A stitch in time...

At my advanced age, I can finally say I've been to camp! I know, hard to believe that someone has never been to camp - especially in this country - the land of the camp. Anyway, it's done and was well worth the wait. My body wasn't happy with waiting though and protested at the hard skinny bed it had to endure. The second night there, as I lay awake trying to get comfortable, I finally reminded myself that there are many millions of people in the world who would be thrilled to have a warm, dry and safe place to sleep...SO GET TO SLEEP GINNIE! It worked and I had good sleeps after that. The accommodation was pretty basic but the plus was that the showers had lots of hot water and good pressure - that's a luxury.

Getting on the ferry to Quadra Island. 

Getting off the ferry on the island - very gloomy day.

We didn't have a chance to see much of the island, but if the rest is as pretty as Camp Homewood and Gowiland Bay, then it is well worth a visit. I'm sure we will be back one day. A few of the ladies took a day...and another ferry...to hop to the next island, Cortes, to have a look around. Apparently it is much more rustic than Quadra - no TV, no services to speak of, etc. Quite a different way of life having to take two ferries just to get to the main island and then another one if they want to get to the mainland.

To find out more about Quadra Island, click here. To find out more about Camp Homewood, click here. The camp has been running since 1948 and the founders still live on the property - more about them below.

Yeah, we are here!

The main lodge.

One of two huge areas we used for sewing.

My home away from home. 

There were about 40 of us there from Nanaimo as well as communities north and south - and even one from Vancouver. It was great to have the time to spend with people and get to know them - there were certainly some interesting characters in the group but everyone was so willing to share knowledge and opinions. I also now have connections for possible smaller groups to join so that is great.

It was a dry camp so all (well, most) of our energies and time was devoted to quilting. That's when we weren't eating. The cook produced incredible meals and we all ate too much - to be expected of course. But it was lovely not having to cook or clean up - a bell rang and we all went like lambs to the slaughter into the dining room. As it was a Christian camp, there were several young staff members - some volunteers - who added interest. Two young girls "introduced" the meal each night and then said grace. Then they came to various tables to chat with us about our day in order to distract us from the fact that it wasn't our table's turn to head up to the food line! They were very funny.

We took time out on two days to go for short walks on the property - the most picturesque route being down the path to the bay which we could see from the lodge windows. What a magic setting. I heard several women ask if they could stay on and work at the camp! If I didn't have my sweetie back home keenly awaiting my return, I might have been tempted to stay also.

The view of the bay from the lodge.

From another angle

Path down to the bay.

The fall colours were just about done but still pretty.

A highlight was a visit on a couple of afternoons by the 94 year old couple (to protect their privacy, I'll call them Romeo & Juliet as they were so loving with each other) who founded the camp as missionaries in 1948 and still live in a house there - they were amazing. I wish I'd taken a photo of them. Juliet was very petite with an incredibly pretty face and the biggest bluest eyes I've every seen. She went around to every table and spoke about what project people were working on and then exclaimed enthusiastically at the colours, the imagination, etc. etc. I learned to stay in one place or else she thought I was new prey and had to be spoken to again. I learned that after having the same discussion three times about the quilt I was working on. No matter. She was gorgeous and I hope I can be even a tiny bit as wonderful as she is when I am that age, or before would be good too.

Her husband Romeo was also very charming - quite tall and in darn good shape for his age. I sat with them one evening at dinner and we had a great conversation. He even told a couple of pretty good jokes - the first one was a bit slow starting as he retrieved it from his memory banks but once he got going, did a great job. I even remember one of them and retold it the next day to some others and they thought it was pretty funny (featured Canadians and Australians but all in very good taste of course). It was beautiful to watch Juliet hang onto Romeo's every word, with her hand resting on his knee. Ah, love. *I just realized that the camp website tells you that their names are Alf & Margaret so I can tell you too.

The week went by too quickly - the last night we had a silent auction of items we had all donated - proceeds going to the camp. That was lots of fun and I ended up with some interesting things and a couple of useful things.  The last morning was Show and Share - we all took turns up on the huge hearth in front of the huge fireplace to show what we had made during the week. After that it was yet another meal and then we all said our goodbyes. I was just a bit sad to leave the new friends but I know I will see many of them each month at the quilt guild meetings so that will be great.

Fever mounts around the silent auction tables.

The crowd gathers, anxiously waiting for their turn to "show & share". 

Another Aussie showing off her quilted jacket.

My main project for the week was piecing a quilt to honour Heidi's 30th birthday - she had chosen the fabric and pattern when we were in Alberta during the summer - I'd love to show you a photo of the finished quilt top but I want it to be a surprise for her. The other project I finished is this Christmas quilt I began last year and didn't finish in time for Christmas so it was put away. Hopefully I will get it quilted in time for this Christmas.

My Christmas Trees Quilt.

I had travelled up and back with a lovely lady from Duncan (south of Nanaimo). As we drove home mostly in the rain from camp, we came upon backed up traffic on the highway. We crawled along for a few kilometres until we saw that the highway in both directions was closed off and traffic was detoured through a nearby town - at snail's pace. The town was a mess of shredded leaves and fairly large evergreen branches everywhere. It was obvious a huge wind had come through. On checking on the iPad, we found out that the road was closed because of power lines being down but no reason given. We also passed a five car accident (on the other side of the road fortunately) right in Nanaimo - I was glad to get home safely after all of that! When we got home, Brian said there had been massive winds with the air full of swirling leaves. I guess it was a wind shear - not sure how that is different but it certainly caused a lot of chaos.

We didn't realize that the dark sky had caused trouble ahead.

Certainly a lot more leaves have now gone off the trees so it is really beginning to look and feel more wintery.

All well at home - Brian was busy while I was gone reconfiguring our walk in closet to make it more functional so that was a great surprise and will be much appreciated. I sure was happy to get into my own lovely comfortable bed last night! Home sweet home...

Today is catchup day and just generally taking it easy. It's another rainy one so I'm happy to be inside puttering around.