Expedition Canada

Happy New Year Ok, OK, I know I do a lot of sunsets (and sunrises) - but they are so beautiful Sunset over Vancouver Island (iPhone) Well, as feared in the last blog, it turns out that coming from a new joint email address our festive messages ended up in a lot of folks junk folders. W e sent e-Christmas cards as Canada Post were on strike for several months before Christmas.   So if you were thinking "we didn't get a card from the Cronks this year", check your junk email.  If it isn't there, then our email list was clearly in error (or you have changed your email address)!   It seems e-Xmas messages are starting to replace snail-mail (not surprising if you go on strike before Christmas) and probably arrive nanoseconds after they were sent. We had several.  Our first batch of the more tactile traditional cards arrived from the UK Fri Jan 10th, apart from a couple that must have been posted last summer, or maybe even Christmas 2023! Winter seems to have bypa...

And Other Wildlife Sat Jun 11th A few minutes after this picture was taken and 100m further down the road, this Bald Eagle zoomed down to a group of Otters on a rock getting ready to enjoy a large flat fish for breakfast, sending the Otters diving into the water and making off with their food.  I had no time to set up the picture and fortunately the camera was on an automatic setting.   The highlight of the week was the arrival of the Kitsilano branch last Friday and young Sebastian.  We wondered what Jack would make of somebody else getting much of the attention.  He was curious,  gentle and wanted to be part of the action.  We think they are likely to be good mates.  This time he didn't cry as soon as I picked him up!  Great fun. On the Admin front, I finally managed to switch my Apple Region from UK to Canada.  Not an easy task.  Several calls to Apple support, Music and Apple TV subscriptions cancelled and residual subscrip...

Two Whales and an Otter Fri May 27th  Downstairs recreation room/bedroom It seems to take so much longer to unpack than pack.  We are surrounded by boxes and it has taken a long time to make a dent in the various stacks.  As we feared we have more possessions than we want or need,  but are about 50% of the way through our combined local and international shipped boxes.  The UK shipment arrived in a 'Tardis' on Monday. The seemingly never-ending stream of boxes and wrapped furniture took three fellas five hours to unload.   Since then it has been non-stop.  On top of that we have had to carry out a super-clean of our rented house, ready for a handover inspection on Friday 27th.  We are to say the least, weary. Garage now a temporary box store The new house already feels like home and it's lovely to sit in the living room or on the deck to take in the view.  You just block out the boxes in your peripheral vision.  The resident Grey Wh...

Coyote Skulks in Cliff Gilker Sat May 14th  After several abortive attempts , usually arriving after it was long gone,  to find the local Grey Whale (Gray in the US) which has achieved celebrity status, I finally managed to track it down. It's been around for a couple of weeks wandering between Bonniebrook Beach and Davis Bay.  Often no more than 100m off shore, delighting a small group of followers and now me!  I spent an hour down on Roberts Creek beach Friday evening snapping away, while Jack explored the beach.   It is a good job digital technology has replaced film as 270 images later I was able to head home with, I was sure, a few decent shots.   After some heavy duty editing and exposure correction (I shoot in RAW not JPG) I got it down to 30. They spend their summer in the North Pacific off Alaska and the BC coast but during the winter they breed in the warmer waters of the Mexican Coast (I looked it up to save you the trouble)....