Meanwhile, back in Gibsons....

This was taken by a friend of ours, Andrea, who lives in Langdale, near Gibsons. It shows the wood barge, recovering from a delivery.  I believe this to be the Straits Logger, the sister ship to the now scrapped Haida Brave. This ship is now a barge with decommissioned engines, it is towed around by a tug and is used for deliveries to the mill area of Langdale. This brings back lovely memories of a misty, rainy passing on a BC Ferry with the mother in law, many years ago.

What a Stunning view of Howe Sound.

Tofino Brewing

In addition to the stunning coastline, the beer isn't too shabby either....

Tofino

In September, we finally made it over to Tofino for a four day "break" from retirement, the area is stunning, beautiful beaches, the freshest air you can imagine, and for those that indulge, incredible surfing and weather systems on the wild west coast.

The front line....

At the front of the house, to the side, we're doing something similar, rocks have been installed at the property line, shrubs are being planted, grass is being removed.

Beer is being consumed.....

Updates at the back.....

The mammoth task to remove most of the useless grass continues in the front and the back yard, the rectangular bed, adjacent to the house, has now been introduced to a larger rose and shrub bed. It's a multi-year project and we have many plans, so we will keep you posted as we progress.

To be featured on Google maps in the future...

The large patch of lawn at the side of the house is evolving after the first eighteen months, we have created a fourteen foot diameter circular bed with some large rocks from our local excavation site, added half a yard of composted soil and a bunch of rhododendrons, escallonia and an abelia in the middle. In the next week we will be adding lavender (for the bees) and finishing off with mulch.

 Three blue spruce at the side and a cotoneaster on the hillock.

It's been a lot of work so far, but such joy!

Seeing Double

I find myself in the fortunate position of owning one and a half lawn mowers.

The two hundred dollar Poulan in the background worked for the season, but it had a tendency to stall under very little load with the Kohler 149cc engine, had an awkward height adjustment mechanism, plus, after a very mild winter it was reluctant to start, and even after stripping down the carb and making sure the fuel process is good, it has not returned to it's previous lackluster levels  yet.

The new kid on the block is a return to a 162cc Honda powered unit, a Troy-Bilt lawn mower that feels almost as powerful as the vintage unit we retired when we moved from Gibsons. Hopefully we will get sixteen years out of new one. 

Fifty Year Memories

When I was a lad, we moved from Liverpool to urban Whiston, my amazing grandfather, Jack Edwards, a keen woodworker and gardener, built several structures in the large garden, and one he introduced me to, and encouraged me to be involved with, was the compost heap.

Last March we built a similar structure in our yard, and today, a year and a bit later, the benefit of the compost heap is apparent. On the right hand side, two thirds of a yard of very good soil, on the left hand side, currently being processed, probably almost a third of a yard of good soil (packed with worms) and the top layer, which will be rotated to the bottom over the next week.

The wall of good soil, about a foot thick, can be seen on the left hand side, similar to the wall of muck that I would dig into almost five decades ago while helping my granddad.

Another Magical Day at the Spit

I find it difficult to not crack a huge smile when we are down at Whiffin Spit for a walk, this day was no exception, lots to watch, the best air to breathe, sun on our faces.

The Acura

It's about a week off fifteen years since we bought the RSX, and we had negotiated the price down from thirty-five thousand to one penny over thirty. It was an exciting time, and Karen ended up with the exact car that she wanted, the type of car that she had originally seen in the Oshawa car park one evening and she thinks we had been to the Keg.

Stats :
Picked up on the 21st March 2003, inclusive price was $30000.01 cash, it had been manufactured, in Japan, in May 2002.
One hundred thousand kilometres, two days ago.
In fifteen years, numerous oil changes of course, air filters, one set of Michelin tires, a new battery (long before the old one failed) several wiper blades, one fuse, zero bulbs replaced, zero spark plugs changed, one O2 sensor changed (and I still have the tools) and everything else is original.
Some rattles, some dings, some wear and tear, but the car still gives good gas mileage and is a very pleasant vehicle to drive and we hope for many more years of happy trails with it.

Photo taken this afternoon.

Spirit Bay

It was a good Sunday down at our friends house in Spirit Bay, good food, a few craft beers and a lot of laughs were had, there was a touch of spring in the fresh, marine air, it was lovely.

Greg, Karen, Sonya, Ken and me, oh and Coco the dog. Andrea took the photo.

Greg and Andrea are the guys from Gibsons that we would meet up with at Persephone every Wednesday during growler hour. Sonya and Ken live in Spirit Bay and we meet up with them on occasion at various bars around the Sooke area.

Surprisingly, a lot of the discussion during the day was about beer.

A Very odd 16 hours

If a tree falls in a forest, does anybody hear?

In our case, a tree fell down last night at around 10.30pm and took down a bunch of hydro wires, the lights went out for over 600 Sunriver residents, and the power stayed off all night, regardless of how many times we checked.

In the morning, Karen and myself took off to Victoria, had breakfast, went shopping, went to Moon under Water, had lunch, went shopping, went to 17 Mile House, had beers, all the time checking to see if we had the "lecky" back at our house. It was around 3.00pm that we were given the green light, on the BC Hydro website, to go home again.

An extremely odd 16 hours.