There had been a crisis when we arrived on Salt Spring Island. Fritz, the cat who lived on the porch of the community hall above the principal town of Ganges, had been abducted. The full force of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been mobilised and a watch was being kept on the three ferry terminals. Calm was restored to the island when Fritz was recovered from the car of a well-meaning but misguided woman from the mainland who thought that a hall porch was no place for a cat to live.

This was a high level of excitement for an island where traffic violations are usually as bad as it gets, despite Salt Spring being the largest of the southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia, with a permanent population of 11,000. Nestled between the mainland and Vancouver Island, Salt Spring is 17 miles long and nine miles wide and enjoys a mild climate. This, coupled with the natural beauty of the place and the quiet pace of life on the island, has attracted a range of creative people who now give the island its distinctive character.