Michael, Claire and Todd visit Gabriola for New Year's

Todd and Claire at Orlobar Point.

Michael. Claire and Todd make enchiladas, fried bananas and coconut ice cream for dinner.

Gabriola Player's Pied Piper Panto

 Costumes by Tessa, Wendy, Annie and Christine. A great success despite two power outages. As always the cast party was a lot of fun. It took 13 actors and 32 crew. Good job guys.

Craft Fair at the Community Hall

Tessa and Jane with Jane and Rogers stall at the fair. The light was very effective through the glass and the strand of Christmas led's added to the effect.






Guess who had a great time as Santa - Ginny. Come see her in the Panto.

First Snow on Gabriola

 The first snow left a good dusting at first and was heavy enough to have the ferry using its foghorn every 3 minutes.We did get more the next day just in time for local election voting. Will these roses be the last of the season?

It cleared later and actually turned into a rather sunny day.

These were taken waiting for the ferry in the snow

Its RCMP car check day on Gabriola

This time they have parked at the intersection of Bertha and North Rd so we get stopped coming and going. They are polite, check license, seat belts and take a good look around the car. TPS got ticket for driving without a license but has 10 days to show it to our locals. There are a pile of trucks in the village waiting for the road check to go - makes you wonder. The community Facebook page spotted it early and seems to be divided between people who shrug, that's what the RCMP does; some who feel violated and quite a few who know they cant afford car repairs etc. and definitely cant afford a ticket.

Gabriolan blog has a picture - click here

Wild Weather on Gabriola

From: Gabriola Island Lifestyle Blog

Wild Weather on Gabriola What started out as a beautiful day yesterday here on Gabriola turned into an intense yet short storm unlike what we have seen in recent years. From out of no where the atmospheric pressure dropped quickly, and 100 km/hr wind came up blowing and chaos ensued.  30 minutes later the power was out to the entire island (still many without power this morning) and the worst of the weather had passed. Pictures in link below:
Wild Weather on Gabriola

First Power outage of season

This afternoon out of a clear blue sky (literally) withing 3 minutes the wind had picked up to gusts in the 90's. The alpacas stampeded around the paddock, things not battened down, took off and the sky went dark purple. Within minutes the power was off - it didn't come back for about 8 hours. There are branches and trees down all over the island even a hydro pole split in two on Foster and its still blowing at 9pm. We could loose power again tonight. One of my friends (thanks DG) put this on Facebook -

"Wow!! We watched the storm come sweeping from the northwest and hitting like a hurricane, complete with hail!! As it crossed Snake Island it looked like a mass of water swirling around the air - like several windspouts but miles across! I was thanking heavens I wasn't on any ferry! Poseidon Adventure??!!"

Awesome Tapes - music from Africa

Just read about Awesome Tapes in the Guardian Weekly - This is music you won't easily find anywhere else—except, perhaps in its region of origin. Definitely worth a visit and its free.

What happens when you turn your back on lucky for 2 minutes or Claire don't leave your slippers with your parents

I went to visit Tessa in her sewing room at the cottage and left the door open for 2 minutes. Lucky must have taken the slipper out and hidden it. When I went back to the house he retrieved it and ran around the garden with it.

Video at:  smugmug video of lucky

Halloween on Gabriola

 Excellent fireworks at Twin Beaches. People were a bit slow coming. Maybe a hundred at 6:55pm then several hundred - about 20% in costume but 7:10pm. Not as cold a last year but windy. The fireworks particles were blowing all over the crowd. Seemed like many fireworks going of at once but the display lasted at least 30 minutes.







After coffee at Woodfire we drove very slowly down North Rd just like everybody else. Some amazing pumpkin carvings all along the tunnel. More than a hundred pumpkins, all lit, all thoughtfully carved ranging from cute to scarey.

All pictures taken with LX5.

More Smugmug  fireworks pictures

Is this what happens if you eat the wrong mushroom?

Playing with Fractalius again - its a Photoshop plug-in. Thanks John Redfield for upgrading to a 64 bit version.

Shrooming with Tom, Chris and Jane

 Two of the more interesting but not edible mushrooms we found. We did get more chanterelles as well. The most varied types of mushrooms were on our property but we did go to Elder Cedar and to some other areas on the east side of the island. Like most shroomers we aren't about to divulge our best  spots! I can say that ferns don't seem to go with mushrooms but moss and salal definitely do. We have been dehydrating the chanterelles and it definitely intensifies the taste. Probably haven't seen Tom for 30 years but he hasn't changed, just like I remembered him. Mushrooms must be good for you because it sounds like he goes shrooming every day and he certainly eats lots of mushrooms.

Badaling Great Wall north of Beijing.

The "Wall" is quite amazing.
After passing through the  usual crush of shops and really pushy salespeople you leave the world behind on a ski lift and reach the top of the wall. We didn't walk as far as some, you can walk for hours but it was hot and the steps seem to go on for ever. Not too many tourists with one exception a group of evangelical Koreans having a prayer meeting on the top of one of the towers - weird.

