Few sensations rival the warmth and contentment that we feel than a shared purpose. It’s a feeling akin to being wrapped in a familiar embrace, cocooned in a blanket of safety, where the worries of the world fade into insignificance against the backdrop of collective harmony. This is what I and my family feel every time we come ‘home’—to Deep Cove.  It’s a pretty strong notion from one who’s moved nine times within Greater Victoria, but I believe we found our true ‘home’.

This profound sense of belonging and interconnectedness was born in North Saanich over twenty years ago, only a block away from where I now write this.  I admit, we took Deep Cove for granted the first time around.  Perhaps due to the distractions of a young family, we weren’t aware of it but through the ensuing years, it soon became obvious to us how much we missed Deep Cove and all it had to offer—and how we hoped to return one day.

It reminded us how life here gave us a whole tapestry of shared experiences and aspirations.  Local fairs, trail hikes, and neighbourhood walks had built something inherently familiar; cherished moments spent in the company of friends, a few who had even remained in those same homes through all those years.  But these are troubled years so now more than ever, we need a true sense of unity, familiarity, shared values, and shared struggles.

I sincerely hope you find your ‘Deep Cove’ and cherish the bonds that connect us all—across time and space (Barry Bowman).

Right next door to heaven where the ocean meets the sky 
A place where city life slows down, where troubles pass us by 
There’s pretty gardens blooming bright and trails that wind through trees 
Deep Cove is where we find our peace, it’s where I long to be 

Chorus: 
Celebrate the island spirit, hear it in our song 
It’s a deep love—Deep Cove 
So come on, beat the drum 
Shine a light on what we have and all that we have done 
It’s a deep love—Deep Cove 
Where our hearts beat together—as one

Sometimes life takes you away like a bridge to a favourite song 
Wherever I go, when I return it feels like I belong 
It’s got an island melody, one that everybody knows 
When I come back to Deep Cove I know I’ve come back home            ….chorus

Now, with every sunset nature paints a sky of pink and gold 
We’re reminded of the beauty, this legacy we hold 
And that’s why I love living here, I just can’t help smilin’ 
When I’m back home in Deep Cove Vancouver Island!                          …chorus

“Island Home in the Salish Sea” was written to celebrate life and cycling in the peninsula. My wife and I ride every weekend to Sidney for great coffee, muffins, music and chats at Alexander’s Café. 

The song also refers to riding on Lochside Trail past Michell’s Farm and the Canada geese flying and landing in the fields.  As we approach Sidney, we see seagulls soaring along the beach and eagles. The Orcas are an important part of our region and I make a statement about how we need to appreciate our environment. On occasion, my wife and I drop into the Church & State winery for lunch during our ride. A few years ago, we had our wedding there. I have had tremendous feedback from listeners enjoying this song.

I am a local songwriter producing my songs and posting them on Youtube, Spotify etc. under the name CW & the Motormen. 

Please note that licensing and reproduction rights for songs by Casey Edge are managed by SOCAN at www.SOCAN.com .

(Editor’s comment: Most of our contributors are singer/songwriters.  Casey is different because he writes his great songs but then has others perform them.  He has a wonderful collection of songs about our country that can be seen at www.SongsAboutCanada.ca –well worth a look).   

Diamonds dazzle in the night above 
Wonder of it all, look and listen 
Rhythm of the surf is a sound I love 
Moon a glowing, waves a glistening 

There’s no place I’d rather be 
My island home in the Salish Sea 
Listen to a west wind blowing through the trees 

Cycling to Sidney is never far 
Java and a song at Alexander’s 
Gathering the harvest on the family farm 
Geese are flying, look up yonder 

Seagulls soaring on a carnival ride 
Eagle eyes watching way up high 
Raincoast forest touches the sky   

Orcas of the sea, wild and free 
To hunt chinook should always be  
Living a life of gratitude 
Will save their world, and our world too 

Stop by the vineyard on a bluebird day  
A Church and State congregation 
Blessed are the pinot and cabernet 
Salmon on the cedar, never to waste and     

There’s no place I’d rather be  
My island home in the Salish Sea 
Setting the soul and spirit free 

There’s no place I’d rather be  
Vancouver Island is home to me 
Listen to the orcas blowing out the sea 

The song title “Malahat Moon” came to me many years ago when I was driving on the Malahat and a friend and I stopped at the top to watch the moonlight on the water in the Saanich Inlet. It struck me that there is a special magic in moonlight; the way it dances on the water. It looked like diamonds! I filed that title away in my mind and it wasn’t until many years later when the lyrics and the music came to me, literally, in a dream. I woke up and found myself humming the tune I had just heard in my dream. I got up and wrote down the first verse. The idea of magic in both moonlight and music was enhanced for me by the beauty of the place where we live, here, next to the Saanich Inlet. It is amazing to me that the special magic in beautiful natural places, moonlight and music and  can re-connect us to feelings and memories that may have become lost in the passage of time. I hope you enjoy this song and that it re-kindles some forgotten spark for you all. Thanks for listening!

