Expedition Canada

Snow Atop, Lakes Melted Thu Apr 13th A beer in Merlin's to rehydrate! If you think about it, there is something slightly odd about forcing your feet into footwear, which either at the beginning or end of the day, or indeed all day, make your feet feel like what I imagine young Chinese girls felt when their feet were broken and bound to create Lotus feet. Probably won't be so quiet Easter weekend Having dressed in multi-layers of warm clothing that have you glowing under exertion or shivering when seated, you then strap two 'planks of wood' to your feet and ascend the nearest alp (usually in the face of a howling gale) before arriving at the top in a state of suspended animation from the cold.  At that point, you hurl yourself off the top of said alp in a variety of styles and speeds, aiming to reach the bottom in one piece, before doing it all over again, and again.  If you are lucky there will be sufficient light/visibility to show all the bumps and dips on the way dow...

Rain Sets In Sat Sep11 Sun Sep 12 It is around this time of year I would put my (unscented) dog poo bags to good use foraging for mushrooms on Salisbury Plain.  I had one spot where I was able to find a good number of a member of the Agaricus family.  I did get them checked by an expert to be sure I knew that what I was picking was safe to eat, but can't recall the name.  It was a type of field or horse mushroom.    Occasionally I'd find a puffball.  Even better! The mushroom season has started in BC and I've already spotted some Chanterelle and about a dozen other types which I don't recognize. We have a local chap in Gibsons who trades under the name of Shaggy Jack (aka Jody), who runs foraging courses, so I have booked onto an October course for a five-hour tutored forage. I've decided it's no longer safe to stick with the 'perpendicular test' when foraging for mushrooms.  The one where if I'm still vertical the next morning they must be ...

Borders Opening Tue Sep 7th Hopkins Landing soon after sunrise Wed Sep 8th   Time to book your Winter skiing, Spring breaks and Summer vacations.   Canada has been added to the UK's Green List and Canada now allows  double vaccinated visitors (which means Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca), and a negative Covid test within 72 hours of travel into the country Canada. No more excuses, your Canadian adventure awaits.  We have one booking for late July 2022 already!  😀  "Expedition Canada" is happy to advise!  We are particularly strong on bear encounters.   The large male Black Bear is still around! We've stayed local for the last couple of days.  Fred has played tennis, I have been in the workshop and we've done a few walks. The big news is that we got Fred on a Paddleboard (SUP), she didn't fall off (much to my disappointment) and for someone who has a love/hate relationship with water (loves to look at it, not so keen in or on ...

Clouds Disperse Fri Aug 27th  Sat Aug 28th It was a magical sunrise Saturday morning over Hopkins Landing Wharf.    An early start as we were headed to Vancouver to check out EVs.    The ribbon of cloud against the distant mainland mountains highlighted the scale of the geography and beauty of the surroundings. It was a different scene to yesterday, with the the cloud clearing as the day went on. Cloaked in thick cloud, the peaks that had been hidden over the last few days started to emerge. The small hollow of snow remains, but is getting much smaller. Though it has remained long beyond my predictions it cannot be around for long. If Friday was a local day, Saturday took us in to Vancouver to check our EV's. Unlike the UK, the main dealers congregate on auto-malls. We were headed to the one in North Vancouver, just fifteen minutes from the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. After a few test drives we settled on a Nissan Leaf, delivery early next week.  It ...