Expedition Canada

Wine Capital of BC Sunday June 30th Tantalus Winery Kelowna is the wine growing capital of BC, so as well as taking in the scenery we have been checking out some of the local wineries.  Be rude not to really.  As we found travelling around France (and other bits of Europe), it is so much more informative to learn about a wine region as you actually taste the wines at the winery.  We have been slowly developing our knowledge of the wines over the last few years (we first visited about six years ago).  Not something that can be done easily in the UK as so little BC wine leaves Canada as the volumes are relatively small compared to major wine producing countries.  The Good Wine Shop in Chiswick, does stock some.  Not cheap due to volumes and shipping costs. The Okanagan wine region stretches along the 111km of Lake Okanagan.  The area is classified as a desert, defined by the low rainfall, though it happens to be chucking it down as I write this.  ...

Whales Galore Mon June 12th Biggs Killer Whales - Outside Gibsons Harbour As forest fires ravage large parts of Quebec and BC, spreading smoke and particulates as far afield as Europe, a couple of bits of good news have emerged.   Whale numbers are looking increasingly healthy for all but the resident  killer   S outhern  W hale .  A recent news article carried by CBC reports on the work of marine naturalist Tasli Shaw who this year has recorded nearly 800 individual humpbacks in the Salish Sea compared with 400 last year.  Link here .  Biggs Killer Whales, also referred as Transient whales, one of the two ecotypes or sub-species in the Salish Sea, have also seen a revival with 1221 identified in 2022, more than double that of five years ago. They feed on other marine mammals. The Southern or Resident Orca, whose main food source is Salmon, have been in decline mainly as a result of reduced salmon stocks.  We have seen both Humpbacks and...

Jazz by the beach Wed Aug 31st Fierce guard dog keeps watch from deck There is a definite autumnal air first thing in the morning and at my normal waking time of 0530 - 0600, it is dark.  The autumn equinox is only 21 days away, and it feels like it.  Daytime it is still warm, in fact this week we have a mini heat-wave (29 degrees yesterday) returning to normal over the long weekend.  It’s Labor Day on Monday - a public holiday, but no rain is forecast!  The long range forecast is for a wet autumn, though not as bad as last year when roads and rail lines were washed out, cutting BC off from the rest of Canada.   Warning of Black Bears going into their hyperphagia phase - eating as much as they can before going into hibernation in Oct/Nov, means they are more likely to be around potential household food sources.  There have been reports of bears entering houses and unlocked cars in search of food.  The cars haven’t fared too well (you should see the siz...

Vancouver Excursion Mon Jul 25th Gambier Island from the ferry This last week has flown by with an afternoon excursion to Vancouver, an early evening cleaning of Mandala for the Gibsons Regatta at the weekend and two days of exhausting but exhilarating racing. That look of concentration Tuesday I popped over to Vancouver on the lunchtime ferry to pick up a canoe.  It's been on the list for awhile and suddenly a good deal arose, too good to miss.   I stopped off in Kitsilano to drop something off for Nick and Lizzie and had two lovely hours with young Seb who was on great form and even decided to read me a bedtime story! Holding the book on his own and happily chortling away in between the cutest of smiles! He is a delight and at the weekend completed his first BCMC hill climb (strapped to Lizzie) in a pretty commendable 40 mins (3.46km and 800m elevation). The boy did good.  His mum is pretty awesome too!  I'm not sure I'd complete it in the estimated...