He’d been driving in the rain, on the long haul out of Georgia
On a lonely stretch of highway, where the dark is thick as dreams
He reached down to search the static, for some tune to keep him goin’
As the moonlight danced upon the cab, behind the headlight beams

His hand froze on the dial, as the crackle turned to music 
And the memories flooded back, another road another time
Carried to a distant place, on a mountain by an ocean
On a blanket where that song was shared with a love so warm and fine

CHORUS
All the way to the top of the lookout on the mountain
To a secret place, on a rocky face, on the warmest night in June
Where the moonlight on the ocean, made a pathway filled with diamonds
That carried all the love they pledged to the Malahat Moon

Ain’t it funny how sometimes, the past you’d once forgotten 
Is awakened by the moonlight or the magic in a song
And old feelings like old memories come back like they’d never left you 
And your busy life is taken back, where once your heart belonged         …..chorus

The laundry and the bills and the crying of and infant 
Lay forgotten for the moment as the music made her smile
She was taken to a place, where her heart lived in her memories
To a blanket in the moonlight and the sparkle in his eyes

This song, Salish Sea, was inspired by where I grew up, what is fondly known as The Island, specifically the Saanich Peninsula. My family and I immigrated from England in the seventies and since the age of six I have wandered the beaches, hiked the mountains and swam in the waters that surround us. This is a most incredible place and it feels like home.

Later in life I came to realise a most difficult truth, that I am a settler here. This is the land of the Coast Salish peoples. My European ancestors colonialised this place. That is how I have come to call this place home.

What do I do now knowing that my presence, and that of my own family, has come at the expense of those who were here before us, those who are here today? Can this be reconciled?

In writing this song I attempted to paint a picture of a place that holds great physical beauty and significant social conflict. Recognising our true history is one step toward reconciliation. I have come to believe that more answers may be found in nature, perhaps in the surrounding waters of the Salish Sea.

Before the settlers came changing all the names
This place was home, to the Coast Salish people
Now there’s a Coast Guard station, next to Wsikem (Tseycum) First Nation
Where the seals and the otters play down in the bay

Chorus
We’re held in the arms of a loving embrace 
Feels like home
Salish Sea, Salish Sea, Salish Sea (2x)

In the heart of Sidney, there’s the Army and Navy
With a jet plane up top and a tank in the parking lot
Then there’s that old blue fish shack, where the gulls and the crows play out back 

At the end of the wharf, where the seas can get rough         …chorus

Bridge
Up on Hospital Hill it’s oh so beautiful 
You can watch the sunset over the MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat)
Here on The Island, this place was never found
It’s always been home, the spirit is all around

Salish Sea, Salish Sea, Salish Sea (2x)

Some years ago I was on a volunteer group that was assigned the task of trying to improve Butterfield Park by removing invasive plant species and planting and tending the kind of horticulture varieties that Gertrude Butterfield and her daughter Hilda might have tended during the early part of the twentieth century.

I had sketched out a song at that time and after learning that the contest to write a song about local history had been announced, I decided to get the song out, dust it off a bit and make a recording.

It centres around Jack Butterfield who piloted one of the first ferries across the bay, and his wife Gertrude. They had married in Port Simpson in 1906 and moved here for his new job and to homestead in 1913. The property is 13 acres and sits at the intersection of Mount Newton and Thomson Roads. In the song I see her waving to him from there as he pilots his ferry home to Brentwood Bay. It’s impossible now, but in 1913 the second growth would have been very small indeed, and I think the view would have been largely unobstructed.

Also in those days, there would have been community dances possibly every weekend in the area and this is one of the reasons I chose the waltz tempo to carry the narrative of their lives here.  Hilda left the farm to the District in 1988. I encourage everyone to visit and appreciate one of the areas little treasures.  You can read about Butterfield Park at https://www.centralsaanich.ca/sites/default/files/2023-05/butterfield_inventory_and_assessment.pdf .  

Thanks for the opportunity to highlight Jack and Gertrude’s life and accomplishments here on the peninsula.

I like the way you smile when’ere I take your hand
And move as one across the floor in rhythm with the band 
Then all at once my heart is sailin’, what else can I do?
Dancin’ tonight, the Butterfield Waltz with you

The Ferry steams across the Bay In fading summer light
I see you there upon the hill just up from Hagen Bight.
You wave at me amongst the blooms of lilac, rose and plum
And I just can’t wait  for a Butterfield Waltz with you

Chorus
Butterfield Waltz, Butterfield Waltz.
Light on your feet, the fiddles ring sweet
Dancin’ with you, the Butterfield Waltz

My darling how we grow old the days are fading fast

Who will tend your garden love when we have danced our last
Others, then, will play these tunes but our spirits will take the floor
And I’ll dance, if I might, the Butterfield Waltz once more      ,,,,chorus

Norris Beach is a special place on the Saanich Peninsula where a bunch of us “Mermaids” gather to swim. Some of us go all year round and others like myself only go in when the water warms up.

