The Imperceptible Immigrant · Vancouver Island

Little Qualicum Falls

September 9, 2024 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

For the second day’s excursion on our recent trip to Nanaimo and its environs, The Girl, her mother and I paid a visit to an attraction to which I had not previously been – Little Qualicum Falls.

Our various previous journeys up island – to Tofino, Courtney and other points north and west – have taken us to within a short distance of Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park, but there are just so many places worth a visit on the island that it comes as no surprise that the ‘still to do’ list is as long as it is. Grateful thanks to The Girl for suggesting on this occasion that we tick this one off the list.

No need of a lengthy screed on my part in this instance. I will let the camera do the work instead:

Tags: Family, Holiday, Little Qualicum Falls, Photo, Travel, Vancouver Island

So late so soon

September 20, 2023 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”

Dr. Seuss

It is high time that I finished posting photos from our recent travels to a variety of locations around British Columbia (not all of which we had originally planned to visit!). Let’s see if I can wrap things up in this one post!

We spent a night in Nanaimo – largely so that we could have lunch with The Girl’s mother and a dear friend of ours from Duncan. Whilst there we also indulged in some retail therapy and I took the opportunity afforded by being on the 14th floor of the Coast Bastion hotel to take some pictures of a favourite subject of mine – float planes!

Well – they are something that we just don’t see in the south east of England!

From Nanaimo we drove up the east coast of Vancouver island to Courtney/Comox, adjacent towns in the Comox valley that I had somehow contrived not yet to visit. We really liked the feeling of Courtney – the which has a sort of artsy vibe somewhat akin to Salt Spring island (should one be in BC) or St. Ives (should one be in the southwest of England.

In spite of its charms I somehow I managed not to take pictures of Courtney (not sure where my brain went!) but I did take the camera on an excursion to nearby Mount Washington – ski and outdoor resort.

No snow at this time of year, of course, though no shortage of wildfire smoke.

This little chap is a jay known as a Whiskey Jack – the which is Canada’s national bird (who knew? – certainly not this recent Canadian)…

These apparently fearless little birds are not named with reference to the Irish grain-based alcoholic beverage, but from the Cree word ‘Wisakedjak‘. This makes the cheeky little fellow the only Canadian bird commonly known by a traditional indigenous name.

Here he is – ready for his close up:

Here he is – gone!…

Tags: British Columbia, Holiday, Photo, Travel, Vancouver Island

A promissory note

June 27, 2022 in Life in BC | Permalink

“Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January”.

Hal Borland

As gleefully explained in my last post – some form of summer appears at long last to have arrived on the west coast of Canada. It may not last long, but it is most welcome whilst it is here.

That aforementioned post also referred to the Summer Solstice – the longest day and, of course, the shortest night! At the southern end of Vancouver Island that looks like this:

10:00 in the evening. Not fully dark yet:

4:00 in the morning (us older folk often have to get up in the middle of the night):Of course – if it is summer then it must be time to entertain folk in our garden. We duly did so over the weekend – with an impromptu invitation to dearest friends to come over an to cook their dinner on our BBQ. ‘Twas really most pleasant to be able again to sit out of an evening enjoying the balmy BC climate with good friends – even if it meant something of a canter down the home straight of making the garden look presentable – the which it finally very nearly does.

On the Sunday we bobbed across the Saanich inlet on the Mill Bay ferry and once again headed up island to have lunch with The Girl’s mum and another long-standing friend. These summer pursuits are most pleasant, though there is a slight feeling of squeezing things in over this next short period, before we set off on our travels.

I took these shots as we bobbed our way back over to Brentwood Bay at the end of the day:

Tags: Brentwood Bay, food and drink, Friends, Lunch, Summer, Vancouver Island

Oh – come on!

May 18, 2022 in Life in BC | Permalink

I wrote recently in rather gloomy terms on the subject of the less than stellar performance thus far this year of the weather gods… at least where this corner of Vancouver Island is concerned. Spring and/or summer (assuming that they eventually do turn out to be distinct seasons) have yet to put in an appearance. Temperatures in this usually clement corner of the world continue to lurk some five to six degrees Celsius below the usual average for the time of year and the endless rainfall does seem actually to have… no… end!

