'Atmospheric River'

Foraging Course cancelled

Sat Oct 16th

We are gripped by an 'atmospheric river' according to a report on Friday's CBC news for BC.  Perhaps shrouded might be more accurate.

Not some euphemistic term to describe the collective mood in bad weather or a mystic meaning aligned with one's inner-self.  They  are a like 'rivers in the sky' according to a CBC report, 'that transport large volumes of water vapour from the equator', before dumping it down on us.  Canada gets several a year and the volume of rain can apparently, 'exceed the volume of water flowing into the ocean from the Amazon'.  It feels like it. 

The rain started Friday morning and is due to continue until Sunday evening when 75mm to 150mm of rain is forecast to have fallen. We'd had 40mm by the end of Friday.  Roads are awash and running with waves of surface water, the small stream that usually trickles across the front of our property alongside the road is a torrent. 

The sea where Langdale Creek discharges into the sea between Hopkins Landing and the ferry terminal is brown with the debris coming down off Mount Elphinstone. We are only eight hours in to the sixty hours of "atmospheric river' rainfall.  Candles, gas lamp and torches at the ready after Kitsilano and parts of West Van lost power to 4,000 and 500 homes respectively, due to trees coming down on power cables.  We are a bit more rural!

I was expecting to go on a mushroom foraging course today with 'Shaggy Jack' Friday morning.  The three hour (it turned out to be four) Zoom introduction course last night was quite good, but could have been completed in half the time.  I was losing it when he got onto magic mushrooms at 22:30 and it wasn't from the mushrooms.  Way past my bedtime!  
Whistler - and it's only mid Oct!


As it was, the weather warning resulted in the day in the forest being rescheduled for next Friday.  Very sensible.  More so as the waterproof Merrills hiking boots I bought Thursday, as my usual walking shoes are getting a bit life-expired, turned out not to be waterproof when I took Jack out for his afternoon constitutional.  They go back to the shop tomorrow.  I discovered my waterproof over-trousers also don't work in Canadian rain.  Must be the wrong type of rain.  That said, we are not disillusioned.  

Thursday, Accuweather released its winter forecast for 2021/22.  In short it's going to be wetter and much, much more importantly, snowier!  

The good news is that we've been able to catch up on the rugby games that our TV box has recorded.  Not quite the same as watching them live but good to keep in touch with the Premiership.  A bit disappointing that Bath don't seem to have turned up to any of the games yet!

Water was another feature of the week when the Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay (Nanaimo) ferry was significantly delayed after a car was found with keys in the ignition and personal belongings in the car, but no driver, on arrival at Nanaimo. An air and sea search was got underway and the owner was found in the water a few hours later, close to Horseshoe Bay, the ferry's departure point, alive but in distress.    

We pass the Langdale ferry port daily, we see the ferries go in and out an hear them from the house.  They run a pretty efficient operation but it does not take much to dent the timetable when an incident occurs.  Thankfully this one had a positive outcome.

We popped down to Cliff Gilker Provincial Park Thursday afternoon for a walk and were amused by a tree in perpetual motion with the water.



The water was pushing the tree down to the bottom of the waterfall, then it would pop out of the bottom of the fall, bounce to the top and on it would go, perpetual motion in action.

The falls and creeks were running well before this weekend's rain.  It will be interesting to see what they are like on Monday.



Friday evening we escaped to the new Bond movie in the 132 seat Gibsons cinema and a max 'distanced' seating of 46.  We should not have rushed there to ensure a seat on a wet Friday.  By the time the film started we were an audience of six, including us... Had to laugh!

We like Craig as Bond but came away not sure why it has got so many rave reviews.  [Spoiler alert] If James Bond is no more, does that not impact on the future of the Bond franchise. This was not my favourite 'Craig as Bond' movie, but then I didn't enjoy Skyfall first time round.

The main news outlets over here have included coverage on the sad news of the stabbing of Sir David Amess.  Local politicians are reported to be concerned about the risk to all lawmakers in democratic societies from both increasingly polarized and religious extremism.





 
  





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