Wandering around the boat basin on a sunny morning seemed a pleasant way to spend an hour. It helped that the bright blue skies and warm sunshine made the scenes even more colourful. Very cheerful!
Colourful
The previous day had been very blustery, and the clanging and clanking of masts, as well as the singing lines as the wind blew through the rigging made for a haunting song of sorts.
So colourful
The eagles appeared to love the weather, sun or rain, blustery or not, and their piercing cries and shrill calls could be heard each day, even over the constant wind.
Feathered friend – can carry a tune
One morning, just before sun up, several eagles flew up into the trees to the left and right of our campsite. There they perched, offering an occasional cry, for a few minutes, almost if as if they were waiting with me for the sun to appear over nearby Mt. Ozzard.
Fanciful, I know, but they flew off mere moments after the sun’s first rays started to warm the harbour. I raised my coffee cup in acknowledgment, but they were gone, no doubt looking for something more interesting than the robust dark roast.
Robust
Rain or shine, wind or calm, Ucluelet Harbour is rarely a dull place!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Leaving the mountains behind us, our task was to find spring, or at least a place with no recent snow on the ground.
Spoiler alert – task completed
So we headed west across mountains, and more mountains, emerging onto the flatland delta, continuing until the road stopped. There, we got on a ferry to cross the Salish Sea to Vancouver Island, disembarked, and headed west once again until the road stopped again.
The end of the road (the end of a rutted and muddy track)
We have found spring (almost summer by west coast standards) in one of our happy places, and, even better, have been catching up with old friends. Hard to imagine we were cooling beer in the snow a week ago.
Snow? Nope!
It feels as if winter has finally let go for real, spring has arrived for sure, and summer isn’t too far around the corner. Camping days ahead!
Summer is ahead? Yes deer!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Spending so much time at the coast can get a person dreaming of owning a boat…
Boats, boats, boats!
…but knowing a few boat owners helps prevent daydreams turning into reality. They’ll often tell you the best two days of boat ownership will be the day you buy one and the day you sell it! And then there’s the cost or costs – I bumped into my buddy R on his way to fill a few jerry cans with marine fuel, and he just about managed to avoid bursting into tears at the price…
Aluminum – practical and lightweight!
Another friend told of how, when she was growing up, she’d “enjoy” sailing trips with her father. Today, her partner would like to buy a small sailing boat, and when I mentioned how they might enjoy sailing together, given her nautical family background, she laughed (or grimaced?) and said yes, she knows which rope to pull and where to square things away, but sailing is not necessarily fun for her. It’s task, task, task, and then task, task, task.
Dreaming
Oh! Maybe our (Your – Mrs. PC) boat dreams will remain on hold for now? And possibly forever?
Speedy? Pricey!
In the meantime, we can always stroll around the inner and outer harbours in Ucluelet and admire boats we’ll never own – sailing boats of all sizes, aluminum fishing boats, fibreglass fishing boats, wooden boats, rigid inflatables with enormous outboard motors, small paddling boats for pottering around the inlet, and those vessels that are rusting and flaking away – RIP Tromso!
Old photo – she wasn’t there this visit, sob…
I can, and have, wasted hours hanging around marinas and harbours admiring boats. I love the busyness of it all, the screeching gulls, clanging masts, creaking ropes and splash of water. The aromas aren’t always pleasant, but they’re certainly distinctive; seaweed and salt, fish guts and cigarette smoke, bird shit and marine fuel. Lovely!
Distinctive
Boats, boats, boats! I do have my Small Vessel Operator Proficiency certificate, and the boats I admire are all less than 12 metres long and under 15 tonnes and— (Nope, not happening! – Mrs. PC)
I mean, is it that expensive, really? (Yes! – Mrs. PC)
We’re away from the coast now, and with each passing kilometre the allure of boat ownership diminishes (You’ve got that right, mister! – Mrs. PC) and common sense returns. Time for something more manageable – now, where are those canoe brochures?
“Get a boat! Get a boat!”
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’re away for the next little while, living on the edge, getting our feet wet and going coastal.
Going west coastal
It looks and feels a lot like fall here, with mists billowing in, shrouding the boats and trees and making for moody beach scenes.
Misty morning, Ucluelet inner harbour
It’s nowhere near as cold as the photos appear – shirtsleeves by lunchtime, and feeling pleasantly mild and humid in between the chillier bouts of fog.
Humid
What a blast to log time in the fog – hazy delights!
We’ve logged off
I’ll share some different scenes another time, with less mist and fog and more sunshine – but we came hoping for that particular PNW atmosphere, and we’re thoroughly enjoying it, as well as the time spent catching up with old friends in one of our favourite places.
Favourite characters
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We went to see Jaws the other day – it was showing near home on a big screen and with a cleaned up super saturated print. Goodness, what a treat!
Get out of the water!
If you like the movie and you get the chance, do go and see it on a big screen. It really stands the test of time (50 years? Eek, that’s properly scary…)
Super saturation
What a movie, and an excellent (if unnecessary) reminder that I prefer to be on and not in the water. As for needing a bigger boat, that’s fine when taking a ferry – we caught one just the other day – but I don’t mind those smaller craft if that’s all there is.
Any of the above works for me!
Yup, a small craft is great! With all this water, you never know what might be lurking in the deep… or in the shallows:
Hungry lurker
Hmm, I think I need to work more with the new camera, but at least the heron was so focused on lurking it didn’t realize I was lurking nearby and struggling with my own focus!
Focused – the heron, not the photographer!
