The Imperceptible Immigrant

Beacon Hill Park

April 18, 2016 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

In my last post I mused upon the notion that Victoria might just be the best possible place in the world to be an expat Brit. At the weekend just passed we enjoyed a delightful dinner engagement with friends who live downtown. The occasion provided (as so often seems to be the case) yet more evidence in support of whichever conjecture happens to be my current fascination.

Earlier posts in this journal attest to my love of springtime… those hazy blue carpets of bluebells… the lush and fragrant azaleas (particular favourites that I would go out of my way to see)… the keening of the peacocks… Peacocks?! Well, yes – for various reasons I associate them with the sort of country estates to which I used to go in search of bluebell woods and azalea glades.

Anyway – before dinner on Saturday we accompanied our friends on a most pleasant stroll through Beacon Hill Park. I took some snaps:

Now – I am very aware that back in the UK it is not yet quite azalea time. Indeed, should you care to follow any of the links above you will find that all of the posts concerned date from various months of May. Yes – here in Victoria spring comes earlier:

And what can this be?

Of course, Victoria has a few things that are more difficult to find back home:

Tags: Fuji x10, Photo, Spring, Victoria

To dwell is to garden

April 4, 2016 in Flotsam and Jetsam, Photos | Permalink

“To dwell is to garden.”

Martin Heidegger

The weather has at last become more clement and it has been possible to get out into the garden and to start doing all that must be done to wake it from its winter slumbers. I am a gardener only in the sense that I have a garden. I do think – however – that it would have made my father happy to see me tending my (half) acre(s). Yes – you do detect a theme… my father’s birthday would have been at the start of April!

When I got outside these ‘guys’ were already there!

Tags: Fuji x10, Gardens, Photo, Spring

Island life

March 28, 2016 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

I liked this little sequence of images. The truck crane is used on the smaller islands for building projects and all concerned are so familiar with the procedure that the whole event took less than three minutes – following which tug, barge and truck disappeared in different directions.

Neat!

Tags: Boats, British Columbia, Fuji x10, Gulf Islands, Photo

Farther up the shore

February 11, 2016 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

“The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.”

Cyril Connolly

On a delightfully balmy mid-February day we parked the car on the outskirts of Sidney and walked along the seafront into the town. It was impossible not to marvel at the beauty of this exquisite enclave in which we are fortunate enough to reside. I therefore make no apologies for placing before the gentle reader – for his or her delectation – some selected snaps of this sumptuous shore.

Tags: Fuji x10, Luck, Photo, Victoria

Rowena’s Inn on the River

January 4, 2016 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

We broke our Boxing Day journey up to snowy Kamloops (where the temperatures continue to be a bracing minus ten celsius!) at Harrison Mills, the which is situated toward the top of the broader part of the Fraser Valley between Mission and Hope (fabulous – no?) before one hits the mountains and takes to the canyon or to the high passes.

We spent a lovely night at Rowena’s Inn on the River which I cannot recommend highly enough to travellers in these parts. This beautiful old lodge is still owned by the Pretty family who built it (their history being revealed in photos throughout the house) and who now run it as a boutique B & B with a really rather good restaurant alongside to boot. Apart from anything else the place is clearly a twitchers’ paradise (see below)!

As ever – here be some photos…

Tags: British Columbia, Fuji x10, Photo, winter

Season’s greetings…

December 24, 2015 in Life as we know it, Photos | Permalink

…to friends, acquaintances and gentle readers…

from the Kickass Canada Girl and the Imperceptible Immigrant.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a splendid Hogmany!

Tags: Celebration, Christmas, Fuji x10, Photo

Cheers!

December 18, 2015 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

Here follows an extract from an article on the website ‘thedrinksbusiness.com‘ dating from October 2014:

“Luc Heymans was so shocked by the price of wine in Ireland that he opened up Europe’s first craft wine-making shop in Kells, County Meath, reported the Irish Examiner.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Heymans explained his rationale: “When I lived in Europe, I used to enjoy a glass of wine with my dinner, but when I moved to Ireland I couldn’t believe the price of a bottle of wine. I started making my own wine and then I decided to open the shop. There are thousands of similar stores in Canada but this is the first in Europe,” Heymans said.

Unlike similar offerings in the UK, the wines are made with kits rather than on demand from a winery and customers can buy the kits and take them home to make the wine or leave them in the shop throughout the process.

Heymans said: “The wine takes between four and eight weeks to ferment, depending on the quality you choose and, when it’s ready, the customer comes back into the shop to bottle and cork it and add personalised labels.”

“They then take the wine home and leave it to rest for a few months and each kit makes between 28 and 30 bottles,” he said.”

Since being introduced a decade ago (by the Kickass Canada Girl, naturally) to the splendid wines from the Okanagan Valley and elsewhere in BC, I have become a massive fan of Canadian wines. I had no idea – however – that Canadians were also as enthusiastic about making their own wines, whether from kits (which bear absolutely no resemblance to the ‘Boots the Chemist’ home wine kits that I remember from my youth) or from their own produce.

Shortly after our arrival in the province we were introduced to a local winemaker – the wonderful ‘Flying Fish Winery‘ in Saanichton. I was immediately knocked out both by the cost of the wines per bottle (a little over £3 in English money!) and the amazing quality of the product. We instantly ordered four different half kits – a Sauvignon Blanc, a Gewurztraminer, an Amarone and a Carménère – and a couple of weeks ago were told that they were ready for bottling.

You might – incidentally – recognise the symbol on our labels. Yes – it is the Luckenbooth!

With regard to the bottling process I think these pictures tell their own story:

Tags: Fuji x10, Photo, Wine

Winter warmer

November 27, 2015 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

I have previously made mention in these meanderings of my antipathy toward this particular time of the year – which I have always found induces in me a degree of melancholy. Though that is still true on this side of the pond Victoria does have a massive advantage over London in that – even when the temperature in both locations hovers around the same mark – the air here seems to lack that raw damp chill that is a feature of November in the UK. On relatively windless days it feels almost balmy. Time to take a stroll down to the seashore.

On the way to the ocean I passed this strange but rather delightful “Pop-up Sculpture Garden”, which occupies a corner of the road pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

And here is Mount Baker again – looking suitably epic!

Tags: Fuji x10, Photo, Victoria, winter

A room with a view

November 2, 2015 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

I really do hope that I am not going to turn into a massive bore about this, but one of the most splendid features of our new North Saanich home is the view from the reception rooms and the master bedroom of the sea and the mountains. Just to clarify with regard to our location – we are on the east side of the Saanich peninsula – facing east. Our view is of Bazan Bay and of the most southerly of the Gulf Islands, and thence on to the American coast beyond the Georgia Strait.

The garden is well screened by trees and mature shrubs which gives the property a blissfully private feel, but there are also two significant openings through which the vistas are revealed. Through the southern of these can be seen Mount Baker – more than 70 miles away on the American mainland. If – when I get up in the morning – the sun is showcasing the mountain in glorious silhouette it is virtually impossible not to want to take yet another picture of it…

The northern opening looks out over Bazan Bay, with Sidney to one side and Sidney Spit to the other. This view is also extremely pretty in the morning light, but also regularly features the Anacortes ferry – threading its way from Sidney out through the islands to the American coast – and flotillas of yachts of a wide variety of sizes enjoying the sunshine and the peaceful waters.