Archive for August, 2009

Look what else grows in our woods!

The other day I was bushwacking my way through the middle of nowhere, and came across these plants.
Well. Whatever could they be? I knew at a glance they’re not native plants, nor are they one of the usual invasive plant species I come across on the island. Hmmm.
Perhaps a less-common invasive species, I thought. Giant [...]

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Berry Point dog

This is Jindol, probably the only Korean Jindo dog on Gabriola. He’s often at Berry Point as the sun sets.

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Harmac

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Fiori di zucca

Canadian gardeners always seem to wind up with too much zucchini. They try to use it all up in cooking and baking, and they leave the extras on neighbours’ doorsteps in the dead of night.
Italian gardeners are much smarter. When they’ve got enough zucchini they start picking the zucchini flowers, and eating those. And zucchini [...]

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Special visitor at the Gabriola Commons

I stopped by to see the gardens at the Gabriola Commons today. I wasn’t the only visitor!

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Renting your Gabriola house? Read this.

Well, now. If you’re planning to rent your Gabriola house soon, you might want to peek at this story in The Daily News about a tenant who hoarded cats.

It’s going to cost the owner of a Cedar home approximately $50,000 to clean up the mess left by her cat-hoarding tenant.
Nanaimo businesswoman Irene Wenngatz owns the [...]

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Gabriola jellyfish

Jellyfish are all over Gabriola beaches these days, but it’s mostly dead ones we notice. They’re in the water, too, though, and this one swam almost all the way over to me before I noticed. Yipes.
They sting, you know. These seem to be the Lion’s mane jellyfish. And honestly? I’d rather not meet one in [...]

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New battery could change world, one house at a time

I’d love to be off-the-grid as far as power is concerned. And hmmm, maybe the rest of Gabriola would as well, if it were easy and cheap enough. Here’s an article from the (Utah) Herald Extra that will be of interest to anybody who dreams of these things: New battery could change world, one house [...]

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Gabriola gooseberries!

At the beginning of May I spotted a plant with gorgeous, fuchsia-like flowers. It was growing wild in the Gabriola woods, which surprised me.
It turned out to be a native plant called ribes lobbii, or sticky gooseberry. I took a photo, did a bit of research and blogged about it. Then I forgot all about [...]

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Gabriola trail suggestions?

Do you have any favourite obscure trails you’d be willing to tell me about? I’m looking for places on Gabriola where I can pretend I’m in the middle of wilderness — some trail where I can pretend nobody’s walked this path in months or years. Overgrown is fine!
I’ve had a favourite loop in the woods [...]

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Navy operation alarms Gabriola residents

Wondering what went boom! the other night? The Times Colonist explains: Navy operation alarms Gabriola residents.

A loud explosion off the eastern tip of Gabriola Island — caused by a Canadian Forces fleet diving unit destroying two potentially hazardous smoke markers — came as a surprise to nearby residents Wednesday night.
The explosion happened shortly before 8 [...]

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