Expedition Canada

Two days Left Wed Jun 23rd It seems hard to believe that five weeks in Garden Bay come to an end on Saturday when we return to North Vancouver for a week. It has been an amazing few weeks and  a great base to explore the northern end of the Sunshine Coast.  The house with its large 'back yard' including a lake at the bottom and Mixal Lake only 100m away.  Nick, who has come up twice, while we have been here thinks we will miss it with Mixal on the doorstep and very limited public access to it, making it almost our own private lake. It has been extremely quiet.  We asked one of our neighbours what it's like in winter, when weekenders aren't around.  'Lovely' was her reply, though we feel it can probably be quite isolated. Fred did the morning walk with Jack and I had a virtual gym session, which I've kept while in Canada, followed by a swim in MIxal to cool down.   Fred watching Wimbledon Qualifying while cleaning the oven Today some of the cleaning job...

Day Replanned Sat Jun 5th Mixal Lake John Henry's The morning walk down to Mixal Lake never disappoints.  A quick stroll in between showers, the lake was perfectly still and quiet.  The view may be the same but every day's scene is different.  The reflection of one of the island lakes, the mountains behind and clouds overhead was one of the best we've enjoyed. Beside the lake is Camp Burley, a scout 'wilderness' camp.  As a result of the Pandemic it looks even more of a wildness than usual.   It is an odd coincidence, but 500m down the beach from our rental at Bonnie Brook  near Gibsons, was Camp Byng.  Named after Julian Byng,  1st Viscount Byng of Vimy , a former Governor General of Canada who had previously led the Canadian Forces at Vimy Ridge. Camp Burley does not have the same UK connections but is named after an active and long-serving scout leader, Norman Burley. He'd had a lifetime involvement with Scouting in Van...

Connected with Civilization Sunday May 23rd  Pale Swallowtail I write this post sitting on the deck as the sun goes down.  The volume from the bees on the Rhododendron declines as the chorus from the frogs in the pond and lake intensifies.  The trout are breaking surface every few minutes, sending pebble-thrown ripples across the top of the mirror like finish.  The frogs seem to have taken over the shallower, weed filled pond above the lake.   Club 63 members may remember another pond with  noisy sunset frogs from past excursions! After a weary day of packing and unpacking on Saturday, we have stayed close to base today.  A morning walk down to Mixal Lake and several exploratory jaunts around the cabin and local tracks have kept Jack and me occupied. We have a family of Garter Snakes in part of the garden with two adults and two juveniles soaking up the sun, together with a Western Alligator Li zard who seems to share the same set of rocks as...