May 2018
And some clever quip...
Birding Walk at QE Park
Nature Vancouver's last birding night before
the summer is usually a walk in QE Park. They have had some
great evenings, and some rainy evenings. This year was
pretty quiet - it had been good weather so anything migrating had
already left. One of the residents of the park is a barred
owl - it was spotted earlier in the day and it was hanging out
where it usually does (with a bunch of crows yelling about it).
About 20 people were watching this bird
when a bunch of hollering happened - I thought someone was trying
to emulate the the "who hoots for you". Turns out it was
actually a mate and they had a nest high up in a maple tree.
The two interacted - visiting the nest and making faces at each
other.
Courtenay For May Long Weekend
My grandmother passed away in January.
My grandfather has seen his life change quite a bit - he is now
living in an assisted living facility which he really likes and he
is making new friends. It was time for us to visit.
After our first visit in the morning, my
Mom suggested we do a hike at Elk Falls up in Campbell
river. BC Hydro is in the middle of a massive
modernization project (those wooden penstocks are at the end of
their design life) and they kindly put in a new parking lot and
more direct walking route.
Since my last visit, they have built some very nice (but not dog
friendly) viewing platforms so you can see the waterfalls.
They have also built a suspension bridge so you can get to the
other side of the canyon.
We did see some interesting plants. Coralroot (a kind of
orchid) was somewhat common. This plant doesn't have green
leaves of it's own - it uses a kind of fungus to grow it's food
underground. The second odd plant we saw was a Vancouver
Groundcone - a parasite to salal. I really enjoyed seeing
these somewhat odd plants.
Two young
grandchildren make for intense visits. My grandfather prefers
to stay in for meals - they are provided and it's hard to spend
money on something when the alternative is free - my Mom didn't
think he would go out. Turns out they don't serve fish and
chips. We went to Avenue bistro because we enjoy the service
and food and they seem to be able to serve basically any constraint
- salt free, vegetarian or gluten free. My grandfather really
enjoyed his fish and chips. Claira gave him a demo of
minecraft.
The next morning we took the kids to the airpark for a bike ride to
get some energy burned off. The kids really enjoy the
playground, bu the nearly flat bike route is a hit too.
My parents brought over my grandfather and we went for a walk around
the air park. My grandfather has rolled this route several
times so I hope repeating a previous experience is a good
thing. We stopped in at the cafe and had a tea.
We had one last visit before we took the ferry back home.
The kids had their travel version of slides and ladders and my
grandfather was quite keen on following the game. The kids
played and my grandfather had a good time.
Tags: Courtenay Riverway Heritage Walk(6), Queen Elizabeth Park(3), bird(2), Vancouver(2), game(2), bench(1)
People: Claira(5), Nara(5), Philip(5), Helen(3), Janet(3), Lloyd(3)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2023 to 2005 > May 2018
Last Modified Sunday, January 22nd, 2023 at 00:01:01 Edit
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