Some pictures telling the story of my first January on my new island home…
Love these lines and shadows. On the beach at Parksville.Shadows on the sand, Parksville.Bridge in Nanoose BayDonna setting up to shoot me.View from Parksville BeachLooking towards ParksvilleForest bathing.More forest bathing. Photo by Donna ConnollyDonna on my favourite Departure Bay Log.Geese, awaiting the dawn.Dawn on Departure BayOutgoing Ferry, heading for Horseshoe Bay.Incoming, heading for the Departure Bay Terminal.Snowdrops blooming.Have never seen a kayak with an outrigger until now. Mainland mountains in January.Enjoying a London Fog on the patio at Drip Social. Resting my soaking feet, after an adventurous walk along the shore at high tide. 🙂New year; new hair. I had all my bleached locks cut off. Selfie taken in the bathroom.And I got one of those fancy ring lights, for Zooming and FaceTiming and such. For such remains the reality of life. See the blurring magicfakery trickery difference good lighting makes? I need to carry one around and shine it on me, always. Ah, zee glah-mour! 😉
In case it makes my friends back in Ontario feel any better, snow is in the forecast for this coming Sunday and Monday.
Thank you, Erica 💕 The hair actually takes a bit more finessing, but only because I was so lazy with my longer hair. I usually just pulled it back and stuck a clip in it. 😁
I recently started using a ring light too. The lighting in my studio isn’t the best for video-conferencing and with the ring light, I’d like to believe I don’t look quite so sallow anymore 😉
Hi Debs – love the photos and story telling … because VI always has a story to tell .. you’re lucky I was in thick snow in January when I was there – lovely and so pretty … but it was off-putting for me at that stage. Lovely island views though … and forest bathing – how delightful … enjoy the snow when it arrives – take care – Hilary
Thank you, Hilary 💕 I’ve been told to “enjoy” the snow when it comes because it won’t last long. Also not to drive if I don’t have to, as there is a dearth of snow-clearing equipment and also knowledge of how to actually drive in it. 🤣
Thank you, TG 💕 No water (or soap) need be involved in this type of bathing…unless you choose to do it in the rain. Which happens a lot around here, as I live in a rain forest now.🤣
Gorgeous new home scenery photos & hair do! Do give deets on ring light. Reminder: In less than 4 hrs. your southern neighbor will be under different management, experienced in rebuilding. 🇺🇸
Thank you, Del 💕 I purchased the ring light from Amazon. The brand is called Ubeesize, and it comes jam-packed with features for only $50. I can vary the brightness and the temperature of the light, and can use it on a table or the floor. It even has a mount for a cell phone or camera in the centre of it, and a remote, for triggering photos. I probably will never use most of the features. Yay to new management taking over!!!! 🥳🥳🥳
Deb, it looks like you have had a beautiful January so far. I love the hair, but it is your eyes that steal the show in both photos. Man, I’d kill for your brows. My daughter does a lot of ZOOM conferences and I keep telling her to get the Ring. I guess she prefers the shadows…
Thank you, Suzanne 💕 I wish I’d never overplucked my brows as a young woman, but I sported a unibrow back then…they are turning white (like my hair). And the hairs I have left are growing abnormally long. I call them my mutants 🤣. I comb them into place with a damp spoolie rubbed in Pears soap, and that tames them and makes them look fuller than they actually are. Try it!
I live in Alberta. I feel like I’ve been transported to another country whenever I get to VI, especially in the spring. Your pictures allow me to travel vicariously. Beautiful.
I’ve always wanted to visit Vancouver Island; it’s lovely, so thank you for sharing.
Your hair is AMAZING!! I love it and your face is just lovely without the filter/light, whatever the hell it is.
Thank you, Suz 💕 The ring light – it’s a light not a filter, a bulb in the shape of a circle that eliminates the unflattering shadows as well as the wrinkles. All the “hip youngsters” use them (and they don’t even need them yet 🤣).
