We were headed back to Galiano for the weekend to complete (or mostly complete?) our deck building project. We had a couple of final pieces to put together, and we really wanted it done and ready for when Mom was visiting over my birthday weekend. The big surprise we ended up with was the amazing Northern Lights show that happened on Friday night. It was spectacular, a once in a generation solar storm that light up the skies!

A Couple of Vancouver Updates

Before I get into the weekend’s activities, I thought I’d share a couple of minor things from back in Vancouver.

Hopefully you will recognize one of our pieces of pottery - I put it to good use and bought a little jade plant to go in it.

I was out for a walk earlier in the week and came across a great view of the tunnel boring machine that was digging the new Broadway Subway extension. As the signs show, it has actually finished digging the 5 km long tunnel, wrapping up it’s journey. This subway extension will be great - it’s been a lot of disruption to our part of the city, and has been a long time coming.

You had a great view down into the huge hole close to the new Arbutus station.

These machine are pretty amazing. Can't wait for the subway to be ready - early 2026.

There was a massive crane, just out of camera to the left, that I assume was going to pull the boring machine out of the tunnel.

“Finishing” Off the Deck

We had made a lot of progress on the deck the last time we were over. It was almost complete, but we had two things to do before it was really usable. We needed a set of stairs between the two levels of the deck, and we wanted to install a roof that we had bought a couple of months earlier. That would be the deck complete - except for some furniture and railings, which would need to come later.

This was the starting point for the weekend’s activities

Of the two projects, the deck was definitely the easiest. We had bought pre-cut stringers, so it was a matter of some small adjustments for height, getting them hung and adding deck boards.

All done! Justine added the wood sealant before we left, giving them a long time to dry. I think they turned out well.

We had an extra foot of length on the main 6x6 beams. We weren't quite sure what to do with them, so rather than cutting them off I added a couple of 2x8's and well use them for some planters. They should be high enough off the ground to keep some nice plants away from the deer.

The new deck is nice and high, and gives us a pretty great view.

The second project was a bit more involved, and took us a couple of days to complete. We had wanted to build a roof over the deck, but I had found a kit that was made of aluminum and plastic panels that we thought might be an easier (and cheaper) alternative.

The kit was pretty big - at 10' x 10', it hung out of the back of the truck quite a ways.

Ready to start the project.

The frame itself went together fairly easily.

Getting the panels in was a bit trickier. We discovered that you needed to loosen all the pieces a bit to give it some flex, then the pieces went together much better.

With some help from Bradley, our neighbor next door, we got it all up quite easily.

Finished!

We are quite pleased with how it all looks. It complements the cottage and really extends our living space.

We are going to need some railings, and to figure out how/if we want to cover up the underside, but that's a project for another day.We are pleased with the results!

The view from one of our cameras where you can see the roof. I think we'll need to move the camera now.

The Main Event - Northern Lights!

We had seen some notifications that made us think that we might have a good chance to see the northern lights on Friday evening. The predictions were all for “9” and “10” on the solar event scales, so we had high hopes. It ended up being better than we ever could have imagined…

The app was showing that we should get a pretty solid show! Normally the red comes no where near us - we might get yellow, but most often we’re in the green or outside of the area of effect.

We were keeping an eye on things, heading outside at various times as it got darker. We started at about 10:30, but it was still fairly light, and we didn’t really see anything. We checked again at 11:00, and then around 11:30, and that’s when things started to get very interesting!

We have been lucky enough to see the northern lights a number of times. When we were up in the Yukon with Mom and Dad in 2015, I think we saw them at least 3 times during that trip. With those ones, the color was visible to the naked eye, and you could see the colors pulsing and moving in the sky, but over a pretty small area. This was completely different. You could not see the colors with the naked eye (for the most part), but you could see that there was something going on in the sky - you could see the pulsing and the movement. But it was the whole sky. Everywhere you looked, you knew it was going on. It was the oddest sensation, and very hard to put into words. The colour only came when you took photos. You could tell the difference between the pinks and the greens, but it was subtle until you took a slightly long exposure photograph. And of course, this was the one trip where I forgot my camera at home. So these photos, while they look nice are only a fraction of what they should have been. And I think Justine got better ones than I did. They are all mixed in together, but it ended up being a spectacular night. We’re in a “solar maximum” this year, where the sun is the most active it’s been in decades, so here’s to hoping that we’ll have some more amazing nighttime light shows!

No color manipulation, just a 3 second exposure. With the naked eye you could tell there was color, but not quite like this. It was something to see.

When we first went out and looked up, you could see that there was something happening in the sky. We went out on the lane where it was darker, and looking up through the trees you could see the sky pulsating.

And some of the best shots we got ended up coming from the lane, looking back at the cottage with the huge vista of the ocean and the mountains on the mainland. It was pretty spectacular.

Not a great photo, but it shows how were were taking them - just point your phone at the sky. If only I had remembered my good camera. I missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Every once in a while there would be these colour bursts.

I know that it’s hard to believe that it was real…

We ended up with hundreds of photos. It was a crazy night. We lasted until about 12:30 and things started to fade at that point. I’ll dump the rest in a gallery below, and you can flip through them if you like.

A Beginning of May Garden Update

It’s going to be a bit anticlimactic after that part of the post, but I do want to share some updates on the state of the gardens as well. It’s been a cold start to the spring, and while some things are doing well, others I think I planted too early and might not make it.

We ended up with a decent number of tulips, that neither Justine nor I remember planting. We've ended up with some very cool ones.

And they seem to be lasting a long time - over a month!

Last year was very hard on our poor lilacs. The caterpillars did a lot of damage; I don't think they liked the drought conditions, and then we had that deep cold spell. We ended up pruning back a lot of dead wood this year, so I was pleased when one of them actually produced a couple of nice sets of flowers.

While the orchard is only a few years old, we've not had any real fruit production. We've being cautiously optimistic that this might be the year - some of the apples are loaded with blossoms! We missed most of them, but we still saw this when we arrived.

One of the fig trees even has fruit for the first time! The others are in rough shape sadly.

And our cherries have fruit - we just need ot protect them from the birds!

The strawberries seem to like their new home. I think getting them up off the ground was a good call.

It took a lot of willpower to leave the asparagus for one more year. They looked ready to eat, but we let them go and now they're like 3 feet tall! I hope that bodes well for next year. We'll let the roots get strong.