Expedition Canada

Trailer & Tariffs Beaver on Nita Lake We first came out to Canada in 2000 for a 2 week holiday.  The plan was to spend a week in Muskoka, North of Toronto, then drive over to Vancouver and spend a week on the West Coast. Realising it would take the best part of a our second week to get there, we abandoned the plan. Lake Vernon on the edge of Huntsville was our base for those two weeks, playing in boats on the interconnected lakes the first week, then exploring Lake Huron and the Algonquin National Park, north of Huntsville the second week.  In the two weeks in Ontario and every visit to Canada since, we've never seen a beaver in the wild; nor since we moved to Canada in 2021.  That was four years ago, Thursday April 3rd. The last week of Feb we were in Whistler for a week and on one of my early morning walks with Jack we discovered a young beaver was walking along the ice on Nita Lake.  It's one of the last places I'd expect to see a beaver as it doesn't fee...

House Moving Still Up There   Thu Mar 10th  Seal watching Jack watching seal off Hopkins Landing In the context of all that is going on in Europe it is inconsequential, but I can confirm that house purchasing/moving remains one of the top of life's stressful events.  Not helped when the transaction transcends borders and large sums of money need to be moved.  It's made worse when the exchange rate goes 2.5c against you the day after contracts after exchanged!  In house purchase terms that is a lot of money.  The money is somewhere between my Wise £ account and Wise CAD account, while they carry out money laundering checks, all quite legitimate, but not a quick process.   I wonder if Russian Oligarchs had this much problem moving money around.  One suspects not!  The good news is that the rate has improved and is only 1.2c down - but who knows where it will end up by the time it's sitting in our local attorney's account.  T...

And Ants Morning on Mixal Mon Jun 14th The instructions for the cabin remind us that all garbage must be kept inside because of bears and that mosquitos and ants are a fact of life in Canada, more so when you are surrounded by water.  Windows all have screens and doors are recommended to be kept shut.  They are not screened. Fine in theory, but on the warm days we have had the doors open.  So far we've only had few problems with either, other than a few night-time bites.  Outside, ants (and some are probably termites but I've not worked out the difference) are certainly  more prolific than in the UK.  Painted Turtle They even managed to discover the hummingbird feeder hanging on the  underside of the roof eaves.  Ant killer in the bowl on the top kept them off for a couple of days, but in the end the feeder had to be moved.  It was heaving with large black ants inside (drowned) and outside the feeder. We now wait to see how long it takes...

 More Wildlife Tue May 11th The morning was spent, after the early beach constitutional, checking out new listings which usually get posted at the beginning of the week as part of a weekly cycle.  Posted Monday/Tuesday, visits rest of the week, offer .... decision day the following Monday.  Nothing if not formulaic !  The morning walk was slightly later and a regular dog walker I meet said the resident Otter, had bitten a small dog who'd thought Otter-chasing was fun.  It will learn!  As a result the Otter's unfinished breakfast was being cleared up by the local gulls, a Glaucous-winged Gull, to be precise.  (I hope you are impressed Ralph!).    I am not actually sure what it was eating! In addition to the gull a, new visitor to foreshore was resting on one of the rocks.  After a bit of research it was typed as a Long-tailed Duck. Not the most imaginative of names, but it covers it... cute eh? Post walk, a bird was attention-seeking...

 Round Trip  Sat May 8th After the excitement  of the morning aerial display from the birds of prey swooping to help the seagulls with the shoal of fish that were passing by, it was off for more property exploring.   An early morning stroll along the beach and we came across one of the many Great Blue Heron.  A really graceful bird in the air. For those that did not see the blog for Friday, some 15 or so Bald and Golden Eagles (mostly Bald) were attracted by a huge flock of seagulls attacking a shoal of fish about 1km out to sea.  They were too far away and spaced out to get a good shot, but the top pic shows four of the Bald Eagles and a Golden Eagle.  Once they had fish in claw, they flew back behind us for breakfast before repeating the journey.  It must have gone on for the best part of an hour.  An amazing spectacle. The first visit was to Roberts Creek a small community about 10k down the road towards Sechelt.   A really ...