Christmas in Vancouver

14 smiling guys cheering everyone up. By a Chinese sculptor who used his own face . The hats appeared mysteriously Christmas eve and were gone by 7:30 on Boxing Day.

FinallY!!!

It's only taken 44 years of trying, but I finally made PERFECT yorkshire pudding.
Here's the story-
company coming for roast beef Saturday night, so as usual I bought 2 little packets of yorkshire pudding mix at Safeway.
Carol, our clerk said, "You don't need that, I'm going to give you my mom's recipe"
and here's the result.
Ken is thriiled.

our crow

He makes his rounds every day with a murder of crows.
(That's right it's called a 'murder')
You will see he has a hazelnut in his mouth which he will drop repeatedly on the road
(or our roof) until it breaks.
Shells from hazelnuts and walnuts all over the place.

snow on the mountains

Some relative (HE shall remain nameless) doesn't think there are mountains on Vancouver Island and certainly not snow and certainly not skiing.
This is our view this morning across Malaspina Strait to the Island.
Mount Washington apparently has more snow than any ski resort in Canada.
So there
(We are also grateful that it's over there, not over here)
You can also see from the water that a gale is blowing from the northwest and we won't be sailing today

last of the summer roses

Run For the Cure

Calgary-South Centre Mall
8:00 am
Canada raised 26 million
Way to go.....

Picture of a gull

I didn't even notice this gull when I took the picture-I was so busy zooming.
Ken went out Sunday afternoon with Ron, Gerard and Deirdre.

Deirdre is a single lady who just bought a small sailboat and is learning all she can.
Gerard is our guru, teaches sailing courses all over the place and is a gentle kind soul.
While they were out, they encountered a pod/school of dolphins and their babies-Deirdre was thrilled. so they had a long sail-folllowing the dolphins over close to Texada.

Are you tired of sailboat pictures yet???

carlotta

The Re-Birthday of the Carlotta.
A pilot ship built in Bristol England in 1898, and completely gutted and rebuilt by sailing club members, Stephen and Barb Mohan.
Men singing sea shanties,
a group playing fiddle music,
cake and about 300 people at Lund.

Green and white things

Ken's scarlet runner beans are thriving, and one is striped green and white.
Not only that but the beans on that plant are also green and white-go figure.

This is silver lace vine-was formerly on the shed where it did not like it, but it's obviously happy on the north fence. In front of it is pampas grass, taller than I am and we intend to dig it out this fall to make room for more veggies.
Looks like a job for pick axes, crowbars and a fair bit of muscle.

It is this hot

Now it's lillies

each of these flowers is 8-10" across.
It was a free bulb from a local garden store.

Saturday

Seafair is happening here-parade, carnival, you know.
So a few boats went out this afternoon to provide a bit of colour-not much wind, Gerard went with Ken and I stayed back to take pictures.
That's us with the spinnaker

Hank Heron

Our friend Mike was at it again and caught our heron on the mast of our boat at sunset
. He looks like he's in fishing stance, but it's a bit of a reach.

Eagle in trouble

I thought this picture deserved special mention.

We spotted this eagle swimming while we were on the way home-didn't want to get too close, but he was swimming like mad and about 100 feet from shore.
I looked up the following-

Eagles can open and close their talons at will. If an eagle is dragged into the water by a fish too large for the eagle to lift, it is because the eagle refuses to release it. In some cases this is due to hunger. An eagle might drown during the encounter with the fish or if it's unable to swim far enough to reach shore. The eagle can not fly again until it's out of the water, so it uses its large wings to swim. The eagle is a strong swimmer, but if the water is very cold, it may be overcome by hypothermia.

We hope this guy made it.

Pender Harbour cruise

This is an amazing place.

The harbour is actually 2.4 km long, but with all the twists and turns the coastline adds up to 165 km. It's made up of Irvine's Landing, Garden Bay, Madeira Park, and a few other places I can't recall.

A little shuttle takes people from place to place.

We towed our dinghy and took a couple cruises in the evening to see the sights.
We'll go back there for sure.

No wind

Out for a cruise one late afternoon. No wind-hence no sails.
We didn't know it but our friend Mike was working on the boiler at the mill,
saw us and took these pics.
I told you that there are nice people in Powell River.....

What I now know about winches

this is a 1970's Lewmar winch

these are the ratchet gears that make it work

these are the springs and pawls which won't stay in their pockets, and slide out jamming the gears.
No parts available anymore, re-machining impossible. Lewmar says to buy a new winch.

BOAT= A hole in the water in which to pour money.

Herons on the breakwater

we haven't seen many in the past couple of years.
Usually more eagles=fewer herons.
They seem to like to sit on our upside down dinghy and they think the dock is a biffy.
Oh well.....

Today on the water

a pirate ship went sailing by

Espaliered apple tree

No laughing now.
This is what it looks like now, and what it's going to look like in a couple years.

Tonight in the garden

Begonias in the corner

I just finished watering and everything is glistening

Ken's garden-there is a shed behind all those beans, tomatoes in the middle and garlic on the front edge. Garlic is almost ready to be bent over so it doesn't grow any more-my Italian neighbour is telling me what to do.

Last night on the water

3 sailboats, 12 people on calm water
We went out there, tied up together, and passed food from boat to boat.
What better way to enjoy the sunset?

a day on Texada Island

a day trip to Texada Island.
a 20 minute ferry ride to another world.
remember to wave to every car you meet because everyone waves at you.

Today's Roses

Double Delight

Westerland

Today's Roses

Queen Lucia

Albertine

North to Desolation

3 years

2006

2009

Bear with me

I've been setting up another blog for the sailing club and fooling around with a slide show:
http://powellriverjibsheet.blogspot.com/

So thought I would try one here-needs tweaking, but I'll get there.

My quote for the day....

"For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die.
So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time.
I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear,
or
I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze."

- Richard Bode,
"First you Have to Row a Little Boat"

Today in Powell River

Ken's veggie garden-garlic in front

Dolphin Day

a beautiful day on the water, and a trip to Texada Island for lunch.
Entering the harbour we were surrounded by about 60 dolphins, having a great time.
We stopped the boat and just watched.
When we started up, many of them wanted to race and stayed with us, beating us too, as we went in-
Great experience.

Mason Bees 2009

Last year my bees laid 420 eggs and they spent the winter in our fridge in the little box on top of the bee house.
Now that the weather is warm, they are outside, they have all hatched and the females are busy pollinating and laying more eggs.
So..... I had to get another house.
Happy Mother's Day to me.

Today-home and abroad

First trip to Van Anda, Texada Island
for a root beer float and the world's best curly fries.

First star magnolias are out.

evening hummers

2 sitting on the Montana clematis vine

at least 5-6 zipping around-it's hardly safe to step out the door.....

first daffodil

if it was outside it would not be open-

Spring

The robins are back in droves-and busy cleaning up whatever is in our grass.
It makes us believe in spring even though the wind is very cold.....

today in Powell River

low clouds, a bit of fog,
a barge tied up off the sea walk....

Ken's birthday card from Benson's

says it all.....

Spring is just around the corner

Daffodils are peaking through,
robins are back.
ice is off the pond,
eagles are pairing up,

things look hopeful.