Round here we're a small and friendly community. Everyone knows what everyone else is up to and if they need to get the word out fast, folks use the un classifieds in the Undercurrent. On any given Friday you can find a decent rundown on the REAL news on Bowen: who lost what, who found what, where the garage sales are, how to get your tickets for the choir show. A couple of years ago a roofer who had been notoriously unreliable even posted an apology in the unclassifieds, promising to return phone calls from now on.



in other words, the unclassifieds section of the paper is not just a place to sell and trade, but a finger on the pulse of our island.



So you can imagine the outrage as the Undercurrent has started taking classified from the mainland. The paper is owned by a chain and obviously the chain wants to put the same ads in all of it's papers. So now we have ads for lost dogs in Langley and car wash attendants in Slave Lake Alberta. It's absurd. Nothing lost on the mainland is going to find it's way to Bowen Island without help and a ferry ticket. But to make matters worse, our little colourful slice of local life is now buried in tiny print amid all of this uselessness.



Read the thread on the Bowen Online forum at the link above. Folks won't let our identity slip quietly into the inky black noise of offshore classifieds. Stay tuned.

We celebrated Mother's Day with a hike into the wilderness of Cape Roger Curtis. It was a beautiful day and the tide was really low, so I was able to get a photo of these ochre sea stars.



These are the dominant intertidal starfish of our island. Down near the bottom of the intertidal zone, you'll see them piled up one on another in these large groups, feeding on barnacles, mussels, sea urchins and other hard shelled creatures. The stars eat by pulling open the shell of the prey and then inserting it's stomach into the animal, where it digests the prey from within. The results of course, are beaches littered with all kinds of shells. Yesterday I found a small sea urchin shell, an unusual find in the intertidal zone.



These are pretty remarkable creatures as any number of sources will tell you. They are tough, and resist drying, and so they can stay out of the water for up to 50 hours. Like all sea stars, they can replace broken or eaten limbs and they can live up to 20 years.



Sea otters eat them by chewing off a limb and then throwing them back, which does no lasting damage to the sea star. Gulls on the other hand ingest small sea stars whole which leads to the common and amusing sight of a gull with a broad lump in its throat as it takes a few minutes to swallow its spiny meal.

Sad news on Bowen as Helen Holte passed away on May 1. The tributes have been coming in, acknowledging a piece of Bowen history that has passed into the books. Her family posted a modest little item in The Undercurrent today which reads:

The family of Helen Holte would like to thank her many friends and acquaintances for the concern and kind words expressed over the past few difficult weeks. We would especially like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Kit and Frank Dale.



When Helen left us on the morning of May 1 the folks at the hospital couldn't tell us exactly why. An email posted on a local Bowen Forum suggests a reason that is probably as good a diagnosis as any: When there were no more "Senators" sitting at her counter, I think she chose to join them and run the big Bowmart in the sky. I will sorely miss her, she was the last of the Titans, may all the gods bless her.



This comment, and many more like it phoned, printed, emailed or left in cards on the steps of the Bowmart, have reminded us just how many lives Helen has touched in some small but memorable way. This has been of great comfort to us.



Helen requested there be no service for her. Perhaps at some quiet time and in our own way we could all reflect for just a moment on the values and joy of a more simple and gentle era. Thank you all.

But just as one life passes, a new life joins in and in a typically Bowen Island way.



It seems last weekend that a most unusual birth took place. A woman went into labour and, for whatever reason (I hope it wasn't an emergency) a medevac helicopter was called in to transport her to Lion's Gate Hospital on the mainland. Apparently, the helicopter only got a few metres off the ground when it was clear that the baby wasn't going to wait, and as a result, the child was born on the playing field at the Bowen Island Community School. I expect that the regular Saturday soccer games had to be cancelled. Whether the child qualifies for a lifetime of free Parks and Rec programs is yet to be determined!



More details if and when I find out more of the story.



The eternal cycle...it doesn't just happen normally around here.

Yellow-headed Blackbird



Finn and I were wandering around Snug Cove yesterday when Finn spotted this guy hopping around on the lawn outside Blue Eyed Mary's, one of our favourite Bowen eateries. Later on it had crossed the road and was perusing the grass in front of the library.



Yellow-headed Blackbirds are rare in this part of the world up until April 15 when they return. I have never seen one on Bowen before (my only sighting has been near the Vancouver airport). Not sure if this guy is here to stay or just munching some bugs before continuing on north. I was lucky to get a picture of him though.

For generations, Bowen Island kids have gathered at the government dock to fish for "shiners," little fish that hang around in large schools and will nibble at anything. Today was Aine's first crack at landing some of these little guys and this morning she caught her first four fish. Hooking her first one, she squealed at the sensation of the line tugging and shaking in her hand, and she gently lifted a little fish out of the water, to her utter delight and amazement. And with that she joins a long line of kids who got bit by the fishing bug on the Snug Cove dock.

In response to a comment wanting pictures of spring on the coast, here is a shot of my little rhodo bush from this afternoon.



We have just got a little digicam up and working, so expect more images to compliment the entries here.

Aine has built a garden for herself up in the rocks behind our house. She found a little sunbaked nook and started gathering forget-me-nots, grape hyacinthes, a small lavander plant and an iris (which lost it's bloom in the process) and planted them in the rocky soil. Upon proudly showing me this little creation, I suggested that we really do it up right and build it into a little rock garden.



So on Monday we picked loose rock and made a little wall, and filled it with two bags of topsoil and yesterday Caitlin brought home a bag of morter from the Bowen Building Centre, so we are all ready to cement it all in place.



Aine has put a little bench in and hung a wicker basket off an overhanging branch of ocean-spray. She retreats up there behind the blooming broom bush and stays out of sight in the afternoon sun, pushing little piles of soil around and dreaming up new plans for terraforming the rest of the cliff.