This song is about my crazy friends who swim there all year. My friend Judy and I sometimes sit on a log and play our fiddles while the others are out swimming. Her dog Chloe always comes along too.

When the water warms up we will join the others in the water and try to avoid the jellyfish, sea lions and whales!

The afternoon’s here and it’s time for a swim
The Norris Beach Mermaids are jumpin’ right in
Except for the ones who sit on a log
Playing their fiddles and watching the dog

Chorus
Ahoy, Ahoy the mermaids are here
They swim in cold water all times of the year
Come hell or highwater they’ll always go in 
Tomorrow they’ll do it all over again

Look out for the jellies, sea lions and whales
The fish that we like are the ones with the scales
I told them I’d join them when the water warms up
But now I’m content on the beach with the pup!            …chorus

A seal will swim by and often an otter
And sometimes a mermaid will bring her young daughter
And now that it’s June and the water’s warmed up
The fiddlers jump in right after the pup                         …chorus

Final Chorus
Ahoy, Ahoy the mermaids are here,
It’s time for a toast with whisky and beer
Come hell or highwater, they always go in
And now that its summer I think I’ll join them

There are so many beautiful places on the Saanich Peninsula. I grew up swimming in Elk and Beaver Lakes and at one point lived at Willis Point. This song is a lament for a beautiful place that was lost in order for the city to have a garbage dump. Heal Lake was drained and sealed in order to have more room for the mountains of refuse coming from the whole district.  I hope someday we will learn to do better than consume and consume and dispose and dispose.

When I was a boy, I took out the garbage;
Two cans a week for a family of six 
And all it contained was tin cans and bottles 
And broken down things that my Dad couldn’t fix

They hauled it away, ten miles from town. 
To the green Hartland Valley, deep in the woods 
By the little Tod Creek that the kids used to play in 
That ran to the bay where the fishing was good

Chorus 
And now sixty years of garbage fills up the valley 
The stream runs poison down to the bay 
Where the oysters and clams are contaminated 
From all of the garbage that we threw away 

We raised our babies in disposable diapers 
Took them on picnics, used disposable plates. 
We drank our beer from disposable bottles. 
Maybe we’re just a disposable race                     …chorus

My generation has political clout 
We vote the new bastards in; vote the old bastards out. 
My generation knows the earth is worth saving. 
My generation still takes the garbage out.           …chorus

In 2001, my husband and I moved from Ontario to Sidney, BC. We knew immediately after walking along Robert’s Bay together that we would grow old together in this little town. Kim had been through several years of cancer treatment and we moved west to fulfil our dream to live near the sea. 

From the very first day we arrived, we were welcomed by the kindness of locals on the peninsula. This song reflects the genuine love I have for this beautiful part of the world and my huge love for my husband of 35 years. 

I wrote the melody and lyrics while walking on Robert’s Bay. It came to me suddenly and I hurried home to try it out on guitar. My dear friend, Joey Smith, created an arrangement to showcase Richard Moody on violin. Several locals claim it as their ‘official song’ and I was recently asked to perform it for a friend’s husbands’ memorial service. I hope it resonates with people and brings them joy. 

I’m enormously grateful to live here on the peninsula! 

I took a walk with you on Sunday
We watched the seabirds in the bay
It felt like springtime on the seashore
Despite the cool December rain

Baby you just make me feel good
Walking along the bay
I know that we’ll grow old together
In this little town by the sea

I fell in love with you on Sunday
You made me laugh the time away
You held your hand in mine so warmly
It’s just your perfect loving way

And Baby you just make me feel good
Walking along the bay
I know that we’ll grow old together
In this little town by the sea

I took a walk with you on Sunday
You said you didn’t mind the rain
You looked at me just like the first time
Said you loved me even more

Baby you just make me feel good
Walking along the bay
Our love grows stronger everyday
In this little town, in this little town
In this little town by the sea

The challenge for the Deep Cove Folk Song Writing Contest was to write a song about some of the wonderful things here on the Saanich Peninsula. So, I made a list to help decide which of the many hot spots I’d sing about.  The list was very long indeed, but in the end I thought I might be able to sing about them all!  That’s when I remembered the Hank Snow song, “I’ve Been Everywhere.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jet7Ue743Do ).  However, the task was a lot harder than I thought it might be. Trying to get the right number of syllables in while at the same time avoiding the creation of tongue twisters was quite a chore. So with my apologies to Hank Snow, here it is……

