I make it sound like I tripped over a nest of baby birds. I just think it’s so funny that I went twelve months without coming across a single Canadian here in Orkney, in spite of every other person saying they knew someone here in town from Canada, and then, in the course of four weeks have met several Ontarians.
First it was my new landlord. He was born in Thunder Bay. He and his Scottish parents moved back here when he was four, so I wouldn’t exactly say he was a dyed-in-the-wool Canuck, but he is definitely a Canadian citizen. The day after I met him, I was in one of my favourite shops in town and the lady admiring Scout (with an Orcadian accent) mentioned she was born in North Bay and moved back here as a toddler. Seems she’s my landlord’s sister and their parents went about populating northern Ontario towns in the 60’s before heading back here.
Months ago my sister introduced me to an Instagram page: canadiangirl_abroad. She told me about this Canadian now living in Orkney who took the most amazing photos, and told me I should find her. Well, I did start following her and yes, her photography is absolutely beautiful – you should check her out on Instagram and TikTok. I often see her pictures and think, “I was there.” Then I think, “My photos looked nothing like that.” Well, last month I started volunteering (more on that later) and she works in the office beside us. She’s from Ottawa, of Orcadian descent and decided to move here eight years ago.
When I was house-hunting on social media last month, a lady wrote me to wish me luck in finding something and to say after 40 years in Ontario she had moved back here to her family home in Kirkwall. While I was living on the west end of the GTA, she was living on the east. While I was working at BMO, she was working at TD. And while I was living two minutes north of Papdale Primary here in town, she lives across the street from it. We met up for a quick coffee yesterday and after two hours of yakking have planned on getting together for fish and chips down by the harbour. And she likes wine. Really, it was like meeting a blond doppelgänger.
So, after a year, I’ve finally met some of my own peeps.