Spring planting... Is summer here already?

Bring on summer! Forecast for next two weeks warm and up to 27C for a couple of days.

Freya loves laying around our backyard.

Sunday went into Duncan to see the Cowichan Valley Spring 2019 Home & Wellness Expo held at the arena. Specifically to see about getting painters to paint the exterior of the house this year. Other than that not much that we found interesting as we have done all of our work. lol

Monday I emailed David Coulson regarding the broken window frame again ... he has been bugging the manufacturer he says, and will apply pressure through Slegg Lumber today. While at the home show we did talk to a window installer about Milgard and they gave us their customer service number so we may be taking that route ourselves if we don't get an answer by Wednesday. Still not completely happy with the deck tiles by the stairs. Jason's step-dad Dale, stepped on the outer tile and the whole thing tipped. Coulson's carpenter had fixed this tile previously by blocking it as these tiles by the stairs lifted before. The installers when they came back recently to fix the tile support system as per specifications,  removed all of Chris's wood pieces and then left it unsupported! When we received our last invoice from Coulson's this week, a large labour charge was on it for the installer ... don't think we are paying any more $$ for that! Ray will have to put a wood support under it to make it safe again. Otherwise the deck is fabulous.

A beautiful day with sun and clouds with a high of 18C. A great day to spend some time sitting on our deck after morning chores which was working on the motorhome. Ray checked out bins to see what is going and what is staying, now that we have a bricks and sticks place to leave extra stuff.  I filled up the grey and black tanks with water and "freshening" chemicals. Also bleach and water filled the water tank to sanitize. During this process I found out that our water pump is not working .... oh well the coach is going back in for service as we need the caulking done and the blind replaced that blew out the missing window earlier last month. lol All will be well by our trip up island mid-June with Jason and Kristi.

Motorhome scheduled to go in next Friday to get fixed.

Tuesday another beautiful day. Ray and I headed into Duncan for a little shopping. I noticed on Sunday that one of our signal lights was out. Today we tried to fix it.

My facebook post:

"Left rear signal burnt out in our Ford Edge. One would think it would be an easy fix.... NOT!!! When we couldn't figure it out we stopped by the Ford dealer and apparently a whole rear panel needs to be removed to replace bulb ... but we also have a "short" in the taillight system. So now we take it back tomorrow and we get a rental car for the day...all for no left signal." 

Wednesday morning another beautiful day, not as cold but breezy. I went back to Duncan to take the car in at Ford and will get the rental so Ray does not have to do it.

The grass seed is now growing, albeit slowly, as the mornings are so cold. Thankfully I have the sprinklers up and running as I need to keep the seed wet to germinate.

Today I took the car back to Ford and got a rental for the day ... turns out the light problem is from the trailer connection that we had installed with the hitch last year, so probably not warranty at least from Ford. Spent the rest of the morning shopping for bedding plants (supposedly deer resistant and came home to drop off the plants and have lunch. 

Got these geraniums almost for free as I used my SuperStore points. 

These tomatoes and pepper plant of course, are not deer resistant, but they will be planted on the back deck in a planter with our gate closed a. Too cool yet to plant so they will move into the garage at night to protect them from the cold and the deer. lol As there is no rain for the next week and warm temps, I will plant the planters this weekend.

Shortly after Ray and I ate, the call came that the car was ready so back to Duncan I went to turn in rental and pick up our car. Bonus they washed it. Back home about 3:30 pm ... what a day. lol New part ordered but lights work for now. New wiring assembly needed to tow the boat so we can launch it next week.

Our next door neighbours, Pat and Darryl, had a painter coming by for a quote that they procured from the Home Show. As we also need the exterior of our house painted, we all sat and listened to his "spiel".  He sells a product called "CHIC vinyl coating. 

"The CHIC Advanced Coating System is not a paint, but is a unique liquid-applied coating system specifically engineered to be the best defense for your walls against the elements. Beautiful, low maintenance & exceptionally long-lasting, CHIC is the ideal finish for all types of stucco, masonry, cement based siding & properly prepared wood siding."

