We had been told of a seaglass beach in Sidney, here on Vancouver Island, a site of an old factory that burnt down & the remains were bulldozed into the ocean, so a visit was needed! We could have driven there in less than 2 hours but we thought a ferry ride to shorten the distance might be fun. It turned out to be more expensive than I thought; it was $28 each way, not return as I had hoped. But we are always looking for new adventures so the Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay ferry was a go – a one open deck, 25 minute ride. We kept our eyes open for sea creatures but nothing spotted.
We found the beach as described, right
downtown, a small uneventful spot with limited access as the tide was fairly
high. But the seaglass – wow! It was everywhere, white, green & brown, well
tumbled by the sea, easy to find, even some of a decent size. We collected a
sandwich size ziplock bag in no time for use in hangings & some good enough
for jewelry. We checked out a few beaches in the area, stopped for lunch &
ice cream & headed back “home”.
on the beach 
washed
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| the little seaglass beach |
New Year’s
Eve was a quiet one, we didn’t see midnight (but we usually don’t!), but this
year we can blame Covid 19.
Robin has
been busy carving in his mancave/tent – fairy houses are the current project,
quite a collection!
Since the
weather here has been depressingly rainy we brought in one of our 6 ft tables
for me to work on (no room in the tent!). I had it up for about 3 weeks, not as
much of an obstacle as we thought it might be inside - I created at least 3
dozen new hangings of driftwood, shells & beads, drilling shells & wood
inside.
Since I put
away all my supplies Robin used the table for some puzzle making.
We thought
that we knew what we needed to do because of the high humidity here – we bought
a dehumidifier, used it often & used our exhaust fans with showers &
cooking – but it was not enough! We found gross, fuzzy mold in early January after
a period of days of rain! We caught it early, only a small amount of mold on a
couple window frames, the bottom edge of the windshield & a tiny amount
under the mattress. Yuck! We now run the dehumidifier 24/7, keeping the
humidity at 45% & open windows more often. The joys of a new climate for
us, oh how we miss the Arizona dry heat!
We are
trying to do exercises every day as well as walking, so far so good. We are
keeping any hikes to just day trips as mandated by the Covid restrictions, we
hope to get to explore more of Vancouver Island if things change.
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| Departure Bay |
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| a few of our shell collections |
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| a unique huge metal wheel on one of our walks |
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| our first bunny sighting in the campground |
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| a view of the huge trees next to trailers in the campground |
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| a large jellyfish |
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| a live shell, left it, too bad it wasn't empty |
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| a cool, rainy day, Lantzville beach |
We did a day
trip north to Courtney/Comox, stopping along the way at many beaches. It was in
Deep Bay that we found a beach that reminded us the most of the Baja beaches
that we certainly miss.
I said that we would have beaches but no palm trees - I was wrong! 
Rathtrevor beach, great beachcombing
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| Rathtrevor beach |
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| swans near Comox |
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| oyster farming |
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| piles of oyster shells |
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| a cute, permanent decoration |
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| Deep Bay, sandy beach |
Closer to
home in Nanoose Bay we checked out Moorecroft Park & Beachcomber Park,
stopping for a short outdoor hello to our friends Barb & Bill.
a tug pulling logs 
an artist at work on the beach 
Robin clearing a blockage
Hemer Lake
Provincial park was a good hike, I still really appreciate seeing open water
(not frozen) & lots of green.
We finally
stopped at the Petroglyph park a short drive from our campground – lots of
displays explaining the origin of the rock carvings, but the actual petroglyphs
were hard to see.
petroglyph carved in the rock
I was glued to the TV on January 6 when the US
capitol was overtaken, a very sad day. That was followed by a good day, January
20 when Trump was finally removed from office!
Robin
shifted from carving to steel knife making, using planer blades & saw
blades from a saw mill that a neighbor gave him – impressive what he can do
with his grinder & sander. A sad note - his 30 year old belt sander finally
gave up the ghost & quit!
We had not
yet hiked in Bowen Park, right here in the middle of Nanaimo, so that was
another day out – a beautiful, peaceful large park, complete with great
waterfalls & creeks.
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| exposed tree roots, high water mark near the bottom of photo |
So far we
have avoided the snow (just one early snowfall before Christmas), it was
forecast but we just got rain, & more rain! Definitely tired of rain! But
it does beat snow.
We came here
with our PVR over 50% full; we are slowly watching & deleting stuff. We
have completed all the seasons of Schitt’s Creek on Netflix (very funny) &
have moved on to Vikings. We have managed to stay busy enough to not get the
urge to do a major houseclean, but did get some of our wood polished (we have a
lot of wood to oil), maybe will finish before April!
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| Robin cleaning wet leaves off the roof |
Robin keeps
up with the Covid stats, now over 1 year since it was found in Canada,
vaccinations have started but not very quickly. We hope to be vaccinated by
September, fingers crossed so we can head south next winter (& avoid all
the cool & damp). We continue to stay home, no socializing with anyone, now
I double mask when out shopping. The newest Canadian restrictions - stopping all flights to Mexico & the
Caribbean until April 30, the need for a Covid test 72 hrs before flying into
Canada, another one upon arrival, the need to stay in a hotel until the test
results are back (at your expense), still quarantining for 14 days. There is
talk of land borders also requiring a negative Covid test, but not yet, land borders
remain closed to non-essential travel. Alberta plans to loosen some restrictions,
looking at decreasing hospital admissions for Covid as a metric – we hope for
light at the end of the tunnel & a more “normal” summer.
Our 10 year
old Honda CRV has served us well but we think it’s time to upgrade – our market
goods, tables, tent, etc are difficult to stuff into the CRV so a truck is in
our future. We are using the time to do some research, hoping for a new Ford F
150 when we get back to Alberta.
Despite the
date on the calendar, it is starting to look like spring outside – we are
seeing the odd flower in bloom & lots of buds on trees & bushes. The
temperature fluctuates from the odd -1 or -2 for lows to highs of 5-10C, we are
hoping it just gets better. We are making the best of this strange winter &
continue to live the Dream!
snow on the mountains (on the mainland) 
spring flowers 
buds! 
blooming rhododendrons
