The spring (such that it is) is getting really busy for us, so with a lot of events and trips planned, our visits to Gaiano are going to be less frequent. I thought I’d give a quick update from our last trip and to show the progress of the gardens and such.

Despite all the ridiculous rain, we did get a couple of magnificent sunrises.

Because of the long periods between trips to the island, when we do go, we tend to spend a week at a time. This is great on many fronts, and is thanks to StarLink, allowing us to work from Galiano. It has certainly been a game changer for us. It’s nice - we can get all the work done that we need to during the day, and now that the days are longer, work on projects around the property in the evenings. And of course the birds.

But let’s start with an update on the gardens. For this trip I needed to get the last of my seeds in the ground (or that was the plan), plus to transplant a number of seedlings that have been growing in the “greenhouse” (stairs up to the roof) at home. Sadly it is still too cold and wet for beans (my last seeds), but many other things got put into the ground.

The peas are growing well. I added the trellises in so they can start climbing immediately. The kale is starting to sprout.

In the other bed, the radishes are loving the cool weather. And the peas at that end are also doing well.

The hops have come back well from last year. There’s probably three times as many shoots this time. We had to redo the ropes they are climbing on.

More kale plants - we’re going to eat a lot of kale.

The carrots and beets have started to sprout.

We finished the rock lining for the artichokes. These I started inside as seeds, and I hope I have not brought them out too soon.

Our neighbours at the start of the lane finally got their building permits and have started on their cottage. We’re excited for them, and it will be great to watch the process unfold. And of course, since building a new house is not enough work, they thought they should add a second dog to the family. But damn it’s a cute puppy - meet Violet! And Sam of course, if you haven’t seen him before. It’s nice to have neighbours with pets.

Earlier this year (or it might have been late last year) we noticed a trail marker on the main road for a beach access spot we’ve never noticed. It’s pretty close to us, and so randomly one day we decided to check it out. It drops down into Retreat Cove on the other side from the little public dock that we normally access. It’s a beautiful spot, with a ton of oysters and a lovely little stream emptying into the ocean.

The little river emptying into the ocean.

The weather was a real mixed bag, with lots of rain (still…). Despite that, I did manage to get out and go golfing a couple of times over the week (mostly on the weekend actually). From a golf perspective, it’s a pretty simple little course. But it’s perfect to play - never busy and very pretty, especially at this time of the year.

IN an earlier post, I mentioned the new trails they were putting into the new Conservation area near us. The great thing about this one is that one of the trail heads comes out quite close to our private road. Earlier in the week Justine and Tova walked it, so I wanted to give it a go as well. They’ve done an amazing job and it’s really coming along. They have done so much work in such a short period of time. This is going to make getting to Cable Bay and Pebble Beach so easy.

The cherry blossoms are still in bloom behind the green at the first hole. It’s a nice start to the round.

The local herd of deer are hilarious. This one was sitting on the second tee while its friends browsed away. It didn’t move until I walked right beside it, but my ball on the tee and took a couple of practice swings. Crazy beasts.

This time of the year is pretty amazing for the birds. All the local birds are in full mating mode and we get a lot of different species coming through as they migrate. From ow through the end of June the bird calls in the morning are epic.

Our friend Katie gave us a window mounted feeder last year. We put it up over the winter, but despite the fact that they clean out the main feeder inside a day, they have not been coming to this feeder. This week, for the first time, we had purple finches eating at the feeder.

We’ve been getting a lot of use out of the Merlin bird app and it’s sound identification feature. Here’s a sample of what we’ve been seeing (but mostly hearing).

Time to get back to the gardens. Wandering about, it’s nice to see all the work we’ve been doing paying off. Flowers are blooming, the fruit trees are flowering and looking quite healthy and I guess all this rain will be good in the long run. I am a bit worried that the timing of our one big cherry tree is not aligned with the others. It’s pretty much done with the blossoms, but the others are just starting. I hope it gets pollinated!

One of the pear trees has lots of blossoms just starting to open.

And one of the small cherry trees is in full bloom.

The other three small cherries are not blooming quite as much.

Our lilacs are about to blossom. On the mainland these are all in full bloom.

The rhoddies we bought are all in full bloom and look amazing!

We thought these were mini daffodils when we bought them. Nope, they’re huge!

While the deer ate our lupins, they left these alone.

There are even some weird mushrooms still about.

The last time we were over, we built our firepit. We had hoped to tackle the small rock retaining wall, but never got to it. The weather just did not cooperate. Another time. But we did manage to have a fire one night! Justine got to roast marshmallows, and we made some s’mores. Fun!

A while back, Lego introduced a couple of new sets that I knew we had to get. So I bought them for us, but we had not had a good evening to start them. With the rain, it seems like the perfect evening project. I finally got my Lamborghini Countach, and Justine built Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 car. Her set actually cam with two cars, but we only built the one.

And in parallel, we did a taste test of the beer we made (a Saison) with one from a commercial brewery. While they are certainly different, I’m not sure one is “better” than the other. Ours is the darker one.

My work in progress. This was much smaller than the Land Rover we did, and only took as a couple of hours.

We’re not back until the end of May (after my b-day trip to Vegas!!!), so it will be interesting to see how much everything grows.