…and that really sucks!

Sadly, that isn’t the end of the bad weather news.

A quick search for ‘storms‘ in the archives for this blog will reveal that during the fall and winter seasons here on the island such phenomena are regular occurrences. They cause a certain amount of mild havoc – power outages – branches falling from trees – bins overturned… that sort of thing… but beyond that they are pretty much accepted as just part of the rich tapestry that is living in a country that is yet largely wilderness. Such events, however, are considerably less well tolerated in the supposedly balmy springtime and summer seasons (not that we have seen either yet!).

Today we had an extensive and unseasonal wind storm that included gusts of up to 90Kph. We had a three hour power outage – branches fell from the trees into our newly coiffured garden – our bins were blown over!

Bah!

I was in the studio working on some music. No power = no studio, however, so that was the end of that!

The other thing that I should be doing is working in the garden; amongst other things on planting out the recently purchased replacements (more on that later) for the various flora that we lost during the unpleasantly lingering harsh winter. I do draw the line, however, at venturing forth when repeated squally showers soak one to the skin and tempest-like gusts of wind threaten to bring large branches down upon one’s tender head.

It does look as though we might get a few sunny days now, but in gardening terms it will take me all that time just to get us back to where we were before the storm. At this rate the garden will be just about ready in time for this year’s fall storm season!

I’m afraid that it didn’t take me long to get back onto the subject of the weather… did it?

Sorry!

Tags: garden, Spring, Vancouver Island, Weather

May Day

May 1, 2022 in Life in BC | Permalink

Today is the 1st of May.

By rights we should be well into spring by now and heading rapidly towards to the balmy, bosky days of summer.

Here at the southern end of Vancouver Island the weather gods clearly did not get the memo. For the last however many weeks (endlessly, or so it feels) it has been, it is only fair to say, markedly chilly… not to mention damp to boot.

Now – if I were to be strictly fair there have been some quite sunny days and even on (rare!) occasions it has felt just the slightest touch on the warm(ish) side. Such days, however, have simply rendered the disappointment of subsequent, less passable days all the more bitter.

The garden – meantime – has blithely got on and done what gardens do at this time of year – ie. grow prodigiously, regardless of what is happening climate-wise. This is in marked contrast to its response during the winter when parts of it reacted quite negatively to what I thought was not really that bad a fall of snow. Clearly my understanding was based on some of the less appropriate of the fifty words that the Inuits apparently do not have for snow – and this was really quite, quite bad snow. That is certainly the impression given by the number of plants that turned up their toes (interesting metaphor there) and gave up the ghost (alright – stop this now!)…

Anyway – I really should be cutting the grass now instead of writing this…

…well – that’s done – and it didn’t actually rain – though it did think seriously about it!

Where was I?

Ah yes… The winter term at College has finished (there is a theme here!) and the summer term (during which for this year I will not be teaching) does not start for a few days yet. I am off duty until September, so my mind should now be turning to all manner of summer activities… which it sort of is – though a bit of a warm spell would really help things along the way.

Now – I think I have laboured the point quite enough to be getting on with and I do promise that my next post will contain no mention of the weather at all!

What weather?!

Tags: garden, Lawn, Spring, Vancouver Island, Weather, work

Bays Day – 2

April 21, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam, Photos | Permalink

Further to my last posting (the hilariously titled Bays Day – 1) and – at the same time – further up the east coast of Vancouver Island from Brentwood Bay…

…is Maple Bay.

Now – the fact that I have not mentioned Maple Bay before within these dribblings is because – though I have read about Maple Bay and looked at pictures of Maple Bay and know where it is – I had not – until this particular Saturday – been to Maple Bay.

Well I have now!

Just so you know – Wikipedia says this of Maple Bay:

“Maple Bay is a seaside community located in the Cowichan Valley of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. A narrow inlet and surrounded by smooth, pebbled beaches, Maple Bay is home to marine activity all year round. Maple Bay is a small town with a population of 2,640.

The sheltered haven of Maple Bay is situated halfway up Sansum Narrows, which separates Vancouver Island from Saltspring Island, the largest and nearest of the southern Gulf Islands.”

