Sointula summer 2023

Now I am back in New York, since mid-September, when I should have maintained a regular posting on my summer stay (June, July, and August). Suffice it to say that it was a great three months there. I am so fortunate to have so many wonderful friends in Sointula. Things got off to a somewhat shaky start. The blue cottage, in which I lived for so many summers, was up for sale, and it wasn't until a few days after my arrival in Sointula that I actually had a place to stay. In the few days in between, I was staying with a friend, but realized that the conditions there were not good for me for the kind of distance I need for my work. In the event, the place I found was lovely, and moreover right on the beach, though, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, West coast beaches are not like those soft, sandy ones in the Caribbean. They are rocky, pebbly, stony, full of driftwood, but the best thing, as can be seen in my previous post, is the seaweed, which thrive in such an environment. I wrote a longer post on this phenomenon on my Goethe blog, if you care to take a look at the phenomenon. Let me post some photos first thing and maybe mention a little bit about what each represents. (I can tell this will be a multiple blog post.)

Brian and Milan

Fresh salmon

Triathalon

Malcolm Island Food Coop

My dear friends Janine & Yo

The sky from my yard

Sointula 2023

This year marks my tenth return to Malcolm Island, quite a milestone. When you live in a place long enough you can miss the changes that occur around you. That is the case, for instance, with New York City, where I have lived since the late 1970s. When I think back on the past decades, I am aware of major differences there, but you can spend a long time before you begin to reflect on them. For instance, on my arrival in the city, it was a regular cesspit, with the subways covered with graffiti and muggings a regular occurrence. But the city went through a change with a new mayor who instituted new policies, and there was also assistance among the civilian population, with the appearance of the Guardian Angels. From what I see around me, the city is now entering a new era of crime and drugs, much different from that of the Seventies.

In Sointula, however, outwardly there is not much difference, at least as far as I can discern after a decade. Obviously an island with a population of a 600 has different issues from a city of millions. There have of course been changes, but I would have to be a full-time resident for them to make of an impression on me. For myself, it is the constancy that I appreciate. The weather, the view, the skies, the ocean, the irregular internet service. No fear of mugging. I leave my bike unattended. The streets are very quiet at night. Not to forget the friendships that have been cultivated over the years.

The little critter here is a starfish

 For myself, it is the constancy that I appreciate, not to forget the weather. At I write, at noon, it is 60 degrees. I feel very fortunate not to be in hot New York or in any of the other troubled places on the planet. I am fortunate to be able to sit and admire the mountains in the distance, the beautiful cloud formations, the sight of the ferry traveling back and forth across the strait between this island and Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island.

For the first time I am also living in a place right on the water. When the tide is out, I like to walk on the beach and study the seaweed. According to a small guide I purchased at the Sointula Museum, there are 640 species of seaweed in the Pacific Northwest. Attached a few photos taken on my morning perambulations.

Last days in Sointula #2

 There are so many good moments that it is hard to choose which to post, but herewith a second installment.

Max at Virgo party

Ferry at sunset

Janine

Last days in Sointula #1

 My summer sojourn is coming to an end. So, maybe a few photos to show some of the people I have had the joy of knowing and activities I have had the privilege of taking part in it. It's also been a great summer for lots of my own work. For those interested, herewith a link to my Goethe blog, which highlights some of my recent interests. The pictures below are the first of two posts.

The Harbour

 

The Bluff

Yolanna

Alders

Stewart Marshall

Mateoja Trail

Doug at Malm Pond

Milan and Vlad at Lizard Point

Sointula Sewing Machine Museum

I have heard about the museum for years, and finally I biked out the other day with Femke to take a look. It was somewhat overwhelming, as you can see from the photo on the Facebook page of its proprietor, Wendy Laughlin, a Sointula native. The photos here are all images of machines and decorative elements that particularly caught my eye. Wendy gave us a great tour.

Daily life in Sointula

This is my seventh summer here, missing only 2020, when the virus closed down borders. The population of Macolm Island is about 500, and it is not one of those fancy places with high-end coffee shops and bars. In fact, it is not especially beautiful in itself, as it has been a logging island (Canada is full of forests), but the real treat are the skies and the beaches (but, again, not sunny, sandy ones like in the fancy places). The population is pretty stable, so that by now most people know about the gal from New York (me!). I am so much at home that I even have a Vancouver Island library card. I've mentioned before my fondness for hikes, which is always very instructive for me, a totally urban person, being with who know the difference between poisonous and edible mushrooms and the names of trees and all that.

If you want to eat out, you have two choices: Coho Joe's, open daily til 2:30 or so; and the Burger Barn, open from noon until 7:30 p.m. The burgers often include halibut. I've posted several times photos from my hikes, but herewith some sights of daily life. The last picture below is of my work station. As always, click to enlarge.

