hair cuts and a chance encounter

Most people make an appointment and a haircut takes a couple hours out of their day, end of story, right?

For our family it isn't a "haircut" but a "haircut weekend"...what that entails is a trip over to Vancouver Island, Nanaimo to be exact. Why Nanaimo you ask? Well, that is where we are from...where I was born. Stephen was born on the mainland, but has lived all across Canada...me, I'm an island girl. Since we moved 18 years ago next month, we have always gone back for our haircuts.

While on the ferry, I happened to notice a woman facing me sitting at the next table. She pulled out a journal and started to sketch. We were busy playing cards, but every once in a while I would look up, wondering what she was drawing. I noticed that as she drew she seemed to be looking our way and directly at us at times. She was sitting with a man who also had a small journal out and was using some watercolour paints. Two boys happened by and the man handed one of the boys his paint brush and invited him to add to his journal. That reminded me of something Teesha (Moore) had mentioned one evening at ArtFiberFest. I asked her if they received a lot of attention when they were out at , say, a coffee shop journalling. She said that if someone asked what they were doing, there have been times that her hubby Tracy would invite them to draw in his journal. It made me smile.

My curiosity was really getting the better of me and so I walked over and asked if I could see what she was drawing. It was a sketch of everything that was right there in front of her...including us. It was lovely. I asked her if she would mind if I took a picture of her sketch. She obliged me. I thought it would be great if I could share it with you, so I asked and she said, "Yes, and what is the name of your blog?" I offered to write it on a scrap of paper, but she said she would write it in her journal so she wouldn't lose it. I asked her name. It is Qi (pronounced "chee").


Here it is. Wes and I are on the left and Stephen is on the far right.



And here's Qi.



Thank you for sharing a bit of your art with me, Qi. Good luck with your sculpting. It was a pleasure to meet you!


...and now for something completely different...

Our hair stylist, Bryan is our friend and has been for over 20 years. Wow...I can't believe it has been that long! He is an absolute nut and we love him to bits. Here's a pic...he is such a ham! "Well, if you're gonna take my picture [for your blog], wait 'til I take my shirt off." Strike the pose, baby.

Haircuts get us to the island every seven weeks where we try, and usually succeed, in seeing our families. Leaves little time for old friends whom we see all too infrequently, but are always in our thoughts. This particular trip was a quick one...caught the ferry over last night, got our hair cut (Bryan was kind enough to change our appointment from today to last night due to Wes's work schedule), spent the night at my Mom's and caught an early ferry back this morning to get Wes to work early this afternoon.

An eventful 24 hours.