Up fairly early left the house at 8 am, picked up our 2 passengers and headed off to Duncan. We took the small ferry that plies it's route from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay. We joined our other club members and enjoyed an inter club competition with our hosting club (Cowichan Lawn Bowling Club). It rained the whole time and they beat us badly winning most of the 16 games we played. However it's part of the game, usually the hosting club has the stronger teams;  but no excuses. On the way home we drove the Malahat and got home about 5pm.
I forgot to report that we have a pair of Anna's hummingbirds visiting us each day now. They are the only hummingbird we have that has a whole head, neck and throat of iridescent pinkish red plumage.

Here is another story from one of my books of short stories. It has been on here before, but I believe there are quite a few new visitors that will not have read it before.

Mid January

1.

H

e awoke in the dark and listened to the sounds of sleep coming from the other cots in the room.

He stretched luxioursly enjoying the contrast of the warmth in his sleeping bag to that of the cold air touching his nose.  Then remembering that there was only one shower for the nine men in the room, he quickly slid up and out of his sleeping bag cocoon, grabbed his towel from the chair beside his cot and padded across the linoleum covered floor to the bathroom.

  Five minutes later he emerged from the room, the towel around his waist and grinned as he watched the others struggle from their beds and jockey for position in the lineup for the toilet and shower.

  His name was Harvey Davidson, a young man, not yet twenty, medium height and build his body lean and muscular, his face tanned or perhaps weathered from a life outdoors in all seasons and the elements of those seasons.

  Harv, as he was known was one member of the two timber cruising crews of the Northern Forestry Region.  The other young men in the room consisted of Jerry Magill a cruiser and Ken Larum, Jerry’s compassman; they were one of the two cruising crews or pairs as they were often called. The others were six members of two squads of silviculture tree markers.  There was always intense rivalry between the cruisers and the tree markers both on and off the job.  Noting that Jerry and Ken were first in line, Harv couldn’t help making the comment that there was probably just enough hot water for two more showers!

  An hour later, Harv, Jerry and Ken were pulling up in a Jeep wagon in back of the Regional office.  Harv, a compassman at the time was wondering what the day had in store for him.  The preceding week the cruiser he had been working with had been reassigned to a Ranger District, so at the moment he was without a senior partner.

  The trio entered the Regional Management Forester’s office together, their collective boss, Gordon Walcott arrived at the same time and they all sat down together, cups of coffee in hand.  Gordon was a touch portly and inclined to pomposity.  He had been on several bush survival exercises while serving in the army reserve and considered himself an expert in bush travel.  Still he was liked by his crews who soon learned to take him in stride; their contact with him was usually infrequent as, in spite, of his professed knowledge, he seldom left the office.

  As they settled down with their coffees, Gordon said, “A couple of things guys. Harv, you are only half a crew so here is what is going to happen, as of this morning you are promoted to cruiser, Ken you are reassigned as Harv’s compassman and Jerry your new compassman will arrive in a little while.”

  The three sat looking a bit stunned while they digested this sudden announcement.  Harv thought, ‘Wow, this is great, but Ken isn’t going to be happy. I wish Gordon had been more diplomatic.’

  He was right, Ken stared at the floor thinking, ‘Why him? Our seniority is the same, I’m older and I’ve worked in the north longer.  But no point arguing.’  Then he looked up at Harv and said, “Congratulations, boss, I’ll wait for your orders.” And he left the room.

  Gordon, content in his role as supervisor and his surprise announcement carried on, “Jerry, you’re new guy is pretty young, but has lived out in logging camps so should come along pretty good. I’ll give you a few days to take him out of town and teach him the ropes.  We have a large cruise to do along the south shore of Tezzeron Lake, both crews will work together, it will be a campout so I’ll go along and help you get set up for winter conditions.”

Harv and Jerry both stared at him in amazement, they were used to tenting situations but neither had ever heard of one in the winter.  Jerry broke the silence with, “How big is this thing and when are we supposed to start?”

“Its about 5000 acres, I want you on site next Monday.” Was the reply.

 Harv followed with, “Let’s see this is Monday, Jerry is going to be training the new guy until Thursday, 5000 acres in the winter on snowshoes will take us six weeks at least.  So will our supplies be delivered periodically?”