The Burger Barn

Tyler painting the Burger Barn

Tyler's painting of Coho Joe's

The gas station

The Hotel

The marina

Local produce for sale

I like to bike here and read

Croquet on Sundays

Visitors in my back yard

 

Pole 39 hike

Thursday mornings at 9:30 we meet next to the fire station and confer about where to hike. There are lots of good hiking trails on this forested island, thanks to volunteers who establish and maintain them . Linda Weaver and her husband Ross are in charge. They seem to know every trail on the island. Last Thursday we headed out Pulteney Point Road, a logging road, along which you see many poles with numbers on them, referring to the locations of the hydro stations. One is Pole 39. There were six of us.

As an urban person I love these outings, enjoy being with people who can identify trees and distinguish edible from poison mushrooms. Bushwack was of course a word I had encountered before coming here, but I had to laugh the first time I heard one of my fellow hikers use it on the trail. Speaking of bush, this is logging country, not a land of pristine forests. There is something about the disorder represented by this forestscape that appeals to me, the growth of fungus on the disintegrating trees, and the moss, its softness, the way it clings and drapes itself over the dead wood. Deterioration, showing the effects of time.

The sunsets out here are also spectacular. Last evening I sat on my friend Milan's deck, and we enjoyed a glass of wine and talked about God and the world -- but not about the issues that people are tearing their hair out about in the U.S. presently, and also tearing into other people about. Across the water, below the mammoth clouds was Vancouver Island. And in the distance a lone fishing boat.

How fortunate I am to be here. I would not say that this is a "serene" place. As everywhere, there are disagreements among people, vexations, and so on, but the quiet of a small island with only a few hundred inhabitants is profound.

Return to "Place of Harmony"

For those who have not visited this site before, the title refers to the utopian community established on Malcolm Island, 250 miles northwest of Vancouver, at the end of the 19th century. Here is a pretty good link to the history of the community. The founders were Finnish, thus the Finnish word "Sointula" indicating a place of harmony. I was invited to give a paper at a conference on utopian ideas in the 18th century at a small conference that was held here in 2013 and have been coming back every summer (excluding 2020) since. I have only been running this blog for a few years, which consists mostly of reports of my stay here. I am a totally urban person who lives on the Upper West Side of New York, and the contrast could not be greater. No car horns in the morning. No garbage trucks. No sirens traveling past to the retirement home on the corner of my street. No robo calls, as I only have my flip phone here. I'll erase all of them on my return in September. Yes, it will be another summer-long stay. I live again in the same cottage, where the mornings are full of my own work, and occasionally the afternoon as well, but mostly I go out and see all my friends, go on hikes, associate with people who can identify mushrooms and trees, who fix their own roofs, who build things.

 

( I hardly ever mention my own work here. For that, you can go to my Goethe blog, but FYI I managed to finish my long article on Goethe and am now revisiting a a literary essay begun at the beginning of the year.) 

Previous posts on this blog have introduced many of my Sointula friends and activities. For the blog this summer I might concentrate here on new sights, including, for instance, the lovely pattern of shadows cast by the plum tree outside my window. (Click to enlarge.) Below is a picture of my desk, as messy already as in New York. There is also a table in the living room, where I keep all the books and papers in connection with various projects. Those funny growths on the tree are oyster mushrooms, which Milan picked for dinner on our walk on the road to Mitchell Bay. And always there are the Sointula skies, which I cannot get enough of.

 More to come.

Return to Sointula!

 As soon as the embargo was lifted on foreign travel to Canada, I booked my flight. It was late in the summer, but I decided that even a month away from New York was worth it. All was familiar on my arrival here on August 13. I brought a couple projects on which to work, but have time for Sointula projects as well, which include forest hikes and beach combing, sitting on the deck of my friend Yo’s house. A month passes quickly, and I leave already this coming Friday. Next year I hope to make an entire summer of it. In the meantime a few photos as reminders of my stay here.

First, my hike with Milan to Malcolm Point.

I love beech trees

And moss

Can't get enough of driftwood

Milan on the beach

And then there is my "desk":

Visits on Yo's deck at "happy hour." Also, everyone in Sointula seems to have expanded their gardens or their greenhouses, including Yo. I have been the beneficiary of her kale, swiss chard, potatoes, etc.

 Janet, Yo, Janine

Prolific kale

Learned about mushrooms on this hike on Rupert Road trail:

Doug points out signs of poison varieties

Intrepid Linda

The hikers

Paintings on hydro boxes in Port McNeill showing the life activities of this part of Vancouver Island:

Fishing

Logging

Not to forget, the Sointula sky, always changing, always splendid:

One thing I noticed on my arrival on August 13 was the number of tourists in Sointula. The wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta had sent a lot of people to Vancouver Island for their summer holidays, and many of them traveled all the way out here. The museum has been open seven days a week, people were biking all over with the bikes available at the Resource Center The island has seen lots of sales of property. Whether a big change will take place here, with the influx of urbanites, remains to be seen. In the last few days, however, the island is quiet again, not that it was noisy in my first days here, but it now feels like Sunday every day. Stay tuned for my report next summer.