Sea Lions

Last year we saw sea lions emerging from fog covered waters just off Heron Rocks on Hornby Island, and we have known for years that they hang out off the south east tip of Helliwell Park on Hornby. I've always thought one needed to be in a boat, or in a pretty remote location to see these wonderful, noisy, smelly critters.

But 10 days ago I drove down the Island Highway and practically went off the road when I passed the Fanny Bay warf and realized that the booms attached to the warf were covered with them. The next day Cori & I went out in the morning to see if they were still there, and indeed there were about a hundred of them (literally) sunning themselves on the booms and waiting for the herring to arrive. Bark, bark, ark, bark, growl, ark, bark - they're incredibly loud! The day after that Dad, Evelyn, Cori & I went to check them out again, and there were maybe half that many, it being not such a great morning for sunbathing. I have developed considerable sympathy for the herring - their arrival here to spawn is such a sign of spring and renewal, but that's partly because a whole array of predators arrive with them. We're particularly aware of the eagles, these guys, and the human fishers.


We got a good look at sea lion "rafting", a version of the back float, flippers in the air, sun on belly, usually side by side with a friend or two. This looks kind of like a partially submerged, inverted tree root, until the flippers move or a head emerges. In this photo there is one alone, and two together.

On Sunday we were at our neighbour's across the road, and saw what first looked like a gaggle of ducks, but then we realized that it was a 'raft' of sea lions - just off 'our' beach!

When Cori came home tonight she heard what she first thought was a dog in some distress, but then realized that it was a sea lion, and then heard the full chorus. It sounds like they are on the log booms that are a couple of kilometers south of us. We will check it out in the morning.



ps. the boat in this photo is bringing in a harvest of Fanny Bay oysters.

Fin Clipping

We are among the newest, and are quite likely the greenest 'stream keepers' on the west coast! On Wednesday we joined and had our first morning volunteering with the Fanny Bay Salmonid Enhancement Society. They are a great group of volunteers who operate a small hatchery and look after more than 20 streams that drain into Baynes Sound. They put us to work very quickly because they needed hands to clip the adipose fins of many thousand salmon smelts. Here's what we now know about this process..... it is done so that fishers recognize that these fish are from a hatchery, and so that they are recognizable when they return to these streams. These little guys have been fed since the fall and are getting ready for release - they are just a bit longer than the palm of one's hand, and after a dose of clove oil calmed them down it was possible to pick them up, quickly clip that little fin behind the dorsal, and put them back into running water that sent them back into their tank. The fish counters told us at the end of the morning that we'd clipped precisely 5001 fish.

The streams that these folks (us too, now) look after are the most likely to be affected by the proposed Raven Coal Mine. It is hard to believe, but both levels of government are (well, were, when there was a functioning prov. government) apparently encouraging several new proposals to remove coal from the bench just a few kms. above the Sound. There is a long and dangerous history of coal mines here, all of which have been closed for years. But it seems that it's now possible to seriously propose a new underground mine, with the coal to be transported by road to Port Alberni and then by ship to Japan. It's hard to keep track of the number of things that are wrong with this plan. We're wearing NO COAL MINE buttons and have gotten involved with Coal Watch and the Comox Valley Sierra Club. And have just had intimate interactions with several hundred salmon. There is a huge amount to learn and do, but this was a good place to start.

The January 8 Picnic

We decided that this last Saturday & Sunday (Jan 8 & 9) would be the right moment to get on the ferry to see Bob & Laura Johnson and their daughter Krista who live on the beach about 15k south of Powell River. Environment Canada predicted a couple of clear days, so we took B & L up on their invitation to meet us at the ferry and then stay for an overnight. We'd visited several years ago when their new house was weather tight but still under construction ... Dad had helped Bob install their kitchen cupboards. They'd not moved in yet, although Laura was beginning to feed big groups of us in the house.

So we needed to see the fully finished version.

And it's pretty wonderful. Bob and Laura planned and built every square inch of it, so it is completely "theirs". And it showed itself off to us at it's best - the weather was spectacular. When we arrived Krista was on the beach tending a big fire, and Laura said "Hotdogs on the beach". Years ago they'd built very protected seating just above the beach logs, so that's where we had lunch. So there we all were, January 8, warm enough to sit out, sunning ourselves on the beach (in this pic you can see Laura, Krista, Dad & Cori, with Bob way in the background roasting wieners on the fire).

