May 25, 2022

“This land was made for you and me.” This is a line from the song by Woody Guthrie. In the 1960s, Canadian folk singers, The Travellers, changed the lyrics to include Canadian locations. The theme of our cross-Canada journey this year is: This Land. Although we won’t be visiting all the places mentioned in the song, we will see as much as we can.

Our first stop in our journey coincidentally was New Denver, BC, the location of the Japanese internment camp during WWII. We saw a sign for Kohan Reflection Garden, and we are never ones to miss a Japanese garden, so we stopped. However, we had not made the connection that this was the location of an internment camp most Canadians are familiar with.

During WWII, innocent Japanese-Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to remote internment camps. This was a deplorable event in Canada’s history, and one we should not be too eager to repeat. Fear can be used to justify all sorts of atrocities. These past two years have shown us how quickly people can be turned against each other through weaponized fear.

The Kohan Reflection Garden is located along Slocan Lake. At this elevation, spring had just begun, and the blossoms were a wonderful tribute to all the beautiful Japanese Canadians who suffered.

Also located in town is the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre. Unfortunately, it was after-hours, but we were able to peak through the fence. The community center and 3 cabins for internees are all that remain of this appalling chapter.

This land. Our land.

Never forget. Never repeat.

October 2018

The Similkameen walking and biking trail starts just west of Keremeos and extends east to Cawston. It used to be an old rail line but was converted into a trail. We started walking this trail regularly since October 5, the day after Daisy died. It gives us a private area to walk and talk about how much we miss our dear girl.

(Please click on a photo to enlarge.)

Lots of color

Start of trail near The Red Bridge

Don’t touch the poison ivy!

Finding geocaches and a llama

Start of the trail, near the Red Bridge

Geocache

Poppy

Markers on the trail

Llama

Happy Poppy

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Panoramic picture by Rick

After we had settled into our park for a couple of days, our friends, Rick and Lynne, dropped by for a visit, so we had 2 atomic pods on our site! We had a fun time touring the local wineries and cideries in the Similkameen and Okanagan Valleys. Most of the wineries did not charge a tasting fee. Lynne and I were so happy that Paul and Rick took turns being designated drivers (or as my friend Brenda says, “devastated drivers”). Let the tastings begin!

Elephant Island Winery

I like this circus better than the one I had at work

View of Okanagan Lake from Naramata (NE of Penticton)

Of course, it wasn’t all about the wine and cider. We also visited a historic site in Keremeos: The Grist Mill. The miller was so passionate and animated. He is actually an architect who moved here to reconstruct the mill from bits and pieces. He studied other mills of the period and talked to every expert he could find. He was full of interesting stories about how they acquired parts for the mill. There were so many series of events that took place and they found actual parts from this original mill at local farms.

The Grist Mill, Keremeos

Daisy at the mill

The donated desk

One story was particularly interesting to me. A friend of the miller is a local artist. She had a desk that she had planned to use in her studio, but decided against it. She asked the miller if he would be interested since it was probably of the same vintage as the mill. He brought it back to the mill and the wood pieces of the desktop were the same size as the wood on the walls. OK. That was a nice coincidence . . . or so he thought. Then he considered where the original miller would have placed a desk. He could only fit it behind the door. When he put it in place, the water marks on the wall matched the shape of the desk! This was the original desk! This is just one of the many stories he told us.

You can buy flour milled here because it is fully operational. Of course, dogs aren’t allowed inside the mill, but they did allow us to sneak them onto the grounds.