I’m goin’ everywhere man,,, I’m goin’ everywhere man

Peninsula’s my lair man         Love that ocean air

Gotta get off that    Rocking Chair

I’m  goin’  everywhere man

I go

Bazan Bay    Brentwood Bay    Shwartz Bay    Pat Bay

Coal  Point            Willis   Point          Moses    Point           Yarrow  Point

Todd Creek          Hagan Creek    Salmon there        on the run

D’rance Lake     Cole Bay         Island view          have some fun

Squally Reach     on the Beach       soakin up      the summer sun

Pan– –ama       Winter time     Hockey Game      I think we won

I’m goin’ everywhere man         goin’ to trip around

Hills and dales and roads man   Cover lots of ground

Villages and towns man     This is what I found

I found

Lands End       Deep Cove         Mills Rd           Beacon Ave

Ardmore          Wain Rd             Pat Bay          Traffic Jam

Lockside         Tavish           Saanich Road        East and West

Marchant        Slugget          Round a Bout         Can’t get out

Keating Rd     Newton Rd    Up and Down           It’s insane

Wallace Dr      Blocked Again      Diggin Up    the Sewer Main

I’m goin’ everywhere man     Lacin’ up my shoes

Lots to see out there man    Got no time to lose

Walking makes me thirsty    I need to find some booze

I drink

Church-n-State      Seaside                Rathjen                    Deep Cove

Roost Farm           Sidney Gin            Muse Wine            and   Devine

Zanzibar                  R&R                 Mary’s Blue            Brewsky’s too

Fish on 5th             Prairie  Inn        Lodge and Spa           Pub Crawl

Wine and Song      Empourium        Coffee’s  On             Best in Town        

Deep Cove            Folk Night        Write a Song            Sing-a-Long

I’m goin’ everywhere  man   gonna pay my due

Tractors are my fare man      In that kind of mood

Singin’  makes me hungry     I need to find some food

We got

Hey Farms        Horse Farms      Sheep Farms      Hen Farms

Veg Farms         Egg Farms         Rose Farms       Michell Farms

Flavour Trail      Market Day         Labour Day      Saanich Fair

Rock n Roll       Coun—-try        Folk Song         Shaky Ground

Wed  Night     Brentwood Park    Dance Around        Until Dark

Mary Winspear    Fine–Art         Do a Sketch   Paint the Town 

Archie Fisher is a great Scots singer, renowned for his wonderful guitar stylings and gentle vocal performances.  A few years back he was touring on Vancouver Island.  He sang a favourite song, one of those amazing homesick ballads telling of the way things were “back hame.”  Much to his surprise, this gentle tune, very well performed, was met with “boos” from his Island audience!!!  Now I know us Islanders are forthright—but that seemed a bit much.  The song was The Broom o’ the Cowdenknowes and, as Archie found out, it touched an Island nerve.

You can hear Archie’s great version at: https://youtu.be/lcJg6mYxw88

The story goes way back to when us white folk were colonizing this neck of the woods.  While it remains a bit uncertain how it happened, it turns out that some seeds for the Scottish plant Cytisis scoparius made their way onto the Island.  This shrub, it turned out, had no enemies on Vancouver Island shores and soon began to run rampant all over the Islands. It was especially fond of newly disturbed land, of which there was quite a bit back then.  Its seeds can last up to 30 years!  Soon the plant, which we know unaffectionatley as “Scotch Broom,” was appearing all over the place, forcing out some of the local flora.  It became one of the most aggressive “invasives” to reach our shores.  And certainly anyone with wet knees and a sore back from pulling broom has little love for this plant (e.g., https://tinyurl.com/2chephap ). Most folks I talk to say the name “Scotch broom” with a curl of the lip that makes it clear that there is no love for this plant from away—despite its handsome yellow blooms.  

So Archie walked into the middle of it.  His gentle song extolling the nostalgic virtues of the Broom o’ the Cowdenknowes meant something quite different to Island horticulturalists. He quickly found that it would be best to eliminate this song from his repertoire while performing in the area.

Rather than banish the song into oblivion on the Island, I thought it might be a good idea to rewrite the lyrics.  It’d be a shame to see such a beautiful tune go to waste. 

Chorus:  Oh the broom, the bloody bloody broom
The broom o’ the hydro lines
If I could find the jerk who brought it here
I’d smother him with all those yellow flowers

Each time I go to saunter in the woods
I find this pesky yellow scourge
I try to pull the shrubs as I go
But they resist my every urge       …chorus

This bloody shrub is invasive through and through
It takes over every hill and wood
‘Cause young trees won’t grow where the broom’s taken o’er
It’s cost us millions in wood           …chorus

It’s pretty, yes, bit it turns up everywhere
Our hills and our clearings it’s devoured
In time it’ll win and before we can say 
We’ll be buried in those vexing yellow flowers    …chorus