Expedition Canada

Coast Culture We've had some stunning sunrises recently and moonsets.  This was  the moon against a foggy backdrop. The long range forecast that suggested we were going to enjoy a cold winter could not have got it more wrong.  It has been wet and warm.   The UK has had more snow than southern and coastal BC.  Whistler has snow in the alpine but it's patchy and thin at village level.  Other resorts in western North America are enjoying similar poor conditions, unlike the Atlantic Coast. We have therefore deferred any trips up the mountain; though are scheduled to spend a week in Whistler late February.  Fingers crossed.  If snow conditions improve later in the season we may go up again in March and April, but book at the last minute.    That said, January has not been a quiet month.  The Coast Music Theatre Co are putting on a production of Guys and Dolls at the end of Feb, and Fred has been busy making costumes. While Fred’s b...

Still feels like Summer Mon Oct 3rd Sunset over Van Island - still warm enough to eat outside Message from the editor:  Technical glitches in the last blog update email, lost the formatting and didn’t save the changes after the typos were corrected.  Guardian readers may not have noticed.  The forecast rain reported in the last blog never arrived, water restrictions remain in place and the Sunshine Coast Regional District has convened their Emergency Committee.  Although it’s cooler at either end of the day, temperatures have been in the mid twenties which is 6c - 10c above average for this time of year.  The rain forecast set to swamp the Public Holiday next weekend  (Monday Oct 10th is Thanksgiving in Canada) is also looking less likely, maybe a few showers.  The coast has gone 80 days without any significant rainfall.   Some are speculating it may lose its status as a temperate rain forest. Canadian Thanksgiving is a celebration of th...

Hot News Mon Jul 19 One of the many tugs taking aggregate up to Port Mellon Tue Jul 20 Not so much a new game, but a new club, as Fred had her first proper ladies doubles match at the Sechelt Racquet club on Monday.  The invitations are flowing in thick and fast.  Some good competition; she is going to have to up her game, which is already pretty good!  A second invite for a game on Monday, one on Wednesday and another on Thursday.  All but the second afternoon session on Monday accepted.  Next week is filling up! We are going to need a second car!😀 Eel or Garter Snake for breakfast? While Fred was tennising, I was Jack sitting and working out the layout for the new cronkoak.ca workshop. I was due to collect the lathe on Tuesday morning.   The Monday morning walk to Hopkins Landing produced two interesting images.  The first was one of the many Great Blue Heron, about to down an eel or garter snake (they swim quite well) for breakfast. The second...

Global Warming? Ribbon Cloud in front of the mountains Fri Jul 16th The title is not meant to be flippant.  With disastrous floods in Western Europe, heatwaves in BC two weeks ago and forest fires still burning in BC 's interior and Western North America, we were not expecting to have to break out sweaters today where local temperatures only touched 20 C. The idyllic setting we have painted is not without its own problems aside from the forest fires that have received international attention. A number of local beaches around Gibsons have been closed due to E-Coli levels that exceed the minima.  See news report .   We are based just north of  'Langdale' on the map, just where the grey band stops. Some of the regular swimmers are still taking their morning dip, but fewer of them.  The Hopkins Landing and Langdale areas north of GIbsons are quite spread out and the majority of properties will be on septic tanks rather than mains sewage systems. ...

Coincidence Tue Jul 13  Wed Jul 14 Needless to say, the tires were not delivered  to the repair shop  on Tuesday and only two were delivered on Wednesday.  That meant Tuesday was an enforced local day, not wanting to drive around on a 'donut' spare and not have a spare. We explored the local area, bought a Basil plant from someone's front garden, met locals Madeline and Vern who live behind us and were invited to pick raspberries from their garden.  Very welcoming. Most of the update/news is Wednesday driven.   This morning I was checking the UK bank account only to find those lovely people at Sky UK have continued to deduct our DD since we left the UK and returned our Sky Q box, three months ago.   A note to their email complaints department (I wasn't planning on ringing from Canada) and we wait to see how quick it's resolved.  Any senior Sky directors  reading this (you know who you are), expect an email if they don't sort it out ...