Merry Covid Christmas!

 Just a week before Christmas I came down with cold symptoms and tested positive for Covid.  Leo was not far behind.  This meant we had to miss our final Christmas performances and postpone our Christmas trip to Smithers to see my mom.  We missed out on the annual Christmas Bird Count. (Temperatures were in the minus 30s C so maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.)

We both were candidates for the antiviral drug paxlovid so that and our five vaccinations probably have something to do with our mild symptoms.  Nevertheless we have been self isolating for the last week and will continue till we test negative.

Leo is keeping busy shoveling snow and chasing cats, pigeons and this handsome fellow away from our bird feeders.

Our friends have been dropping essential groceries and goodies so we are hardly suffering. It's been too cold for cross country skiing or hikes anyway though now it's warmed up just in time for Christmas Eve.

Keeping the birds fed is keeping us on our toes as well.

A flock of 50 bohemian waxwings landed in our linden tree then flew off again, probably heading for the laden mountain ash down the street. This is the only shot Leo got!

So a quiet Christmas for us this year.

O Christmas Tree

 We drove out to the Riske Creek area across the Fraser River to find a Christmas tree.

No guilt tree finding here because it's supposed to be grassland.   Just doing our part to prevent infill. Kind of a long drive but once we arrived we found the perfect tree in short order.

And carried it back to the truck.

Perfect Christmas tree!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Quick Trip to Vancouver

 

Granville Bridge from Granville Island.  Did not notice that pink mural under the bridge when I took the photo.

In November we made a quick trip to Vancouver because Simon Fraser University's Master of Pest Management program was celebrating its 50th Anniversary.  Leo is an MPM 1989 Grad.  It was not a big do, just a 2 hour cocktail and appies reception as part of the Canadian Entomological Society's Annual Meeting.  

But we were invited to stay with our Vancouver friends Ken (also MPM 1989) and Sue, and hoped to meet up with some of Leo's cohort.  And get out of town!

We'd been having a cold and snowy November, but the weather was favorable for travel so off we went.

Unfortunately, we got the times wrong and arrived just as the reception was officially over.  We missed a few people, but actually were able to meet up with quite a few of our friends from long ago. (34 years long ago!)  Everyone stayed on chatting for another two hours so it was a great visit.

Marmot reunited.  Carl, Ken and Leo

The next day we visited Granville and did a little low key Christmas shopping and gallery hopping.

Some guest artists in residence painted up the (still operating) cement works.

Sue and I took an artwork and left an artwork at this little pocket street gallery.

Recognize my artwork?

The artwork I took had some sketches of girls faces, which reminded me of the many fashion self portraits I used to doodle as a teenager, so I tried to replicate my former style:

Out of practice.  Sue's crazy cat on left.

For supper one night we picked up fried chicken sandwiches from the Jollibee, a famous Phillipines fast food franchise that had come highly recommended by our Filipino friend Wilfred.

Not a bad chicken sandwich, but more to the point:  could I look any more like my Grossmutter?

Trombone Joke

 

Hiuihill Creek Flume Trail

 

The next morning we met the newly elected mayor of Chase at breakfast and then Ann-Marie and Andy headed home.

Leo and I checked out the Hiuihill Creek Flume Trail which follows the route of an 11-mile flume built by the Adams River Lumber Company in 1908 to transport logs from Skamana Lake down to the Adams River. Quite the feat of engineering.

The trail criss-crosses the creek with several bridges

And climbs steeply to a view of a waterfall.

On the way back down the path went through the furrow of the former flume.

In the distance you can see a reconstruction of the flume.

We found parts of the old flume along the trail.

The trail continued down to the Adams River 

Where we ate our lunch and watched more salmon spawn.

Adams River Salmon Run

To celebrate my birthday we drove to Chase for the Adam's River Salmon Run.  Four years ago Leo and I took in the run to celebrate my 60th birthday.  The dominant run occurs every 4 years so we thought we'd have a do over.  And since we had discussed a get together this earlier this year with our friends Ann-Marie and Andy and then did nothing about it, I invited them along.

