Through the end of August and the first weekend of September, we were spending our longest stretch so far this year on Galiano. While we were working during the week, we had two full weekends, including the long weekend to enjoy island time. On the long weekend we were doing our annual Panorama Lane Party with all the neighbors! And with Dana and Bradley hosting, it was guaranteed to be an event!
We arrived on Galiano on Friday night on the late ferry. It’s sad how early the sun is going down - it won’t be long, and we’ll be arriving completely in the dark. Justine had not been feeling well, so we got ourselves settled and called it a night early. As usual, I was up pretty early and headed to the golf course to play a round. We were still getting a lot of smoke from the forest fires, and while not what we want to see, if does make for some interesting sunrises.
Sunrise over the straight - the colors were unreal with the smoke and the clouds.
Sadly, Justine tested positive for COVID and was not feeling great for the next few days. It wasn’t too bad, but her energy levels were low. I was able to get a bunch of things done around the place, tackling a lot of small projects that had escaped so far this year. The new irrigation system for the gardens had worked well, but sadly we had drained the big tank, so there was no more collected rainwater to be used. Clearly we’re going to need another tank.
The gardens are getting to the end of the season. We’re still getting a ton of tomatoes, some cucumbers and a few squash. The garden did not do nearly as well this year as I would have hoped. My hops did OK and it was looking like it was time to harvest them, a job for later in the trip.
The thing that was perplexing me was the corn. It was huge, had lots of tassels, but when we arrived there were no corn cobs forming. Which was odd, as I had planted the corn a full month earlier this year than last, trying to avoid this fate. By the time we left, almost 2 weeks later we were starting to get cobs forming, but I am afraid it’s too late in the year now. I guess we’ll see when we get back.
Late Sunday afternoon, while Jsu wasn’t feeling up to it, I felt like I needed to get in the water one last time this summer. The temperatures for the rest of our stay were not looking promising for wanting to get into to cold water of the Pacific. I had Pebble Beach to myself as the sun was heading down, but the water was amazing and I got a chance to swim a couple of times, enjoy the last warmth of the day and sit and read my book in the most beautiful of surroundings.
There really wasn’t a lot to say about the rest of the week. Justine was still not feeling great; we worked every day; I played a lot of golf after work and we got a lot of little projects done around the house. We did have a good week for whales, seeing orcas from the property a number of times. Sadly, they are so small and so far away that the photos are awful. And we had good luck with some new birds!
We still have a number of Anna’s Hummingbirds hanging around. They’ll be with us all winter.
One of the coolest new things this year has been that we have a small hawk that has been in our area pretty much all the time. We keep catching glimpses of it as it flies by, and this past trip I actually saw it trying to take birds, driving into the underbrush chasing the juncos and sparrows. I think it likes our bird feeders.
I finally got lucky with it landing in a place where I could get some photos! As I was sitting outside having lunch one day, it landed in the big cherry tree on the edge of the lawn, and stayed there for a while. I was able to slowly and carefully maneuver myself into a position where I could get some unimpeded photos.
After looking at the photos, we were able to identify it as a Coopers Hawk! Probably a juvenile, and hopefully this means he’s adopted our place as it’s new territory!
2023 Panorama Lane Summer Party
Last year, we started what we hope will become an annual tradition of having a lane party for all the residents of our little neighborhood. This year, Dana and Bradley (our next door neighbors) offered to host, which made it really easy for us! And we knew they would do a spectacular job.
It was going to be a fun night!
The evening started with some fancy cocktails - the lavender in the ice was a classy touch.
They did an amazing job of getting their place all spruced up for the event. We got really lucky with the weather, as we needed it to be sunny and clear for the outdoor event. Their place looked amazing, and the long harvest table approach was perfect for our very social lane.
Ross was on pizza duty and did an amazing job. Dana and Bradley had picked some great topping choices and Ross was pumping the pizzas out like a pro!
The food was amazing - everyone brought something to add to the pizzas, and it was great to sit around the big long tables and socialize with everyone. Eventually the afternoon turned to night and we were treated to a spectacular moonrise.
The set-up at night was just as nice as during the day.
The moonrise was so red - it just pulled everyone to watch as it rose above Vancouver.
Later that night after I got home, I pulled my camera out with my big lense to get a shot of the moon. We were a few days past the full moon, but it’s still pretty cool.
The party was a great success, and everyone seemed to have a great time. It was a pretty late night - I left a little earlier than Justine, as I was socialized out (and quite cold). We’ll see who steps up to host next year, but they have a tough act to follow!
Roof Sprinklers
One of our little projects this week was to test out a set of roof-mounted sprinklers that I bought from our fire department. You mount them to the gutters of the house then hook up a hose to a tap and it shoots out water in about a 30’ radius around the building. The theory is that if there is a forest fire, before you get an evacuation notification, to set these up and run them for as long as you can. It creates a wet perimeter around the house, helps with falling embers, and gives your home a decent chance of survival. We are already in pretty good shape - a metal roof and hardyboard siding - but this certainly can’t hurt. We wanted to try it out and see how it works. It’s pretty impressive, and I think we’ll get another set for the sheds.
Two sprinklers, one at each end were able to run off the single tap and give full coverage.
Sunday night we headed up to Lola at Bodega Ridge for dinner. The food was, as always, spectacular and we had a lovely evening.
Hiking on Mount Galiano
On Monday, we needed to get out and do something a bit more active. We decide on a hike to the top of Mount Galiano. It a nice, short hike with an amazing view at the top.
Our hike up Mount Galiano.
The coopers hawk was back a few times and it doesn’t seem to be too worried about me being around…
ON Tuesday, as we were packing up to head to the ferry I was surprised by a couple of avian visitors. We had a stellar jay - a first for us on Galiano and a hairy woodpecker that flew in and was hanging about.
We’ve never seen on on the island before.
We are off on our European vacation in a couple of weeks, so it will likely be close to a month before we’re back on Galiano. I think it’s been a good summer,