A few days ago I was perusing the Trip Advisor web site.  I came upon the advertised Eco-friendly places they recommend and what makes such a place more eco-friendly than another. It is a short list: Low flush showers, in room recycling bins, low energy LED lighting, non toxic housekeeping products, organic tea and coffee and a discount for driving a hybrid. This was followed with “going green tips”: Minimize environmental impact, help local economy and society, buy food at local markets, and stay at smaller inns where you can open the windows!

I always try to find simple places where the owners, chefs and cooks have a passion for what they do and a great respect in their use of local and seasonal ingredients.

Why do we like so much to spend time with friends around food that we have foraged, fished for, gardened for or just bought not at a sterile supermarket but at a Farmers’ market? The connection between food and the people that grow it and us eating it and filling our bodies with it, is not just an organic connection but a deeper one and one that I feel is spiritual. Food is our fuel, not just for our body but as much for our mind and soul!

Sharing the food with other people is a social event that makes us more complete.

The connotation of art in today’s society is far from my definition of the term. For too many people, art comes in a frame or on a pedestal. People buy art after they have met their many other wants and needs; art is what they can afford when there is money left over. To my mind, that is a narrow vision, and looks only at a fraction of the art that surrounds us everyday, everywhere.

 

At the Sooke Harbour House, a small boutique hotel, romantic by essence, on the edge of the pacific, you can put a hold on time and luxuriate.

A gourmet breakfast is served in the privacy of your room, on your private patio or balcony and while you are savouring plump croissants, rich coffee, you also can have the live entertainment brilliantly executed by the whales, otters, seals, bald eagles and blue herons playing in front of your room.