Salmonberry Jam and Other Acts of Domesticity

Summer has been slow to reach the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, and the natives have been getting restless. While we are sweating our asses off in India all winter, they are slogging through cold, grey, short days. The folks here seem relived and excited, in equal measure, that the cloudless skies of summer finally seem to have arrived.

My major disappointment about the unseasonably cold June is that the blackberries, which grow in such profusion here, will be slow to ripen. Fortunately, the fabulous salmonberry is now ripe for the plucking.

Ride of Passage (Part Two)

This afternoon, Sonesh Surana was also “blooded” on the mountain bike trails of Pacific Spirit Park. A good time was had by all.

Ride of Passage

As rights of passage go, I consider this a big one. With this afternoon’s frosty sunshine filtering through the forest of Pacific Spirit Park, Zing went for his first mountain bike ride.

Salmon at Work (Part One)

Thanks to the planning, sweat, and diligence of a neighborhood volunteer group known as the Spanish Banks Streamkeepers, coho salmon are spawning in Spanish Banks Creek for the first time in more than fifty years.

Spanish Banks Creek, just down the beach from us in Vancouver, originates in Pacific Spirit Park, overlooking English Bay and the Straight of Georgia. The creek once ended in 90 meters of choked, narrow, subterranean culvert running beneath the N.W. Marine Drive roadway, the Spanish Banks parking lot, and the beach itself. Now, the creek-bed has been restored and the salmon are returning.

Pacific Spirit Mud

The rain cleared, the sun emerged, and it was time to hit the trails of Pacific Spirit Park, which begin just down the beach from our house. The park contains 38km of mountain biking trails, which wind and intersect in a lush cedar forest above Spanish Banks.

Today, they were a bit muddy.