What do wanderers do when they can’t wander?  Over a year ago we were called home due to the pandemic.  At the time we just worried about getting across the border and then surviving the two weeks of quarantine.  How were we, who spent the past year travelling from place to place, supposed to survive cooped up in one space for 14 days?  We ordered our groceries online and thankfully had the upstairs neighbors (our daughter Emily) pick them up and deliver them.  But it was a challenge, I gotta say, not going for walks, just hanging out in our little space, watching whatever was on Netflix, baking and waiting for the time when we would be free.  At the end of our quarantine, we ventured out, going for walks, and looking for activities that would keep us occupied over the coming winter.  You see, we had never spent an entire winter in Canada since we retired and we were a little nervous about how we might manage.  Our only reference was when we came home from our bike trip to Mexico and Cuba in March only to find snow on the ground for weeks!  Could we survive?  We decided that we needed to adjust our attitudes and seek out things to do over the coming winter months that would both keep us physically and mentally active.  Jim found that he enjoyed painting and so set up a little workshop for himself where he spend hours perfecting his newfound art.  I became the happy recipient of several of his works.

I, at the ripe old age of 66, discovered that I actually like knitting!  This was quite amazing as I had tried knitting once or twice in my earlier life and never could make heads or tails of how it worked.  But magically, this time it all came together and I became a knitting fiend!  I went from knitting hats for everyone and anyone to socks, which are a great little project I have found, much to my surprise and delight.  I have a good friend who has knitted socks for years and I never understood the appeal, but now?  I think I may have just a tiny yarn problem, lol!

So, indoor days taken care of, we sought out activities that would keep us in “bike shape” over the winter.  After breaking my ankle cycling in sub-zero weather a number of years back, I have a hard and fast rule – no cycling in any kind of cold weather.  We had enjoyed our hikes while travelling and so decided to check out hikes in our area, and oh my goodness!  We were astounded to find so many beautiful places to hike here in our own backyard!  Hikes for every ability are available and we went from struggling up some of the local hills to climbing up more challenging ones with ease.  We bought ourselves trekking poles for Christmas and climbed even further.  

On one hike, up to Christie Falls in Ladysmith, we came upon a trail leading to the top of the falls.  Only problem was you had to climb up a rock face using ropes.  I am terrified of heights and was unsure about whether I could do this, but some other hikers coming down encouraged me that I could do it and so, buoyed by their and Jim’s words, I conquered my fears and made it to the top!  Wow!  What a feeling it was, looking out over the vista and knowing that I had done something I never thought I would! 

From there, we branched out to more heights, ever in search of the perfect view point.  Problem is, there are so many here, but what a nice problem to have!

As Spring approached, we decided we needed to add one more activity to our list, kayaking.  We live by the sea in a land full of lakes and rivers, so kayaking is a popular sport here.  In the summer, it seems that every other car has kayaks on top.  We went to our local outdoor sports experts at Valhalla Pure and ordered a couple of 10 foot kayaks.  There are two reasons for the purchase of these smaller kayaks.  First, we are new to the sport and want to focus on kayaking in calmer waters.  Perhaps one day we will invest in longer ocean going kayaks, but that is for another time.  Our second reason was practical.  We didn’t want to store them outside and the room where we could store them inside could only accommodate 10 footers, so there you go!  When they finally arrived and the weather reached a temperature where we could get out on the water, we fell in love!  What a wonderful, wonderful way to spend some time!  

Of course, biking is still a big part of our lives and now that the weather is again warm, we are out on the bikes often as well.  In fact, Jim recently commented, “Hey, aren’t we retired?  It seems like we are busy every day of the week!”.  Hahaha!  True!  So, we are trying to keep to a schedule that gives us days to simply enjoy sitting on the patio and dreaming of travels to come.  We are so thankful to have been here in Nanaimo during the Covid shutdown.  We can’t imagine a better place to be!