This seems to be new, yes? Looks like the Gabriola Commons is creating yet another space for a community garden.
I’m a little tempted to apply for a plot. But then, I can garden at home, so maybe I should leave those Gabriola Commons spaces for people who don’t have the home-gardening option. I’d just like [...]
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This is a Gabriola type of idea, don’t you think? From good.is: The One Day a Week Restaurant.
Over at Marginal Revolution, a reader emailed about how he recently visited the only Ethiopian restaurant in New Zealand. It’s run by 31-year-old Dawit Demissie, and it operates one day a week, on Mondays. Tuesday through Sunday, the [...]
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About a well-known Gabriola person: Ah, she’s a hard rock to navigate.
About things that aren’t expensive: Cheaper than borscht!
About being pleased with things: Happier than a clam at high tide.
About the quadrupeds who want to eat one’s garden: Venison on the hoof.
About our island: Gabriola is an argument completely surrounded by water.
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Here are some good things that have happened lately regarding this blog:
The person who posted details about me has removed them and apologised. (Very nice person, by the way.)
I got mail from some of you through the contact form, and lots of encouraging comments posted on that blog entry.
I’ve thought of some new ways of [...]
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Mike posted this as a comment on my previous blog post:
You’re posting on a PUBLIC blog on a very PUBLIC internet about the people places and events that are PUBLIC to you and you’re surprised that someone posted information PUBLICLY about YOU?
OK, bit by bit:
Filed in Gabriola people 5 Comments so far
There’s a good chance that I’ll take this site down within the next week. If you’ve been meaning to contact me about something or other, but haven’t gotten around to it yet, you can head over to the contact form now and do that. If you’ve got any public comments, you can leave them on [...]
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From the Islands Trust: Gabriola Island couple become first to join property tax exemption program.
Stanley and Maxine McRae are the first landowners on Gabriola Island to receive an annual property tax exemption recognizing the permanent conservation covenant they placed on their property.
The Islands Trust introduced the Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption Program (NAPTEP) to the [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, Gabriola people, environment One Response so far
I’m interested in Gabriola’s trees, but not for the usual reasons. I want to know what they look like in various stages of decay, both before and after they fall to the ground. That rotting log or that moss-covered branch: was it a cedar tree? Grand fir? Douglas fir? Alder? I’m getting better at this.
Part [...]
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I don’t often notice a name from Gabriola in the news, but look — The Times Colonist writes about Shena Meadowcroft’s experience with the Vancouver Police.
The last thing Vancouver police Const. Rob Merriott was expecting from a protester after a confrontation at the Olympics opening ceremony was a letter thanking him and his colleagues for [...]
Filed in Gabriola people 3 Comments so far
Ok, Gabriola gardeners, here’s a question for you. When’s our ‘last frost’ date in a typical year? Have any of you been keeping track of this?
Some of my seed packages say plant after last frost, while others say things like sow indoors two weeks before last frost date or some such. So that’s why I’m [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, gardening, weather 3 Comments so far
By now there must be hundreds electric-assist bicycles on Gabriola. But here, wouldn’t you rather have a solar powered bike like this one? It looks like much more fun.
Filed in environment One Response so far
Last June I found a front derailleur serving as a trail-marker in the Gabriola woods. And now, not too far away, here’s the rear derailleur.
(It marks the location of an awesome mushroom that I must remember to photograph in September, when it’ll be at its peak.)
Filed in Gabriola Island, photos, trails One Response so far
The steps down to Whalebone Beach need somebody’s help. Something’s gone wrong at the bottom of the staircase, and the gap between the last stair and the sand is too great a gap. People who are young and fit will still be able to get onto the beach, but my elderly friend hasn’t a [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, photos 3 Comments so far
Did you see this in the paper yesterday? From the Times Colonist: Mariner’s pedal-power test starts.
Three years of hard work will be tested as Calgary’s Greg Kolodziejzyk pedals his high-tech, human-powered boat from Nanaimo to Port Hardy this week.
The Albertan adventurer launched his red and yellow, 28-foot, custom-built boat Tuesday morning to set sail [...]
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I’m not good at identifying birds, but I think this must be a downy woodpecker. This one is at Drumbeg, but of course they’re all over Gabriola. They’re hard (for me) to photograph because they don’t sit still for very long.
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This is in Gabriola’s Elder Cedars Nature Reserve, which I suspect is the oldest-growth forest we have on Gabriola. Moss is everywhere, festooned in generous and delightful excess.
Filed in Gabriola Island, environment, native plants, trails 2 Comments so far
Last spring I chatted with a Gabriola gardening friend about what I was planning to plant in my garden. What she recommended was a thing called Daphne laureola, which depressed the hell out of me. It’s an invasive plant, it’s poisonous, it’s a huge problem in the Gabriola forest, and it’s something a person can [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, invasive plants, native plants One Response so far
Last year in February I found a tree decorated with blue Christmas ornaments in Gabriola’s Elder Cedar (S’ul-hween X’pey) Nature Reserve.
This last Christmas I hiked in the same area, wondering if somebody would decorate again. Saw nothing, ornament-wise. Nothing.
But today: more ornaments in the S’ul-hween X’pey! Am I just missing these at Christmas, or is [...]
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I know you’ve been waiting to see more of the mysterious antlers in the Gabriola woods, so here you go. For ages these antlers were twisted: one looked as it should, but the other had drooped down to point at the ground. We called them the twisty antlers. And then a few weeks ago – [...]
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We get serious amounts of rain on Gabriola in the winter months, and we know people on the island whose basements and crawl-spaces flood every year. We also know some people whose Gabriola property is very swampy.
With that in mind, I was fascinated by the land-locked floating house. (Go look!) How amazing is that? Then [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, environment, weather One Response so far
Look what the Gabriola forest has for you: a heart! This is a bracken fern, slowly unfurling.
Filed in Gabriola Island, native plants No Responses yet
A while ago I was in the Gabriola office of the Coastal Community Credit Union, doing some financial stuff.
I showed my driver’s licence to the teller, then took it back. At the end of the transaction, the teller asked for my licence again, saying now we’ll scan your driver’s licence, so it’ll be in the [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island 3 Comments so far
Gabriola’s nettles are now a foot high in some parts of the woods. Have you picked some for your dinner? If so, you probably know that cooking removes the sting of nettles. Here’s an easy cooking method you may not have considered:
Filed in Gabriola Island, food 5 Comments so far
Here’s periwinkle (vinca minor), one of Gabriola’s prettiest non-native flowers. You’ve probably seen it for sale at a garden centre, where they’ll tell you that it’s a great ground-cover because it spreads so nicely and covers up everything in sight.
It’s just starting to bloom at Drumbeg. So pretty! And so invasive.
Filed in Gabriola Island, environment, invasive plants No Responses yet
I drive along North Road towards the south end of the island, and note with some annoyance that a vehicle a ways ahead of me has stopped, in the middle of the *#$%^@! road, for no apparent reason. On the other side of the road, a white truck is backing up to get back to [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island, Gabriola people 2 Comments so far
