So you may have noticed a drop in posts. It is Summer here and I am recently returned from Hornby Island, an island in the Strait of Georgia.

This post will have some pictures, as I try to show you all what some of the West Coast Lifestyle is like.

To get to Hornby Island, you need to go from Vancouver Island, to Denman Island (by the longest cable ferry in the world), and then via another ferry to Hornby itself. Some take boats to the one marina at Ford’s Cove, while others seek anchorage in Tribune Bay (but only in the Summer before the winds shift and the bay becomes exposed).

We are lucky enough to have family property (and family residents) there, as the population of the island swells up (from about 1,000 normally to over 10,000 in the Summer), so space is at a premium. This is somewhat at odds with the reclusive hippie/artist lifestyle on the island, but it’s an important money making time for the locals. There are markets held in a forest near the community centre twice a week:

The markets are great. Everything from snacks to local produce, art (from ironwork to quilts), to massages and haircuts. As Hornby has a great music festival and still has a free-living lifestyle, the markets now have community health initiatives stands(sexual health and naloxone instruction by paramedics) which is great as there are no resident doctors on the island.

The community centre near the market itself has a nice performance venue and an interesting exterior:

The main notice board for the community:

Unlike some other parts of Canada, we don’t get as much humidity here, but we do get hot weather (for us). We do have great beaches, the most famous of which is Tribune Bay. With our 5 metre tide range, the sand soaks up the heat and then makes the water nice and warm. Even swimming at low tide is pleasant. The beach is stunning:

And the water is clear:

Along with lovely water, we also have tall trees here. And I mean tall. On Vancouver Island some trees push above 80m in height! On Hornby, most of the trees are second growth, but they are still tall (40m+).

These tall trees are wonderful, but as you can see in the picture above, should they fall they do considerable damage. Therefore, Summer time is also a great time for arborists who climb to dizzying heights to remove branches or fall trees that will pose a danger once the Winter winds come.

The gardens on the island are still blooming, and the fruit is ripening nicely. Apples are ripe, quinces are almost there, blueberries are ready, and the first of the many, many blackberries are edible.

That means that walking to a beach, or just wandering the paths you can find food at your finger tips.

The small building on the right in the photo above is a well. As rainwater fed aquifers supply the fresh water on the island, water conservation is a big deal. We really don’t want the aquifers to drop too low as the sea will rush in and then we’d be forced to truck in water. We have two large cisterns (one under the house) that provide us some lee-way.

Anyway, there is a brief look at some of the West Coast lifestyle out here. The heat is supposed to break this week, so I should be able to get some more painting and prepping done.

My earlier post that referenced the weather mentioned that we had had the last rain of the Spring and so could reasonably expect no more water from the sky until September. Well, luckily I was wrong (we have droughts in the Summer that lead to water restrictions etc). We had a very cool and wet June but now the heat is back. The grass is yellow, and the leaves on the trees are a little more dusty yellow.

The interesting part of living on an island is that it doesn’t heat up like a large city, or in fact any place that doesn’t have temperate ocean cooling. To our south, the Straits of Juan de Fuca only warm up about 1 degree Celsius between Winter and Summer. But, on the other side of the peninsula, Saanich Inlet can warm up a lot. So, we see some pretty uneven temperatures across the area all at the same time. Here’s a snapshot:

Where I live is 9 degrees Celsius hotter than down in James Bay, and 7 hotter than downtown. Friends down in James Bay never need an air conditioner. Without one, even in my properly insulated house, it reaches 28 degrees Celsius before 4pm. So, if I were to merely look at the Weather Network, it’d be giving me some pretty erroneous data for my area.

Luckily, the site that I use is amazing. School-Based Weather Station Network has automatic weather observations systems (AWOS) on every school in the area and in fact, on the Island (and the surrounding Gulf Islands). This means that you can get really beautiful and useful weather mapping for planning your outings. The moderating influence of the water also means that the hotter places are in the Summer, the colder they are in the Winter. From a world creation perspective, this type of thing can add a lot of flavour and interest with certain areas being much hotter or cooler, with shrines or fortifications having to deal with significant differences in how they deal with the weather.

What you see on the news or local station may not reflect what you’ll see outside. It can be hotter, colder, windier. In some cases, on this side of an island called Race Rocks, there will be no fog. On the other side there will be thick, thick fog that lasts for a week and no one in the city is the wiser.

The picture of the large tree sticking out over a stream that you’ll occasionally see on the banner is taken by yours truly on the West Coast Trail 12 years ago and really illustrates the difference of micro-climates here. On the trail it never gets hot, just wet. There is no drying off in the Summer. The blue areas on the West Coast in the image above is where you find most of the old growth. It is a true rainforest and is stunning. Here it is again in normal size:

Those of us who go to sea, for our living or enjoyment, and those of us who wander into the wild, pay close attention to the vagaries of our coastal climate and it seems to make our home here a little more special than many think it (already) is.