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Beavers Abound

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Trailer & Tariffs Beaver on Nita Lake We first came out to Canada in 2000 for a 2 week holiday.  The plan was to spend a week in Muskoka, North of Toronto, then drive over to Vancouver and spend a week on the West Coast. Realising it would take the best part of a our second week to get there, we abandoned the plan. Lake Vernon on the edge of Huntsville was our base for those two weeks, playing in boats on the interconnected lakes the first week, then exploring Lake Huron and the Algonquin National Park, north of Huntsville the second week.  In the two weeks in Ontario and every visit to Canada since, we've never seen a beaver in the wild; nor since we moved to Canada in 2021.  That was four years ago, Thursday April 3rd. The last week of Feb we were in Whistler for a week and on one of my early morning walks with Jack we discovered a young beaver was walking along the ice on Nita Lake.  It's one of the last places I'd expect to see a beaver as it doesn't fee...
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The Earth Moved

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Earthquake Hits SW BC Friday Feb 21st earthquake - Cronk Towers the red dot The house shook and rattled after the initial thunderous roar, while birds scattered in all directions from the feeders and trees.  It took me a few seconds to clock that it wasn't a plane crash or other manmade disaster, but an earthquake.   A first, and quite frightening experience.  Jack was equally unimpressed and didn't know where to put himself.  The centre was 25k North of us (close!) on the northern edge of the Tetrahedron Provincial Park and registered 5.1 (later revised down to 4.8).  Tetrahedron is a popular hiking area and on a clear day can be seen from the Sea to Sky Highway that takes you up to Whistler.  It was also felt in Whistler, Metro and North Vancouver and Vancouver Island. BC's Emergency Notice When we first moved in to Bonniebrook Fred packed a 'grab bag', which is recommended for parts of the country that could be affected by forest fires, earthquakes...
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Fake News Comes to Whistler

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Grizzly Disrupts Skiing I liked the idea that a grizzly bear had brought disruption to the ski lift system in Whistler.  The following morning the 'Special Event & Info' had been amended to ' Glacier Lift CLOSED - Having a mental health day '.  A few runs later the details had been erased.  I assume someone had taken offence at the reference to mental health.  The lift operators are wags!  I discover the Glacier chair-lift is out of action due to failed bearings on the gearbox that carries the main cable.  Gutted!  I liked the grizzly story.  Fake news! Quiet Slopes We had three visits in the 2023/4 season, most of which were washed out, literally, due to warm temperatures, lack of snow and rain (we managed about 4 days skiing).  Our Christmas 2024 trip had low cloud and high winds that closed most of the alpine lifts.  In contrast during the last week of Jan we had 3 consecutive beautiful 'bluebird' days.    The weather fo...
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Grey Whales are back early

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Happy New Year Ok, OK, I know I do a lot of sunsets (and sunrises) - but they are so beautiful Sunset over Vancouver Island (iPhone) Well, as feared in the last blog, it turns out that coming from a new joint email address our festive messages ended up in a lot of folks junk folders. W e sent e-Christmas cards as Canada Post were on strike for several months before Christmas.   So if you were thinking "we didn't get a card from the Cronks this year", check your junk email.  If it isn't there, then our email list was clearly in error (or you have changed your email address)!   It seems e-Xmas messages are starting to replace snail-mail (not surprising if you go on strike before Christmas) and probably arrive nanoseconds after they were sent. We had several.  Our first batch of the more tactile traditional cards arrived from the UK Fri Jan 10th, apart from a couple that must have been posted last summer, or maybe even Christmas 2023! Winter seems to have bypa...
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