When the news is bleak, I find myself looking at my photos of grey days. This is Brown's Bay, last week, taken from the hill above the town*. On the hills, in the woods, the snow was deep and the creeks and little lakes were frozen, but down by the water that warms the air, the grass was still green. Heavy clouds hide the mountain tops in the distance. A normal Vancouver Island winter scene.
In the centre, the marina and the restaurant. |
*Brown's Bay. A town, I call it. For those not used to our sparse northern island population, I'll define the term. Brown's Bay doesn't turn up on any population charts, so I blew up Google maps and counted the houses. There are 15, and 9 little tourist cabins, which are, of course, empty in the winter. As are the spaces for RVs; in the Google photo, taken in mid-summer, there were 25 slots used. There's the marina, a restaurant and hotel, a hall, and a fish cannery. That's it. That's the town.
*Un pueblito, lo llamo. Brown's Bay. Para los que no están habituados a nuestra población atenuada aquí en el norte de la isla, habrá que definir la palabra. Brown's Bay no sale in ninguna de las listas de población, así que abrí el mapa de Google y conté las casas. Hay 15. Y 9 casitas para turistas, más bien cuartos con baño. Estas, claro, están vacías ahora por ser invierno. Tambien lo son los espacios para remolques y vehículos de recreación; en la foto de Google, 25 espacios tenían huéspedes. Hay una marina, el restaurante con su hotelito, una sala para reuniones, y una empacadora de pescado. Eso es todo. Eso es el pueblo.
Para mí, que crecí en un pueblo con una población permanente de menos de 25 personas, eso me parece normal. Como se dice, "Tu kilometraje puede variar."
Looking at this photo reminds me of why we left Port Townsend, WA. As much as we loved the beauty, the persistent gray was too much. And yet, here we are in foggy gray Northern California, which is more populated and not quite as pretty.
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