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!