Cortes Island must be the most literary island of its size in the world. We have a population of 900 and our library has more traffic per capita than any library in the Vancouver Island Regional Library system. We have FOUR businesses on the island that stay open year round and one of them is a bookstore. The owner Marnie, had three local books brought in to the store on the same day. (Norm Gibbons, Sea Without Shores; Priya Huffman, of Bone and Breath; Full Moon Lagoon)
Kids here chat about books. No that's not a misprint. 
Yesterday a dad told me his daughter had to settle a dispute between siblings over a shared copy of Full Moon Lagoon by lending one of the kids her own copy. Yup, if we're gonna fight, let's fight about who gets to read first!
We launched Full Moon Lagoon officially with about 90 people in attendance and perfect weather. Everyone enjoyed the Cortes History Trivia game and the kids got fun gifts as well as books from Marnie's Books (and Cortes Literacy Now).
It was a perfect reminder of why I live here; art is celebrated and appreciated. 
Here are some pictures of our lovely evening together. Thanks, everyone!
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It's been nearly two weeks since I arrived home from my visit to the New Denver Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre. I have tried many times to write down my thoughts about that visit and just can't seem to find the words. Perhaps there are none. 
Instead, a few pictures from my visit and one memory:
I'm standing in a shack of less than 400 square feet that would have been home to two families. A wood bed frame with a thin mattress takes up most of the "room" in which I stand - there is no door. This is the sleeping space for one entire family and covers a full third of the total floor space of the shack. There is a thin grey blanket folded at the end of the bed. Light creeps through the cracks in the tar-paper walls. I shudder - in June - and wonder how bitterly cold this shack would have been in the dead of winter.  I'm trying to imagine how it would feel to discover this was my new home. But there is no way for me to ever imagine the feelings of overwhelming loss, fear of the unknown, separation from family and friends, and utter betrayal by my country.