Ray and I have seen this product in the past as it was applied to a condo complex downtown Nanaimo and we had spoke to the builder about it 10 years ago. In fact the Peace Arch at the border in Blaine has been done with this product. This stuff is not cheap, however it has a lifetime warranty ... never have to paint your house again. So when you think you have to paint your house every 10 years and the house is huge ... it seems to be quite cost effective. Need another "painter" quote first for a traditional paint job to compare and have someone coming over next week for that.

Thursday morning was quite cloudy although fairly warm. Time to plant my bedding plants in their pots in the front gardens. While I was doing that, Ray was redesigning his workshop again to make it easier to move material around without lifting. Here he is making himself crazy. lol

New workshop design "Take 20"

Managed to get the front pots filled with bedding plants today and the arbour garden planted. Things are looking great. I have interspersed marigolds which supposedly the deer don't eat. All of the plants are "deer resistant" but who knows if they try it or not. Every morning there are new deer tracks in the garden but so far they are leaving things alone.

Each planter has a marigold to keep the deer out hopefully. 

Plants for our "Garden Room".

I also planted zucchini to grow up the fence. Ray still has to paint the lattice and then we will hang it off the fence to support the zucchini vines. The other panel has sweet peas. I have interspersed marigolds to hopefully keep the deer out of there and begonias for colour in front. 

Across the lake  from us there were many sounds of chainsaws and we could hear the timber falling to the ground. I guess the Cowichan First Nation development has started. There are guys still working on the viewing platform as well. It will be interesting to see what they are up to. Last summer they did a sewer and water upgrade and the North Shore Road was repaved. This year, they have built a washroom, made a safe pedestrian walkway and ran a fence along the road limiting the steep access to the water. According to the local newspaper their original plans included:

“The infrastructure improvements on North Shore Road are the start of the redevelopment of a brand new neighborhood that will become a mixed-use area that will see a proposed health and wellness centre, a First Nations-infused café, and proposed marina, along with various forms of residential buildings. It will definitely transform the area into a variety of economic generators not only for the First Nation, but also to the overall community,” 

We will be able to view this action all summer, I suspect. Here are the "beginning" pictures Ray took.

 You can see they have started to cut down some trees through the opening where their viewing platform will be.

Friday morning high level fog. At 6:30 am the chainsaws were running again but on the other side of the hill. Sounds like they will be taking all the trees off the hill on both sides. The First Nations do own the land between the highway and North Shore Road. By 8 am they had moved back to our side of the hill and we could see the trees dropping.

Today's plan is to finish my planting in the backyard. The weather forecast is for warm dry weather for the next two weeks so putting bedding plants in 2 weeks earlier is going to be okay this year. The deer did not eat anything in the front yesterday ... yeah! All done other than the veggies on the back deck and hanging baskets that I will pick up next week.

Here is a picture of the garden ornament Dianne and Steve got us for a housewarming gift. Her dress lights up at night. Thanks a bunch, I love it.

Ray was busy painting the trellis for the front garden this morning. We had lunch on the dock as it was sunny and warm serenaded by the chainsaws cutting trees across the lake. lol Soon after lunch the wind came up as did the clouds. Time to relax for the afternoon inside instead of outside. Oh well, it is pretty noisy out there with the chainsaws and our neighbour to the left of us is having his approach to his gangway replaced today so a lot of hammering and sawing. 

We also had our gardeners here to mow the lawn and Will cleaned up our lower beach and put the fallen rocks and gravel back into the retaining wall.

Saturday morning foggy again but 6C outside. Supposed to get up to 20C today. Going to feel like summer except the lake temperature is only 54C Brrrrrr. No swimming anytime soon. Our neighbours put their boat into the water yesterday. Their daughter was out "surfing" behind it yesterday afternoon. She did however have a wetsuit on. Later on the rest of the kids showed up next door and they all went out in the boat to surf. Lots of boat traffic today for the first time. We are now ramping up to summer traffic.

Lunch was barbecued hamburgers and we ate down at the dock on the picnic table. Gorgeous day.

Ray and I puttered around a little but the majority of the day was moving to different patio areas as it was our "day off" to recover from our busy week. I did manage to plant my tomatoes though as the weather for the next week is over 20C.

