island adventure 7 - Baker Road: a church and a beach

Hubby has checked online and picked out Bethel Pentecostal for us to attend on the Sunday we are on Salt Spring. Thursday we do a reconnaissance drive to find the church.

Bethel Pentecostal Church, Salt Spring Island, BC

We step out of the car in the parking lot of the cute little wooden structure and hear a piano playing. It turns out the pastor and his wife are both on site, so we meet them and have a chat. I give them a copy of my novel for their library and while visiting in the parking lot pastor's wife points out the paintings done by her predecessor on the rock wall. I love these!

Bible verses painted on the rocks, Bethel Pentecostal Church, Salt Spring Island, BC

Before we leave they explain how to get to a beach at the bottom of their road (Baker Road). The beach on Booth Bay ends up being one of the most interesting beaches we find on our Salt Spring Island stay. At low tide every pool is alive with creatures and under every sea-weedy rock hide the most brilliant purple starfish you'll ever see.

Starfish on Booth Bay beach, Salt Spring Island, BC

And what about these rocks! I think they're shale.

Shale rock formation, Booth Bay beach, Salt Spring Island, BC

We return to church on Sunday and are struck by the beautiful quarry setting that frames the brown wooden cross—seen from the church driveway. We even meet the man who made and installed it, as he happens to be at visiting the service that day. It's wonderful that because of Jesus we can feel a deep bond with people we've just met.

Cross on the driveway leading to Bethel Pentecostal Church, Salt Spring Island

island adventure 6 - Mount Maxwell

Map of Salt Spring Island, pointing out Mount Maxwell

Later in the afternoon of the day we tour the bread and cheese places, we drive to the top of Mount Maxwell, which is a provincial park.

The last part of the climb is a bone-rattling gravel road that's  narrow and twisty. But the views from the top (Baynes Peak) are spectacular!

The cliffs beside the chain link fence plunge straight down hundreds of feet.

View from Mount Maxwell, looking toward the Fulford Habour

Distant and closeup views of Burgoyne Bay, from Mount Maxwell

View from Mount Maxwell overlooking the Gulf Islands toward Vancouver Island

island adventure 4 - Ruckle Park beach hikes

It's a short drive from the Ruckle Farm to the Ruckle Provincial Park picnic area and trailhead.

On this beautiful sunny day we bear right, taking the path to Beaver Point (named after the Hudson's Bay Company paddle steamer Beaver, the first steam boat on the B.C. coast).

Here are some scenes from that walk.

Twice more we drive to Ruckle Park to do more hiking during our seven-day stay on the island.

The path to the left is more rugged but very rewarding, as it hugs the coast and we pass beach after beach and vista after vista.

We  come to a beach full of inukshuks. Someone spent a lot of time here!

The last time we hike the path, the day before we leave, we take our lunch, prepared for a long day but still don't make it to Yeo Point, the end of the marked path.  It's just too rugged for us oldies!

 On the way back, we take our time, basking in the sun on the beaches that we can clamber down to.

And we're back at the picnic area. I get E. to take my photo with my trusty walking stick before I toss it away for the next hiker.

island adventure 2 - settling in

Salt Spring Island is not huge. We soon find our way from the ferry to our 'home,' Room 109 at the Seabreeze Inne. There we even have our own little kitchenette so we don't have to eat all our meals out.

Seabreeze Inne - top right is the hot tub and gazebo

After getting unpacked we drive back into Ganges (Salt Spring's main settlement) for a look around. It's market day and there's not a parking spot to be had—not good when it's hot as blazes and you've skipped lunch. We do eventually find a spot near the visitor center where we drop in for ideas of things to do and maps.

We also find the Tuesday market, but everything is pretty pricey. So we head back to Thrifty's but by now we're so hungry we're muddle-headed so buy only a few things and head back to our room, stopping at the Embe Bakery for some amazing bran muffins. Time for coffee and a snack at 'home.'

Later we go back to town for dinner (Salt Spring Inn, recommended by one of the store clerks where we have a tasty meal of (him) pizza and (her) chicken quesadilla).

Salt Spring Hotel - has a great restaurant

 After we've eaten, and now in a much better mood, we explore Ganges Harbour. Talk about eye candy!

These murals on McPhillips Street make my little heart go pitter-patter.

On our way back to the car we find the Harlan's Bunch and treat ourselves to gelato (salty caramel—yum!!). Our holiday is off to a delicious start.

leisure

Do you wish you were here? (Ganges marina - Salt Spring Island, BC)

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Thursday challenge

Next week: GROWING (Animals, Plants, Children, Enlarging, Maturing, Getting Taller,...) 

back to work (#659-669 of 1000 gifts)

"The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration" - Ernest Newman (from Onwards and Upwards, a collection of quotes edited by Julian Ross p. 68).

The quote above, from the British music critic Ernest Newman seems perfect for Labor Day, this last hurrah of the summer holidays. A Happy Labor Day to you!

...and the list of gifts continues:


659. Whoever landscaped the grounds of our townhouse complex did a lovely job of filling the beds with beauties. In this season we are greeted by these hardy sedum...

and drifts of coneflowers.

660. My poetry benches, where I park for a while during my afternoon leg-stretch, and let my thoughts settle in my notebook.

661. And then nibble on a few blackberries before heading back home. 

662. Have you discovered Tim Challies' monthly wallpapers? I downloaded five of September's onto the laptop and have set them to change every 30 minutes. It's such an inspiration to open my computer to a decorative rendering of Ephesians 1:7, Psalm 23:5, or Romans 8:26.

663. Every day on our morning walk we pass an exotic-looking castor bean plant. The other day I noticed some action in its upper regions.

664. On Saturday we went to buy more blueberries at Krause Berry Farms. Of course we let ourselves be lured by the fresh pastries in the restaurant, treating ourselves to peach-blackberry pie, ice-cream and coffee. Yum! (Does this bring back memories, Chris & Jane?)

665. I am making steady progress on my fall assignment.


666.  When the news is mostly bad, God's word has reassurance

667. I'm thankful for a book I'm reading that's educating me on who's who in the "sinister" world of Christian right-wing political activists in Canada, delivered in the voice of a conspiracy theorist. (To M. McDonald Christians are scary...very scary!!)


668. The long weekend weather has been stellar so far. Yesterday we took a walk at Derby's Reach park (here we're looking at Maple Ridge across the Fraser River).

669. This bunny either had a love for the camera or thought he was invisible under all the dapple. He let me get incredibly close before slipping into the grasses and blackberry canes.

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here.

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