So much to explore on Vancouver Island, hoping to get back to the area to visit at some point🤞. Love the hair, lighting or no lighter, looks fantastic!💕
Hi, Deb – I love your photos and the many great adventures that they represent. Speaking of adventures, my Parksville weather app (which has been known for compulsive lying) predicts light rain showers for Sunday (high of 5C), Partly Cloudy for Monday (high of 4C) and sun, sun, sun all day Tuesday. Fingers crossed!
Thank you, Leslie 💕 I hope it’ll be easier to keep. Although in all honesty I did not do much with my longer hair other than scrape it off my face and secure it with a ponytail or a clip. 🤣
It’s beautiful there, and the start of the new year looks like it’s off to a great start for you.
I love your new hair look! I quit highlighting and coloring my hair just over 8 years ago. I’ve never looked back. You may find the colors you used to wear don’t quite look as right on you now. I did. My color palette for clothes has changed to suit my hair now.
Thank you, Deborah 💕 I stopped highlighting my hair about a year ago. I was getting so many grey and white hairs that my highlights no longer helped my hair colours blend; instead they just looked brassy. So happy to have them cut off. Good advice – yes, I anticipate my choices in clothing and makeup will have to adjust along with my changing hair colour.
Yes! My hairdresser recommended this and I have some. I just have to remember to use it. 😁 I’ve always gravitated towards cooler tones so no big changes in store for me there.
Ah you’ve captured part of my youth in those photos. Love that area. Happy to live where I am but do love to know it’s there when I want to go back.
By the way – love your shorter hair. And great that you showed the real you without the fairy ring! Never heard of it and seems I zoom about once a month (maybe) I doubt I will rush out for it.
Thank you, Bernie 💕 My north facing apartment can get quite dark even during the day so I need all the lighting help I can get. That it takes years off is a bonus!
Such a beautiful place to live. Snowdrops blooming already! I take it you’re happy with your move? I like your haircut. My hair is a similar texture to yours and I’ve been thinking about cutting off the last of my blonde hair, too. I stopped with the highlights over a year ago.
Thank you, Ally 💕 Very happy with my move! I stopped highlights a year ago too. My hair grew out enough that I thought chopping all the highlights out would be doable, and it was! Let me know if you take the plunge and how you like it!
As always, love looking at your photos, Deb. I hadn’t realised how pretty snowdrops were and I’ve seen canoes with outriggers – must be more common here. I love your new hair (I always think natural is better). It looks fabulous on you and I actually prefer the natural photo you to the smooothed out you. You don’t have to worry about wrinkles… here in Oz where we get loads of harsh sun, we wrinkle young. I reckon I’m easily worse then you (but a number of years younger). So if you ever want to feel good about yourself, head to our shores, lol.
Thank you, AJ 💕 I would love to head to your shores someday, feeling good about myself notwithstanding…I think canoes or kayaks with outriggers are an ocean thing…and living beside an ocean instead of a river or lake is new to me.
First off, I am terribly jealous of your hikes and your hiking partners. Second, although those lights can smooth out lines, I think they also can remove character. Ain’t nothing wrong with the Widow Badass’s face au natural.
Thank you, Janis 💕 I agree with you about the character part. Have you seen RuPaul’s new face, for example? I liked his old one better and I also totally support him wanting to have surgery, as it is his canvas and his livelihood.
Beautiful photos of a beautiful new home town and island. 🙂 Whenever you travel to the South Pacific, you will notice that all the local (ocean) canoes have outriggers.
Thank you, Liesbet 💕 Outriggers make sense, for stability I assume. Needed on the ocean much more than on the lakes and rivers I am used to kayaking on.
Lovely photos of your gorgeous new home 🙂 My favourite is the first one as I simply love textures. I have also gone down a rabbit hole researching ring lights – for I am old and I need the help. Thank you for the recommendation of the technology even if I can’t find the one you recommend in the UK (yet – for I’ve not given up)!
Thank you, Deb 💕 Good luck with the ring light search! There has to be some good ones as I have watched a few British YouTubers and I know they are using them.
What a glorious collection of photos and more importantly, experiences in nature. Love the shot of you resting on a fallen tree. But so many good ones here. Thanks for sharing your new home in January. Seems you chose very well!
