It’s been about three weeks since my last post and during that time I had my busiest weekend ever at the Gallery, BC was visited by the Atmospheric River Rain Disaster, and a new worrisome variant – “The Omicron” – has been discovered in South Africa which has WHO officials concerned.

Despite the pleasant distractions of a buzzing little Gallery Café it’s impossible to ignore the ongoing stresses of the pandemic and the plights of those affected by our regional disaster – my heart goes out to them all. I just spoke to my cousin Dona yesterday who has a small farm in Abbotsford and she and her family and her four horses had to evacuate to higher ground as their property was under 14 inches of water. Her 70 chickens seemed undisturbed by the chaos as their Coop was raised up above the flood, so they remained in place.

Of course, we’ll have to see what the new variant brings but until then, Shavasana Gallery & Café will be operating under existing pandemic guidelines for Gallery/Cafés’…masks are mandatory but Vaccine Passports are not, there is limited indoor seating (9 indoor seats at present with about 18 outdoor seats – weather permitting), and a hand-sanitizing station is available…here are our December hours:

Friday December 3rd, 10am-4pm, Saturday the 4th, 10am – 4pm, Sunday the 5th, 10:30am – 4pm, Monday the 6th, 10am – 4pm

I am also intending on opening mid month* as follows:

Monday December 13th, 12noon – 4pm, Tuesday the 14th 10am – 4pm, Wednesday the 15th, 10am – 4pm, and Thursday the 16th, 10am – 4pm (*this is a bit of an experiment as I’ve never been open weekdays before)

As many of you may be aware, I commute from Vancouver to Mayne Island to run Shavasana Gallery & Café. Over the years I’ve chosen to travel by public transit to the ferry and make my crossing as a Foot Passenger, rather than bringing my car, as it saves me thousands of dollars each year in travel expenses. I’ve come to appreciate Public Transit and find sitting on the bus to be relaxing and surprisingly quick, and I have to say that after all these years, I’ve never once considered assaulting a Bus Driver!😆

The featured image for this article is a carved icon we call “The Dancing Lady”…she has been on display at Shavasana Gallery on consignment with me for several years, and is being returned to the owner who “misses her”. The Dancing lady is a wonderfully intricate wooden carving by a member of the Oddar community in India…now I will miss her