Expedition Canada

Along with other Wildlife! Wed March 6th It will be Major General Sir, from now on! If you are familiar with the plot of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, you will know that Frederic's indenture with the pirates has to be extended until 1940 because he was born on Feb 29th.  The small print of which (one should always read) indentures him until his 21st birthday, not his 21st year.  I mention it only because the production I'm in (I'm still not sure how I got talked into it) which is about to start it's final four shows out of seven this evening, and seems to have taken over every waking moment of my life for the last month,  missed the opportunity of doing its first performance on Feb 29th, as it opened on March 1st.  It's not only involved me.  Fred has been on wardrobe duty making costumes with her trusted 46 year old sewing machine. Fred with the Pirate King whose costume she made As part of my research for the Major General role I watched an...

Again! The Creek beneath Shannon Falls It has not been a great year for Whistler, the snow was late arriving, closely followed by warm weather and rain.  The week-long freeze and subsequent snow did not lay enough of a base for Whistler to get through the latest warm, wet spell.   After our wet Whistler Christmas, we headed up the Sea-to-Sky highway on Monday 29th in rain, fog and 8c.  Waterfalls of varying sizes were cascading down the rocks alongside the highway from the combined rain and snowmelt and the creeks were thunderous.   We stopped off at the Shannon Falls  on the way up, the third highest falls in BC.  The volume of water was such that it was impossible to see the main falls because of the spray showering us from 50' away.   It was quite a sight and sound. We felt like we were in the falls! The creek running off at the base of the falls It is not only Whistler that it 'enjoying' the warm weather.  All three ski cen...

Trees Down Mon Jan 23rd One of the Douglas Firs that had crashed down across the trails. The Holy Grail of wildlife sightings in BC is to see Humpback Whales breaching.  Black Bears are great, but not a rarity; Coyotes are quite common (Jack startled a youngster in Cliff Gilker during the week), Cougars fortunately not so common - and we have not yet seen one - no rush.   During the Summer we enjoyed numerous views of Grey and Humpback Whale tails, fins and  waterspouts, but the sight of a whale fully breaching has evaded us, till Sunday.   I didn't have my camera.  I kept the video running on my iPhone, and every time I stopped filming, they breached, but you get to to see their water spouts! On the final leg of our Sunday sailing race back to Gibsons Marina, a race that had been shortened due to very light, and at times non-existent, winds our skipper thought he heard a distant explosion; a crack and thunderous roar like a loud firework (his words)....

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...

A Wildlife Overload Wed Jun 15th Last weekend we had a few days up in Campbell River for a whale watching trip.  The town is a little over halfway up the NE side of Vancouver Island looking across an archipelago of islands and the BC mainland.    Long famous for its fishing, the town expanded with the development of the Elk Falls pulp and paper mill in 1952.  It was closed in 2010.  Salmon fish farming is also under threat following the revocation of fish farm licences by the Federal Government to mitigate the impact of lice on native fish stocks. Fish farming has also been opposed by First Nations' groups.    Over the years the fishing harbour was expanded to include a large marina which also provides a base for sport fishing, whale watching and adventure tours such as ours. The harbour also hosts the terminal for ferry access to Quadra Island.    We had booked a six-hour whale watching trip for the Norfolk branch of the Cronks.  I wa...

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...