Love the new hair cut. Man gotta get me one of dem lights for zoom calls haha. Gamechanger.
Thank you, Peta 💕 The tree is not fallen, but is growing that way – horizontally before rising up to the sky. Weird, eh? That ring light sure has come in handy, on gloomy days in my dark apartment. Illuminating and erasing! What a great combo 🤣😉
Deb what a GORGEOUS selection of photos. We both really enjoyed this. From the zebra lines in the very first photo to the bridge and the forest bathing (love this forest) and the geese… WOW! How very well you chose your new home, with such dramatic scenery and beautiful environment around you.
Please send me one of those magic lights for my zoom calls, and yes, carrying it around is an idea I could go for. Love the new hair style and the silver locks with your blue eyes. Yeah!!!
Stunning series of photos, Deb! Those are amazing beach photos – I am trying to imagine the chilly weather with those sights (beach=hot hot hot in my experience)
I love the one of you lying on the log. And those selfies – your skin is looking positively vibrant!
Ahh, snowdrops! I haven’t seen any yet out this way. However, this weekend the first of the hummingbirds returned, and they always show up when things first start to bloom.
Stunning photos, Deb! Gorgeous scenery! Beautiful women! Forest bathing photo…ha, ha. Love your hair cut. It looks easy to maintain. ❤️
Thank you, Erica 💕 The hair actually takes a bit more finessing, but only because I was so lazy with my longer hair. I usually just pulled it back and stuck a clip in it. 😁
Your photos tell a story of a January well-spent. As always, you’re looking good, my friend 🙂
Thank you, my friend 💕 I now understand why these YouTubing women always look so good. That lighting is the bomb.
I recently started using a ring light too. The lighting in my studio isn’t the best for video-conferencing and with the ring light, I’d like to believe I don’t look quite so sallow anymore 😉
Have fun playing with it!!!
Hi Debs – love the photos and story telling … because VI always has a story to tell .. you’re lucky I was in thick snow in January when I was there – lovely and so pretty … but it was off-putting for me at that stage. Lovely island views though … and forest bathing – how delightful … enjoy the snow when it arrives – take care – Hilary
Thank you, Hilary 💕 I’ve been told to “enjoy” the snow when it comes because it won’t last long. Also not to drive if I don’t have to, as there is a dearth of snow-clearing equipment and also knowledge of how to actually drive in it. 🤣
Beautiful photos of what must be a gorgeous in person place. But please, what is this youthful magic ring of which you speak?
Thank you, Rivergirl 💕 Google ring lights and you shall find out! I got mine on Amazon for $50 CDN. From a company called Ubeesize.
Will do. Thanks!
Love the hair. Nice waves to soften and a ring light to boot! Your new home looks like paradise even in the winter.
Thank you, Kate 💕 So far, it is everything I wanted in a Canadian paradise!
Beautiful. The ripples in the sand look almost like psychedelic art.
I’m assuming that forest bathing involves hiking beneath trees that are dripping water. Or does one need a bar of soap to forest bathe?
Thank you, TG 💕 No water (or soap) need be involved in this type of bathing…unless you choose to do it in the rain. Which happens a lot around here, as I live in a rain forest now.🤣
Gorgeous new home scenery photos & hair do! Do give deets on ring light. Reminder: In less than 4 hrs. your southern neighbor will be under different management, experienced in rebuilding. 🇺🇸
Thank you, Del 💕 I purchased the ring light from Amazon. The brand is called Ubeesize, and it comes jam-packed with features for only $50. I can vary the brightness and the temperature of the light, and can use it on a table or the floor. It even has a mount for a cell phone or camera in the centre of it, and a remote, for triggering photos. I probably will never use most of the features. Yay to new management taking over!!!! 🥳🥳🥳
Thank you so much for all the ring light deets! Fingers crossed that Pres. B’s first internat’l call Friday, to your mgmt., goes well. 💕
Love your hair! And of course, Vancouver is wonderful. What makes those waves in the sand at the beach? The wind or water?
