Well NOW we’ve done it…

It’s June 11th as I post this – on May 27th we finally made the big move – relocating to Nelson. If it’s true that a picture says a thousand words, then I’ll depend on my little video “Nelson Odyssey 4” to speak volumes.

Three days after we arrived I started working at one of Nelson’s oldest retail establishments, a funky heritage brick building called “Ellison’s Market”. Meanwhile Lee’s been hard at work sourcing trades people to do the upgrades on our “new” home. In our spare time (to save a few bucks) we’ve spent many hours tearing out ceiling tiles, ripping up carpeting and stripping wallpaper in preparation for the big electrical and plumbing jobs needing to be completed in the coming months. We’ve also had the amazing good luck of a 4 month house-sit (while we have the other house reno’d) at the beautiful home of a great couple of Nelson-ites we met through a Vancouver friend.

And yes, from what we’ve experienced so far, Nelson’s an incredibly beautiful town, full of some really lovely folks. Plus the weather’s been truly gorgeous – warm and sunny – though by all accounts an unusually dry June for the Kootenays. So we’ll try not to complain when the rain returns — all this greenery could use a little watering.

O.k. here’s something I just had to share. I’ve heard many times about the two sides of Nelson – the “redneck” and the “granola”. Well, on my walk to work this morning – literally within seconds of each encounter – I think I experienced a good whiff of both. First I overheard this exchange between two guys having a smoke along Baker St.: “HEY – LAST WEEK I GOT TO SHOOT A 22 AT A GUY IN A BULLET-PROOF VEST!!!” “WOW! SO COOL!!!” Then, literally seconds later, in that same block, I noticed what looked at first glance to be Tibetan prayer flags – but turned out to be several pieces of stringed-together, hand-made coloured paper on a store front, each page containing a word in the sentence “ALWAYS BE YOURSELF. EVERYONE ELSE IS TAKEN.”
Yeah.