Homeward Bound

The 2008 Chocolate & Chat Tour is now history, finishing on a high note in Kelowna with distinguished guests including on-line friend, author and CWILL BC member Karen Autio, and the distinguished Jack Whyte (looking very dapper in his golfing hat). Many thanks to Curtis, Conrad and the staff at the Orchard Hill Chapters for making us feel so welcome.

After dinner, James and I went out for a celebratory ice cream, and while we were in line, we discussed the preponderance of body art in women compared to just a few years ago. This led me to remember a most remarkable video I had seen recently, depicting women in Art over a period of 500 years.

This video montage was put together by animation artist Phillip Scott Johnson, with music by Yoyo Ma. I love it for the sense of shifting fashions in beauty, and for the resultant sense of fragility in life and loveliness.

More tomorrow on the tour -- likely a Comic Life version. Don't forget to check James' blog, too -- for perhaps he has the strength to be more articulate than I right now.

~kc

C& C 2008 -- Final Stop -- Kelowna

We had a great day yesterday, after our surprisingly ghost-less stay the night before in Canmore. Wended our way through the Rockies (this is a shot of Castle Mountain, just past Banff) to Salmon Arm and set up our travelling road show tent at Spirit Quest Books near the centre of town.









James and I have decided that Spirit Quest owner Maggie and her team have a little white magic on their side, because we spent most of our time in the shop checking out some Very Cool things that we just had to have for future presentations.








I was especially taken by their selection of enchanting little fairies. When we were back at Monkeyshines in Calgary, I met and chatted with an aspiring writer named Cameron, who has written a whole collection of stories in a world of Faerie all her own. Cameron -- these fairies made me think of you!














We had a wonderful time in Salmon Arm and want to thank Maggie and Shannon and the rest of the staff at Spirit Quest Books for hosting this part of our tour.

Sadly, we were unable to find accommodation in Salmon Arm last night, so we beetled along the highway and managed to score what must have been the final rooms in Kelowna. This saves us from doing any driving today (for the first such day on the tour) and we have been able to get a bit of work done in town this afternoon before our gig this evening at Chapters in Orchard Park.

I'll just finish this post here with one of the shots I took last night of a fire-juggler on the beach at the waterfront park in Kelowna. There was a blues band playing live, people dancing in the streets , tons of vendors and food -- a wonderful summer Saturday night for everyone to share.


~kc