Adieu Cielomar:

Where we lived: Where we worked:

Where we played:

Where we

Loved

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Cielomar, Ladysmith B.C. in 1997. Click on photo to enlarge:

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A Sense of Place:

Naming Place: Creating Myths

For a quarter century, we lived a dream: in the territory of the Stz’uminus: a property with a view of snow capped Coastal Mountains in the distance and the Pacific Ocean in the foreground generously interspersed with forested islands. We were the custodians, the labourers and domestic workers who maintained the illusion of ‘estate’ in the expression ‘real estate’. The sky (cielo) and the sea (mar) gave the place its name. Of course we justified the privilege/burden of ‘ownership’ by invoking the hard work that we gave back to the land. The land itself however, did not acknowledge our work since it made no distinction between what resulted from the products of our work and what may have existed in the absence of our labours.

The consequence of our labours to maintain and upgrade the place were rewarded in the market place when we sold the property. If we had made a tally of the hours we had worked clearing, modifying and maintaining the land on which our homes were located, even at a modest minimal per hour wage we might have emerged as millionaires.

The concept of ‘ownership’ is lodged as much in the mind as it is in the world. The physical elements of housing, land and structures on a property which provides tenure is, of course, subject to the many legal constraints of the system of laws governing the location of a property. Ethical and moral-historical considerations now have cast the notion of ownership of land and property in the nation states of the New World into a troubling light. How can relative new comers, settlers, impose rules for the acquisition and the disposal of land which properly speaking, in a historical context, does not belong to them?

Home ownership is one of those many elements of inequality which society must resolve in a very near future or risk increasing internal fracturing.

In our era, late 20th century and early 21st century, Cielomar, the place and Cielomar, the myth took on its own unique character through interactions with 4 grandchildren from May 1995 until September 2019 when the care and feeding of the myth became unsustainable.

Adieu Cielomar…

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A Place Called

Cielomar:

Gallery

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Property #2:Pheasant Lake

Prince George Area,

Red Rock

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We have been ‘owners’ of one other property, an inexpensive (40 acres for $4,700 in 1972) scrubby 40 acre plot of land south of Prince George, B.C. in Lheidli T’enneh territory. Our labours over 20 years (1972-1992) resulted in a now fictional locale which at the time we called ‘Pheasant Lake’.

Pheasant Lake was a half acre pond dug out of the Pineview clay on a property south of Prince George, B.C. in 1979. The property, 40 acres of raw, undeveloped land had been logged and left scattered with the logging debris.

An old Allis-Chalmers bulldozer under the guidance of the ex-teacher, now become the self named  ‘Bushman’ carved and landscaped a half acre section into the surrounding bush. The Bushman dragged a structure built for his pheasants to the edge of the pond and with more optimism than good sense he renamed this new feature “Pheasant Lake.” In this primitive dugout, rainbow trout frolicked for ten years, providing recreation and food for family and invited guests.

The property was developed later to include a cricket pitch and tomato houses which housed 300 tomato plants which produced over 2,000 lbs. of tomato annually (see photos below).

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1979: Start of excavation of Pheasant Lake: The Bushman and Allis Chalmers, the Bulldozer Collaborate

1979: Start of excavation for Pheasant Lake: Allis Chalmers HD 11, the bulldozer and the Bushman

Pheasant Lake is filled for the first time in Spring 1980

Pheasant Lake 1981, Second Year. Disturbed Water in Foreground indicate fish feeding

Golden Pheasants of Pheasant Lake, 1981.

Two pairs of Golden Pheasants at Pheasant Lake, 1981

Little boat with a boatload of kids, 1980

Allison and Anita and the Bushman , Pheasant Lake,1982

Janice and Coleen Moshenko, Anita and Allison on Pheasant Lake, 1984

Anita and Terry, Summer1983

Diving platform out of Lodgepole Pine

View of Island and Bridge

Pheasant Lake, Fourth Year, 1983.Cattails proliferating, Vegetative base expanding throughout the shallow areas.

Rainbow Trout from Pheasant Lake

Frames viewed from the driveway

Late June 1986

Pheasant Lake: Autumn 1981

Pheasant Lake: One Season in Our Life

Autumn at Pheasant Lake

Christmas Peace on Pheasant Lake, late 1980s

Winter at Pheasant Lake, 1983

Skating on Pheasant Lake, 1981

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Cricket Pitch at

Pheasant

Lake