Thank you, Jean 💕 I don’t know what makes the patterns in the sand exactly, but I suspect it is the waves as the tide goes out.
Beautiful landscape and I’m getting one of those ring lights 🤣
Thank you, Ingrid 💕 I thought about getting one for a while (especially since my new home has terrible lighting at times) and wow, am I glad I did!
Deb, it looks like you have had a beautiful January so far. I love the hair, but it is your eyes that steal the show in both photos. Man, I’d kill for your brows. My daughter does a lot of ZOOM conferences and I keep telling her to get the Ring. I guess she prefers the shadows…
Thank you, Suzanne 💕 I wish I’d never overplucked my brows as a young woman, but I sported a unibrow back then…they are turning white (like my hair). And the hairs I have left are growing abnormally long. I call them my mutants 🤣. I comb them into place with a damp spoolie rubbed in Pears soap, and that tames them and makes them look fuller than they actually are. Try it!
I live in Alberta. I feel like I’ve been transported to another country whenever I get to VI, especially in the spring. Your pictures allow me to travel vicariously. Beautiful.
Thank you, Mona 💕 Coming from Ontario, I feel the same way about this place. 😁
I’ve always wanted to visit Vancouver Island; it’s lovely, so thank you for sharing.
Your hair is AMAZING!! I love it and your face is just lovely without the filter/light, whatever the hell it is.
Thank you, Suz 💕 The ring light – it’s a light not a filter, a bulb in the shape of a circle that eliminates the unflattering shadows as well as the wrinkles. All the “hip youngsters” use them (and they don’t even need them yet 🤣).
So much to explore on Vancouver Island, hoping to get back to the area to visit at some point🤞. Love the hair, lighting or no lighter, looks fantastic!💕
Thank you, Lynn 💕 You are too kind!
Hi, Deb – I love your photos and the many great adventures that they represent. Speaking of adventures, my Parksville weather app (which has been known for compulsive lying) predicts light rain showers for Sunday (high of 5C), Partly Cloudy for Monday (high of 4C) and sun, sun, sun all day Tuesday. Fingers crossed!
Thank you, my friend 💕 I like your weather app better than mine! Let’s go with yours!
Happy January. It gets better from here.
Thank you, Ann 💕 I am pinching myself… “It gets better from here”? How do you top amazing?!?! 😁
Love you haircut Deb. It’ll be easier to keep too.
The pictures are wonderful. I have been to Vancouver Island but not to that part.
Leslie
Thank you, Leslie 💕 I hope it’ll be easier to keep. Although in all honesty I did not do much with my longer hair other than scrape it off my face and secure it with a ponytail or a clip. 🤣
I think you’ll find it easier to manage….
It’s beautiful there, and the start of the new year looks like it’s off to a great start for you.
I love your new hair look! I quit highlighting and coloring my hair just over 8 years ago. I’ve never looked back. You may find the colors you used to wear don’t quite look as right on you now. I did. My color palette for clothes has changed to suit my hair now.
Happy Hump Day!
Thank you, Deborah 💕 I stopped highlighting my hair about a year ago. I was getting so many grey and white hairs that my highlights no longer helped my hair colours blend; instead they just looked brassy. So happy to have them cut off. Good advice – yes, I anticipate my choices in clothing and makeup will have to adjust along with my changing hair colour.
You may want to get purple or blue shampoo to use once a week to those grays and whites bright. I like the purple one for my hair.
I was surprised to find a lot of the warmer tones didn’t look so good on me anymore. Now I wear cooler tones.
Yes! My hairdresser recommended this and I have some. I just have to remember to use it. 😁 I’ve always gravitated towards cooler tones so no big changes in store for me there.
😍
Ah you’ve captured part of my youth in those photos. Love that area. Happy to live where I am but do love to know it’s there when I want to go back.
By the way – love your shorter hair. And great that you showed the real you without the fairy ring! Never heard of it and seems I zoom about once a month (maybe) I doubt I will rush out for it.
Thank you, Bernie 💕 My north facing apartment can get quite dark even during the day so I need all the lighting help I can get. That it takes years off is a bonus!
