… the ethnographer and Gabriola Island resident has travelled to every small community serviced by ferry on the coast, clocked 250 ferry rides and conducted some 400 interviews with ferry users on their relationship with the system.

Vannini, a Royal Roads University professor, has formalized his interest in ferry travel with a new book called Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place and Time on Canada’s West Coast. Read more at http://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/news/138516354.html.

This is the Gabriola forest, as the day’s light fades, and as I start to think that we should have been out of the woods a half hour ago.

This is what the pond at the Gabriola Commons looked like this afternoon.

His house is near the 707, so perhaps he’s in that area. Somebody saw a black dog wandering around early Monday morning on Bertha; Dormilon’s owners are hoping that he was the dog that person saw. And maybe that means he’s still in the area?

If you see this dog, please call 250-247-8324 or 604-710-9819. His humans are worried and are desperate to have him back.

You’d think that a tree as damaged as this one would have given up the ghost, but no. It grows on, and produces a healthy crop of branches and leaves.

It’s in the middle of the Gabriola forest, of course.

Any guess on what kind of carnivore? I suspect this is a dog skull.

It’s rather high up in a tree – somebody’s come along with a big ladder to put this one up, I think.

Next time you’re driving from Silva Bay towards the Village, see if you can spot this mask. It’s on the right side of North Road, past Tait, and just past the u-turn place on the right.

Before moving to Gabriola, we’d always had eggs from the supermarket, and figured that the ones that said organic or free range (or both!) were the best. But those eggs aren’t nearly as good as the ones we get down the road. Why is that?

There are several reasons. One is that labels like organic may not mean what you might think they do. This is worth watching:

And local food producers are worth supporting.

This sign amuses me no end. What has happened to the poor un-lost cat, and how many times?

I have been surprised by the dozens of robins all around our place at the south end. I’d be curious to hear the birders explain their sudden appearance in great numbers. Does this mean spring is really on the way?

(Posted with John’s permission.)

What do you think, Gabriola birders?

A cougar crossed in front of my car on Daniel Way on Saturday morning. Handsome with blackish grey fur. This was an adult with round head and a tail, about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long, healthy-looking and presumably quite happy on a diet of venison and rabbits and quail. I reported the sighting. The cougar was the size of a 2 to 3 year old German Shepherd, but ran like a cat and had the typical tail.

This report is from a friend of ours, and he saw that cat just two days ago.

I bought it on the interwebs, of course.

And oh yes we did have a multi-hour power outage today. (How long was it? 9 hours, maybe?)

But dogs never have to guess. They know as soon as they meet me that I have tasty dog treats in my pocket. Their question is what do I have to do to get those treats?

This boy is so desperate for treats you’d think his humans never feed him, though I know they do. He’s a particular favourite of ours. You’ve seen him before.

We woke to four or five inches of snow on Gabriola today, and what a pretty scene that makes.

But of course all sorts of things grind to a halt on the island when it snows. Spud postponed grocery deliveries until Saturday. The Gym at Twin Beaches closed, and I bet GIRO did, too. The shops seemed a bit emptier than one might expect.

Well, no matter. I can wait for groceries, I’m not a gym member, and I wasn’t organized enough for a GIRO run today anyway. We did get to the forest, though, and that was magical.

Snuneymuxw First Nation chief Doug White fears for the First Nations and other people along B.C.’s coast if the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline proceeds.(…)

White said the possibility of a dramatic increase of an activity in the area that could have devastating environmental consequences is a serious concern for everyone connected to the coast, including the Snuneymuxw.[continue]

Is there anybody who lives on the coast who isn’t worried about this? I haven’t met anybody on Gabriola who thinks the pipeline is a great idea, but maybe I just don’t get out enough.

Well. This grass exists. It’s in the midst of typically short grasses, but this clump is seven feet tall. Remarkable. I’d love to know if it’s native to Gabriola or not.

Now here’s a bit of news from Washington state, courtesy of this post on the Salish Sea News and Weather blog:

House Bill 1508 will exempt all gun ranges from noise ordinances. Why is that in the public interest?

I wonder how that came about. And what would it mean for us on Gabriola if a similar law were to be passed in BC?

This is one of the on-the-ground logs that cyclists used to just ride over. It’s been across this trail for years, and see? Some cyclist a few years ago cut a groove in the top of the log, so that a bike’s front wheel can be placed there when going over the log. (No slipping that way.)

But now there’s a 40 pace detour trail around this log, so that nobody will have to ride over it anymore.

I don’t mind seeing logs cut right through for easier passage, but a whole new section of trail to get around something like this strikes me as unnecessary.

I asked how many customers refuse smart meter installation. He said it’s about 2-3% elsewhere, but about 10% on Gabriola.

(Thanks to the installer for giving me permission to publish this photo of him.)

Have you seen a better fog photo, or a better Malaspina photo? Well, have you?

Is it new? Did GaLTT do it?

It’s changed since some industrious mountain bikers have arrived on the scene. They chop through logs like this one, and often create work-around routes for easier riding past obstacles.

Those riders have been very busy this winter. Some of those new routes are of the every plant ripped out of the ground variety.

Update/related post: And the other cyclists, they do this.

I’d like to meet the owner of this property.

Are you up for an adventure? Walk along Harrison Way at Chappel Place. If you time it right, this goose will appear and will make all sorts of aggressive noises while threatening your person. It’s rather alarming, and one of us ran for the safety of the car.

Now, if this were a stray dog, somebody would have Done Something by now. But the goose… well, whose goose is this? Are we looking at a feral goose? Or somebody’s pet or guard-goose?

(The Romans used geese as to guard property. Did you know that?)

It does seem that a person should be able to walk along a Gabriola street without being accosted by a snippy, territorial goose.

(If we’d met Goose whilst walking along Harrison with Dog, things would have gone terribly, terribly wrong.)

Is there a department in charge of goose-related problems?

Three pointers to follow when your power comes back on:

1. Be sure to check to make sure your UV is indeed powered up and not in alarm (beeping or wailing). It may need to be reset (by unplugging for 10 seconds and/or pressing reset button while plugging back in). If this doesn’t help, sadly the power cut may have caused your power supply/ballast to fail completely. We strongly advise you put your UV on a dedicated outlet (not sharing an outlet/circuit with a jet pump or centra-vac, etc), and use a good quality surge protector. Much more rarely, a power outage could cause the lamp too blow, but it will typically show signs of “blackout” at the ends if this is the case.
2. Pour about 1/2 – 1 cup of regular household bleach/chlorine 5.25 – 6 % (unscented, NO fibreguard ) in your filter housing closest to the UV and draw water to all your water lines — sinks, toilets, showers, etc. — by running the water for a minute or two at all fixtures and taps. Leave for 20-30 minutes and then flush lines clear of all chlorine odour. Important: if you have an RO system, you will want make sure to shut-off inlet to RO before you use this much chlorine as it will do damage to your system’s membrane.
3. If this does not seem practical and you are quite sure you didn’t use lots of water at all the taps during the power outtage, at the very, very least, when the power comes back on and you know your UV is working fine, draw water to all your water lines — sinks, toilets, showers, etc. — flushing the waterlines fully open for a minute or two at all fixtures and taps.

Huh. I haven’t been doing any of this stuff. Have you?

I’m tempted to go back to bed, but somebody is sure to start a noisy generator soon, so there’ll be no snoozing.

On the bright side, it is handy to be able to blog via cell phone. :-)