Enough for now – I’m off to reflect on boats. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’ve just returned from a flying visit to SW England (with a bit of NW England thrown in at the end) and what a trip it was! Being happily tired this week, here’s a quick report and a tangent or two. Perhaps I’ll include a few extra bits and pieces in future posts as and when my brain untangles the wonderful whirlwind of highlights and events.
Falmouth, Cornwall, UK
After landing in London we travelled down to Cornwall to celebrate my mother’s birthday – one of the landmark ones. “A landmark birthday? How old?” I hear you ask? Or did you? (I’ve not lived in Britain for almost two decades, and even when I did could never be bothered to understand the stifling intricacies and eccentricities of how one “should” behave. I’m not too sure, in the post Jane Austen era, if it’s yet entirely acceptable to reveal the age of a lady, particularly the age of a lady of a certain age. I’ll simply say it is a number between 79 and 81 and leave it at that…)
A certain age
By the way, some of the above will certainly influence the title of my new, and, dare I say, difficult second novel. “Portrait of a Particular Lady of a Certain Age and Certain Sensibilities in a Particular Age, An Age of Intricacy and Eccentricity”.
Catchy, hey? A comedy of manners with no funny bits. My hope is for it to be published soon after my first (also difficult) novel is completed. This will be a more modern tale, based on almost real events, and is definitely not a comedy. It attempts to capture Britain today. The title? “Black Coffee Please. Black Coffee? Of Course Sir. Milk and Sugar With That?”
Eventually I’ll write a sequel to Black Coffee Please called “Please-Thanks, Thanking You, Please-Thanks, Yes Thank You, Yes Please-Thanks and Thank You. Milk and Sugar? No thanks!” Bestsellers all, if only they existed. Order and pay for a black coffee in England and count the please-thanks. Honestly, you could write a saga poem…
Dear old Falmouth
Where was I? Why, in dear old Blighty! Mother had a splendid time, and it was great to catch up with family and friends, enjoy a meal or two and a drink or three in comfortable surroundings. It might have been the drink or three that had us heading outdoors every now and then to take in the bracing sea air and help a head that needed clearing.
The “brightening up” title this week is from what some British people might say as they decide to go for a walk. This makes sense if you know that often in Britain it’s just stopped raining, about to start raining or is actually raining.
Brightening up?
I exaggerate, but not by much. “I think it’s brightening up so shall we head out?” “Nah; it’s raining. Another pint?”
A Porthleven Pale you say? Oh go on then!
Clearly my brain is travel-befuddled, so let’s leave it here for this week! Please-Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
It’s not always(!) sunny here, but when it isn’t, you can still find spots of colour and brightness, particularly when searching for spring near the harbour.
Bright enough, but what about the pink tree?!
Scout and I remembered we hadn’t visited “the pink tree” yet this spring, often because we’d been distracted by the beach and/or a sunny deck on recent bright days.
Logged out and distracted
We decided to put that right, hoping we hadn’t left it too late to see the tree in full glory…
Pops of orange, but not what we’re looking for
There was no need to worry, and although the morning wasn’t bright, the display more than made up for it – what a sensory delight!
Spring splendour
Let’s keep it short yet bright, like blossom on a spring day… or something… Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
It’s not a competition, but the daffodils weren’t too happy…
What a relief to be off to a sunny May start! We’ve fingers crossed the sunshine will continue, if not every day, then for more than we enjoyed in April. Like the hockey playoffs or the end of a Premier League season, it’s the hope that kills you…
May Day morning sunshine on the inner harbour
I’ll keep it brief this week, and with a hopeful spirit, signing off with a few images from our hikes in a mostly bright May month so far. May ok!
May Day afternoon sunshine at our favourite cove
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Definitely on a creative streak with these post headings recently. Looking forward to “Actually sunny” for next week. Can’t be entirely sure that’s going to happen, as the forecast – and much anticipated – long spells of sunshine due at the start of the current week have been somewhat late arriving.
“I can see my shadow, so there’s some sun, yes?”
At the time of writing – Wednesday afternoon – we’re in more of a grey skies and feeling the potential for some warmth instead of bright sunshine sort of a pattern. Hints of brightness and a couple of brief sunny spells, but less than the forecast indicated. You should see my pouty face.
Some sun? Almost…
Still, almost sunny and not quite raining are both improvements on the cold and damp spring we’ve enjoyed to date, so we’re optimistic that the extended warmth and sunshine forecast for Friday and Saturday arrives on time!
Getting there…
If not, I’d recommend not reading this next week as there is likely to be something of a toddler tantrum. I’ll enjoy my tantrum – who doesn’t revel in their own childishness from time to time? – but it’s best avoided by everyone else. Ignore him, just attention seeking…
Oh
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Scout and I decided to wait for a break in the rain before heading out. After three or four days, we gave up on waiting and off we went. It was raining.
We enjoyed the rainy view across the inner harbour:
Rainy view
Can we get a close up on that, confirm the rain?
Sure!
Then we went to look out across the inlet to Hitacu. Scout was distracted by the mirror dog following her every move:
“You following me?”
It was still raining, giving the place a glistening and spruced up look:
Shiny!
We thought we saw something pop up to say “hi” but missed it. We waited, but I think they decided it was drier beneath the surface…
Damp up top!
When we turned for home it started to rain even more heavily. Really?!
Yup!
When the hail started, even though we were very close to home, Scout insisted we take shelter and wait for it to ease up before continuing:
It’s now several days later – we’re probably still under this tree…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! (What was that? Our weekend forecast for here? More rain!)
OldPlaidCamper 