This is what we were looking at - that's the Sunshine coast on the left, and Texada Island on the right - and what they look at every day. They have a remarkably long view down the Malaspina Strait -it's pretty wild, with almost no lights at night. There are sea lions on rocks to the left, and a constant parade of birds, seals, boats, barges and logs that keep Bob endlessly busy. Each storm blows in new treasures and/or challenges - they heat the house with drift wood that Bob hauls up from the beach and splits. He also tries to keep a path clear onto the beach so they can launch boats in the summer. This beach can take the full-on brunt of a storm, several of which have happened this season. We were lucky with these couple of days, and enjoyed them to the full.

What an amazing thing to be able to do - drop the car at some ferry terminal close to home, hop on, hang out on the water for a bit, watch the mountains from new perspectives, be hosted by wonderful friends and then be accompanied home by a spectacular sunset. Thanks Bob, Laura & Krista.

Mt Washington

The ski hill that's about 40 minutes from us announced this week that it has the most snow of any ski hill IN THE WORLD! We woke up to a spectacularly clear day today, and thought it would be the perfect day to check out these claims and to take Dad up the mountain. Keep in mind that we had a spit of snow last week, that the temp has been in the +10s, and while it's been very wet (thus the snow at the higher levels) it's been pretty easy to live with.

They're claiming 5.5 meters of snow, and I can believe it. It was magical, snow piled on the trees, lots of people - likely their busiest day of the year, and it should have been. We watched the guys in the photo here sawing blocks of snow away from the windows of the Chalet - you can see the blocks at the bottom of the photo.

Wonderful to be able to visit winter like this.





Trumpeter Swans

These beauties arrived mid-November and there are hundreds of them (well, more like a couple of thousand). They grace the view out our window regularly, and will be here until the spring. I'm thrilled to find this video, taken in the last couple of weeks, from spots we drive by regularly.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Tonight Cori, Dad & I finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. We've been reading it out loud to each other after dinners over this last week and have been completely captured by its stories and the way they are told. Meg suggested that we would like it - she was right - and it's been, in part, a way of keeping her with us after she abandoned us and returned to the east. It's been part of a theme that started with Dad's Nov 11 WWII reflections (that we were part of in person this year), and included a remarkable production of Anne Frank's Diaries put on by students at the Comox high school. The book's voices of Juliet and her Guernsey and London friends are so strong that we're sorry that we're at the end of their regular communications with each other and with us. Their stories are not at all easy, but their horror is butt up against plain philosophical talk, an appreciation for the power of literature, and a remarkable humour and grace.
We're going to be looking for another good story so we can carry on reading to each other - any recommendations?

Winter here

We woke up last Saturday to this!! Along with great protestations from this household's residents about "false advertising" - "who said there wouldn't be any snow out here in la la land". And then the clouds lifted and we could see the peaks across the water, incredible blues and grays in the sky and water, highlighted by the new white snow that stuck to the boughs of the evergreens, the bare branches of the deciduous trees .... and we were glued to our front window "I don't believe how beautiful this is", and then out the front door "It's really quite warm and just gorgeous". The power didn't go out (it did all around us), so we've been toasty inside, although thinking about back up generators. We even used the snow shovels, and the cars needed their brushes & scrapers. Along with the rest of the west, the unusual cold and snow lasted almost a week, until last night.
Meg was with us for a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks, and has just returned to TO. She slipped into our lives with complete ease, reconnected us with our TO roots, met the new people in our lives and poked us about what's coming next. She and Dad are good friends and her visit made the transition of his arrival richer. We were able to maintain our long tradition of seeing Harry Potter films together, which was a bonus. By the end of her visit our neighbours were asking her to walk their dogs!! But back to the earth, ocean and skies.... she, Cori & I had a spectacular day on Hornby Island - a day 'stolen' from the forecast rain - it was cool, with a deep purple sunset and clear night skies; we took another drive down the Island Highway to Qualicum on the weekend - there was a bit more snow, and it was exquisite.