The Reid Manor, Maple Ridge

Photo by Arran Reid

Life as a habitual runaway can lead you many interesting places. Though I thought we had made a permanent settlement, it turns out that just was not to be so.

As much as we truly enjoyed our time living on the river in a float home, when an offer to purchase our floating, gothic barrel came in – one that we could not refuse – we set our sights elsewhere.

What that currently means is that we are ‘homeless’. We have not yet found another place to call ours. Regardless, selling felt right, and the whole situation was bit serendipitous. Fingers crossed!

Luckily, we do have great friends, and some with an excessive amount of square footage. We find ourselves being hosted at the ‘Reid Manor’. A giant home by BC standards, the Manor actually has two wings.

Photo by Arran Reid

Our own two bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen – space 3x what our little floating home had to offer. What more could one ask for? So yes, we are comfortable – and will be for the rest of the week we are to stay here.

Located on the side of a hill, in a forested area of Maple Ridge, BC – a place I am unfamiliar with – the Manor gives me a new area to explore, starting with the local countryside.

The view from the room I currently write in, is nothing less than a dreamy, romantic country scape (time to dig out the camera!).

You can find me in the woods, to the right – ‘B’

Maple Ridge itself is a fairly large bedroom community type place, home to about 80,000 people. It is one of the oldest communities in BC and is made up of a number of smaller, amalgamated settlements.

Many of those smaller towns within Maple Ridge have a distinct cultural/ethnic make up.

From Wikipedia;

For instance, Webster’s Corner and Albion are represented by the many Finnish families that settled in the area. While Port Hammond is known for its small cottage like mill houses originally built by the local mill to house its workers. Ruskin is the location of a community hall of the Sons of Norway although the area was founded by English followers of John Ruskin, while Kanaka Creek originally was a village for Kanaka employees of Fort Langley.

I am sure I will learn more about the area as I adventure out during our brief time here. You can count on me to share – if I come across anything interesting!

Additional photos in the slideshow.

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Related articles

• Float Home Life (floatylife.wordpress.com)
• Maple Ridge (Wikipedia)