We took the long way home from our hike on Monday to drop by Yellow Point Lodge. It is in a perfect location to enjoy the ocean views from an isolated location within a forest. We did not visit the lodge itself, but we did enjoy the view.
Category: Living and Learning
Roberts Memorial Provincial Park
Roberts Memorial Provincial Park is in Yellow Point, British Columbia. It is a lovely short hike through ancient trees and abundant ferns to the coast where there is a view of Ruxton Island and Valdes Island. We also saw a sea lion and a loon that were happily ignoring each other and us.
Don’t Tell Me I’ve Nothing To Do
It just occurred to me that I like having lots of different things on the go at the same time. Sometimes I can do something like crocheting or writing for an hour, and sometimes I can do it for four hours. At the same time, though, in between times I have other activities that keep […]
Questioning The Usual
When I looked outside this morning, I noticed something out of the ordinary. There was a grey (or gray) boat in the marina. The fact that this stood out as unusual caused me to wonder why most yachts are white. It had not occurred to me before, but virtually all the vessels that are docked […]
Covid news: Should we be losing sleep over the new variants?
Originally posted on Notes from the U.K.:
If you’re even vaguely awake (or as our former and once again active home secretary would say, if you’re a Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokeanista), then you’ll know that Covid has some new variants, and that they have good publicity agents. So how much sleep exactly should you lose?…
Best Fries Ever
Tonight I succeeded it making the best french fries I have ever made. To be fair, I have to qualify that by adding that they were prepared and frozen originally by Western Family, the store brand at my local grocery store. I must also explain my claim to french frying brilliance by adding that I […]
How To Open Shellfish
All along the beach at Nanaimo are the broken shells of shellfish. The gulls and other shorebirds have figured out that the rocks are a great place to smash open these little calcium carbonate structures in order to feed on the inhabitants If you have seen The Lion King, you know all about the circle […]
Capitola, California
Beach, sand, gulls, surfers, colourful cottages, ukulele musicians, family, and very friendly people. This is the California of my imagination. We sang along with golden oldies for over an hour and my sister danced with the beat. Then we enjoyed a lunch overlooking the picturesque cottages and a pond filled with a gazillion gulls and […]
Hemer Provincial Park
Hemer Provincial Park, near Cedar, British Columbia, is one of many delightful parks in this area. Today some friends from the newcomers group introduced me to the trails here, and we enjoyed a four kilometre walk among the trees. First we stopped by the pond where there are lots of Canada geese and a great […]
Ninety-Six Tolls
Yesterday evening I attended a meeting of newcomers to Nanaimo. Sitting beside me was a very nice lady who asked me where I came from and as usual, because of my accent, I explained that I was here from Edmonton but originally from the Greater London area of England. Excitedly, she asked “Oh, did you […]
Seeing Green
I was not feeling jealousy, and I was not anticipating money, and I was definitely not thinking about the Nicki Minaj song. I was literally seeing green on the rocks by the shore today. At first I thought someone had gone down there with a can of neon spray paint and sprayed a message on […]
Squawking Children
On my way out along the seafront today, I saw what appeared to be a juvenile gull squawking at its mother. It continually followed her around and occasionally pecked at her. The repeated, high pitched, squawk was not having the desired effect. Shortly after I took this video, the mother flew away and left the […]
Learning To Socialize Again
Two years of Covid semi-isolation has been a mixed blessing. I have enjoyed feeling safe and secure but also felt myself become increasingly agoraphobic. The long Edmonton winters and icy sidewalks made it difficult to get out for walks, and my social life was reduced to visits with my immediate family and increasingly rare meetups […]
Transitory Brilliance
A few days ago, I posted some images of some carefully balanced rocks that were at the water’s edge. A couple of days later they were no longer there. Today, in between rain showers I took a walk and saw some more stacked stones. When I had stopped to take a couple of photos, I […]
Things Behaving Properly
A few days ago I noticed two ducks in the marina and I wondered what type of duck they were. Accordingly, I spent some time Googling “grey duck” and coming up empty. Yesterday, I decided to take some pictures and do a reverse image search. In the photos they look more brown than grey, so […]
Figuring Out Deliveries
I had assumed that the security panel at the front gate could be linked to my phone so that I could buzz people in. When I asked my landlord about it, he confessed to not knowing how it worked and then chatted with another resident who happened to be nearby about outdated names on the […]
Free Ideas
Little Free Libraries come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they are in the boxes sold as kits by the Little Free Library organization. Sometimes they are in repurposed newspaper vending boxes. And sometimes people just leave books lying around for strangers to pick up. I have seen them in airport lounges, on garden walls, […]
Thanks for Nothing, Ted Lasso
When I moved in here on 10th, I thought I was being clever in arranging for the cable company to hook me up with TV and internet on the same day. I wasn’t clever enough, however, to realize that the technician would need access to the condo complex’s mechanical room. That requires a key that […]
Snowbird of Paradise 