In spite of a really flaky internet connection I did get pictures of the wall onto my smug mug site:

Badaling Great Wall near Beijing

Reflections while waiting for Stella Maris

The Stella Maris V arrived at the Boat School on Thursday. This will be the project boat for our restoration courses as well as part of the Marine Joinery and Cabinetry course. It was amazing how many people showed up to wait for her arrival. She will be on the hard at the Boatyard for a few weeks, then will move into the wet slip.




The trailer only just fit on the Quinsam, just  6 inches to spare. The boat weighs about 10 ton and is 39 feet long.

Finally got Broadband 50 from Shaw!

Now that I have a much faster upload speed I am beginning to create galleries of my pictures from China. Finally. By the way it actually saved money too on our TV/Internet bill.

First up - The Dazu Grotto between Chengdu and Chongqing

spero.smugmug.com

"The carvings are chiefly about reincarnations of the Sutra. In each niche are groups of sculptures with Buddhist inscriptions, tenets, or eulogies, telling serial stories from the Sutra, just like scrolls of ancient picture books. The grottoes at the Precious Crown Hill are characterized by their distinct national style, local themes, and secularized renditions. These features make the grottoes a treasure house of grotto art in China".

On the Gabriola Art Tour

We lost our oldest hen this week. We think she was about 6. We have replaced her with this glorious glass hen made by Tammy Hudgeon. The tour is great this year. Some very good studios and a few not so good but overall a day well spent.

Friday afternoon at the Boat School

Sitting at the Boat School for Friday afternoon  open-house. A few visitors, glorious sunshine and wonderful fresh air.

The eye is painted on a very interesting boat. The half boat was used for the cabinetry and joinery course but has been replaced by work on real boats. Our new  boat a 29 foot sloop - the Stella Marris V, should arrive next week.

http://www.boatschool.com/posts/stella-maris-v-new-project/

An unusual plant in our garden.

I was surprised to find this prime example of feral Laboro immergite, growing in among the Queen Anne Lace. Since we already have a fine example of the domesticated version I decided to send it to Claire who could probably use it.
It requires a small quiet room with running water, lights are optional, no fertilizer. Not only a thing of joy to behold, it will keep that water running!

Coming through the rye - we hope

Before

The rainy season has started again so we have planted winter rye in the alpaca pasture. These pictures shows what the pasture looked like when the alapcas arrived and after.

After

GIRO - Gabriola Island Recycling Organiztion

 GIRO is one of the social centres for the island. If you want to meet friends and neighbors go to the GIRO on Wednesday or Saturday and they will be there. Not only that they have a wide range of used, slightly used and sometimes brand new stuff. People bring in the oddest things that they brought to Gabriola but find they don't need, clothes that no longer fit in or fit. Many of the costumes for our plays start here even if its just sheets used to make the trial sloppers,  Every year there is a fashion show based on clothes from GIRO. Plumbing, computers, bubble wrap, cutlery, crockery, books - the list  goes on. Its also where we recycle plastics, bottles, cardboard etc.You  gotta love the GIRO.

Larry Pinkus's Bench at Drumbeg

When we came to Gabriola 6 years ago we thought it would be a good idea to sponsor a bench at Drumbeg Park dedicated to Tessa's father. He always wanted to live on the west coast but never made it. We wish they had put the plaque on the back of the bench not the leg and it has attracted some graffiti.

I just think its a great place to sit and contemplate the world surrounded by some of Gabriola's best views - all seen in these three pictures.

Horseshoe Bay Village

Coming home from Vancouver its always good to go for a walk in Horseshoe Bay village. The new pedestrian walkway over the roadway seems overkill and it really does mean you had better take your ticket with you - the return is through the main entrance for all passengers. The ferry in the picture is the Bowen Queen the replacement ferry when the Quinsam is out of service.

A Vancouver Celebration.

A weekend in Vancouver with Claire, Michael and Tessa (and Todd). Two great dinners, a wonderful visit to the aquarium and lots of walk and talk. I must be getting used to big cities because Vancouver doesn't seem as stressful as it used to be. I have two realities - Gabriola and Vancouver, perhaps even Nanaimo but that's it.

Waiting for the Ferry

What do people do in that wonderful period of grace known as "waiting for the ferry". Some read, some sleep and some go have a snack at the pub (and some take pictures). Either way its an essential part of Gabriola life and a good way to prepare for a return to the "madding crowd" of nanaimo.

Yucca Plant (Yucca filamentosa) - seed pod

We have had Yucca plants for 6 years. They flower profusely but this is the first time we have seen a seed pod. Perhaps since they spread like wildfire they haven't seen the need to seed.

The Owl woke that woke us up this morning

Barred Owl (Strix varia)

Barred Owl (Strix varia)

Barred Owl (Strix varia)

I heard two screeches and though it could be the alpacas (who do make some very weird noises) but on the third I looked out of the window. The owl was at least 20 inches high with 40-60 inch wing span. It was very poor light so all of the shots were f2.8 at 1/320s. First shot was the 100mm lens that happened to be on the camera, the rest are the 300mm. The owl was very polite and waited for me to change lenses. He knew I was there - in the laundry by the clearest window and only flew off after about 10 minutes. Then we went back to sleep.