Much like the last post, this one is about a weekend on Galiano with some friends! We’ll start with a couple of interesting things from Vancouver, then get into a fun weekend with our friends Katie and John, who came to Galiano to hang out with us for the weekend.
Vancouver - Bard on the Beach
Before we get into the weekend with Katie and John, there were a couple of things to share. The first is a bit surprising…
No, it’s not a dog…
That’s the view from out of my office window, down onto Alder Street at the intersection of 6th Avenue. At 7:00 in the morning. And yes, that’s a coyote. Justine has seen them on our street a few times, and we saw two of them on the seawall just down from our place late one night, but this was the morning, and as you can see the traffic was busy! For those that have not been to our place, 6th is a pretty major thoroughfare. The coyote sat at the intersection, picking through the debris at the end of the street for a good 10 minutes, before waiting for traffic to calm, then crossing the road! Amazing. There’s an overgrown rail line across the street, and we suspect they are denning in there. Pretty cool to see.
We were headed to Galiano on Friday, but Thursday night we had tickets to Bard on the Beach. We had tickets to Twelfth Night, which is a play I like a lot, and one we’ve seen before. Sadly, my excitement made way to dismay as we soon discovered that they turned the damn thing into a musical. I hate musicals. While I understand (but disagree with) the desire to modernize every Shakespeare play to make it more “relatable”, or cater to a younger audience, this went too far. And yes, I know Twelfth Night has a musical element to it, but this was way overdone.
Bard has been a disappointment the last few years, so I’m going to have to reconsider, and see where else I can get a more traditional delivery of the Bard’s plays. I suspect I’m sounding a little old…
I will give them credit - the sets were great!
A Galiano Weekend with Katie and John
Katie and Justine went to university together, and so have a long friendship that I have been happy to get drawn into. We all have busy scheduled, but we manage to get together every few months. We were trying to sort it out, but we think this was either 4 years in a row, or 3/4 that they’ve come to Galiano to spend a weekend. Something like that. They arrived Friday evening, and we had a fun weekend. Friday night was pretty relaxing, as we just hung out and caught up.
Saturday morning, we had a leisurely start to the morning, then headed down to the south end to check out the Saturday Market. It was once again bustling, with lots of vendors and a good turn out. We strolled and checked out everything on display. It was a nice start to the day.
Hanging out at the beach.
After wandering the Market, we headed over to Montague Provincial Park to see what the water was like. Katie and John were determined to go for a swim - Montague can be cold, so Jus and I were less sure. It was a beautiful day, and so the warmth of the sun won out, and we all ended up in the water. It was a good way to spend a few hours, relaxing, soaking up the sun and getting in for a swim.
While the water was cold, we did manage to get in for a swim. It tuckered John right out…
After our time at the beach, we headed back to the cottage to hang out for the afternoon. We ended up having a little more excitement than we had planned on.
This was a first for the property…
Our neighbor David, and the rest of the volunteer crew.
The good news was that we didn’t need the fire truck. It was a bit of a weird one. As we were sitting and hanging out, Justine noticed what looked like smoke, hanging over the bottom of the hill below our neighbors Dana and Bradley’s place. It wasn’t a lot, and it wasn’t clear that you could smell it either. We thought you could, but it was faint. What was odd was that another of our neighbors, from down the lane drove up because they thought they could see/smell smoke, and were curious if it was us burning something. We walked over to Dana and Bradley’s (they were not home), but we couldn’t see anything.
Someone else had put a call into the fire department, and because we had seen something, they came up to our place to have a look. They ended up driving around for a while, but nothing came of it. It was quite odd, but good news that there was nothing to find. We’re all very paranoid about fires on the island. It’s very dry in the summer, and any fire could quickly get out of control and devastate the whole island.
We never did get to the bottom of it - one of the firefighters thought it might be smoke from a fire on Vancouver Island, and we heard that there was a small fire on the island from a tree down on power lines. But we’re not sure. Excitement on a Saturday afternoon!
An excellent dinner with Katie and John!
Our BBQ is pretty amazing - it has a pizza over. We’ve struggled with getting the pizza right, and using the oven to it’s potential. Katie and John are pizza masters, and so we tried again Saturday night. And this time, for the most part, we were successful! The pizza was delicious (if maybe undercooked a bit), but I think we’ve figured out the approach. The dough was still a bit too thick, but it turned out well.
We had a fun night, had a drink or two and eventually headed off to bed.
One positive development was that we actually got cherries on our trees. Not a lot mind you, but more than last year. These ones were almost ripe - and then the birds got them. We did put a net over out bigger tree, and harvested a small amount, and they were delicious. It gives me hope for next year!
The hummingbird Bird Buddy is catching some great shots!
These little guys will not be around for much longer - it will be time to head back to Mexico.
Sunday we had a leisurely start to the day, and it was quite a treat that Katie and John made breakfast! They had brought a waffle maker and all the fixings, and we had an awesome breakfast. I cooked up some bacon to go along and we had a great start to the day. It’s been ages since I’ve had waffles…
After breakfast we packed up the car and headed down to Morning Beach. We had aferry home at 8:30 that night, but we all wanted to get into the water again and go for a swim. So we grabbed some snacks and a few beverages, and headed to the beach.
The tide was pretty high, good for swimming. And it was clear - you could see Mount Baker.
We spent a nice afternoon at the beach, then headed home to get organized and ready to head back. We were all on the same ferry, which worked out well. We had a great weekend with Katie and John, and hopefully we’ll do it again soon!
One last one - back in the city. Tuesday night we were sittign on the roof having dinner, and we were treated to an impromptu air show! It seems the Italian Air Force flying team decided to put on a show…
