For those of us not involved in the Fringe, Bard on the Beach, Caravan, or (with rare exceptions) the film industry, summer tends to be pretty quiet in Vancouver. It's like winter in the old days, when farmers fixed their horses' harnesses and fishers mended their nets.

I mainly worked away on long-term projects, including my translation of Rébecca Déraspe's Gametes for Ruby Slippers Theatre.

I was also on the jury for Branscombe House, an underappreciated Richmond residency, for artists from any country and any discipline, that allows them to live rent-free in a historic house in the Greater Vancouver Area for eleven months (these days, that has to be worth at least $25 grand). There were some strong proposals from around the world – and at least one that it cracked my heart to turn down – but I was pleased to see it go to a theatre artist for the first time... especially a local one who was about to be another victim of renoviction and thought she might have to leave BC altogether. (Note to Vancouver: if you keep driving your most creative people further and further away, I suspect it will not end well for you.) And I am pleased to see the seriously underrated City of Richmond again take the lead in finding innovative ways to make things better for artists. For example. if you missed this post about new, unbelievably cheap artist live/work housing, please at least get on the waiting list... after you've blinked away the tears, of course...