Photography by Donation.

 

I have had a camera (and have been documenting my life) since I was ten years old, and now I don't. It's a strange experience, something akin to losing one of the less-important digits: you don't need it to live, but several times a day you wish you had it.

Sea water has irreparably damaged my camera. I have no fancy cellphone-cum-camera (though I'm getting close to crossing over to the dark side). Currently I am relying completely on friends and family to supply me with photographs. It's an interesting experience. My photos and documentation are "filtered" through their experience: what they find worthy of recording. When I ask to see their photos, and request that they send me a few, I am effectively filtering again.

All this results in far fewer photos. I've now travelled to the prairies twice without my own camera. I've had numerous readings, seen scores of old friends, and family. It's the strangest thing. We had our Sunshine Coast Farewell Party \ Greg's 50th birthday party on Saturday night: no camera.

It's almost become a test: how long can I exist without a camera? Will I become one of those eccentrics who stops taking photographs all together, and only reworks her existing photographs (via printing, Photoshop, etc.)?

The snapshots -- all taken in June by other people (except on rare occasion, when I asked to take a shot -- represent this month's experience through various other lenses.


My father singing and whistling with me at my presentation in Humboldt, SK.
Dad recently went blind, so it was extra special to have him accompany me.
We also performed together at the Seniors' Centre in his hometown, Watrous, SK.

Playing guitar at Greg's class's end-of-the-year picnic,
Porpoise Bay Provincial Park



Greg and his mother, Shirley Richardson,
in Gibsons. Shirley was visiting from Victoria, BC 

It was hard to spot but easy to laugh at this deer, standing proud as punch
and munching vegetables in a garden in Langdale.
If it were my own garden, I wouldn't have found it nearly so cute.

The night of our farewell party we hosted the bald eagle show again.
Greg's tempting them with salmon.

Some of the friends who attended our Farewell\Birthday Party on Saturday night.
We have a great firepit, facing the water.

This is my dearest friend, Flo.
She was en route to the ferry and then to Las Vegas,
for a mother-son vacation. We met (ironically)
when I was on a mother-son vacation in Bali.

Greg and I in Gibsons on Father's Day.

Greg with 50 candles blown out.
On his birthday he ran 10K and did 50 push-ups (his usual).
I'm very lucky to be his sidekick.  

Greg opening cards and gifts in the solarium at our rented house on Stalashen Drive.

And that, friends, is almost the end of the story of our time on the Sunshine Coast. The packing and cleaning have begun, the post office has been notified, and on June 26th our cars convoy back down the TransCanada toward the prairies.

As of July 1st, we are reachable at Box 205, Middle Lake, SK, S0K 2X0. We'll be there for the summer, and -- unless a small miracle happens within the next six days -- in September we'll be back at our Edmonton address.

Now I must run, literally. I've been on a running sabbatical since just before my prairie tour. Today I FINALLY won a gift certificate on the local radio station COAST 91.7 CKAY for a restaurant (Blackfish Pub, in Gibsons), and I'm going to run out there to get it. It's a great station; I'll have an ear cocked from Saskatchewan http://www.ckay.ca/