October 18, 2006

Well after a series of foggy days - and one not so foggy today we have rain. Not only do we have rain it has the look and feel of winter coming on. There is something in the air that makes one feel as they walk outside that somehow summer has slipped away and moved on. The few trees that we have on the station that drop their leaves have just about done so. The leaves of the grape vine and honeysuckle that have attached themselves to the rock face have turned yellow and are starting to fall off.

Yesterday was another day that garden work became a priority as I tried to get as much cleared up as possible. The Stellar Jays followed me around and screamed as I cut away some of the branches of the fushia bushes - taking away their hiding places. This year I promised myself that in the fall I would try and clear away the dying plants to save myself the work in the spring. Last spring I worked hard to clean up the areas that hadn't been attended to in the years of my absence. Both Norbie and Ivan think I should wait until spring and do it then. But I like to get ahead of the game as one never knows what spring will bring weather wise and I am not a foul weather gardener.

Chris and Liz left on the 6th of October but not before being treated to some wild life visits. A lone grey whale did a slow swim by - just teasing us with a few blows whilst it swam northward. I can't figure what that was about as a sane grey would be heading south to Baja at this time of year. I haven't seen it since so maybe it just wanted to fill its belly one more time. Sitting on the rocks out front they saw a whole slew of sea lions swimming by - normally one can catch a glimpse of the "dawgs" out front but more likely you hear them barking on their way by or as they sit on Folgers Island soaking up the "sun". A few days before they left they also lucked in to see a pair of transient killer whales doing their sneaky swim by.

I was making dinner and heard a banging on the living room window and there stood Chris - who I thought was asking me what time dinner was - I just waved my hand and said "soon" or something like that. He went away muttering something like - "I can't believe you didn't tell us" which perplexed me until Norbie came in to tell me he was surprised I wasn't outside watching the whales....... Of course I left dinner to cook itself and joined the"kids" to check it out. Chris managed to get a few shots and I added this whale sighting into my book with the others. Early this summer I had muttered that we hadn't seen any KW's this year and now with the earlier sighting in September of 9 residents it was a good "whaling" year for Orcas as wells as Humpbacks and Greys.

The day before Chris and Liz were to leave they decided to go to the beach for one last walk....it seemed like no sooner had they left then they were back red faced and out of breath. As they went to the end of the dock - a habit that I have installed in all of our guests - just to make sure there is not something on the beach you wouldn't want to run into - they noticed a bear down near the "Canoe Run". I guess they decided that was too close for comfort and raced back up the 164 stairs to the safety of the upper station.

I think all and all Liz got a good "wild life viewing" this trip.

This past week we had an unexpected visitor out front. I was talking on the phone with Jac in Yellowknife and heard Norbie calling me over the radio circuit, I asked Jac to hold and answered Norbie. Once again he had forgotten his radio and there was a young black bear in my front garden. (for those who know the last time he called me on a phone was when he forgot his radio and met up with a cougar.....) Anyhow I quickly looked out the window and although I didn't see anything I went around and shut all the doors. Jac insisted I stay on the phone with her until this was done.

Norbie came out of the radio room in time to see the young bear climb into the bushes beside the tower. But this little guy was not done with us yet. He decided he wanted to explore more so he wandered into the back yard area - heading up towards Ivan's back door. We radioed Ivan and told him to close his door - before Ivan could get to his door the little bear moved on to Ivan's basement window and stood up with paws on either side of the window and looked in - at what I haven't a clue. When Ivan opened his door the little fellow quickly jumped down from the yard but slowly mosied through the rest of the yard taking his merry time.

When we thought all was all clear Ivan radioed back to say the bear had returned so we went out cautiously to check it out...... Norbie had the air horn and decided to give it a shot. I think the only one that the horn did anything to was Ivan - he jumped with the sound of the horn. The bear - he never even flinched...... I guess though as there was nothing up here that appealed to him we saw him amble his way behind the crew house and as yet no new sightings have been reported.

Just a note of interest too - the day after the earthquake in Hawaii we had pretty big - moderate - seas. Could this have been due to quake. There was no wind storms then or later. An interesting point to ponder.

The end of next week Norbie goes into Victoria for some courses. This should be interesting as the time changes that weekend and I will have to get up and do the 3:40am weather. This could be an interesting week for me as I am the type of person that once I am awake I have a devil of a time getting back to sleep. With my luck I will fall asleep just before the alarm goes off to wake me up to do the 6:40am weather!!!! Hey that's why we get paid the big bucks.

Well I guess that's just about all the excitement around here for now. Tomorrow the 212 (the bigger chopper) is due to sling out some "garbage" from the station to the Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfred Laurier which has returned to the coast after her summer in the Artic. Who knows if it will get down with the weather being unpredictable these days.

Until later....we'll keep the light on.