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Lunch

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“Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January”.

Hal Borland

As gleefully explained in my last post – some form of summer appears at long last to have arrived on the west coast of Canada. It may not last long, but it is most welcome whilst it is here.

That aforementioned post also referred to the Summer Solstice – the longest day and, of course, the shortest night! At the southern end of Vancouver Island that looks like this:

10:00 in the evening. Not fully dark yet:
Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

4:00 in the morning (us older folk often have to get up in the middle of the night):Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidOf course – if it is summer then it must be time to entertain folk in our garden. We duly did so over the weekend – with an impromptu invitation to dearest friends to come over an to cook their dinner on our BBQ. ‘Twas really most pleasant to be able again to sit out of an evening enjoying the balmy BC climate with good friends – even if it meant something of a canter down the home straight of making the garden look presentable – the which it finally very nearly does.

On the Sunday we bobbed across the Saanich inlet on the Mill Bay ferry and once again headed up island to have lunch with The Girl’s mum and another long-standing friend. These summer pursuits are most pleasant, though there is a slight feeling of squeezing things in over this next short period, before we set off on our travels.

I took these shots as we bobbed our way back over to Brentwood Bay at the end of the day:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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Further to my last posting (the hilariously titled Bays Day – 1) and – at the same time – further up the east coast of Vancouver Island from Brentwood Bay…

…is Maple Bay.

Now – the fact that I have not mentioned Maple Bay before within these dribblings is because – though I have read about Maple Bay and looked at pictures of Maple Bay and know where it is – I had not – until this particular Saturday – been to Maple Bay.

Well I have now!

 

Just so you know – Wikipedia says this of Maple Bay:

“Maple Bay is a seaside community located in the Cowichan Valley of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. A narrow inlet and surrounded by smooth, pebbled beaches, Maple Bay is home to marine activity all year round. Maple Bay is a small town with a population of 2,640.

The sheltered haven of Maple Bay is situated halfway up Sansum Narrows, which separates Vancouver Island from Saltspring Island, the largest and nearest of the southern Gulf Islands.”

Here are some photos…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidWe lunched at the Shipyard – the pub in the marina – which has a jolly splendid and slightly old-fashioned (in a good way) atmosphere:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidThe marina itself features this fascinating row of float homes. I can see the attraction of living in such a place – though it might be a little damp in winter.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid…or one could live on the hill overlooking the bay.

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

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Ho! Ho! The title of this post is a play on words that probably only works for Canadians – ‘The Bay’ being ‘Hudson’s Bay’ (one of Canada’s best known department stores) and the ‘Bay Days’ being their well known sale days. For the purposes of this post I am referring instead to a day trip that took in two well know (real) bays at the southern end of Vancouver Island.

See what I did there?

We recently took a short drive up island to have lunch with The Girl’s mother and with a dear friend. As is our wont when heading in that direction we started off by taking the Mill Bay ferry from Brentwood Bay, to avoid the alternative but circuitous trek south towards Victoria and then back north over the Malahat Drive.

The sun was shining as we waited for the ferry and I took advantage of the fact to add to my already extensive portfolio of shots of lovely Brentwood Bay. That – of course – means that you get to see more photos…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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See the lights

A rare (these days!) and most pleasant trip up-island last Saturday to Duncan to have lunch with a long-standing friend of The Girl – and more recently, of course, of us both. As is our wont we took the Mill Bay ferry in either direction to save driving over the Malahat mountain – which makes for a much more relaxed and pleasant excursion.

On the way back we waited in Mill Bay for the ferry as the light started to drain from the sky. Naturally I felt the need to take photographs. Do click on the images for the full effect:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

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The third day of our sojourn in and around Vancouver was dedicated to seeing again the dear friend who lived with us for a period at the start of 2020 and is now based in North Vancouver. The limitations imposed by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic – and in particular the need to restrict oneself to strict social ‘bubbles’ – have meant that, though some of our dear friend’s furniture yet lives with us, we have not been able to see her since she moved out last summer.

Now that the restrictions have been eased we very much wanted to get together again – and we duly set off across the Lion’s Gate bridge in the directions of ‘North Van’.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidThe form for the day was a drive up the southern half of the ‘Sea to Sky Highway’ to Squamish for a spot of lunch. I have not previously traveled this route (which starts off along the east coast of the Howe Sound and which leads ultimately to Whistler) and looked forward to enjoying its beauties. The nature of the day and the sheer weight of traffic meant that stopping to take photos along the road was not realistic, but should you be interested this website gives a good and detailed introduction to the route.

I did snatch a couple of shots in Squamish but lunch and catching up were a far higher priority.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidAfter lunch we visited Shannon Falls, which are but a stone’s throw from Squamish (should you be an Olympian and possessed of a very light stone). Shannon Falls is one of the highest in British Columbia – with a drop in excess of 800ft – and is classified as a horsetail fall, with multiple elements fanning out (like a horse’s tail) and with the water making frequent contact with the underlying rocks.

I have read subsequently that Shannon Falls – along with other similar types of waterfall – can be difficult to photograph convincingly – which explains (I hope!) why none of my shots really does it justice or truly captures the scale of it.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidThe standard of the photography aside – a jolly good day was had by all…

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

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