Wildlife Up Close - August 6, 2009

This was the view from my window when I first woke up this morning. Deer have been visiting regularly as the plums have ripened, but this morning was a special treet. A doe and her fawn were enjoying plums and leaves for breakfast. If you look closely, you can see the white spots on the fawn. I just had time to admire and find the camera before they were on their way. Luckily one of our guests was up early enough to see the show as well.

We had picked a handful of plums before today...just enough for a quick snack and to make the first plum-blueberry cobbler of the season. YUM! With deer arriving daily to snack and wanting to avoid the black bear, we started picking for real tonight. Over 50 lbs of yellow plums are now in and that is only the beginning. We didn't even have the ladder out except for about 5 minutes. I will definitely be at the Fiddlehead Farmers Market on Saturday with fresh plums, plum muffins, and maybe plum galettes.

Commotion by the Ocean - August 1, 2009

Monday is BC Day so we celebrated the long weekend by making a trip to Gambier Island for Commotion by the Ocean. Gambier is the island I see out my window every day, but in 3 years I had never visited.

Commotion by the Ocean is an annual event with food, family fun and great music to raise money for community activites on Gamier Island. The weather was absolutely wonderful today and they had a great turnout. Burgers and beer on a summer evening with fabulous local bands surrounded by the forest. What could be better? This picture is looking back from Gambier Island to our home at the base of Mt Elphinstone. Note the 7km/h speed limit....ahhhh island life.

Sibling Rivals was fantastic, and boy can this gal play tenor sax. The crowd was up dancing the entire time for both sets. Nearly Neil is a great cover band with terrific energy. Bobby Bruce can totally do Neil Diamond...it's amazing. I could have listened to these groups all night. Unfortunately, the official gig wraps up at 9pm so that all of us mainlanders can catch the last ferry off the island. However, I am sure that the locals are still going strong even now. We thank them for starting mid-afternoon so that we can enjoy many hours of great music.

I am looking forward to a return trip next year.