It is slowly getting colder, the wind comes from the NW mostly, which means clear skies , cold, and maybe snow….    The docks are frozen this morning, and the Malahat is painted a soft pink ,definitely something is coming!!    It is now noon and the sky is a heavy slate grey, snow on the way.     I love this kind of weather, the clear ,bright air, ice sparkling in the sunlight.    Looking at Passageweather.com ,another storm is on its way, this one coming from the South, never a dull moment!!!

Snowy,early morning Malahat.

This fall, the little tree outdid itself, i guess the nights were just cool enough, and i had fed it several times in summer, look at these colors!!!

Japanese Horn beam, in full color!!

Winter time, time to rest.

We had been told that Humpback whales came into the harbor here, it is not very deep, so we figured the whales , at the time , might have been looking around…. well, that night, around 11.30, i heard the unmistakable loud whoosh of a whale surfacing and breathing.  A second whoosh came right after, two whales!!!!     Its amazing how fast you can be out of bed and out on deck if necessary,it was pitch black out there, a quiet night, so i could not see them, but every time they surfaced, the two of them, i heard the spouts !      They stayed over an hour, just circling the bay, at one point coming very close to us, i could then see a huge black shape to our port.      I didnt sleep for a long time, just way too excited!!!!!  No photos of these two whales, but i did get a treat, out in Saanich inlet, on our way home, where this amazing big animal was posing for us!!!

Lounging Sea lion.

Yeeesss?????????

I always try to pick out special boats, ones that are different, that stand out, both times we anchored in Nanaimo harbor, we noticed the Chinese Junk, a true beauty, so very well kept and painted in the traditional colors.

Chinese Junk, i just know for sure that i wrote her name down somewhere, but can i find it now??? NOOOO………

My friend and i went to Roberts creek, we sat near the beach and then walked over to the Mandala, an incredibly creation, made with chalk, right on the large cement walkway near the beach.   I tried to capture the colors, this really is a work of art!!!   have a look!!

mandala in Roberts Creek

I know its already December, but there are still a few things to be said and shown regarding the Sunshine Coast.  I was there in October, staying with my friend, and we traveled around a bit, the Art crawl was on, and we tried to see as many of the artists, but after a few places , and a whole lot of beautiful art, we needed a spot to eat lunch and rest a bit, its amazing , how fast you get tired, going in and out of places, trying to see it all…. First of all , we did go to the Madeira Bistro ,where a friend of ours gave a show for the little ones ,singing wonderful songs he had written and reading them a story.    George Connell is an amazing artist, not only does he write some wonderful books and poems, he writes his own songs and performs where he can!    And….he makes the most incredible and tasty cheeses!!!       

George,singing to all of us!!

This little guy was quite mesmerized by this gent in his kilt!!

August ended up being our month for traveling, we wanted to visit friends in Pender Harbour, also Tess, our daughter came to visit ,and we kayaked to our friend Shendra’s place.   Its the only time this year i have been in my kayak, and i miss it every day, but there was always something else going on.       We anchored in front of Madeira park, we noticed that there is good holding, plus Bert could row the dinghy back and forth, our former bay , Gerrans bay, where we loved to anchor is now slowly filling with all kinds of boats, some with very long line out, and its just not comfortable there any more.   On Saturdays, the sailing club holds a race , usually  7 to 10 boats participate, and we were in a perfect spot to watch the race.      I took some funny photos which i would like to share.

aahhh….. heh dude!!! thats a bit close!!!!!

Manual distance keeper!!!

Now what?????

SV LARK in the foreground, beautiful boat!!!

SV LARK

I cant believe how long its been since i wrote or posted anything!   Its been a strange summer, all of July we stayed close by here, anchored in Tod Inlet, i really didnt feel like it very much at the time, its busy, so close to where we always are, most of the time, once the spring starts, i get that strong urge to head North, as far North as possible, but this year things were different, and anchored in Tod ended up being very nice!!    We started with tying to a buoy, owned by a friend of a friend, the buoy is right across from us here , looked good, as far as we could tell, after all, the most important parts are under water, and we were told it was very secure, also for bigger boats.   Curtsy  weighs 16 ton, a heavy girl, so when it started blowing, first a bit, then more and more, i noticed that we seemed to move nicely along the shore, more and more due South, towards another buoy…..  When Bert came home, i told him of my concern, but he said no, that that was normal…… well, as it kept blowing, and at one point i could actually touch the other buoy, we decided to untie and head into Tod Inlet.    That buoy is still sitting in that same spot, right on top of the other one…….

Tod is peaceful, its a park ,bordering on one side to the Butchard gardens, where every evening , at dusk, live music played, which would come floating through the trees,entertaining us, some very nice bands play there, on Saturday nights, they give a fire works show, which they lit to the beat of the music and lasted for a good half hour, we could see some of it above the trees, but to really enjoy the show, we would go into the dinghy and moved closer to the spot  where they light it.    The inlet would fill with boats, many of the locals  arrive the day before in their boats and stern tie right across from the spot where the fire works are most enjoyable.    For any shopping ,showers and water, we would bring the dinghy into the marina.    So yes, the month of July was good, very entertaining and different.    Staying around the area also gave me the opportunity to look at the surroundings in the summer time, we are hardly ever here at that time.   The weather was awesome, beautiful bright skies, soft breezes, all in all very enjoyable.

Wheat fields overlooking Central Saanich.