CURRENT MISSION

Adventure, good food and friendship

ABOUT ME

We are a couple looking to experience new places, new cultures and new friends. We have been together for twenty years and are just beginning to travel again (after the kids and lawn care!).

PHILOSOPHY

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. (Leonard Cohen)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

surfing and hosting

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

have surfed twice and hosted three times....all experiences were great

Interests

Art, music, dance, CC skiing, cycling, literature, film, rural living, and general banter

• cats
• dogs
• fish
• arts
• books
• literature
• dancing
• dining
• running
• boating
• reading
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• fishing
• surfing
• skiing

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies.....Dancer in the Dark, Harold and Maude, Bagdad Cafe, Antonia's Line, Torchsong Trilogy, ......Music.....The Books, Rachel's, Christine Fellows, Jim White, Antony and the Johnsons, Calexico, Mugison and Bonnie Prince Billy (and some old stuff that you could probably predict) ......Books....Kiss of the Fur Queen, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Everything is Illuminated, Alexandria Quartet.....and so much more.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

We were both reading books while lying in the sun on a uninhabited island near our family's cottage in the Whiteshell Provincial Park when our dogs came tearing out of the trees. At first we thought something like a bear must be chasing them but then we noticed a tiny faun out in front. The dogs chased the poor thing right past our heads and in to the lake. We were both screaming,for the dogs to stop but our bellowing was ignored. Within seconds the dogs were upon the faun, and after some vigorous splashing our Husky cross began to paddle toward the shore with the faun hanging from her mouth. We screamed 'drop it'....which she thankfully obeyed. Jaik grabbed both dogs by their collars and I quickly waded in to retrieve the lifeless body floating in the water. The faun was limp when I picked it up out of the lake. We were horrified. I was about to do, I'm sure, a rather feable attempt at baby deer CPR when it coughed and began to breath.

I walked over a small hill so the dogs could no longer see the faun when I placed it down on the rock warmed by the sun. I walked about 10 feet away and sat down. As Jaik was standing he could see me and the faun but the dogs, who could not see over the hill, calmed down. I sat and Jaik stood there for about 5 minutes watching the faun slowly come back to life. It was so tiny....the body of a small thin cat with these incredibly long legs that were not much thicker a finger. It was aware of me but I did not want to move away as I knew it was very vulnerable unless it could walk and run. I knew the doe had to be close by, probably observing us all from the dense forest behind us.

Then an amazing thing happened. The faun, like a camel pushing itself up from the desert sand, awkwardly rose and began to slowly walk toward me.I sat there still, not wanting to scare the poor thing more than it already had been. The faun came right up to me. I couldn't believe that it would come this close to me. Then it stretched its neck up toward my face and touched its nose to mine. Then it slowly turned away and after a few steps began bounding in to the forest. Obviously nothing was broken and the faun was off to find its mother.

Jaik, who was still holding the dogs and witnessed the whole thing, said we better get off the island so that the doe and the faun could find each other (the island is only about 3 acres in size). We quickly packed up, got the dogs in the boat and pushed away from shore. Once a fair distance away we slowed the boat and began to fish for pickerel. Our path took us to the back side of the island. We were trolling about twenty five to thirty feet off shore. We heard some crackling in the bush and looked up. There, to our delight was the faun and the doe. The faun seemed busy exploring but the doe looked right at us. We thought she would immediately head back in to the bush. Instead she walked calmly along the shore, with the faun jumping about her. She moved parallel to the boat for most of the back side of the island and then quietly moved back in to the forest. The dogs lying in the boat were never aware of what was going on.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Israel, United States

• 

•