Freya sure enjoys us being outside most of the day.

Another week that has flown by.

Saturday morning after we said goodbye to Dianne and Steve, Ray and I went on an adventure ... the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve.  They have their one and only day the public can walk through the preserve. We went early to miss the crowds so we could get some pictures. An awesome stroll through the property seeing the wildflowers and Garry Oaks. Less flowers this year with our long snowy winter ... but still beautiful. It was pretty windy today and on the news there were ferry cancellations. Not too bad at the preserve though.

Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve

Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve flowers, BC (Photo by Tim Ennis/NCC)

Large, gnarled oaks stand guard in the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve (CGOP), weathering the wind and rain of West Coast winters. They provide shelter for gartersnakes, black-tailed deer and a variety of birds. In the surrounding meadows, bees hum around native wildflowers and plants, such as camas, chocolate lily and Howell's triteleia. Meanwhile, a small creek bears fish through a stand of mature Douglas-fir and down to the Quamichan wetlands. There, at the edge of Quamichan Lake, rest flocks of migratory birds and tree frogs nestled in the branches.

These trees were once common throughout southeastern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and down through the Puget Trough of Washington State and Oregon's Willammette Valley. However, the spread of urban and agricultural development in the last 150 years has eliminated these Garry oak ecosystems to less than five per cent of their historical extent. The Cowichan Valley is widely known as one of the last and best havens of the globally endangered ecosystem and its biodiversity. The Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve occupies a vital part of this ecological tapestry.

Since its establishment in 1999, CGOP has been a hub of activity for both restoration and research work in the Cowichan Valley. The ongoing and enthusiastic support from the local community continues to ensure the vitality of this precious conservation area.

In 2012, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), along with partner groups the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team and Cowichan Valley Naturalists' Society, embarked on a landmark reintroduction project for the western bluebird. CGOP was the first site of translocation. The groups brought this native bird back to areas where it disappeared in the mid-1990s. In the intervening years, the bluebird population has continued to rise. This has charted a hopeful course for the many endangered species in the region.

To gain entrance to the preserve you had to park on Maple Bay Road and walk the 1/2 km up a lane to reach the starting point of the tour.

Once at the end of the lane, to the left you can see Quamichan Lake in the distance. They were offering wagon rides to the wetland area. 

We just missed the wagon ride to the park's other end.  Nothing we wanted to see that way anyway.

At the beginning of the tour they have the Native Plant Nursery where you could "purchase" some plants by donation. Carrying on down the path brought us to an old barn and wildflower meadows showcasing the Garry Oaks. They had ten stations under white tents with displays of pictures of pollinators, birds that live in the preserve, history of the old buildings etc. You could wait and take guided tours or walk on your own which we opted to do.

Elkington House is one of Cowichan Valley's best-kept secrets, with deep roots in our local heritage and history dating back to the time of colonization on Vancouver Island. The 119–year-old heritage house sits in the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC).

Elkington House

Cultural significance

Camas flowers in bloom (Photo by NCC)

Garry oak meadows have been integral to the First Nations of the Cowichan Valley for thousands of years. Camas was cultivated in the meadows and harvested in late summer for its bulb, which is rich in carbohydrates and was pit-cooked or dried and ground up to make a flour. In order to ensure the vibrant blue-purple flower thrived, Indigenous communities worked with natural systems. At times they performed prescribed burns to limit shrubs and conifers from expanding into meadows with deep soil.

Ray doing what he loves to do. It has been awhile since we have been on an outing for pictures.

After our lovely walk, we decided to have a bite to eat at the Lions Rampant Pub in Maple Bay. It sure is windy out on the ocean. Before going in we noticed some cool wildflowers across the street.

The white water in the distance is whitecaps from the wind. We also saw an otter climb up onto the dock and get a good back scratching before slipping back into the water.

Last stop on the way home was a quick peek at the Garden Show at the exhibition grounds ... they even had a horse show going on. We did not find anything we needed to buy as we already have our landscaping done.

They did have cool birdhouses though.

Back home by 12:30 pm. A great couple of hours.