Ok Vancouver, I'm coming home. I'll be back in the park on the 10th of May. The boyos are waiting. If you've never gazed deep into the eyes of a heavy horse, you've never lived. We'll be meandering round Stanley Park and spinning yarns, telling tales telling the truth about Stanley Park... no not the politically correct hail to the far thinking entrepreneurs of old. No I shall tell you of greed and fighting and of politics and strange bedfellows... of cheatin and stealin and the mayhem that is the hidden legacy of the green jewel of Vancouver. We'll wander past the fallen giants of the Storms of '06 and wonder and speculate about their fate.

Today I've taken a step to creating a pocket of change in an area where old mindsets and ways are very much in evidence. what does it matter if we are burning trash and using up a case of paper plates every week. We're buried in the north. What does it matter if we shoot a bear? They are so scrawny and hungry and aggressive up here... In the larger picture, there is a bleed in this country in the various natural resource industry whether it be oil sands in Alberta or diamond mining in Northwest Territories. I wrote a story years ago about the march of technology and change and how it affects our dwelling place. I can't place it here because it's too long to type but I will post it on my website clare.ws . It's called the Seven Sisters and was inspired by a trip I took in Northern BC some years ago where I was utterly enchanted by 7 majestic peaks near Hazelton. They inspired me to write this creation story for our province and someday I hope to publish it as an illustrated book.

At the moment I'm up about 50 miles south of Yellowknife on the edge of Great Slave Lake. I came here for 6 weeks to cook for a diamond exploration camp. For many years I'd struggled financially as a singer and as a seasonal carriage driver in Stanley Park and although the music and horses are still my first love, when the chance to do this came up, I jumped at it.

I do that with adventurous things though. I jumped at the chance to go to Taiwan and play bluegrass music in '98 and jumped at the chance to learn to drive a team of Clydesdales. Everything we choose to do - good, bad or in between is a lesson in the making - a challenge to be embraced and  integrated.