Rain Sets In

Shorts back in closet

Friday morning

Fri Aug 24th

to 

Sun Aug 26th

Friday morning got off to a beautiful start with the mountains above the Sea to Sky Highway on the mainland clearly visible.  By sunset it was clouding over and it rained most of the weekend.

The local rainfall for the Friday when we lost power has been revised up to 128mm.  It will be interesting to see what we get by the end of this week, with rain forecast to run through to Thursday before sun reappears.

What a difference a day makes (colour pic!)

Shorts have been returned to the wardrobe and I'm back in jeans that have hardly seen the light of day in six months.  Well almost six months, next Monday Oct 3rd will be half a year since we arrived in Canada.  It has flown by.

I'm sitting in the office we've created on the mezzanine, looking out across West Howe Sound.  In the space of ten minutes the sun has lit patches of sea, only to disappear in a squall of rain and mist, the sun reappearing a few minutes later.

House construction out here is fundamentally different to the UK.  Most properties, like the one we are in, are timber framed; though not all have tree-trunks holding up the structure!  Slate and tiles are rarely used for roof finishes, most buildings opting for bitumen shingles, occasionally cedar shingles, profile sheet metal or interlocking metal 'tiles', which is what we have. They do the job, look OK until you get up close, but are very, very noisy in heavy rain.  You do not need to look out side to check if it is raining beyond anything other than a drizzle.  You hear it!  

Expedition adventures have been a bit curtailed with the rain, allowing time for wet weather gear to dry out in between.  We still only have what we brought out in April until we ship the bulk of our gear.

We are starting to think about shipping as we finalize the sale of Eastcourt House.  We need to clear the last bits and pieces by the end of October assuming we complete as planned by early November.  The buyer is taking some of our furniture, friends other items and of course there are a few more items to be collected by the removal company for shipping.   In hindsight, we should have parted company with more of our stuff and be shipping less.  Having spent the last three months, with fewer possessions, we've got used to it and realized we had accumulated far too much stuff.  We are determined to avoid the 'we'll put that somewhere safe as it might be useful' mentality in the future!

The biggest decision is what to do with my wine collection.  I discover that shipping wines to BC will be close to the cost of the current bottle price, on which I have already paid duty.  It looks as if our buyer is interested in buying the lot, which avoids having to manage its disposal from a distance.

The packing, shipping, selling, gifting lists look close to completion.  

Friday afternoon, we headed down to Bonniebrook Beach, in front of the house we stayed in during May.  Lovely afternoon.  Three otters were fishing off the diving platform.  Great fun to watch though one of the locals said they were a bit fed up with the fish carcasses and otter poop they leave behind.

In other news, Humpback Whales were spotted in Horseshoe Bay, near the main ferry terminal on Saturday.  They looks more like Orca to me, but then I was not close enough!  Numbers are reported to have increased considerably over the last few years, which has been dubbed the 'Humpback Comeback'.  Scientists are quoted as saying the Humpbacks find the food-rich waters of the Salish Sea, between Vancouver Island and the mainland, (also known as the Strait of Georgia) make an ideal location to bring young to feed during the summer months April to October.  They then head off to the pacific Hawaii area for summer.  Can't wait to get my big camera lens back in time to spot some!