We are fortunate to live in a very beautiful part of Southern Vancouver Island, so it is always tempting to grab an image on the camera.
Check out these pictures tagged with images.
NOTE: I have updated this 2015 post in order to make it appear closer to the other mason bee information
Or rather –What’s Blooming this week? (April 15)
I have been releasing more Mason Bees this week from refrigerator storage so that they are available to fertilize the fruit trees below that are just now coming into bloom.
I have been posting my photos of different species I have encountered on the iNaturalist website. Many are species I have found here in the Metchosin Community.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=garryfletcher&verifiable=any
&
Sir James Douglas, the First Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, had a hunting lodge which was partly on our property in Metchosin. At the foot of the property down on Taylor Beach is a large glacial erratic, granite rock. In the top of the rock is a bored hole with a rusted pin at the bottom. In the 1850s, this rock served as a mooring spot for Douglas’s ship when he came out from Victoria. If anyone comes across any further information on the hunting lodge I would love to see it. The video clip below of the rock was taken in January, 2022
As you turn left from the parking lot at Taylor beach the first large glacial erratic you encounter is just off shore; 
Walking further down the beach is a larger pointed rock which served as the mooring device. We call it the Sir James Douglas Rock
When walking the dog on the beach one cant help but notice the wide array of kinds of rock . Here are a few examples of the glacial erratics.
Click on the image following for a link to a guide to the ecosystems and features of the area around Pearson College which I prepared in 2008.
My son Alex and his partner Virginie do a great job of running Wind-whipped Farms . Here are some images from their lettuce garden in the fall of 2020:
We may not get cold enough temperatures here in Metchosin to produce a good crop of maple syrup but I decided a few years ago that we shouldn’t miss out on the fall colours. This is the first tree I planted in about 1990, and since then I have planted many more on the farm.
We had a few days of amber skies from the forest fires south of the border this August/ September. I took these phots from my house looking out over theEastern entrance of the trait of Juan de Fuca.. A predictable occurrence as our planet heats up and forests dry up in the heat of late summer.
There was an unusual split rainbow over Victoria today which Ginger and I viewed from Taylor Beach
A slice through a willow .. I took this photo of the patterns in a split willow. This summer we purchased a new wood-splitter along with our neighbours…now splitting wood is fun !!
