I resorted to telling people I live between Maple Ridge and Mission. Which is true but technically I live in Mission, even though my address is Maple Ridge… kind of a long dumb story. Anyways, we pay our taxes to Mission, so we’re Mission.
When we decided to become land barons and moved out to Mission (really we’re just city people pretending to be country people, shhhh… don’t tell anyone) we noticed this strange pensive, apologetic look in people’s eyes when we said we lived in “Mission”. I’m not 100% sure what was going on behind that look but my guess it went a little something like this:
You live out in the boonies?
Why would you want to live out there?
I don’t think they even have paved roads…
Outhouses, no running water… oh god!
I bet they have a pedal bike set up in their house to use electricity…
WHY, why would anyone ever live out there!
So yeah, I started telling people we live BETWEEN Maple Ridge and Mission. That seemed to ease the uneasiness. When we were looking into moving out to Mission 11 years ago we fell in love with it. It felt like one of those places, where artists settle before it becomes a sought after artsy place to live. Since then we’ve seen fantastic shops open on main street like The Sweet Spot Cafe, English Tarts, Trendy or What Knot and an awesome yoga studio called the Iron Lotus, (they have roof top yoga! I know! How fancy is that!)
And when I saw this, I thought! Ya Baby! Yarn bombing! WooHOO! Mission is awesome!!! (I have thing for Guerilla art.)
This is on the west end of main street. I noticed some sunflowers last year and thought quietly huh?! That’s cool, I’m so glad to see someone doing that.
Then after noticing the Mount Baker piece, I noticed this at the east end of main street.
Look the “E” looks like Cookie Monster. I LOVE cookie monster!
Then basking in my, “look what I found moment,” I noticed this too!
AND then! Beside the Canada flag I saw this! I don’t think it’s meant to say Stop Gratitude, it’s just angle of my photo while I was standing in the middle of the road trying not to get run over. Totally worth it!
Unlike the others I spied, the Canadian flag and the Gratitude had labels on them saying Meet your neighbours www.nirvYARNah.blogsopt.ca. and this one saying…
I checked out their blog. It’s awesome, then I checked out their:
Oh, and they’re on Flickr too (well they said they sorta are, but it looked like to me they are.)
Then of course they’re on Twitter
I was thrilled to see all the little goodies they’ve left all over Mission. Some I’d seen, I think a few have been taken down but god, it made me just proud and jazzed to live out here! You could even say it made me feel like I was living in nirvYARNah! Ha! See what I did there?
And for the record, if you consider driving miles past Ikea in Coquitlam the boonies, then yes, I live in the boonies. We do have paved roads, running water and electricity. Most importantly we have flushable toilets!
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You’re trying to get me to move to Mission, aren’t you? You know I knit every day, for heaven’s sake! I take it no one in your household commutes anywhere further than Langley, though, right? ;O)
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Yes, you should move to Mission! Then you can reteach me to knit!
Ha, ha, I grew up in Alberta, it toke three hours to get anywhere. I love driving and will drive anywhere! ROADTRIP!
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Lisa, this is so awesome! One more reason to drive out to Mission! My favorite reason is to pet the kitties at the Fraser Valley Humane Society! The people there are wonderful and friendly volunteers!
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Hey the next time you come out to Mission Kat, let me know, we should catch up! It’s been FOR-ever.