Visit to Victoria

We love going to Victoria for a week-end.  I especially like taking pictures of the totem poles.

Solar Power on Gabriola Island

People on Gabriola Island are keen to learn about solar power and the possibility to reduce their BC Hydro bills by producing their own power.  For a small rural community on an island they are totally aware of the importance of reducing energy demands.  Gab Energy is assisting Gabriola residents to source and install their own solar systems.

Rainwater Harvesting on Gabriola Island

Home Rainwater Harvesting - Shaw TV Nanaimo

Gabriola Island homeowner Michael Mehta relies completely on rainwater to provide all his household water needs.

WWW.YOUTUBE.COM

Quathiaski Cove, Quadra Island, B.C.

Today, we travelled up Vancouver Island to Campbell River.  The population of Campbell River is 35,000.  Here we boarded the ferry to Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island.

Quadra Island is located across from Campbell River on the inside seaway passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland of B.C., on Canada's West Coast.

Quathiaski Cove is the main port for the island.  Quadra Island is the largest and most populated of the "Discovery Islands" with a population of 2,700 year round residents.

It's here that the tides of south and north Vancouver Island meet.  It's also the borderland between two First Nations groups with entirely different linguistic roots, the Kwakwaka'wakw and the Coast Salish.

It's a rainy day but the scenery is still beautiful.

Our Red Japanese Maple Tree on Gabriola Island

Our Red Japanese Maple trees seem to have liked the spot we had chosen for them this summer.  Now that it is getting a little colder at night and has been so rainy during the day, I have moved them under the roof to protect them from drowning.

I just love the color of these trees and their shape.

Coombs Market, Coombs, B.C.

Just off of the Alberni Hwy 4, a short drive from Parksville is the "Old Country Market at Coombs." For several years the market has been known for the family of goats up on top of the grass sod roof top.  It is a place that I have loved to visit whenever we are on the main island.  What started as a roadside stand selling fresh local produce has now expanded to offer delicious local foods, imports, souvenirs and crafts.

This is where I have come to love the Red Japanese Maple tree so much.  They have several for sale and growing in pots in the yard.

Change

They say "change is good".  

From where I sit up in my studio I can see the sold sign out on our driveway.  This is huge for us.  I have never lived anywhere but in Alberta.  We have lived in the Calgary area for the last 20 years and in this home for the last 13 years.  Now we are moving to Gabriola Island, BC.

I have spend many hours up in this studio, painting and writing.  This has been my retreat and I will miss it.

It is time for change.  To leap. To explore.  We are going to make a new home and so now we are in the process of moving.  What to keep and what to toss.  What treasures can we get rid of and not miss.  I have made some difficult decisions.  In one corner of my studio is a stack of canvases.  Work from the last 13 years.  Some finished, some not.  But not all will fit into the last load and so I take a sharp knife and slit a cross in each one.  Good-bye.  I should have painted over or tossed some of these years ago! There free at last!

Gabriola Island ...

If Once You Have Slept on an Island
If once you have slept on an island
You'll never quite be the same;
You may look as you looked the day before
And go by the same old name.
You may bustle about in street and shop,
You may sit at home and sew,
But you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls
Wherever your feet may go.
You may chat with the neighbors of this and that
And close to your fire keep
But you'll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell
And tides beat through your sleep.
Oh, you won't know why, and you can't say how
Such a change upon you came,
But - once you've slept on an island
You'll never quite be the same.

- Rachel Field

Topography of Gabriola Island

The topography varies from the flat beaches at sea level to the forested hills on Stoney Ridge which are at 160 metres high in the center of the island.

There are 45 kms of shoreline, 3 provincial parks, numerous regional and community parks, and a nature reserve.

Gabriola Island in the far and Mudge Island near

Artists, Hippies and Eagles on Gabriola Island

Gabriola Island is vibrantly full of old hippies, young hippies and  artists.  You will also find retirees, red-necks, off-the-grids, cyclists and kyakers.  It is generally quiet and quaint.  Not much goes on, not any big time news usually.  It is in fact very peaceful but there is always something to do.

Today I sit and watch the eagles soar.  There are several big groups of eagles going right over and around our house today.  There are so many that I sit down on a lawn chair and aim my camera up into the air and take several pictures.  Once again I realize that I need a bigger zoom lens to get a good picture.  As some of you know, eagles will have a special place in my heart forever.

I also  hear the swoosh-swoosh of the raven's wings as they fly by in pairs.

Heather on Gabriola Island

Heather brings bright color into the flower beds in the early spring and late fall.  It is a compact shrub growing in low mounds or mats and is ideal for rock gardens and other spots with well drained acidic soil and full sun.  It will grow 10" tall and 2 ft wide.  Heather should be planted in a sheltered spot to prevent winter drying from the winter winds.  It flowers pink, white, red and purple.  Heather is an evergreen and requires low maintenance.
Heaths - similar to Heather.  Heaths have needle like leaves.  Heather has scale like flat leaves.

Azalea on Gabriola Island

Azaleas are a versatile shrub with beautiful, colorful flowers on it.  Depending on the type they will grow in the sun or shade and like moist, well drained soil.  Some will grow up to 15 feet tall.  Many deciduous azaleas from flowers before the leaves unfurl.  Some azaleas bloom twice a season, on old wood in the spring and then on new wood in late summer or fall.

Gates and fence on Gabriola Island

We have finished our fence and gates now.  It is so nice now not to worry about Jake running away or getting hit by the traffic on the road.

...and Jake is so happy outside now...

Chickens on Gabriola Island

Historically, backyard chickens where common.  They were an easy to keep food source and would eat foot scraps, bugs, grain or just forage.

Today, on Gabriola there are still a lot of chickens and roosters.  Currently, according to B.C.'s provincial legislation and regulations eggs can be sold legally to the consumer directly on the farm premises or from a farm stand for personal use.  They can not be sold off of the farm premises such as at a farmer's market as the eggs are ungraded and not inspected.

Roosters are known to be noisy.  The hens are equally noisy.  Our neighbors happen to have a few chickens on their property that tend to act up early in the morning.  As Mark Twain said "Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid."

Blue Heron on Gabriola Island

The Blue Heron stands quietly in the ocean watching for fish to catch.  Eventually he tucks his long skinny legs up and spreads out his wide wings, flaps and takes off.

Building our Fence on Gabriola Island

Geo and I have decided that building a fence around our yard is our priority now.  We need a fence so that Jake can spend more time outdoors and we won't have to watch him every single minute in fear that he will get lost or run over.  The fence will also serve to keep out the deer and then we can get on with our planting.

We've decided on a cedar fence across the front with a metal drive through and a metal passage gate.  Work is started on it now.   The posts are in but we are stalled off  with the snow storm!

... a few weeks later the crew is back to work...