Return

I've been away for a week in sidereal time but it has seemed like an eternity for some reason. This morning I grabbed the water taxi from Granville Island and we sailed over a smooth sea, passing by a Steller's sea lion just off Point Atkinson. It is a calm grey day, but the cloud is thik and one notices the sun much higher in the sky as we dive towards the vernal equinox. The snow is still lying in piles around the island, but is melting fast, and the soils are coming back to life in garden and forest.

Recognizing youth that matter

The Chamber of Commerce held its annual awards dinner last night and made some excellent choices for honouring Islanders. Foremost among them was recognizing my dear friend, Calder Stewart as the 2008 youth of the year. Calder is simply an amazing young man among his many accomplishments is included a black belt in both shotokan karate and taekwondo (2nd Dan) as well as many years experience in kyu jitsu. He is a great teacher of taekwondo, and a role model for many young kids. Heck he`s a role model for me. He is an accomplished actor and a budding playwright, a comedian, extraordinary juggler, server at Cocoa West Chocolates, and secret trail keeper.

And he's my training partner, a great guy to play board games with and my 8 year old son's best friend. To me he's like a son, a brother, a nephew and a friend all rolled into one and I'm constantly amazed how many ways I relate to him. So here's a shout out to Calder, for everything he is.

The Chamber has a new Board for 2008-09 featuring several big boosters of the deep character of our community. Paul Rickett and Rod Marsh care deeply about the future and present of this place. Daniel Heald is holding space for what good food can do on the island with the Ruddy potato and the Ruddy Kitchen and Garden, which is becoming a hotbed of permaculture expertise thanks to Kim Howden and Cathy Buchanen's dedication to edible landscapes. Finally Peter King and Piers Hays fill out the Board. Peter should be a perennial Citizen of the Year for the above and beyond service he provides through Bowen Island Community Shuttle, our bus company. And piers runs my favourite coffee shop, The Snug, that feeds me and connects me to friends new and old. It has long been an important part of my day to drift down to The Snug, grab some espresso and fall into easy and interesting conversation with friends and neighbours.

Congrats all.

Cmparing Gabriola to Manhattan

I have good friends who live on Manhattan and I often joke that they are fellow islanders, even though our islands are very differnt. Turns out though, that a group of Gabriola residents took seriously the task of comparing the their island with the New York City borough and what they discovered (.pdf) makes delightful reading.

Photos

On my way to the Cove yesterday I shot some photos of a spring-like February:

• Magic ducks and gulls standing on the ice in the lagoon.
• Mallards swimming on the ocean side of the Causeway.
• The welcome to Snug Cove from the ferry and the government dock.

A cream coloured morning

Mild today, almost spring like and the snow is melting more rapidly. The sun this morning was a pale creamy disk rising above a white ocean, dappled by the remnants of last night's outflow. We have snow on the ground for six weeks now. Usually snow disappears in a matter of days.

The snow has stopped and now coats the island with three inches of white slush beneath a low grey veil of cloud. There has never been so much snow on the ground for so long, in my years on this island and I feel as if the garden has gone to sleep. Heavy snow, new and old has flattened the structure of our plants - the lavender has self pruned and the bamboo is spent most of te past month forming an arching gate over our entrance path. It will probably be a few more weeks until most of the snow pack is gone - especially around the house where the roof has shed avalanches. I'm getting impatient to work on our little plot of land, hoing last years plants into the soil and building new beds, so that we could grow some more food, and be in touch with the land.

All gardeners itch in the winter. Soon it will be time to scratch!

Snowing again

Returned home this afternoon to a steady snowfall here on the island. The snow is fairly wet, but as the day goes on and it gets a little colder, it has started snowing more vigouously. We're expecting 5-10 cms tonight, and then rain tomorrow. At our elevation the preciptation is mixing a little but is mostly snow. I expect that above 75 m it will be very snowy indeed tonight.

Looking at the weather map, there are some big storms out in the Pacific at the moment and some heavy frontal systems due to hit towards the end of next week. Also, another winter hurricane is sirling around the Kamchatka penisula, too far off for us, but impressive looking nonetheless.