Otter surprise

In our 20 years on Gabriola, this is the first time I've ever seen an otter in our yard. We are quite a ways from the ocean. The video was taken from our kitchen window. This fellow seems to know exactly where he's going!

Peacock amnesty

 

Feb 3, 2025: With our first snowfall, it feels like winter has finally arrived on Gabriola. Our uninvited flock of pesky peacocks—who roost at night in the trees above our garage, crash onto our house roof every morning when they awake and then spend their days foraging on our property—hate the cold and snow. No surprise, since they are a tropical species, although these particular birds were born here, the legacy of an irresponsible exotic farm owner at our end of the island who abandoned his animals several decades ago when he left the island. Consequently, his guinea fowl, wild turkeys and peacocks have naturalized on our island, creating roaming flocks of various sizes. This particular flock has adopted our property as their home no matter how relentlessly we try to discourage them. They may be pretty but they force us to continuously clean up the large piles of excrement they leave behind. Plus, I can plant nothing that overwinters since they eat everything green they can find.

However, when it snows, we feel sorry for them.

Milestones in 2024

That was then ... at our wedding in Maui, in March 1998.

This is now...

 2024 was a big year for my husband, Doug Long, and me. After 40 years together (26 of them as an officially married couple), this fall we Scorpios celebrated our 75th (me) and 80th (Doug) birthdays.

  

Lunching with good friends

What could be better on a December Sunday than lunch with Funglan and her family?  Funglan is one of the best, most creative cooks and bakers I've ever known. An invitation to dine at her place is always a treat!

Fall fungi on Gabriola

 Jasper, our senior cat, enjoys checking out the fungi that sprout on damp fall days.