Here are some photos…

We lunched at the Shipyard – the pub in the marina – which has a jolly splendid and slightly old-fashioned (in a good way) atmosphere:

The marina itself features this fascinating row of float homes. I can see the attraction of living in such a place – though it might be a little damp in winter.

…or one could live on the hill overlooking the bay.

Tags: Friends, Lunch, Maple Bay, Photo, Vancouver Island

Bays Day – 1

April 18, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam, Photos | Permalink

Ho! Ho! The title of this post is a play on words that probably only works for Canadians – ‘The Bay’ being ‘Hudson’s Bay’ (one of Canada’s best known department stores) and the ‘Bay Days’ being their well known sale days. For the purposes of this post I am referring instead to a day trip that took in two well know (real) bays at the southern end of Vancouver Island.

See what I did there?

We recently took a short drive up island to have lunch with The Girl’s mother and with a dear friend. As is our wont when heading in that direction we started off by taking the Mill Bay ferry from Brentwood Bay, to avoid the alternative but circuitous trek south towards Victoria and then back north over the Malahat Drive.

The sun was shining as we waited for the ferry and I took advantage of the fact to add to my already extensive portfolio of shots of lovely Brentwood Bay. That – of course – means that you get to see more photos…

Tags: Brentwood Bay, Friends, Lunch, Photo, Vancouver Island

Random Canadiana

February 17, 2022 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

A snippet of trivia that somehow typifies life here on the island – and some pretty images from some recent sunny days…

We are signed up to our local ‘Block Watch’. In the UK this would be the ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ – and you can make you own judgements as to whether it is better to keep an eye on the block – or the neighbours! I jest, of course…

Our local Councillor forwards items of interest from the equivalent of our local ‘Bobby’. Here is today’s message:

“Hi everyone,

Couple of items from overnight;

1. 1. 1. 1. A small dinghy was stolen sometime over the last month from the area of North Saanich Marina.
      2. A large cougar was reported in the Ardmore neighbourhood, last night.

Cheers”

Several points about this tickle my fancy… Obviously the typical small town mix of dingy theft and wild animal sightings speaks volumes about the place that we call home – but I particularly like the fact that the small dingy was stolen “sometime over the last month”! “Yeah – I meant to get round to reporting it!”.

Images from Sidney on a sunny day and a walk to Gowland Tod.

Tags: British Columbia, local life, Photo, Vancouver Island

Here comes the rain again

January 3, 2021 in Life in BC | Permalink

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion

Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart

First things first… The Imperceptible Immigrant and the Kickass Canada Girl wish you all a (slightly belated) Happy New Year.

This Christmas period was always going to be an odd one, given that the necessary response to the pandemic was to curtail much habitual yuletide activity. We attended no gatherings of friends or family – we went to no Christmas-tide theatrical or musical events – we entertained no gatherings of like-minded souls for Christmas feasting.

In the circumstances perhaps the only Christmas-related activities in which we might have been expected to engage would have been the bracing and frequently blustery walks that we use at this time of year to help us counteract the expected surfeit of good cheer (too much food and drink!). Regular readers may recall that I normally take a camera with me on such jaunts – the resultant snaps featuring routinely within these postings.

This year – sadly – there have been no such expeditions. Not – I should hasten to add – for COVID-19 related reasons, but quite simply because for the last week (and more) it has not stopped raining…

…and raining – on occasion – in what can only be described as a biblical manner. Well – we do live on the we(s)t coast of Canada!

Bah!

Oh well – one really mustn’t grumble (no – really one mustn’t!). Things could be much, much worse – and at least we get to sleep in, cuddle up in front of the fire and watch old films and satirical reviews of the year (laugh? I nearly… er – didn’t!).

So – that’s all good then…

Tags: New Year, rain, Vancouver Island, winter

Fall Breeze & Autumn Leaves

October 13, 2020 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

A few autumnal images from recent fall walks here on fabulous Vancouver Island.

It is no secret that autumn is not my favourite time of year, but one cannot deny that the season brings many beautiful things and if one wants variety – then fill your boots! Sometimes it looks like this: