Got a mystery mushroom from the Gabriola forest? There are lots of things to consider when trying to identify that mushroom. Here’s one thing that will help: take a spore print. Remove the mushroom’s stem, place the cap on a piece of paper, and cover with a bowl or cup. Wait a few hours, or [...]
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Hey, look – two Islands Trust candidates have invited Gabriolans to meet them for coffee and a chat. Here’s the schedule: Sheila Malcolmson: Friday, November 4th: Mad Rona’s, 4:30 to 6 pm Saturday, November 5th: Robert’s Place, 2:30 to 4 pm Tuesday, November 8th: Harvest Thyme, 2:30 to 4 pm Saturday, November 12th: Silva Bay, [...]
Filed in events,Gabriola Island,Gabriola people,Islands Trust 7 Comments so far
Here’s some vintage fun from a 1950 issue of Boat Builder’s Annual: Corky, a Pint-sized Sailer. It’s the smallest sailboat ever – built around an inner tube, in which the sailor sits. The article begins: Here is a non-sinkable sailboat for the youngsters that can be made easily in one or two evenings in the [...]
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From Scientific American: Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of Whales. On the final dive of the trip, the scanning sonar detected a large object on the seafloor. Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1,240 meters, Alvin’s headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried in sediment. On reviewing the dive videotapes, expedition [...]
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There are a lot of small holes in the ground at this time of year. Have you noticed them? They mystified me for a long time, until I noticed that a space that had held a mushroom the day before had become a hole in the ground. I thought maybe some other mushroom fancier was [...]
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Oh my. Last week the campaign landscape on Gabriola changed when Maggie Mooney’s campaign office opened in Folklife Village. Now it looks as if a similar office is about to open a few doors down: the space formerly occupied by the Island Book Shoppe now has a couple of Jordy Alexander signs on display. Well. [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,politics 5 Comments so far
So it turns out that some of you read this blog on your smartphones. If you’re one of those people and have a few minutes to spare now and again, please send me a note. I’ll be testing a new thing for smartphone readers in the next while, and I’d like your opinion on that [...]
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Here are a couple of fun pumpkin things for you to ponder. Pumpkins mean no in Ukraine. As in no, I won’t marry you. Who knew? People race pumpkins. In Maine, people turn giant pumpkins into boats and then race those huge pumpkins. There’s a pumpkin race in Nova Scotia, too. Way cooler than a [...]
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You haven’t seen any bullfrogs on Gabriola, have you? I’m hoping we’re still free of them. UVIC’s Bullfrog Project explains the problem: Introduced Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) have replaced native amphibians from large areas of southeastern Vancouver Island and the lower Fraser Valley. Bullfrogs are voracious predators that can easily eat our native frogs – the [...]
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The cabbage in your fridge is a little too old, and the apple you forgot to eat is looking pretty sad. So you grab some tools – knives and a drill ought to do just fine – and carve creepy skulls into that produce. For inspiration, see the macabre art of Dimitri Tsykalov. If you’re [...]
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Think you have no room for a garden? Read about Suzanne Forsling, who lives in Alaska and grows salad in rain gutters. Would this work for you?
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Here’s one of the mushrooms that caught our attention in the Gabriola forest today. (The fringe is the remnant of a universal veil).
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We’ve got several kinds of woodpeckers on Gabriola, including my favourite, the pileated woodpecker. If you’ve ever watched and heard them peck (or listened from your bed as they attack your metal chimney at 6 am), you might wonder how they manage to do all that pecking without addling their brains. The BBC explains: How [...]
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A short drive around Gabriola will remind you that we’ve got an election coming up: Eric Moeller has campaign signs here and there, and Jordy Alexander has lots and lots of signs up. (Odd, though, that Jordy didn’t respond when the Flying Shingle asked him for information. I wonder what’s up with that.) Now look [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,Gabriola people,Islands Trust,politics,RDN 108 Comments so far
OK, smart people. Can any of you tell me what this plant might be? It’s growing in a meadow in the Gabriola woods, and is about knee high. If you stroke it from the base upwards, you don’t get prickled. If you go against the grain, you do get prickled. But these are not thorns, [...]
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For our Gabriola friends who’ve never been on the island at the end of October, I post this guide. This is what you do on Hallowe’en here, this is what you do:
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The other day I spotted this on Peterson Road. Well identification number? Who knew that some wells require those? I had no idea, but you probably know all about it. There are tons of details on the Ground Water Protection Regulation page.
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Have you ever taken a photo of some shell at Drumbeg, only to find that the shell is out of focus and the distant scenery is in focus? This might not be a problem in future, what with the way camera technology is going. Here Forbes explains about the camera that allows photographers to shoot [...]
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