Expedition Canada

It's Back! Thu Sep 9 Fri Sep 10 It may not seem a significant event in UK terms, but internationally it's monumental.  It has been on the shopping list for five months and has only just reappeared in our local supermarket.  Its absence is due apparently, to a shortage of brewers yeast, a staple ingredient in its production. UK lovers will already know this, haters probably couldn't give a damn.   It hasn't yet been covered in the Canadian press!  So a message to all UK friends - please drink more beer! Tomorrow's breakfast will be a pleasant reminder of breakfasts in Blighty.   Any more shortages and pleas will be going out for supplies to be shipped from the UK! Do you love it or hate it? An email popped pinged in my inbox Thursday morning with details of some workshop machinery up for sale in Sechelt. A few hours and a visit later, the deal was done.  In addition to a very decent lathe, I have now added a router table, table saw, band saw (need...

Exploring Locally Thu Jul 8 Burr, barnacles and bladderwrack a washed-up tree stump on Langdale beach Fri Jul 9 Thursday Apart from the odd few bit and pieces we are now installed and settled in Gibsons.   The new old bed collected from Vancouver on Tuesday has been assembled and had some dabs of paint added, bedding and mattress being acquired.  As we start to settle in, we've had a chance to explore the area.  The Sprockids Regional Park is more extensive than we first thought and we've hardly scratched the surface of the network of tracks and trails.   With Fred glued to Wimbledon, I popped into town for some nuts missing from the bed, and some glue.  The more we explore Gibsons the more we find.  Tucked away on one of the back roads was an amazing fixings and fasteners store with every type of nut, bolt, screws and glue you could ever want - except the metric one I needed.  Ah, IKEA she said, metric, sorry!  Amazon to the rescue...

And Clouds Wed Jul 7th Clouds have been something of a rarity over the last few weeks and it remains relatively cool.  A short lull in Sunshine Coast proceedings as it's back to blue skies again come the weekend.   It was another early start to drop the van back in Sechelt, which needed to be returned with a full tank.  I managed to choose a pump that delivered fuel at an amazingly slow rate.  Twelve minutes to fill 40L of fuel.  Worse, the fuel cut-out didn't work spraying me and the forecourt with fuel.  'Yes," said the attendant in the shop, "we're waiting for the engineer to come and fix it'.  Perhaps you should take it out of service in the meantime I politely suggested!  Grrrrr While Fred went to buy the last of the house items  from Gibsons   (to be able to set up a second bedroom for when Nick and Lizzie or family or friends come to visit)  and herbs for the garden, I put the new old bed together, re...