The Morning Harvest

This heat wave has caused an explosion of produce in our garden, each morning we pick enough vegetables to feed our extended family plus give some away!

An Evening Picnic

The weather has been fantastic, perfect for an evening picnic. We headed out around 4 pm, ten minutes from the boat launch we were climbing out on Oak Island. We spread our blanket in the shade of a Garry Oak, had a swim, supper and another swim. As the sun dipped in the west we motored back and were home before dark. A beautiful end to a perfect summer day!

Relaxing on Hornby Island

We had the luxury of getting a week off this summer and we went to Hornby Island. Many people looked at us rather oddly when we said we were going to another Gulf Island for a holiday but we so wanted to spend some time in a quiet place where we were totally anonymous. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and headed to the lovely cottage we had arranged to rent for a week. The property was beautiful and equipped with a zipline in the backyard much to our 4 year old daughter's delight. Hornby is a beautiful island which you can reach by taking a ferry from Buckley Bay on Vancouver Island to Denman Island and then driving across Denman to the Hornby Island ferry. The ferry ride to both islands are a short ten minute jump and the connections are quite good.

Hornby has a wonderful shopping area called the Ringside Market where there are 2 clothing stores, a coffee/ice cream stand with the best americanos, cafe, restaurant, book store, pottery store and of course the Hornby Co-op Grocery/Everything you need Store. While there we made trips to many of the local artist studios, beautiful beaches, farms, and of course the Cardboard House Bakery which has the best almond buns and cream puffs. It is also the home of Pizza Galore which beats any pizza place I have ever been to, fantastic!!!

Hornby is also home to two wineries and a meadery which we managed to visit without our kids thanks to our wonderful friends/travel companions. Middle Mountain Mead is an artisan honey winery combining the best of ancient and modern techniques to create small lots of premium handcrafted mead. We left with 3 bottles of Mead which we are eagerly awaiting to try. Visit their website at middlemountainmead.com.

We had such a fantastic and relaxing vacation that we will definitely be back next year anxiously awaiting anonymity and almond buns:)

Dancing Man Festival

The Dancing Man Music Festival is celebrating its 10th year on Gabriola with 5 days of musical performances in various venues including an outdoor stage at Descanso Bay Park. Some of the performers are award winners and include both local and visiting talent. For more information visit dancingman.ca.

The Circus Comes to Town...

The children found this little traveling circus very entertaining. There were no animals, just lots of clowning with jugglers and acrobats, music, hoola hoops and more. These performers generously donated the ticket price to the Gabriola Commons and the Medical Clinic. We were also treated to a release of Kelly's doves, the white birds in the light of the setting sun were absolutely stunning!

Elder Cedar Trail

You need to watch for it off to the north side as you drive through the 'tunnel' on North Road. Elder Cedar Nature Reserve. There is a beautiful hiking trail, through a seasonal stream bed, past a huge old cedar and down a meandering pathway through a shoulder high thicket of ferns and on. This is a beautiful example of the natural Gabiola forest.

Musicfest 2009

We took the weekend and drove up to Courtenay (just over an hour from the Gabriola Ferry) for the Vancouver Island Musicfest. 3 days, 55 performers, 6 stages, 27 craft booths, 21 food booths - all spread out over the Comox Valley fairgrounds alongside the Tsolum River, so well organized, such beautiful weather - it was a fantastic event! The performers included Los Lobos, Arlo Guthrie, Steven Page of The Barenaked Ladies, Leon and Eric Bibb, Jim Byrnes and so many others that we were unfamiliar with, but really enjoyed. This event is considered "the largest destination music event on Vancouver Island and one of the Top 25 outdoor festivals in North America".

Route 51

We are on route 51, this is the north side garbage pickup which is scheduled every two weeks. We can put out two cans of garbage and a wide range of recycling items that include cans, glass jars, household paper and carboard, plastic containers, and old clothing and textiles. For this excellent service we pay $104 a year.

Garden by the Sea

At the end of Berry Point Road there is a charming little cottage garden by the sea that sells bedding plants, across the street is a wind swept sandstone beach and exhilarating view of snow capped coastal mountains. Around the corner is an orchard with dozens of varieties of apples, many of them heritage, pears and plums, all offered at a handy fruit stand.

A Birthday

It was Canada's birthday yesterday and everyone was busy with island celebrations, so we got a day off. We could have been entertained at the Village with music, refreshments and wine tasting. We could have joined the Potato Cannon Challenge at the Brickyard and ended the day with a Burger BBQ and concert at Raspberry's. But we decided on a quiet day in the garden pulling weeds and planting seeds followed by an afternoon drive to Orlebar Point where we can see the Entrance Island Lighthouse and the Canadian flag flying in the breeze.