Greetings Creekers! This morning I was picking up litter around the gazebo and along Lower Road. I seem to have been born with a bag lady gene. I have been doing it most of my life and walking by litter with no means to pick it up is torturous for me. I used to feel shy and self-conscious about it but now I am old and I don’t care. The Slow Sunday people do a great job of cleaning up the gazebo area prior to their event and so what I was picking today was a lot of cigarette butts. When I was a kid, there was a huge wildfire on the Hope-Princeton Highway and a large hanging cigarette was erected to remind people of the cause. It made an impression on me. Now I know I am preaching to the choir and none of my readers would toss a cigarette butt but apparently someone does. As the weather gets hotter and things dry up even further, it only takes one butt in some dry grass to start a fire and in fact it has happened. The fire department reports four fires last year and one so far this year, that were clearly started by cigarettes. One of these fires was burning two feet deep. So, this is a plea to carry a tin for your butts and do not think that grinding your butts out is sufficient. A kindly spoken reminder to smokers might take care of the fire risk, not to mention that a butt takes one to five years to decompose.
That’s it for the rants and reminders for this week, except that I did notice the food cupboard is looking bare.
Creek Daze is coming up in about a month (Aug. 11th) but before that, it will be time for a new mandala. Rob Marion and his crew will be painting the design and then it will be time for anyone to go down and pick up a paint brush to add their touches. All this takes a lot of time, effort, talent and money. This year there is a Go Fund Me campaign to help with that. If you would like to donate you can do that at gofundme.com/f/mandala-2024. Your donation will help cover last year’s shortfall and expenses for this year as well as years to come. I will get painting dates for next week’s column.
The first part of Slow Sunday this week will have a special focus on youth musicians and then it’s some old pros. Starting off will be a young singer songwriter, Kya, followed by a dynamic duo, Fever. At 2 p.m., it’s Belt, a four piece punk group who have been attracting a large following and then on the experienced side of the program, it’s Laurie O’Byrne and The Ranters and Michael Maser with Stu Young. You can have a lovely afternoon and because it’s outdoors you can eat while you are listening, so pick up a Semir’s Hot Dog followed by a Shave Ice or something from the take out menus at both Gumboots. What could be a better summer combo than live music, good food and sunshine!
On Friday night at the Legion, it’s time to get nostalgic with that one-man band, Doug Campbell, as he performs your all-time favourites from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. On Saturday it’s all electronic with Coastal Sound Group.
And, don’t forget to check out the Wednesday Market at the Hall. There’s crafts, food and produce and it’s a great opportunity to buy local.
That’s what I know about in the Creek for now although there are always things I miss and I won’t do that if you write to me! [email protected].
