It’s taken me a long time to get to this post (it’s a month old), so it’s not likely to be the most interesting! You’ve been warned…

The week of June 7th, I took some time off work and headed over to Galiano by myself, with an intent to get a bunch of work done around the cottage. I had a pretty good list of chores, plus planned to play some golf and relax a bit. Justine and our friends Jeff and Risa were coming over on the Friday evening ferry to spend the weekend - our first visitors in the new cottage.

The edge of our property along the lane has daisies in full bloom.

ON our previous trip we had gotten the new gardens planted, and its now quite fun to see how the various plants progress over time. We’re experimenting with different irrigation options to keep everything growing while we’re not around.

Justine’s flowers are starting to sprout.

In one of the garden boxes, we planted all our squash and pumpkin plants. We’ll see how they do.

The other box of flowers is also starting to come.

UP on the “mound”, one of the first trees we planted is this cherry tree. This year, a foxglove sprouted with it - it’s over 6’ tall!

A few days this week, I went over to our little golf course and played 9 holes in the morning. It’s a nice start to the day, and I usually have the place to myself.

One morning there were spectators on the 8th tee box.

We had bought a new pressure washer, an done of my tasks for the week was to do some clean up around the place. The first project was the picnic table, which I think hadn’t been done in over a year. It was pretty clear how much it was needed once I got started…

You can see what a difference pressure washing the layers of grime can make.

Before and after close ups.

The final product - I did a quick sand and a new coat of weather sealant as well, just to make it look better.

Since I had the pressure washer going, I also cleaned up the deck out front of the cottage, as well as the one around the shed. It freshened everything up, and provided a reason for me to also tackle consolidating the various piles of wood we have sitting around into one spot, back behind the shed. What a difference!

One of the biggest projects we’ve be tackling is the skirting around the cottage. We have 3/4 sides done, but are waiting on material to finish the 4th side. One of the little projects I finished off was completing the front of the cottage, and getting a final layer of gravel along the full front side.

There have been a lot of snails about of late.

The tiniest banana slug ever!

Everything is in bloom right now.

Some big mushrooms growing on some logs out back.

One of the bigger projects I wanted to tackle was cleaning up the piles of logs that have been sitting around for a while. It hasn’t been pressing, and I really wanted to wait for the wood shed that we want to build. But I suspect that one will be a while yet, and so it was time to get the chainsaw out.

The original pile that’s been begging to be cleaned up.

I started with the pile of logs that had been sitting there. It was mostly arbutus and a bit of fir that had come down over the winter.

From one of our wood deliveries, we had a big palate that was perfect for stacking the wood on.

The initial pile of logs quickly became a pretty decent sized stack of firewood.

There were two fairly big trees that had come down in the forest - one alder and one fir. I cut them up into pieces that were small enough to move.

The pile of logs; next step bucked up and split.

It was a busy day, but I got through quite a lot of it. We’ve got more wood than we’ll need all winter I’m sure.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that we had put up a new hummingbird feeder, to great effect. This week the juvenile rufous hummingbirds kept me busy - they were draining the feeder in a day! I counted 9 at one time - but is was constantly 5-6 little birds all battling it out.

My next major project was tackling the broom. Well at least some of it. We hadn’t really done any major clearing since the spring. We have a path/roadway that goes from the upper level to the lower level of the property, and in just a couple of years it had gotten completely overgrown again. So I decided to try and reclaim the road, as well as clear a section near the bottom to start the next fire pile for the fall, when burning again becomes possible.

Some of the broom on the lower levels is absolutely massive.

This one is at least a good 6 inches across, and I needed the saw to cut it out.

The path was my primary objective, and I got it nicely cleared out.

You can now walk up and down without too much trouble!

Work in progress.

I also cleared out this piece of the hill. This patch of salal (native shrub) was hidden under broom six feet tall.

The pile of broom I ended up with by the time I was done.

Earlier in the spring we had planted a number of flowering current bushes. They are supposed to be “deer resistant”, so we didn’t fence them initially. Sadly, the deer browsed them pretty hard, so one of my other project was to fence them. I had decided to do a fairly large area, and also enclosed one of the blueberry bushes and the lilac inot one big enclosure.

Throughout the course of the week, as I sat on the deck, there were some interesting ships that cruised by the island. The binoculars help get a better vantage.

The HMCS Regina (FFH 334), a Halifax-class frigate that displaces 4,750 long tons (4,830 t) and are 134.65 metres (441 ft 9 in) long. The frigate has a maximum speed of 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph) and a range of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km. It was upgraded to the commemorative "dazzle" camouflage in August 2020.

Over the course of the week I did take some time away from my projects to do some small hikes around the island. Nothing major, but it’s always nice to get out and see what’s changing. There’s always something new.

A very cool red butterfly.

Pears, starting to grow.

Brave little siskins.

Black-headed grosbeak

More banana slugs!

Jumping spider.

As I mention, Justine and a couple of friends joined us on Friday night for a couple of days. They were about to move back to Ontario, so it was a last chance for us to visit for a while. We had a pretty chill weekend - a hike up to and along the ridge; dinner at Bodega Cove; a trip downs to the Sand Caves and lots of fun playing cards and drinking great wine. It was a fabulous weekend!