We stayed at the Overlander Motel, a cute mom-and-pop motel in downtown Chase.

With a giant willow tree

It was busy! Lots of fishermen and construction workers from the widening of the Trans Canada Highway which has closed off the west entrance to the town.

We checked out Chase Creek Falls which you access by crossing under Highway 1. It was billed as a 20 minute hike but turned out to be about 5 minutes.

Nice falls though.

Ann-Marie and I think so:

Later we had snacks in the model's gazebo, then tried to find a spot for dinner.  Most restaurants were only open Wednesday to Sunday!  Or they closed by 7:30!  We wound up finding the neighborhood pub despite it have no lit signage and snacking on various deep fried appies.  They kicked us out at 9 pm.  Chase outside of the summer season is not a happening place.

The next morning we had breakfast at Craig's bakery downtown then headed out to Tsútswecw Provincial Park where the Adam's River Salmonfest was in full swing.

Lots of school groups visiting

This was supposed to be a real big year for salmon returning but as the summer wore on the numbers just weren't there.  Also with the extended hotspell into the fall the river temperatures were too warm so the salmon were just waiting for better conditions.  However they were finally coming up the river so we were able to see lots of salmon.

Interspersed with the red sockeye were a few dark Chinook salmon.

We also saw a few of these guys in the river:

Counting fish? Making movies?

Evidence of a beaver hard at work:

And a culturally modified cedar along the river:

In the evening we had a great sushi dinner to celebrate my birthday.

Lately

 It snowed this morning briefly, before it turned to rain, just a shower.

We went up to Smithers for Thanksgiving. Sybille and Dave were getting over Covid so we just had Thanksgiving with my Mom, a rotisserie chicken from Safeway with packaged gravy, real mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and my mom's squash stuffing.

We did get out for a few socially distanced walks with Syb and Dave.

At the municipal campsite on the Bulkley River

Our friend Mark found a crossbill with a broken wing on the Fox Mountain trail so we looked after Mr. Bill for a few days until a wildlife rehabbed picked him up to take him to Prince George.

He seemed active and healthy except for the wing and we fed him with Douglas fir Co nes from our backyard.

Hard to get a photo of a caged bird

I harvested my beets, carrots and parsnips.

Big parsnips!

The potatoes will stay in the ground till the tops die off.

Leo and I had our 5th Covid shot yesterday and will get our flu shot next week if it's available.

Senior's Games

Coming in second in the 100 m race.

 The rest of the week Leo participated in track and field in the BC Senior's Games (now officially called the 55+ Games).

Meanwhile I was able to paddle with Dorothea's outrigger canoe team again.

The tides were favorable so we were able to paddle down to the Inner Harbour this trip.

Leo was very happy to be competing again after two years off with a knee injury and the pandemic.

The North Central Team was too small to field any relay teams this year so Leo teamed up with other zones.

Here he is debriefing with his teammates in the mixed 4x100m relay,

Running with Vancouver Island North

The 4x400 relay,

An impromptu team put together to race against the 75+ age group team trying to break a world record

And the men's power walking relay.

With Zone 11 - Bulkley Valley  Lakes Nechako

We gave two members of the Williams Lake carpet bowling team a ride to  Victoria, so went to their venue and watched them in action.  Here they are beating the team from Kitimat, my hometown (I did not know any of them).

Chris and Alice in the red vests.

We spotted a restaurant on the Inner Harbour while we were paddling, the Tug Eatery,

So one evening we checked it out. It has a large outdoor seating area on the waterfront, but we were too cold so we ate inside.

Afterwards we walked across the Johnson Street Bridge

Just as the sun was setting.

Viewpoint Parks Hike

Dorothea took us on a tour of viewpoint parks in the Cadboro Bay area.  We parked by the water, then walked up Arbutus Road to the first park.

No photos of the view from Viewpoint Park, just one of me enjoying the view.

There's been a prolonged drought on the Island so the vegetation was pretty crunchy.

We moved on to

With its observation deck,

And then downhill and over to

Where we walked through the forest.

From there we walked back to the car on city streets, stopping at various waterfront views and beaches.

Some views: