Updates For July And August

I know I haven’t posted recently.   No excuse, except, a lazy summer.  

We’ve actually had a good summer, but extremely dry and sometimes hotter than normal.  A whole new term for us out here: heat  dome.  We had a long one and a short one.  

Uncomfortable for most in BC since air conditioning is not as common in homes, condos, and businesses  as it is in eastern Canada. We’re fortunate to have it even if it’s used once or twice a summer.  

Our climate is such that even on the hottest day we can turn it off before bedtime and open windows and enjoy a cooling night breeze  

The island have been spared the forest fires and the smoke that has plagued the interior of BC. They are still continuing. We now have the military and Mexican firefighters helping out this week.  

We are seeing deer come by our garden now, multiple times a day.  Their food sources are clearly affected by the drought and they’re moving out of the woods to find nourishment. We had one day of light rain last week, the first in about 80 days.   Everyone is waiting for the fall rains that normally show in mid-September. 

Another eagle in the tree behind us. 

Crane came to visit on the pond behind us.  They come by only a couple of  times a year, looking for frogs. Mainly we see them on the beach and by the local streams. 

I loved these cloud patterns on a day with a volatile air mass.

Martin and Juni took a trip to the wilder west coast of the island when they were here, and shared these photos 

I tried another moon shot. 

Martin and Juni explored Strathcona Park, which takes up a large part of the centre of our island and is mostly remote. Most trails require one or two day hiking and camping overnight but it’s possible to catch the beauty on a day trip. There are glaciers that I would love to see but they're only accessible via long hikes in. 

More Qualicum Beach sunsets on Martin and Juni's last night on the island. 

Our local farm hosts a jazz and cheesecake afternoon concert.  Missed it two years, because of a sudden death on their family that caused a cancellation, and then last summer of course, covid.   It was good to “get back to normal” .

Mount Arrowsmith from the farm.  You can see the last vestiges of snow remaining despite our above normal heat this summer.  

Took my camera to Rathtrevor park on a windy morning. 

We had  a two day get away in Victoria, to walk familiar streets and visit the museum for an orca exhibit. Everyone loves orcas on the west coast. They’re family to the islanders,  and sightings always make headline news in the local papers and TV.  

Orcas used to be called killer whales  but someone in marketing thought that name might be a bit harsh and so they renamed them.  They were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century and are now slowly coming back to reasonable numbers.  

There are the transient orcas who pass by the island on their annual trips from California to Alaska, and resident orcas that live around Vancouver Island and Washington State in pods and are closely studied.   

I learned they were land animals originally and walked into the sea many millennia ago, probably  just when we primates were just fish walking out of the sea and onto land. So it goes.  

Waiting for the September rains....