August 2021

And some clever quip...

Stanley Park Walk

One of those mornings I wanted to get outside and I happened to have some time so I went for a walk at Stanley Park. The walk around Beaver Lake has been surprisingly productive over the years - you see the usual's (Spotted Towhee, Chickadee) almost every time, but there are lots of other things around if you are patient. I was watching the Chickadees go from tree to tree when I spotted two bright yellow birds in with the flock. May happened to be at the same place at the same time is more accurate. These birds were eating insects in the trees so they rarely stayed anywhere for more than a moment, but the bright yellow color made them a little easier to see.

Trying to swing around a 400mm lens for a long period of time gets tiring, but I probably could have spent another half an hour watching these little birds.

Salt Spring Island Day Trip

The kids had a week at Freedom camp - staying with my parents. We drive over on Friday nights and return Sunday afternoon so we have all day Saturday and some of Sunday for activities. This weekend we decided to do a day trip to Salt Spring Island! We left the house early to be sure we were on the 9am sailing.

The first stop was Embe bakery to get bread and treats for lunch. The second stop was the Saturday Market. I've been to the market several times and it is evolving over time. Parking isn't easy. The vendors are pretty slick now - they have really nice booths. There is more food ready to eat than I remember. I remember more textiles in the past.

I have a hard time taking photos of peoples work so I generally focus on produce. We picked up tomatoes and cucumbers for lunch.

The kids know how to parse a market - they started with Scones and then moved onto Popsicles and finished with Crepes. We tried Indian food and pre-rolled sushi. Surprisingly, the market did sell out some vendors. The Scone vendor had what I thought was a mountain of items but they were sold out by 11. One of the bakeries with bread was sold out even earlier.

After the Market, we drove up to Mount Maxwell to have a picnic and take in the view. I've been up here lots of times before - it's a favorite place.

Sidney Spit

Second weekend in Victoria, we decided to do another Saturday activity. This time the plan was to take the 10am ferry over to Sidney Spit, have a picnic on the Island and then come back on the 3pm sailing in the afternoon. I booked the tickets online a week in advance and away we went!

The ferry trip over takes about 30 minutes. They bay nearest the spit has regular array of mooring buoys with a channel down the middle so you can get to the floating docks. It's almost like driving through a small village seeing all of the boats lined up on either side of our approach. We unloaded to go grab a picnic table, but it was false urgency - there was more tables than would ever be used.

The tide didn't line up great with our day. In an ideal world, the lowest tide would be around lunch time so you have plenty of sand to walk out on and no concern about getting left behind on a shrinking island. Our lowest tide was later afternoon so if we waited for it, we would miss our ferry home. We walked through the flooded channels to get between the islands.

I was quite surprised by how much bird life was out here. There were a ton of seagulls - no surprise. We counted at least 6 Great Blue Herons on various posts and beaches. I saw five Oyster catchers in the shallows. There were Sandpipers at the end of the ocean. I didn't bring my big lens and I regretted it.

Walking down the spit, you feel a bit bad for the flock of seagulls that launch, fly around and land a 100m down the beach, only to do the same thing when you make up the distance.

At the tide level we were at, the spit was not connected - sections were under at least 30cm of water and there was some current flowing across. The kids didn't have shoes and the low sections were covered in barnacles and mussels. I wound up carring a kid from one sand beach to the other and Helen's shoes made the trip twice. Once we passed the low areas, it was all sand again.

The end of the spit is more properly and island - the highest part is probably two meters above high tide. The dunes are covered in interesting and rare plants that have been thoroughly documented on iNaturalist. We kept to the beach level so as to no disturb the plants.

The walk is long enough that you really do have to be careful with the time. There are only so many spots of the ferry back (you reserve in advance) so if you miss your return ferry and the rest are full, you could be looking at an expensive water taxi ride. In our case we were on the first ferry of the morning and the 3pm return ferry so we weren't worried about the ferry, but we didn't want to leave my parents in the sun for too long.

