Archive for the ‘About Monkey Valley’ Category

Monkey Valley history

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

When I first saw the 160 acres I now call Monkey Valley, located halfway between Merritt and Princeton, I fell in love with its silence and beauty. It was early autumn, and the aspen were golden, but tiny wild strawberries still dotted the ground. As a writer, I immediately had ...

Finding Monkey Valley

Saturday, August 25th, 2012

The nearest neighbours to Monkey Valley are 30 KM (20 miles) away, in the hamlet of Aspen Grove. This community was once a stop on the Merritt-Princeton stagecoach line! There are also some neighbours in another community, a similar distance by road, at the south-east end of Missezula Lake. Given how remote—and hard ...

The first sign of Starshine Way

Monday, July 16th, 2012

I like digging holes. It is very satisfying to see the concrete results of my actions. And the hard physical labour of it feels good in my body. I remember thinking I could dig a hole to China when I was a kid. I was inspired by a comic book ...

The second sign of Starshine Way

Sunday, July 15th, 2012

Have you ever noticed how humans tend to repeat things from the past, which didn't work out the first time, hoping that somehow it will work out this time around? Well, that was my experience of trying to replace my Starshine Way sign. As I mentioned previously, at first I ...

Spinal Tap at Monkey Valley!

Friday, July 13th, 2012

The story of the Starshine Way sign continues. When I last wrote to you about it, I had poured the concrete, and the sign was setting overnight in my laundry room. The next day I checked and the pole seemed very solidly set in the concrete. Unfortunately, the sign itself was just ...

Leaving Monkey Valley

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

As I have mentioned in other postings, I have put Monkey Valley on the market. I hope you have had a chance to look at the virtual tour of the house today. Offering nature-based teachings in new places The original intention of this website was to promote the retreats that I offered here on ...

More Monkey Valley doings, or how I spent my writing retreat not writing

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

Luckily, most of the diversions at Monkey Valley are more fun than cleaning up dead mice! This is how I spend my time not writing: • Get winter tires put on the Tracker. • Get chips repaired on Tracker windshield (much cheaper in Merritt than in Vancouver). The chip repairer is amazed that my ...

Monkey Valley doings—as snug as a bug in a fug

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

As you know, I came to Monkey Valley this November to write. And as many writers can verify, it is a law of the universe that just about any mundane chore can seem more important when there's writing to be done. Monkey Valley provided me with myriad (which literally means 10,000) ...

Glowing white stick lights up Monkey Valley!

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

I'm back at Monkey Valley for the month of November, working on a personal writing project. I arrived November 3, to balmy conditions. No frozen water pipes! The road was dry and easy to drive on! All systems were running in the house! It is so nice to reap the ...

Fried and fit to be tied

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Well, before I even had a chance to text the picture of the new antenna from my cell phone to my email, the new power adapter was fried. Dang! All that "Searching for service" was for naught, since the power adapter had fried after less than a day of receiving phone ...