Expedition Canada

Beans Means Heinz Thu Oct 19th But which ones?  An excursion to our local supermarket the other day left me curious about the difference between the original Heinz Baked Beans sold in Canada and the British Style sold alongside.  After a bit of research it appears it is not limited to just to basic styles and the original baked beans in Canada may be different again to those sold in the USA.   One video I stumbled across Original v British Baked  beans suggested the British Style had less sugar. It went on to say that the British Style were different to the original beans sold in the UK. Commentators in the USA indicated their 'original beans' were darker, sweeter and had a more smoky flavour through the addition of pork.  By this stage I decided I'd bean dwelling on this far too long, and gave up! Turnstone In the last blog I posted a picture of what I thought was a Least Sandpiper.  My personal birding advisor (PBA), who I worked alongside in BBC days, (he  lectures, give

Fall has Arrived Wed Oct 4th Before heading off to Vancouver Island the Sunshine Coast Regional District, who supply our water, announced that the Coast had gone on to drought level 5 and implemented Stage 4 water restrictions effective Sept 8th.  No outdoor use at all and heavy fines for those breaching the rules.  Our water salvage tank which had  kept the veg beds watered  holds 800 gals and had run dry.  It had rained while we were away but the water restrictions remained in place.    The day we returned Chapman Lake was down to 0%.  The storm that came through over the weekend of Sept 23rd and 24th was sufficient for Chapman Lake to go from 0% to 100% within 3 days.  At 34 ha in size and holding 680m litres of water it was not insubstantial rainfall.  All water restrictions were lifted on Sept 27th and our water tank was again full.  Our last few days on Vancouver Island provided a further opportunity to watch the Orca from our apartment.   They are so majestic .... from a distanc