We were lucky enough to have Mom come and stay with us for a week over my birthday weekend! She was in town for a Wednesday to Wednesday, over the long weekend. We had a couple of days in Vancouver and then we headed over to Galiano, as she really wanted to see all that we had done. We did need her help with one last project to finish off the new deck…

I picked Mom up at the airport Wednesday afternoon. Her flight was on time and seemed to go smoothly. We headed for home, so settle in for the couple of days before we headed for the island. Sadly, Justine and I still had to work (and had a couple of busy days), but hopefully that meant Mom could just relax and wander. The weather wasn’t wonderful - it was a bit cooler than we would have liked, but it was not raining, so that’s a win. We had a nice enough day that we were able to make dinner and have our first meal of the year on the roof!

It was perhaps a touch colder than we would have liked, but it was still dinner on the roof!

Thursday we had to work, and mom headed out and explored and got a huge walk in. She managed to find Granville Island, and it sounded like it was a nice day. Thursday night I had booked us dinner at the Boathouse at Kits Beach, so we headed over there in the early evening to have a belated Mother’s Day dinner.

It was a beautiful evening, and the sun was shining bright as it started to set over Kit’s Beach. It was actually too bright in the restaurant, but we had an lovely meal.

The food was great, we had a nice bottle of wine and enjoyed the evening. We walked home along the path along the water, through Vanier Park and then home past Granville Island. We found some fun things along the way.

Walking through Vanier Park we came across a huge flock of geese, with lots of babies!

It was a bit hard to believe how many there were.

Mom was enjoying the show!

A few of the adults were marshalling the little ones across the path. It was quite the ordeal.

We had a nice sunset, looking out over the city.

Walking home past Granville Island.

On Friday, Justine and I worked until just after lunch time, and then we had to head to the ferry to catch our afternoon boat. Earlier in the week we had purchased a new patio set and rug for the new deck. So when we arrived, that was project #1. With the three of us, it took no time to assemble and get set-up. I think it looks great, and was what we needed to finish up that space.

The new patio set. It's small, but fits well in the space and matches everything quite well.

Ready to relax!

The probably-finished-for-this-year project.

First dinner on the new deck with the new furniture.

It's still a pretty good view.

Saturday morning I was up early and headed to the golf course to play a round. I played OK, but it wa sa beautiful morning and it was nice to get out.

As I got up and headed out in the morning, the light on the water was pretty cool.

An interesting mushroom on the golf course.

The deer are starting to come back out of hiding.

I played OK - a pretty typical round - and as usual had the golf course to myself. The course has dried out nicely, and is coming into quite good shape. As usual, it was an early start which meant I was back home again while Justine was still finishing up her breakfast. We did a few chores around the house and then headed back south to go the opening Saturday Market of the season!

We were there around 11:00 or 11:30, which apparently is quite late these days! Many of the food vendors had already sold out, and it was quite busy! It was nice to see all the people out. It also seemed like the were more vendors than usual, with lots of different things to see. We wandered around for a little while, then stopped by the fish vendor to pick up something for later in the weekend.

The other event that was going on was the annual plant sale fundraiser for the medical center. Our neighbor Shirley was once again a driving force, and we chatted with her for a bit and perused the plants on offer. It was very tempting, but we had spent a lot of money on plants already this year. We’ll remember this for next year and wait to purchase, as I’d rather support the locals as much as possible.

Saturday afternoon we had invited all of the neighbors on the lane to come buy in the afternoon for a casual get together and a drink or two. We didn’t really know who would be around, but we ended up with a great turnout. I think we had a least someone from about 10 of the properties and it was really nice to catch up with everyone. It had been a while since we had seen many of them.

We had a fun little gathering - but no one used the new deck, other than as a bar!

Despite the fact that it was late May and nice and sunny, it was still quite cool, especially at night. We light a small fire to take the chill out of the air - this better be the last one of the year!