Such a beautiful place to live. Snowdrops blooming already! I take it you’re happy with your move? I like your haircut. My hair is a similar texture to yours and I’ve been thinking about cutting off the last of my blonde hair, too. I stopped with the highlights over a year ago.
Thank you, Ally 💕 Very happy with my move! I stopped highlights a year ago too. My hair grew out enough that I thought chopping all the highlights out would be doable, and it was! Let me know if you take the plunge and how you like it!
As always, love looking at your photos, Deb. I hadn’t realised how pretty snowdrops were and I’ve seen canoes with outriggers – must be more common here. I love your new hair (I always think natural is better). It looks fabulous on you and I actually prefer the natural photo you to the smooothed out you. You don’t have to worry about wrinkles… here in Oz where we get loads of harsh sun, we wrinkle young. I reckon I’m easily worse then you (but a number of years younger). So if you ever want to feel good about yourself, head to our shores, lol.
Thank you, AJ 💕 I would love to head to your shores someday, feeling good about myself notwithstanding…I think canoes or kayaks with outriggers are an ocean thing…and living beside an ocean instead of a river or lake is new to me.
First off, I am terribly jealous of your hikes and your hiking partners. Second, although those lights can smooth out lines, I think they also can remove character. Ain’t nothing wrong with the Widow Badass’s face au natural.
Thank you, Janis 💕 I agree with you about the character part. Have you seen RuPaul’s new face, for example? I liked his old one better and I also totally support him wanting to have surgery, as it is his canvas and his livelihood.
Beautiful photos of a beautiful new home town and island. 🙂 Whenever you travel to the South Pacific, you will notice that all the local (ocean) canoes have outriggers.
Thank you, Liesbet 💕 Outriggers make sense, for stability I assume. Needed on the ocean much more than on the lakes and rivers I am used to kayaking on.
Lovely photos of your gorgeous new home 🙂 My favourite is the first one as I simply love textures. I have also gone down a rabbit hole researching ring lights – for I am old and I need the help. Thank you for the recommendation of the technology even if I can’t find the one you recommend in the UK (yet – for I’ve not given up)!
Thank you, Deb 💕 Good luck with the ring light search! There has to be some good ones as I have watched a few British YouTubers and I know they are using them.
What a glorious collection of photos and more importantly, experiences in nature. Love the shot of you resting on a fallen tree. But so many good ones here. Thanks for sharing your new home in January. Seems you chose very well!
Love the new hair cut. Man gotta get me one of dem lights for zoom calls haha. Gamechanger.
Peta
Thank you, Peta 💕 The tree is not fallen, but is growing that way – horizontally before rising up to the sky. Weird, eh? That ring light sure has come in handy, on gloomy days in my dark apartment. Illuminating and erasing! What a great combo 🤣😉
Wow amazing re the tree. I read this post again with Ben and we left another joint comment. It was that good.
Thanks so much! 💕💕
You look refreshed and happy. Keep the look.
Thank you 💕 I think I will.
All the pictures are stunning!!!
Thank you 💕
Deb what a GORGEOUS selection of photos. We both really enjoyed this. From the zebra lines in the very first photo to the bridge and the forest bathing (love this forest) and the geese… WOW! How very well you chose your new home, with such dramatic scenery and beautiful environment around you.
Please send me one of those magic lights for my zoom calls, and yes, carrying it around is an idea I could go for. Love the new hair style and the silver locks with your blue eyes. Yeah!!!
Peta
Thank you, Peta and Ben 💕
Stunning series of photos, Deb! Those are amazing beach photos – I am trying to imagine the chilly weather with those sights (beach=hot hot hot in my experience)
I love the one of you lying on the log. And those selfies – your skin is looking positively vibrant!
Thank you, Ju-Lyn 💕 That ring light is magical, I tell you 😁
I have to look into getting me one!
Ahh, snowdrops! I haven’t seen any yet out this way. However, this weekend the first of the hummingbirds returned, and they always show up when things first start to bloom.
Jude
Oooh, I’d love to see a hummingbird again! Thanks, Jude 💕