It feels like we are already in the middle of a long, sweltering summer and yet it鈥檚 only just begun. For those of us living boldly (read: without air conditioning), it is a good time to accept the test Mother Nature puts to us and dig deep in our resourcefulness.
For us, that means spending days down by the river keeping cool and out of the sun as much as possible.
The frigid waters of the Stawamus River are a go-to for my girls, and they make multiple trips to the water daily 鈥� in the morning with one set of neighbours, in the afternoon with another, and in the evening with me for a final cool-off.
We are blessed with access to what is easily one of the most beautiful treasures in our province: clean, crisp glacial water with countless little sandy 鈥渂eaches,鈥� towering trees providing our very own AC, and invariably lots of old and new friends we meet on any given day.
Last weekend we met a young woman who had moved from the Okanagan the day before and stumbled upon our secret swimming hole. She had been walking for two hours in 35C heat looking for just the right place. We had a great, spirited chat for a solid hour. A few years ago, we had a similar experience and met a young family who had been in Squamish for less than a week 鈥� and we are good friends to this day. In fact, I ended up being the maid of honour at their wedding later that year.
Like most Squamish homeowners, I had the task of paying property taxes earlier this month. And as I sat down by the rushing water the other day, I felt grateful for that privilege and for what we have in our backyard, so to speak.
Having grown up on the Prairies in a very middle-class family, it was normal to have a summer cottage. We didn鈥檛 take trips or camp 鈥� in fact I was 18 the first time I slept in a tent 鈥� but we did move out to the lake for three months of the year and enjoy endless amounts of water and sand, not to mention dragonflies, frogs and toads day after day after day.
Our family didn鈥檛 have a lot of money. We made do on my dad鈥檚 modest income as a civil servant. We never had a new car. There wasn鈥檛 any splash of excess that I can recall. Yet we had two homes in a sense, and a great place where we could get away.
Times have changed immensely. Part of it is living in a more expensive province. And I truly believe mine may be one of the first generations to not do as well as our parents.
I wonder if my own little family qualifies as 鈥渕iddle class.鈥� Even with two incomes the concept of a summer home is completely unattainable. In fact it鈥檚 not even a thought I entertain.
But all of that seems perfectly fine when I sit with my feet in the crystal clear pools of the Stawamus River, even after paying several thousand dollars in property taxes 鈥撀燼t least I only have to pay it on one property, not two.
And the four-minute commute to paradise is hardly worthy of complaining.
