Little Yellow Crab Spider

Now this pretty little thing I found on one of my herbs yesterday.  I have seen white ones like this but this is my first yellow one. I followed the delicate little arachnid around the leaves, but left him in peace to forage for bugs to eat.

Too Warm for Llamas

Just up the road from us  live 3 llamas with big batting eyelids. They are adorable, and even cuter now that they have been sheared for the summer. 

The Owl and the Pussycat

I believe it was Edward Lear who wrote the poem... "The Owl and the Pussycat set out to sea in a pea green boat, with honey and "plenty of money", wrapped in a five pound note...."
Well, my owl and pussycat story is a different sort. I love the barred owls I hear late at night and I love my pussycats, so I couldn't resist these two latest garage sale items that now live on on front patio.

Celery and More Celery

Our first year for growing celery.  They told Chris it was one of the hardest veggies to grow, so he is trying his luck.  They have a long growing season and we are not even close yet, but it is looking good for sure.  Stay tuned for the results of the harvest.

If You Plant it They Will Grow!

Chris really wanted to grow Italian prune plums, so last year we bought a young tree, and voila - this year we have quite a few little plums coming.  Hopefully they will all ripen and not fall off.

Now This is Chocolate!

Chris's friend Mark Pennington  (aka Mr Callebaut Chocolate) brought me a years supply of lovely chocolate pieces.  Nice chocolate for sure!!    You may not be able to see the print at the bottom right, but it is an 11lb box (5kg).  What more could a girl want!!

Karaoke Night

RJ brought his karaoke machine over for the weekend, and here are Jordan, RJ and Laurie singing their hearts out.  No picture of me, but I am going to buy one of these machines, it was just too much fun!

Get Together for the Brits!

Chris's cousin Eve and her son Laurie were visiting from England, and Chris's brother Richard and his sister Jill  came over for the weekend, along with their families.  Clockwise from the left, Joanne, RJ, Richard, Laurie, Chris, Nick, Jill, Jordan and Eve.

Lupins and Bears

A trip up the sea to sky highway this week brought a pleasant roadside photo opportunity.  A black bear dining on buttercups which were growing in between a fabulous field of wild lupins.

 

A grand site for cousin Eve from England - her first sighting and close up of a black bear.  We both took plenty of shots of this big guy who seemed undisturbed by all the traffic going by, or of Eve and I snapping photos out the window.   We watched for about 20 minutes, until it finally sauntered on up and over the hill.

Aspiring Artist

Chris's cousin Eve is visiting from London and is a wonderful artist.  She painted an awesome picture of our pond for us in lovely pastel shades and we will have it framed shortly.  Eve has encouraged me to try my "hand" so to speak at painting, so we made a trip to town yesterday and went to Opus and bought some basic supplies for me to get started.

 My new hobby will be to learn about colors, water based oils and pastels.    Chris is very doubtful of my skill and ability to become another Rembrandt, however, I plan to prove him wrong!

Happy 145th Birthday Canada!

July 1st, 2012 - Canada Day on Bowen

Little Birds are Safe!

This it the first year we have had birds nest in one of our many birdhouses.  The guests are a pair of Nuthatches, and by the sounds of the little peeps, there are a good number of nestlings inside

We are not the only ones who have figured out there are birds in residence with babies.  Our "Smoke-Kitty" has figured it out by watching mom and dad take turns with the feeding ritual.  Chris caught Mr. Smoke on the fence railing taking advantage of the "bird's-eye" view.. up on his hind legs trying to get a glimpse of what was inside making the peeping sounds.

 There is no way he is going to hang out there waiting for babies to one day emerge , so Chris in all his brilliance quickly installed a deterrent on the fence which will keep the cats away (hopefully without injury).  A strip of upright staples.  It works!!

Serious Sanding

We have these wrought-iron/wood patio chairs and bench that have been left outside too many winters.  Rather than throw them out, I decided to sand the wood down and re-paint and varnish.  This is a picture of the bench, before I started sanding.

The sanding was hard on my arm/wrist, and I broke Chris's electric sander (twice).  I must have been pressing too hard and burnt out some plastic piece.  The Handyman was able to fix it both times so that I could at least finish phase one of the project.  Here is the after-sanding bench.

Phase two was to use the Citol to paint/stain/glossify.  Needs 3 coats, and I was able to do the fist coat on the bench and all 4 chairs.  Check out the bench below after the first coat.  I love sanding now.  I want to sand everything now.

Wood, Wood and More Wood

A load of split fir arrived the other night around 7pm, so I decided to stack it in the wood shed before the rain started.

