Rain, Some Sun, Cool & Damp January 2021

 

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

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.

Departure Bay

a few of our shell collections

a unique huge metal wheel on one of our walks

our first bunny sighting in the campground

a view of the huge trees next to trailers in the campground

a large jellyfish

a live shell, left it, too bad it wasn't empty

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

Rathtrevor beach

swans near Comox

oyster farming

piles of oyster shells

a cute, permanent decoration

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.

 

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! 

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