The Best of ...

I can't be the only one hugely irritated by the current newspaper trend where every other page has 'The 10 best ......', the 50 of this or 100 of that. Pubs, holiday destinations, rural retreats, market towns, places to live, albums, films, stage shows, male footballers, female footballers, ski resorts, goalies, TV shows, video games ............... etc. The list goes on and on and on.

It will be closely followed by the best of 2025 reviews and summaries, and then predictions for 2026. And who the hell decides what the best are? Seems to me that newspaper writers (it can't be called journalism can it?) are running out of things to write about so a list is Googled, assembled in a self-justified order and the story is done. Lazy. Does anybody actually read them? Canadian, US, UK papers are all at it. Rant over.

So I thought I'd reflect on my 50 best ..... No, you're spared!

Davis Bay Singers

I was planning to send this out before Christmas, but Christmas concerts kinda got in the way. I missed the first two concerts of the small and perfectly-formed 16-voice A Cappella Strait with a throat infection from hell. It's frustrating spending many months learning, rehearsing and refining pieces of music, only to miss the show, but at least we attended and sat at the back of the audience.

I made it to the Suncoast Phoenix concerts the following weekend and the Coast Messiah Choir rendition of Handel's Messiah the following Monday. It seemed everybody was getting into the Christmas spirit as all the concerts were sold out and had appreciative audiences.

Fred too was 'in concert' with the Davis Bay Singers at their debut performance at the local shopping
mall. Friends and family were press-ganged into attending and the Singers brought some Christmas cheer to those on pre-festivity shopping missions. They were great!

Mid-December I picked up the trailer from the dealership following completion of the pre-trans-Canada warranty work, which wasn't completed before we set off. It was a typical Fall day and rained all the way there and back. Happily it now is parked up on the hardstand at the bottom of the drive. When it stops raining (and Christmas is over) it will get a good clean-through. It still has a insect bodies adorning the front of the trailer that we picked up somewhere on our return journey.

With concerts over, trailer back, we slipped into Christmas. We had neighbours over on Christmas Eve which was a fun-filled evening. Christmas Day we had a quiet day before the arrival of Nick, Lizzie, Sebby and Laurie on Boxing Day. Christmas is for kids and what a delight to have them over for a few days.

It took only a few hours for the house to resemble a bomb-site; toys, wrapping paper, treats, nibbles and glasses adorning our open-plan living space, so no escape, and echoing to the sounds of laughter, crying, Wallace and Gromit and carols. Not necessarily in that order. Little Laurie is a bit of a smiler, particularly when his Gramps (me) is pulling faces and grinning at him. Jack, needless to say, is delighted to have his playmate back on the Coast. Sebby who is four in April is a real character and an absolute delight with a certain independence and a creative mind. The games and characters he dreams up which we all have to role-play is hilarious.

Saturday, as Bath Rugby. were being thrashed by Northampton Saints (soooo disappointing), Nick, Sebby and I drove up to our local skiing area, Dakota Ridge, to go snowshoeing. It's a 15km drive up a forest service road (FSR) and goes from sea level to 1200m, and from gravel to snow and ice.

Halfway up the green forest gave way to smatterings of snow and within a few kilometers the conifers were heaving with snow and straining to remain upright.

One tree had clearly succumbed to it's burden and fallen across the track that morning, but fortunately had been cleared by the time we passed. We debated putting on the snow chains but as Nick's Toyota 4Runner had chunky tires we decided to press on, the truck negotiating the last half of the journey with ease.

There were few cars in the parking lot when we arrived, so we togged up, paid our fees and set off.

Dakota Ridge is operated by the regional district, has no power, basic loos and a warming hut. A small team of volunteers and a snowplough keeps the cross country skiing trails open and the snowshoe trails are formed only by staff and visitors walking the trails.

Sebby made it a few hundred yards into our hike and preferred falling into the deep snow rather than walking so the expedition was abandoned. But it was good fun and he clearly enjoyed the snow.

It really was quite peaceful and stunningly beautiful.

As we were leaving, others were coming out to play, the car park was filling and multiple vehicles passed us as we were on the way down.

Christmas Day and the local Bald Eagles put on a flying display below us, over Bonniebrook Beach. In fact I lost count at about 24, which is more than our local population which normally maxes out at about six. We can only assume that food was plentiful so encouraged such a rare sight in this location.

There are places in BC where they are known to congregate in large numbers but we are not one of them.

This morning (Dec 28th) a huge flock of what I initially thought were Buffleheads (North America's
smallest diving duck) were making their way along Bonniebrook Beach.

There were at least a couple of hundred.

On closer inspection I think there were a mix of birds including Barrow's Goldeneye, Buffleheads and others as yet unidentified. The surprise was the sheer number, nothing I have ever seen before.