Dale Jensen is an enthusiastic adventurer, mother, teacher, builder, baker, and maker of things, living her best life on Vancouver Island, British Columbia 🇨🇦. She is the proud owner of Island Time B&B and would love to host her Sole Sisters - she knows all the good rambles.
What five words would you use to describe yourself?
My answer: "How hard could it be?" Oh, the rabbit holes this habit of thinking has led me down! If I were to have an epitaph, that's what it would say because that is how I approach everything.
This was a tricky question, so I used my favorite form of research and asked people in different areas of my life what they thought. The top five friends and family answers were adventurous, caring, cheerful, creative, dedicated, energetic, friendly, funny, warm & welcoming. I teach English and Communications, not math.
What do you most like to do in your spare time?
Adventures and anything that involves being outside, bonus points if it is active and with friends - hike, bike, run, kayak, swim, yoga, landscaping, art tours. Whatever, it's all good.
Then there are the days where there's nothing better than coming in from working in the yard, the house still smelling of the morning's baked muffins, having a soak in the hot tub, followed by fuzzy clothes, popcorn, and a good book. Maybe a glass of wine to go with the popcorn.
All. The. Things.
What do you like about where you live?
I grew up in many towns and cities in Alberta before transplanting myself to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Now I live just outside Nanaimo, and my favorite thing is the weather.
Both provinces are incredibly beautiful, but Alberta has the famous Canadian winters where the response to a week of -40 C is often, "At least it's a dry cold" or "We've only had one so far this year."
Living in a different town from where I worked, I cannot count the number of blizzards I have driven through. So imagine my surprise when I got my first snow day after moving to Vancouver Island, and the temperature was only -2! I was giddy!
Granted, the roads here are not designed for winter driving, and there are very few snowplows. Plus, many people don't have winter tires, and even fewer know how to drive for those conditions. When we do get a dump of snow, it is that wet spring snow that lasts for about a week. Everything closes for those first few days.
For my first B.C. snow day, it had been raining snowballs the day before, and about a foot had accumulated overnight. In the morning, my boss called and said, "We're closed; please stay home." Then, I received a text from the city of Nanaimo, essentially saying the same thing. I *may* have squealed and jumped around a little with my dog, Jake. Then I grabbed my snowshoes, and we were off!
What is your dream ramble?
England, Ireland, Scotland, anywhere over there, any of the Caminos, Spain, Portugal, those really cool looking parks in Utah, wherever the pictures are that people post in Sole Sister Ramblers - that's where I want to go.
I did not know I wanted to go to Panama until I saw so many gorgeous posts and felt like I know those Sole Sisters a little. Now I know I want to go to Panama.
I really, really, really want to do a bicycle trip somewhere (anywhere?) in Europe. Southeast Asia looks amazing. Australia and New Zealand would be very cool. I've never been to Hawaii… I'm game for just about anything.
What do you like best about the age you are now?
My kids are grown and have turned into people I respect and admire, and I have the good fortune to hang out with them sometimes. It warms my heart.
I appreciate my health. A good friend once told me, "The purpose of fitness is to be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them." That has stuck. Now, when I am doing something difficult, my mantra is, "I do because I can; I can because I do."
I don't feel the need to turn myself into Gumby to make everyone happy. Ultimately, a person's happiness is up to them, not me. I still like to see people happy and will do what I can to contribute, but it is more of a soaring with eagles than surrounding myself with turkeys situation.
What is the bravest thing you've ever done?
About five years ago, I quit my teaching job of 15 years, cashed in my retirement savings, and moved from Alberta to Vancouver Island with no real plan other than to open a bed and breakfast. Apparently, that wasn't challenging enough, so my husband suggested we build our house ourselves.
Were either of us professional builders, you might ask, and the answer would be nope. Over the years, he had done most of the different building aspects, and he thought it would be cool to build a whole house from start to finish. I can use tools and am really good at working.
So, we bought a rocky scrap of land on Vancouver Island, lived in a holiday trailer with our dog for a couple years, drew a house on grid paper, built it, and officially opened Island Time B&B this year. I even built the website myself! How hard could it be, indeed!
All of my Sole Sisters are welcome to come and stay. I will share some great local rambles.
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