We spent three days with Ted and Jane on SaltSpring and then took off in their Dodge farm truck as they were heading out to Ireland for a couple of weeks. So we've got wheels which is really good and has helped get us around.

First stop was up to Black Creek to spend a couple of nights with Pete (Tiempo/Rocinante) for his birthday. He has a relatively isolated property out near Lake Orel and lives a simple life, when he's not in the Caribbean, in some beautiful wooden huts he built. All mod cons and an outhouse!

Within an hour of arriving we'd seen two beavers, a black bear and a myriad of local birds including purple headed finches, woodpeckers and swallows, not to mention his chickens, ducks and turkeys. Unfortunately the weather wasn't really in our favour and the BBQ had to be moved to his brother's more palatial, and dry, dwelling next door. But the next day it cleared up a bit and we took a walk through the forest and along the beach to Salmon Point Inn for lunch, then had another damp BBQ in the evening.

After that we made our way down to Qualicum, stopping at the Fanny Bay Inn for fresh oysters on the way. We called in to see our friends Dirk and Bea at the organic pig farm, had a wonderful supper and then headed to Parksville for the night. Next day we went to Nanaimo to stay with Martin and Maxine, drink some beer and eat raw prawns - it's a hard life sometimes.

We also did some shopping which was quite the experience, like you can buy things! At first it was wonderful to see the vast array and relative inexpensiveness of what you can get here compared to the Caribbean; looking at washing-machines almost brought a tear to my eye. But after awhile, and not that long either, it all got a bit overwhelming. How do people live with so much choice? Do people have nothing better to do than shop? And why does 99% of just about everything come from China? I guess it's the same in all Western countries but, after being out of the loop for so long, it really does make you stop and think.

Thursday we caught the ferry over to Horseshoe Bay and arrived back at Sharon and Phil's place in North Van. ready for an early start the next morning. We were at the Canadian Citizenship Centre by 7.30 am and met up with Jess and her friend Laura for the 8.15 ceremony. There were 84 people becoming new Canadians, from a total of 29 different countries. It was quite a moving ceremony and I'm sure Mike had tears in his eyes as he re-affirmed his oath of allegiance, which is not something everyone gets to do, with those choosing to become Canadian (or any other nationality I guess) quite often having a much stronger feeling of loyalty to their country than those born here and who regard it as a right.

We're trying to spend as much time with Jess as we can before she starts back at work in two days time. Yesterday we took her up the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler. The ski-slopes are obviously closed for the season but there were lots of mountain bikers busy going up the lifts and bouncing down the tracks, and the road trip up there was absolutely spectacular, looking out over the coastal mountain range and stopping off to see waterfalls and lakes.

On a not so good note, the ID we need from the UK hasn't arrived yet even though it was promised for early last week (obviously the Caribbean isn't the only place where things go slow), and we've had to apply for Mike a new passport as they won't add pages, that won't be ready until the 9th July at the earliest and I'm not sure we should book tickets until we have it back in our possession. Personally I don't have a problem with how long we have to stay: as long as James is ok then so are we. That being said we did have an email saying Toby had gone missing overnight and James was somewhat upset. Luckily the little darling did come back the next morning but it's not good ... I think maybe he's been grounded for a while.

We're still being well looked after and still eating wonderful food. The latest for us is the asparagus and apricots, not to mention sushi, sushi and even more sushi, and roast lamb, and ... bumbleberry crumble.

All being well on Wednesday we'll be heading over to Gabriola to finally get started on some of the sorting out stuff we've got to do over there. It's also Canada Day on July 1st so hopefully we'll be among friends for that, and hopefully the weather will be ok, although to be honest as long as it's not raining (which, incidentally comes straight down here), we're fine.

Love to all from a still wonderful, wild west Canada ...