lovely bay that I haven’t been to since I was a teenager.



Taylor Point is the site of the ruins of an old stone house that dates back to the 1890s. Mr. Taylor was a stonemason and built the house from local stone. Even though it burned down around 1915 the stone pillars and foundations still stand.



We had a lovely picnic at the beach with a young couple who’d come there by kayak—with their dog.



On the way back we found some oyster mushrooms to harvest for our dinner, then stopped for tea at the farm where Callie (in butterfly face paint) made friends with an elderly sheep by feeding it apples.



After that we headed back up to the top for the night. Here are some of the views from the ridge where the cabin is. This was taken in the sunset light.



And these were taken this morning after a storm.





There are trails along the top of the ridge, made by deer and feral goats that wander the side of the cliff. It’s a very special place--so peaceful and lovely that time just seems to stop up there. I am very grateful to have this piece of almost heaven in my life.