Nice high pressure ridge over our coast over the past few days, bringing sunny skies and fog to the region. Makes for some great photos.

La Nina is in full swing, which means that this kind of weather will be rare over the next six months Expect a wet spring again and possibly another wet summer. Might make the early berries a bit mushy, but the huckleberries and salal should come out fine.

My friend and neighbour James Glave has just published a mini-book on learning to hunt deer called "Buck the System." This is a brilliant 26 page story about his quest to bag a deer right here on Bowen. It's a moving piece of work and a phenomenally told story, and it captures beautifully the melancholic state of intention that lacks ultimate execution. James pokes at the folly of middle class environmentalism with a modern day parable that is about much more than aiming arrows at ungulates..

A lot of snow around here these days. Last night we had a significant wind and rain storm
but this morning was sunny and bright and the snow line is up above 300 meters again. We seem to have had more snow this winter than any I can remember since moving here to the west coast in 1994.

Rob Paterson is experincing some emergency conditions on PEI as the power has been out for a few days now. He has posted a great set of musings on 21st century emergency communications as a result. Some of these are quite adoptable to Bowen.

We awoke to ten centimeters of snow on the ground this morning. I was stranded at home, having failed to get to Regina last night, and took a few photos of the winter storm on my way back to the Vancouver airport.

• Miller Road
• Mannion Bay and Mount Brunswick
  
• Our house as seen from the ferry crossing Mannion Bay
• Anvil Island to the north
• Passage Island to the south
  

And finally, from the annals of "no small change goes unnoticed" BC Ferries has installed some new automatic gates at the Snug Cove terminal. I noticed that they left them open when we departed though.

Mordor (eye of Sauron is only visible at night)

While I am on a bit of a rant about greed, I should give a little update about the Gash on Black Mountain.

The Sea to Sky Highway is being upgraded to improve access to Whistler for the Olympics. A major piece of this is building a by pass over the top of Eagleridge Bluffs along the skirt of Black Mountain. Black Mountain lies across the Queen Charlotte Channel from us and the construction is 5 kms away as the raven flies.

They had the option of building a tunnel through the mountain or blasting a gash across it. The provincial government choose the "blasting a gash" option and destroyed a significant coastal bluff ecosystem and a beautiful arbutus grove in the process.

The work has continued unabated for months now. To build a four lane highway across the base of a mountain that is essentially a cliff, you need to blast a lot of rock. For some reason, they choose to do this at night. Last night, just as I was talking to Caitlin about how sad rampant greed was making me, there was a blast from the mainland that shook our house FIVE KILOMETERS away. It took 20 seconds for the sounds of falling rock to become silent.

Before, with all the blasting and cutting along Miller Road near our house I was comparing life here to living atop Vimy Ridge.

Now we just refer to the other side as Mordor.

The Eagleridge Bluffs Coalition website is still up and they seem to be still doing good work.

Another pristine day here on Bowen. Snow on the mountains and crisp sunlight everywhere. Took a few photos around Artisan Square this morning, waiting for Aine's singing class to end:

• Aine singing with her teacher Lynn Williams
• A sign explaingin Lynn's challenges in life...:-)
• Dessicated Oregon Grapes
• The front of The Galley Bistro
  

Off for 10 days to Whidbey Island and Regina, Saskatchewan. Will see how the island has changed when I'm back.