The walk back was quite a bit easier because the lower tide had cleared a sand passageway all the way back. The shallow pools were getting warm in the sun.

We packed a lunch an brought plenty of water. Apparently the campsite had a water pump (there is a warning on it about high levels of salt in the water), but the pumps were disabled by Parks Canada for reasons that weren't made clear. Close to the ferry landing was at least six picnic tables - at no point were they all used so you don't have to worry about getting a space. Nothing beats a cold lunch after a long walk on the beach!

After lunch, we went for a brief walk on the Island. The island has invasive European Fallow Deer and while a cull is being considered, I don't believe it has happened as of 2021. The forest appears is mostly wide open - almost no brush grows between the trees. The trees are impressive though. We found the largest cottonwood tree I have ever seen and Arbutus trees are plentiful. There were pit toilets in good shape.

We were not the first in the line to get back on the ferry. People had lots of luggage (coolers, strollers and beach toys) but we had no problem getting seats. A short ride back to Sidney and we were back in the big city. Thanks for a good day!

Evening Bike Ride on Dallas Road

Back in July when I was taking photos of the moonrise over the Trial Islands, I noticed the nice bike route next to the ocean. A woman was riding by in roller skates and lights I figured my kids would want to do the same kind of thing. My Dad had enough bikes and we brought over our lights so we went for an early evening bike ride along the bike route!

We unloaded the truck at the Breakwater on Dallas Road and started biking East toward Beacon Hill Park. We entered Beacon Hill Park when Claira declared she needed a bathroom break. Google maps saved the day by showing us where the Public Washroom on Cook Street was.

Back on the road again, we biked to our one way destination - Clover Point. Most of the walkways at Clover Point don't allow bikes so we walked down to the cliff and watched the kite surfers out on the water.

It was starting to get dim so the bike lights were starting to stand out. We got thumbs up from pedestrians who appreciated the warning we were coming up behind them.

By the time we got back to the truck, 52 minutes had elapsed, but more importantly the sun had set. What a great night and place for a ride!

Rankeillour Farm

My uncle passed away last year. There was a small reception to remember him in Vancouver, but with COVID restrictions there was little more we could do. This summer the restrictions were lowered so my Aunt kindly organized a weekend of festivities and family in Comox. We all had jobs - mine was to collect enough photos that we can make event books. The kids actually had jobs as well - Nara and Claira made the signs for the recycling bags and the trash bags. Every kid did one pass of picking up garbage and empty cans to put in the recycling.

The Aunts got the hard job - initial setup of the event and then feeding 25+ people breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think my Aunt put together tech menu and then each person had pieces to fill in. We arrived on Friday night (reservation were only available for Tsawwassen to Duke Point) and went straight to bed. We arrived early enough on Saturday morning that we needed breakfast.

There are new babies we haven't seen before! Shona and David have a daughter Mackenzie that none of us have met before - she was very patient with lots of stranges around was quickly the star of the show!

Of course, it's hard to compete with breakfast! Uncle David has access to some great tractor equipment and they had setup the covered wagon to be where meals were served.

While Mackenzie got a lot of attention, a lot of us have never met Beau before either. He was also really patient with crowds of new people.

Because of COVID there were a lot of people who had not seen each other a year or two so there was a lot of catching up to do.

Kids fed, the craziness begins.

Beau likes tractors. When he saw Davids backhoe, he tried every handle he could to find his way in and then pressed every button he could find. Once he found the horn, he got the owner to come out and give him a ride.

Once one kid got a tractor, every other kid wanted to ride a tractor. Some kids were okay with just sitting in the seat, but Marcus and Nara are old enough that they can actually drive the tractors.

I realize that kids riding in the bucket is a safety concern. For a small ride with an experienced driver, I think we will be okay. First the kids got a ride in a little tractor.

It's nice when you have a purpose to ride in a tractor. The purpose? Go pick some apples!

It's funny how the adults emulate the kids and then the kids emulate the adults.

There were some activity stations. One field had a tub of water and sponges. The kids turned this into games - tag, a kind of capture the flag and just general mayhem.