Juno and The Eagle – Easter travel reflections in Nelson BC

Kathie, Ken and I had a wonderful trip down to Nelson last weekend. Hannah and Mark live there presently, and my humans enjoy the small city with its hills and trees, beautiful older homes, serene valley and waters, and quirky residents — descendants of hippies and draft-dodgers, joining with present-day civil libertarians (are there truckers everywhere these days?).

I say it was a “wonderful trip” but there were exceptions I must say. Chained to a sidewalk post outside Still Eagle: Planetary Persuasions I was unable to enter and enjoy the consumer delights, including ladies underwear and black mannequins (never seen these before). Likely I could have entered, but photo-obsessed Ken never asked on my behalf. He did ask permission of the owner to take some photographs – he has been curtly refused in other places before, usually in pretentious Victoria boutiques – but not this time. In fact, the owner seemed puzzled by the request.

I am told (see above) that it is a marvellous, fun, folksy and sustainability conscious store, attracting a wide variety of customers who appreciate dazzling colour, earth-based products, a conversation or two and yes, great music – blues. While not a blues bar all that was missing was a guitar and a beer-soaked rug. This place had style, ambience and cultural relevance in spades.

As a photographer Ken enjoys line colour, shape and form. He is less comfortable noticing detail but can well appreciate patterns in textiles and the shape of three-dimensional objects. As he prowled along enticing corridors he found hats, blankets, carvings, baskets, clothes, utensils and household items galore.

Would I have loved to eat from the brightly coloured bowls? Likely not, but they would have made great toys. The rugs and coverlets would have made a fine bed for napping or nightly slumber. I would have enjoyed carrying (stealing?) the baskets, trotting from room to room eluding capture.

Still Eagle is a real people place, but they need some dogs, dogs of all sizes and breeds, dogs with humour, style, culture, good behaviour and excellent breeding. If indeed, as some claim, that everything is connected, then we dogs remain shamefully disconnected from this marvellous store. Don’t you agree?