Sunday morning I was back up and off to the golf course in the morning. I played another round before stopping off at the bakery for treats and then heading home. We did a few more chores around the house, before packing a lunch and heading out for a hike down to the beach.

You could really see the colour difference of the outflow from the Fraser this morning.

We had a nice walk down to the beach at Cable Bay.

Mom checking out the ocean - no whales sadly.

But we did have a bald eagle fly in perch in a nearby tree for a short while.

He did stay for long, but we got a good look.

It was a pretty nice spot to sit and relax and enjoy our lunch.

Spring means hummingbird season, and the volume of them is starting to ramp up! I got some pretty decent shots this trip - I’ll try not to overwhelm!

While my actual birthday was on Monday, Sunday night Justine had booked dinner at our favorite restaurant, Lola at Bodega Ridge. We had a fairly early dinner planned, so we headed up and enjoyed a fabulous meal.

All dressed up and heading out for my birthday dinner.

It is definitely our favorite place on the island right now.

They even surprised me with a lovely little dessert on the house.

On the way home, we drove up island a little further to Spanish Hills dock and enjoyed the sunset.

It really wasn't quite this cold...

We added some string lights to the new deck roof, which worked out nicely.

Monday morning is (you guessed it) got another round of golf in. The I came home to a nice surprise for my birthday! We made breakfast - proper bacon and eggs - and then I opened up my lovely gifts. Once again I was far too spoiled. But it was lovely and I appreciated everything that everyone did, especially Mom coming out for a visit. That would have been more than enough.

Way too spoiled.

A deluxe breakfast!

Justine made me a very cool print of the cottage - so nice!

Another view of the new deck, all set-up.

After breakfast we got organized and packed up to go for another short hike. We decided t head down to Montague Harbour and walk around the point, to get sme fresh air, walk off breakfast and see what we might see. It is really a lovely little walk.

Brown Creeper

This was cool - blue heron landed in the top of the nearby tree.

Orange-crowned warbler.

Succulents are all in bloom.

Montague has an amazing collection of huge, old arbutus trees. Some you can hide in!

The tide was out and we walked along the beach in places.

Wild rose

We had a couple of kingfishers flying about. This one decided to stop fairly close by.

This was a new life list addition - the Northern Rough-winged Swallow!

Pretty cool heron shot.

There were lots of heron about.

As we were walking the beach, the northern rough-winged swallows were flying into the bank, and we managed to find one of their nests, deep into the dirt. These shots aren’t very good, but it does give you the action sequence and the swallow in its burrow.

Further down the beach was one of my favorites - a gull eating a sea star!

After our walk was done, Mom treated us to a late lunch at Crane and Robin, another favorite spot.

And a few more birds…

Tuesday Justine and I were back to work (from Galiano) for most of the day. Around lunch time, Mom and I went out for a walk in the rain. We came back soaked, but it was nice.

I also needed to get out and start to harvest some of our veggies. The garden is starting to come into shape nicely.

The lettuce has gotten out of hand - I harvested two bags and barely made a dent. The tomatoes and peas are starting to thrive, and this batch of radishes is mostly harvested.

One of Justine's massive lupins.

The asparagus has officially gone wild.

My hops are starting to grow nicely.

This box is not doing as well. Peas are coming but the kale is taking a long time to get going. And the tomatoes are not thriving.

Lots of radishes - but the cucumbers and squash are struggling. I think I brought them out too soon.

I may have overdone the radishes.

The artichokes are doing well.

Lots of strawberries are coming.

The figs are getting bigger.

One of many harvests.

We have a couple of window feeders for the hummingbirds. If you stand still, you can be right up against the glass when they feed.

We headed back to Vancouver on the evening ferry on Tuesday. Sadly, Mom’s visit was also just about over as I had to take her to the airport on Wednesday morning. It was really nice to have had her staying with us. The trip went by really fast.

I’m guessing that many of you are probably OK with the amount of bird photos so far. There area lot more… so I dropped them all into one long gallery. You can zip through them belong, or move on to another post…