I’m just back from a visit to New England to see my family. It felt luxurious to spend so many days with my sibs and their kids around, as well as my mom and my uncle. We all converged on my brother’s house in Vermont; some of us camped out at their house, and some of us in a cabin at the end of a quiet unpaved road on a hill on the other side of the village. The small spring-fed pond behind the cabin was the focus of much frog and newt pursuit. I’m proud to say the kids were quite compassionate with their captives, and released them without a fuss (after a reasonable period of observation).

It was just over a year ago that my husband and I packed our car in Massachusetts, tucked Sam the dog into the back seat, and drove across the continent to make our home in British Columbia. It’s been a great year. I may be still floundering about a bit, trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing, but I don’t have any second thoughts about making the change.

I flew back from Boston via Salt Lake City (yes, direct from SLC to Victoria. Who knew?). The flight came in over the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, and across the Straight of Juan de Fuca. We must have come pretty close to flying right over our house. This photo shows East Sooke and Pedder Bay, which lies just west of Metchosin. The way the fog is hugging the peninsula makes it look a bit like I shot this from orbit.

I love my new home, but I miss Boston of course. Its not that its the most beautiful city in the world, the most exciting, or the most anything. But it’s my home, and everyone has a right to have a soft spot for home. It was nice to spend a few summer days with Red Sox games as a constant backdrop to all activity: on the car radio, tuned in on the TV at a family party, coming in badly on a portable radio in the cabin at the end of the road. It’s summer; Sox games are a given.

Just before my trip, Gary and I finally watched the Red Sox version of “Fever Pitch.” You would think I would be predisposed to like a movie that was set during (and filmed during) the 2004 Championship season of the Sox, but I really wasn’t expecting to like it much. I was a little annoyed that they allowed filming during the post-game celebration on the field at the World Series. And I’m still a bit annoyed about that, but the movie was actually not too bad.

Gary and I were at the game in September 2004 when they shot the scene of Drew Barrymore running across the field at Fenway Park. In “real life” it was Curt Schilling’s 20th win. After the game, fans were asked to stay and react while they shot the scene. In the movie it takes place during game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees. That was the one nit I really had to pick with the movie; it just rings false to interject a woman in a purple pantsuit running across the field into a game every moment of which is etched in the collective memory. (On the plus side, I guess that means I can say I was at Game 4, in an alternate universe.) Except for that, I mostly enjoyed it. However, I think I got a better Boston fix watching “The Departed.”

So here’s one more shot I snapped on our approach to Victoria. Our house would be just off the bottom of the frame. Its good to be back.