There was an epic battle on the deck today. I’m back on Saltspring and so are the hummingbirds. My sister has one feeder and a host of hummers, who are hugely territorial. One comes by for a drink and suddenly there are several zooming past our ears like mini F-16s, scolding each other and then landing in a tree and belting out their tiny chip-chip-chip noise. I manage to get several very bad photos and have posted the best of the worst of those.

Then we hear a few twigs snap and pretty soon there’s a doe with two fawns traversing the steep back slope of the property. Earlier in the day, a buck with glorious half-grown antlers upholstered in velvet sauntered through the front yard to belly up to the bird fountain for a few sips of the good stuff. Anyone who tells you deer are silent in the forest has not met the deer on Salt Spring Island. They crash around the underbrush making more noise than people.

Every time I come to the island, the peace and tranquility amazes me. After living in the city, the sounds here are full and rich. Because Saint Mary Lake is a reservoir, there are no boat engines or float planes cutting through the air. Just birds. There are so many different bird calls in the trees around the deck that even my dad – a bird fan for many years – cannot identify them all.

We took a trip to “downtown” Ganges today. I use the word lightly given that there are no traffic lights, high-rises or people in suits. Found some more bicycle art in front of Glad’s Ice Cream, open from Easter through Labor Day, before heading inside for waffle cones. We had one of the best-ever BLT sandwiches at Auntie Pesto’s sitting on their deck overlooking part of the harbor. And, a rarity in B.C., they offered brewed ice tea – a huge plus for me!

Back home we enjoyed a beverage on the deck, the center of so many great conversations, such as one last night where my sister and brother-in-law and some dear friends of theirs recounted the worst-ever vacation. It involved five occasionally-petulant teenagers, an old pickup truck with a dying battery, an even older RV with unresolved issues and a long, long trip to Long Beach on Vancouver Island. Where they all sat in a perpetual fog bank for days, unable to see the breathtaking coast and where the unending surf ended with the fog. We all laughed so hard at the memories that I had to mop the tears from my face.

Life on the deck is good.