Waking up in a new place is a journey of discovery. In the half light of dawn, uncertain of the location of light switches, it took some time to get my bearings. I got the coffee going and sat down to write, an activity I enjoy, particularly so when we are away from home. It's a creative outlet that feeds that part of me that needs to be engaged in the act of creation.
I bundled myself up and joined Brad on the boat to go collect the prawn traps that had been placed 300 feet down on the floor of the Quatsino Sound the evening before. Using a line hauler to bring up the traps, Brad carefully returned the rope to its holding container, a blue plastic bucket, while I watched for the traps rising to the surface.
Each popped out of the water with a healthy number of prawns and a few other surprises. There were hagfish in several, an eel-shaped jawles rish which secretes a viscous slime that suffocates and traps other fish. There were also a few small fish that had been attracted to the prawn bait in the traps.
I learned that all the female prawns had be be thrown back in the water. They were easy to spot owing to their size - they are much bigger than the males - and the hundreds of eggs they were carrying tucked under their tiny little legs.
By the time we made it back to the dock my fingers were nearly frozen and ready to be near the lodge's primary heat source: the wood stove in the centre of the main living room.
I spent the rest of the day working on my first Quatsino painting, a view across the water to the east. I futzed with it throughout the afternoon but will finish it up Monday before jumping into my next project.
As black bears are often seen in this area, I will immortalize one for the walls, I'll also do a painting of a couple of sea otters. We've seen several on our two trips out on the water. They seem like a natural subject to explore while we are here.
While I work on the easel, Heather is doing an abstracted triptych on the floor. She is several layers into her process. By the time we pack up to leave TGO (The Great Outdoors) Quatsino we will leave behind 8 to 10 finished paintings. A good trade.
Meanwhile, the atmospheric river has settled in for a few days. We had heavy rain all night and it's still pouring down with the Weather Channel saying accumulations of 4 mm per hour for the next number of hours. We could get 100 - 150 mm down in the valley. Up in the mountains, over 250 mm is expected to fall.
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