I just wrapped up a sensational couple of weeks in my favourite place on earth, Desolation Sound BC. I had an amazing time with my wife and friends and neighbours, as well as the feather, fur and fin that surrounds us on all sides. (I’m also happy to report that my team won the last Crokinole game of the summer in the Sound).

I’m back in Vancouver now and back to work on several different projects for the fall… my debut book Adventures in Solitude has the official release date of Monday September 27, 2010. I’ll be doing all sorts of launches and events for it, and if you’d like me to bring the Adventures in Solitude Show to your fave bookstore or bar, let me know. Thanks to Naomi MacDougall for the awesome cover design above.

In the coming months I’ll also be hosting the Polaris Prize Gala on Monday September 20 in Toronto, and in the immediate future I’ll be taking part in the Peak Performance Bootcamp for MusicBC and the Peak Performance Project up in Princeton BC. Can’t wait to whip some musicians into fighting form!

On the radio dial, next up is The Wild Side, a two-hour Labour Day special on CBC Radio One that I am hosting, all about our encounters with wild animals in Canada. That’s from 4pm – 6pm nationwide. I also extremely excited to finally get back into my beloved hosting chair at CBC Radio 3 for a whole new season, starting with a Labour Day weekend special podcast on one of my favourite topics: booze.

Swimming at Ross Lane Beach, PEI.

I just finished up a lightning-quick swing through the Maritimes… In Nova Scotia, my producer Chris Kelly and I attended the Evolve Music Festival where we officially crowned them the #1 Music Festival in Canada via our Searchlight contest from CBC Radio 3. The Evolve Festival is… quite a sight to behold. On the days that we were there, the festival was blessed with beautiful weather, which meant skin, skin and more skin and lots of hedonistic behavior and blissful enjoyment, both of the music and the pure experience that is Evolve. Rich Aucoin was fantastic. Both Chris and I met a bunch of great CBC Radio 3 fans which is always fun. Thanks to Jonas, Jay, Becky, Martin, Moe, Ryan, and the folks at Sea’scape Cottages for an amazing stay in the seashore and hills outside of Antigonish. (When in Antigonish, check out the Tall and Small Café for good, healthy eats. And they play Jill Barber music).

Next up was a return trip for me to Prince Edward Island, Canada’s emerald jewel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The day was gorgeous as I parted ways with Chris and headed for the ferry terminal. An Antigonish local told me I only had to arrive “one minute” before the boat, so I cut it pretty close. Sadly, it was a little too close as I arrived one minute AFTER the ferry pulled away from the dock, which meant a swing into the quaint Nova Scotia town of Pictou, for a relaxing lunch at Deb’s Hidden Café, owned by Deb, who was quite the character and didn’t mind making me breakfast at 3pm.

Once on and off the next ferry and safely on PEI (what’s with that ferry blasting its horn with no warning for the passengers on the outside deck?! My rock ‘n’ roll ears could barely take it!) I took the leisurely drive across the island to visit family friends in lovely Stanhope, on the north shore, just outside of a stunning coastal national park. I’ve been lucky enough to see plenty of “views of serenity” in my life but I must say I’ve never experienced anything quite like climbing the stairs of the boardwalk at Ross Lane Beach, cresting a giant sand dune, and seeing the spectacular ocean vista that appeared. The beach was endless and the surf was easy, so I wasted no time in stripping down and taking my first-ever swim in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was incredible. I love swimming and always think that the ocean is the real fountain of youth, and this was one my best swimming experiences of my life. Thanks so much to the Kelly-Roberts family for their amazing Island hospitality.

The next morning it was raining on PEI, but I was able to take another drive through the rolling hills, listening to the Vinyl Café, past Green Gables, as I headed to the Confederation Bridge, which took me through moose country in New Brunswick, then through Nova Scotia back to the Halifax airport, and finally home to Vancouver. When all was said and done, on July 25, 2010, I was in half of Canada’s provinces in one day (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia). In one week I’ve been in six provinces and one territory. Sleepy time now.

Next up, I’ll be guest hosting Vancouver’s CBC Radio One afternoon show On The Coast all of this week. Hope you can tune in!

Northern Pike in Great Slave Lake!

I just returned home from the Folk on the Rocks Music Festival in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. I had never been to the NWT, and was extremely excited when the wheels touched down on northern soil.

The festival itself is special in that it was celebrating its 30th anniversary, and its roster of musicians is 50% Northern artists (from our three territories) and 50% artists from the southern provinces. I couldn’t help but wonder how that would work, but work it does, and amazingly so. It opened up my eyes to an entire other world of Canadian culture and the deep and passionate connection to music that the Northern people of Canada have… I was able to sit in on a huge collaborative practice featuring many legendary Northern players… so connected are they to their instruments that they just keep on playing, even on smoke break. The sound of the drums are everywhere.

I’ll be talking about Folk on the Rocks on CBC Radio 3’s Summer of 2010 Roadtrip Mixtape Podcast (out July 30) and watch for our video footage of the festival in an upcoming edition of R3TV, our video podcast, out soon.

I must thank some of the special people of Yellowknife who made my virgin voyage to Folk on the Rocks and the NWT so memorable: Lynn Feasey, Sarah McLeod, and Claudia Haas from FOTR, Matthew Grogono for the bicycle, Pablo Saravanjaand for the photos, and Mike Bryant for the amazing fishing adventure!