Nice and dry this load, and it was easy to move. I managed to finished stacking by 9pm.  Half-way through I paused, and felt a little gloomy.   Here I was, stacking wood so we could have fuel for the wood stove this winter, and we haven't even reached summer yet!!   Life is such a cycle!  That said, wood heat is one of the true joys of rural living. Just the sound of the fire crackling and the warmth radiating from the stove makes the world seem a better place when the weather outside is dark and gloomy and cold!

Unwelcome Guests

This spring has brought with it a horrendous outbreak of tent caterpillars to all the Gulf Islands, including Bowen.  We have been reading up on these invasive pests and the outbreaks are cyclical usually every 7 to 10 years.  Apparently the last year for an outbreak on Bowen was 2004.  These insidious beasts are tenting in every alder tree you can see, willows, fruit trees and other soft leaf trees.  For me I have never seen anything like it.  We are on a constant vigilant watch for them, plucking them from the leaves of our fruit trees and vegetables and my flower plants.  It is my worst nightmare come true.  Here is a picture of a collection of the critters after only 10 minutes of walking around the yard today.  Chris does this several times a day

There are so many caterpillars that you can actually here their fecal pellets dropping from the treetops in which they are feeding and it creates an auditory illusion of rainfall.  I kid you not.  It is a nightmare.   This past weekend we joined our neighbour Caterpillar Dundee (aka Peter) decked in his safari outfit, for a local BITCH (Bowen Island Tent Caterpillar Hunt).  He managed to arm wrestle a good number of the vicious critters and their tents into a large container while sustaining only a few injuries.  After several hours and many tents and caterpillars later, we cut more branches and trees so we could at least say we did our due diligence.

Caterpillar Dundee built a small crematorium to dispose of the catch of the day, vowing to do it all over again tomorrow.

And so it goes.  We have a few more weeks of this in store, so wish us luck or rather wish our garden luck.  In the meantime, we had an ant hatch in the sitting room which I had to deal with last night, and some unidentified critter is eating the leaves of my lily pads in the pond.  This is starting out to be not a great year for the garden.  Too many unwelcome guests!

Swan Song

Isn't he a beauty?  The swan, of course.  The latest addition to the pond.  Picked him up at Art Knapps nursery yesterday - he was a really good buy and I couldn't resist.  For the first few seconds I think Jake thought it was real.

Jake's Date

Jake is smiling.  His girlfriend Cologne is over for the long weekend, and they are having a great time.  It just so happens that she is in heat, so we shall see if they are meant to have puppies or not.

May 13th - what a Day!

Jake and I started the day at 9am with a long walk to Seymour Bay so he could have a swim. It is such a good feeling to see Jake swimming alongside gees and gosling, focused on his stick and nothing else.

Once we got home, I found him totally tuckered out, on his back, snoring!!  What a boy, eh!  Just couldn't resist the photo.

Managed to get some gardening done, plants watered in the veggie garden, and annuals into the window boxes.  Chris took advantage of very warm May weather and hopped on his motorbike and caught a ferry to Vancouver Island for a few days.  The Rohdos are in full bloom right now... at least a good portion of them.  I love this time of year, everything looks so good.

I took a few shots around the yard, but in this particular shot, do you think you can spot my kitty (Smoke) and the Hummingbird?

Mid-afternoon was definitley beach time.. so I grab what I needed and hooked up with Bob and Susan at the beach at the bottom of our road.  Nothing like a toast to summer, even though we are still a month and a half away!

Conference

The past 3 days were spent in Vancouver attending my annual BC Human Resource Management Association conference. The highlight for me was an opening presentation from one of my all time favorite Canadian comedian and actor Rick Mercer.

The conference centre is also the place where the Olympic torches live. What a surprise on Friday when all of a sudden the torches where lit and the flames flew up. I wasn't aware, but across Canada, April 27 is designated the Day of Mourning by the WCB, a time when workers, families, and employers come together to remember those who have lost their lives to work-related incidents or occupational diseases. It was quite moving.

April 1st and Spring is Springing!

It was no fools day today! The sun was shining and offering its warmth to us as well! We took a little stroll around the garden and realized life was returning to us after such a dismal winter. I hadn't been out in the yard for weeks due to work and the rain, so was ecstatic to see how far the rhubarb was up!

Even the raspberries are showing their leaves.

But we were so surprised to see the gooseberries! Look at all the leaves!

And then we spotted the garlic!! We haven't even planted anything this year yet, so there must have been bulbs left over from last year.

The next trek was up to the pond, and oh my there are baby fish everywhere, but too hard to get a shot since they are dark still. They must have been born before winter because it is too early for a hatch! Can you spot Fred our big 4 year old Koi?

But the real sign of spring are the bulbs - the daffodils, and tulips are both up and starting to bloom.

Now, as I type, it is 7:55pm and still light out.. the sun is setting and the sky is a double shade of pink, blue and gray. This is no April fools.