The Songhees Nation isn’t far from Gabriola, so many of their traditions were probably ones practiced on Gabriola, too. On their website you can read about the Lekwungen summer of many years ago: This is a time when the bountiful crops of the year (including the sweet camas bulbs and clams) have been gathered from [...]
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I’m not usually that fond of calendulas, but this one I love. It’s in my garden, and I’ll be very careful to save seeds from this flower!
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It seems to be wasp season on Gabriola now, so I got out our glass wasp trap the other day and set it up. Marvelously effective, though we did have only thirty or so wasps to murder. Our wasp trap is boring compared to Matthias Wandel’s wasp sucking machine. That thing’s amazing!
Filed in insects One Response so far
If I had the ability (and workshop space) to build a boat, I might build one like this: the skin-on-frame Adirondack guide boat. Doesn’t it look fantastic? It would be perfect for puttering about in the waters around Gabriola.
Filed in boating,Gabriola Island 2 Comments so far
Good thing arbutus trees are interesting, considering that we have a gajillion of them on Gabriola. When another Gabriola blogger posted a closeup photo of arbutus entitled some trees, I thought now that photo wants a response. Here ’tis.
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Maybe one day we’ll be able to use urine as an energy source for Gabriola. The Toronto Sun reports that Urine could be energy source of the future. Discovery.com has more: Urine: A ‘Clean’ Energy Source. Using a nickel-based electrode, the scientists can create large amounts of cheap hydrogen from urine that could be burned [...]
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Uh-oh! What’s that, there on the beach, Gabriola? It has several names, like if you mess with that I will give you a bath, dammit!, and putrid, vile, smelly thing. To be more precise, one might say stinky, dead animal or rotting carcass. If you were planning to go to Whalebone with your dog anytime [...]
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In the Gabriola woods there are sometimes sparkly patches of slime on ferns and things. I’d surmised that slugs might be responsible, but why a patch of slime instead of a trail? So, hmm. I guess this is why. Related blog post: Slugs. Oh my! If you haven’t already seen the video there, go take [...]
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Are oyster mushrooms a spring thing, a fall thing, or what? It doesn’t matter on Gabriola, because we’ve got them through the year here, if you know where to look. In the cold they turn to mush, but if it’s not freezing, we’ve got oyster mushrooms somewhere in the Gabriola woods.
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The leaf, it is not so small. The spider… hey! I thought we weren’t supposed to have bugs this big on Gabriola?
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After reading the Underwater power lines to Gabriola? post, Nick Doe sent us this text and photo: A core from the BC Hydro drilling investigation at Brickyard Beach, August 2010. It comes from about 60 feet down. Gabriola’s bedrock is sedimentary rock (sandstone, shale, and conglomerate), which originated in the estuary of a large river, [...]
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In January I asked what’s this plant at the Gabriola Commons? I was wondering about the dead flowers on some bush, and what they might be. Gabriola blog readers came to the rescue and told me that I’d found some hardhack. I meant to go back and see what the bush looks like when in [...]
The Daily News has published a rather odd article about Green Wharf. Mudge Islanders are a step closer to local control of Green’s Landing Wharf. Negotiations are underway between Public Works and Government Services Canada and the Regional District of Nanaimo to resolve the issue of upkeep for the only dock on Mudge. Um, on [...]
Filed in boating,Gabriola Island One Response so far
Oh, Gabriola. Every time I think I’ve seen all the strange and wonderful things you could possibly leave in the forest, you surprise me again. (For more information about spiral triskels, see the Wikipedia spiral triskele entry.) January 31st, 2011 – UPDATE: Gabriola’s spiral triskele – mystery solved!
Filed in Gabriola Island,trails 4 Comments so far
Gabriola’s fire risk is listed as extreme at the moment, which is enough of a concern. But then to hear that some stupid twirp of an arsonist set a newspaper box on fire…. well. What if you come across some just-started fire on your way home? (Find cell phone, hope it’s charged, call fire department, [...]
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In one particular part of the Gabriola woods, I find spiderwebs like this dome-shaped one. What kind of spiders make webs like this, and what are they smoking? Update: more webs like this have appeared, and I got to see what the spiders who make these webs look like, too:
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Driving along North Road, you’ve spotted that green box on one side of the Tunnel. But what on earth is it? I stopped to find out. A sign on the box explains that it’s Well 197 in the Ground Water Observation Well Network. It adds that This instrument has been installed to collect hydrologic data [...]
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Did you see the drilling equipment down at Brickyard Beach the other day? According to the Daily News (and some Gabriola friends) it was test drilling for power-lines. Contractors for B.C. Hydro wrapped up two days of drilling on Wednesday to see if powerlines feeding Gabriola Island can be routed underground. With the lines nearing [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island 4 Comments so far
