Expedition Canada

And We Can Water Gardens!*!?#! Sun Dec 18th  Water seems to have percolated underneath the ice and snow covering Chapman Lake. As a result, water restrictions have been eased back to 'Stage 1' - more here.   Pools can be filled, cars washed and lawns Interesting!  Not sure of the Christmas credentials of some of these characters! watered.  The cars do need a clean and are looking particularly grimey after four months of restrictions. I suspect not too many people will be filling pools, hot-tubs maybe, but with snow forecast, temperatures around 0c and nothing growing, watering gardens is only for the foolhardy. To the frustration of residents, the Sunshine Coast Regional District are considering putting up water rates by 25%.  There is considerable opposition given that users have not been getting the service they have been paying for. But new investment is needed. Lack of past investment and long term planning is the root of the problem, coupled with new develo...

Rain Sets In Sat Sep11 Sun Sep 12 It is around this time of year I would put my (unscented) dog poo bags to good use foraging for mushrooms on Salisbury Plain.  I had one spot where I was able to find a good number of a member of the Agaricus family.  I did get them checked by an expert to be sure I knew that what I was picking was safe to eat, but can't recall the name.  It was a type of field or horse mushroom.    Occasionally I'd find a puffball.  Even better! The mushroom season has started in BC and I've already spotted some Chanterelle and about a dozen other types which I don't recognize. We have a local chap in Gibsons who trades under the name of Shaggy Jack (aka Jody), who runs foraging courses, so I have booked onto an October course for a five-hour tutored forage. I've decided it's no longer safe to stick with the 'perpendicular test' when foraging for mushrooms.  The one where if I'm still vertical the next morning they must be ...

Back to School Sat Aug 4th Saturday Sunrise to  Mon Aug 5th The Labor Day weekend is the final public holiday and long weekend of summer.  The holiday goes back to events in the late 1880's and a printer's strike in Toronto that led to demonstrations and an organized labor movement against the banning of trade unions.   Historically it has been the first Monday of September and not aligned to similar May holidays in other parts of the world.  Schools go back from Tuesday onwards and the ferry terminal is building up for a busy Monday.  That is of course assuming that many did not head back on Saturday when a large part of the summer's absent rain fell in one day. Community Library on Gates Lake - Pemberton Saturday didn't get off to a bad start but the 'red sky in the morning' should have forewarned us of what was to come.  The sun does not appear until ten minutes or so after the official sunrise as it has to climb above the ridge of th...

Jack Sets Sail Sat Aug 14th Hopkins Landing in the morning haze Sun Aug 15th With Nick and Lizzie here it was going to be a busy weekend!   Hikes to waterless waterfalls, paddleboarding on the Sechelt Inlet, more hikes and swimming - when I fell off the board.   Saturday morning, while Lizzie ran to the top of Elphinstone Mountain (16k and 1200m elevation), the rest of us wandered up to Dakota Falls on Dakota Creek.  It was the last day of the heatwave and around 30c, though we were in the shade of the forest some of the time it was still hot!  As we neared the Falls we came across  a  huge Douglas Fir.  Nick called it a 'mother tree'. You may remember a documentary on UK tv Calculated circumference of 7.5m about how larger trees support the growth of younger ones through a subsoil connection of roots that share carbon and nitrogen to aid younger tree growth. Much of the work was done by Dr Simard, of the University of British Columbia (UBC)...