Expedition Canada

Summer Solstice Mon Jun 21st Turkey Vulture - Stunning but not pretty! According to the Government of Canada Twitter account for the June 21st,  " I t'll officially be Summer in the Northern Hemisphere!  The #SummerSolstice means early sunrises, late sunsets, warm weather, and a whole lot of outdoor activities. "  I thought the whole point of a solstice, was that the days started getting shorter and the nights longer in June, or the other way around in December.    So as of today the days start getting shorter than the nights.  That said, as we are not yet Resident in Canada, I am not about to start being pedantic about the wording of their Twitter account. Yesterday and today had temperatures about 10c above normal.  An early morning dog walk was followed by a dip in Mixal. There was sighting of the rare Grey Dipper again!   It was amazingly warm.  The dockside thermometer was registering a water temp of 22c.  Five m...

Exploring Gibsons Thu May 7th  Gibsons Today was a drive-by day, checking out the local roads, seeing which we liked, viewing a few sale properties from the outside.  Our focus is on the southern coastline and a road called Gower Point Rd and a few no-though-road lanes that run off it.  We are staying at the end of Ocean Beach Esplanade where the round bubble is on the left of the map.   The bulge on the right of the map is a small hill which has a number of roads running around it with a  mix of houses overlooking Gibsons and the marina to the north or across to Van Island southwards.   The higher you get the better the views. Gibsons has a good mix of shops, restaurants and 'liquor stores' - the only place you can buy booze, apart from the multitude of micro-breweries across BC.  Supermarkets don't sell alcohol.  BC Liquor is one of the largest in BC with 198 stores and is owned by the state of BC.  It's used to generate...