Sunday Morning Fire

Above: Saturna volunteer firefighters dealing with a stubborn fire on a Sunday morning

We have a burn pile near my house. It's in a clearing, away from the trees, near a pond. When they clean their yards and driveways, my neighbours (and us) take the accumulated brush and branches to this burn pile. We can pile up quite a bit of stuff to burn over a season...

Four weeks ago, we burned the accumulated greenery and then extinguished the fire. Or so we thought...

Above: Hot, sweaty work... and they are volunteers

Early last Sunday morning (4 weeks after the burn, remember...), someone caught a whiff of smoke and went to investigate. And was horrified to see 4-foot flames creeping toward the tree line! So he alerted neighbours, called 911 and returned to the site, to try to control the fire before the first responders got there.

I helped with the phoning around to neighbours, to warn them. By the time I got to the site, everything was under control, pond water was pumped onto the flames and the Saturna Volunteer Firefighters were demonstrating their savoir-faire.

Lesson learned: fire is sneaky. It may look like you have put out the fire, but it is still hot underneath and can reignite several weeks later...

Fire season is upon us.

Garden Bounty

June on the BC coast is a month of sunshine and colour. Right now, my garden is full of poppies, roses and strawberries. You want proof?

Above: Bounty from my garden: sweet strawberries and scented flowers!

Now, I am searching through my books for a strawberry jam recipe. I am tempted by the Joy of Cooking version with no artificial pectin. It uses apples instead. So this picture shows you what will go into the jam: strawberries, apples (with their peel) and sugar. Yep, it's going to be good!

Garry Oak Survival

I live on a bluff. It's a dry area - in the summer, that is. This is an environment where Garry oaks (Quercus garryana) thrive. They can withstand a dryer microclimate than Douglas firs and other competitors.



Above, on the left, let me introduce you to the Papa Garry oak. A big tree, holding its ground on the top of the bluff.

And at my feet, little Garry oak hopefuls, enjoying the late spring sunshine. But not for long... The blacktail deer and feral goats will mow down these saplings before they get to be 8 inches tall... Every spring, it's the same story.

But not this year! A year ago, we caged a sapling with rebar and - very ugly but necessary - plastic netting. This is the only 3 year old Garry oak in the area! The rebar spikes are firmly anchored in the rocky ground, to avoid the "shouldering and shoving" of the cage by hungry goats. I will have to trod down the bluff with more cages, to add to my junior Garry oaks.

For more information about this environment, and conservations efforts to protect Garry oak ecosystems, check out the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team.

Whale Watchers Run Amok

Saturday, we went for a walk at East Point, on Saturna. There was quite a bit of boat traffic in the area, which led us to believe there might be orcas...

It's early in the whale-watching season, so I can understand that the operators are eager to build some excitement. However, some of these guys act like cowboys. Here is an example:

Above: This boat belongs to Wild Whales Vancouver. It is zooming at full clip between Boiling Reef and the Eastern tip of Saturna Island, in an area that is zoned "protected". On the other side of boiling reef, there were approximately 30 seals basking on the rocks... Let us hope there were none swimming in the path of this boat.

To clarify exactly where the boat was going, here is a map from the Southern Gulf Islands Atlas, with the clearly marked "no go" area in shaded blue...

Above: A map of the Eastern point of Saturna, with the clearly marked protected area (within the Gulf Islands National Park).

The above map comes from the Southern Gulf Islands Atlas, an amazing online resource reference, once you figure out how to use it. You can zoom in, highlight an area, include relief, satellite imagery, roads, property lines and so on. A great tool.

Click on this link: Gulf Islands National Park Preserve, for a map that clearly indicates that Boiling Reef is zoned "Special Preservation Area":

Special Preservation Areas - Parks Canada
Sprinkled throughout the park are a number of smaller islands and islets. The ecosystems of these islands are fragile and easily impacted and some support unique or threatened species or are the best examples of natural features or ecosystems. Brackman and Georgeson Islands, park islets and six other locations have been designated as Special Preservation Areas. While small in size, islets are vitally important as refuges for native plants and important habitat for marine mammals such as seals and sea lions. Others are important feeding, nesting and roosting sites for endangered birds like the Marbled Murrelet, Black Oystercatcher and Double-crested, Pelagic and Brandt's Cormorants. In order to protect these ecologically sensitive areas, they have been afforded the highest level of protection and are designated as AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY AREAS .

Boaters and kayakers should remain 100 metres offshore to protect wildlife from disturbance. (The above is excerpted from the Park's website.)

Above: Stalking an orca female and her calf... Big boat, big engines, big group of customers!

Click on the picture to enlarge it...

Then, turning my lens to the spectacle offshore, I was amazed to see a group of six boats, shadowing an orca female and her calf. Shadowing is a kind word... it was stalking, way too close. Motoring ahead of her, and parking in her path to give a good show to the paying customers. This was the most aggressive boat on view last Saturday.

Early June, really early in the season... The seals better keep their young ones close to shore, or they'll be mown down by the cowboys. Here is a link to Gerald Graham's post on this topic, back in 2006. Not much has changed, I'm afraid.

Susie's Garden - Second Report

This time of year, my friend Susie's garden is a pleasure for the senses: all these colours and shapes, wonderful scents, lovely texture... I am not going to wax eloquently. Instead, I will supply pictures of these visual beauties. Here is a quatuor of stars from Susie's garden:

First, a rose slightly askew, which is what attracted my eye in the first place. Peach delight.

Then a close up of lovely Columbine (Aquilegia), almost otherworldly.


And then, the extraordinary Himalayan Blue poppy (Meconopsis), a very rare treat.

And finally, a very sexy rose. There is no other way to describe this blossom. I am sure it has an official name, and I will be corrected. But right now, it is Very Sexy Rose.

Fluffy, creamy yellow goslings

A gaggle of twenty goslings (five-day old on these pictures) live on my island. They arrived by ferry a couple of days ago, and their Daddy has created a lovely - and stimulating, note the drawings and signs on their pen! - environment where they will grow and gain weight... They will remain indoors for a while, to protect them from the wily racoons. When they are ready for the great outdoors, they will patrol the pastures...

They will have a beautiful summer in the country, ruling the pastures and following their Daddy around. They have imprinted on him...

The one on the left is my favourite. Seems brighter than the others, no? Although they are tiny, their beaks already give an indication of the pinching power to come.

When I say they will be patrolling, I mean it. Geese are famously territorial, as evidenced by quite a few Youtube videos, such as this one: