- RACHEL SANDERS -

Canadian musician Daisy DeBolt passed away last week. Such a shock when I heard. My first thought was: “my Facebook’s just not going to be the same without your feisty comments, Daize.” And my second was, man, I am so lucky to have been able to meet her last year and tell the story of her iconoclastic 70s psych folk band Fraser and DeBolt. Her presence is such an important part of the documentary and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to pay tribute with it to her indomitable spirit and her incomparable voice. In light of her passing, CBC’s Inside The Music is re-airing the documentary this Sunday (October 16) at 3 pm on Radio 2 and 9 pm on Radio One.

Thanks for the interview, Daisy. May your music and your spirit live on.

Edit: if you’d like to hear the documentary on Fraser and DeBolt you can stream it here on my site in the Radio section. Here’s a link:

An Overnight Sensation: The Story of Fraser and DeBolt

Thanks for listening!

This has been an exceptionally rainy year for us so far, both literally and metaphorically. Spring was wet and stormy. Summer was grey and cool. And we didn’t even get our usual dry, warm September. Now that it’s October, the rain has returned in earnest. Things have been turbulent at home as well; we’ve had losses, moves, frustrations and general disorder since the beginning of the year. Surprisingly, the kids have handled the frequent squalls and tempests with grace. To them, after all, excessive rain just means more puddles to jump in.

And besides, when the rain does let up, the views are beyond compare.

It’s been a book-launchy kind of week. Haven’t been out for drinks in months but made it out twice this week to hear excerpts from new music-related books by Vancouver authors. First to the launch of Walk Like A Man by Robert Wiersema at Red Cat Records. The book is about growing up with the music of Bruce Springsteen and he read from, I think, the final chapter. Very entertaining. The reading was followed by live covers of Springsteen songs by local musicians.

Second, we went to the launch of Kaitlin Fontana’s Fresh At Twenty: The Oral History of Mint Records at the W2 Media Cafe. Book excerpt was lively and fascinating and was followed by a fun singalong of Cub songs led by Lisa Marr (and her 98-year-old grandma who held the cue cards) and super tasty snacks by the Re-Up BBQ.

One of these days, I will find time to read both of these books. I will. I swear it. Reading is one of the things I miss the most since having kids.

That and showering.

It’s officially apple season at the UBC farm. Picked up a bag of gorgeous Galas that make supermarket apples look like pathetic knock-offs.

They almost made up for the absence of the coffee stand this week. Our collective horror at the lack of coffee at the farm was eye-opening, actually. And here I’d thought that the reason for our weekly farm visit was to pick up flavourful carrots and expose the kids to pastoral bliss.

But apparently, it’s mainly for coffee.

Hope our friends from the AGRO Cafe return next week. Only a few scant weeks left to enjoy Saturday morning coffee at the farm.

Nothing says “summer’s over” quite like a field full of massive pumpkins at the UBC farm.

Bike racks, 3:30.

Cloudy, nearly-autumn days are for bowling a few frames with friends.

Cloudy, nearly-autumn days are for making sea animals out of play dough.

Monkeying around after school.

Early evening at Jericho Beach.