A Hike and a Fall Farmer's Market

 Hullo! We went on a new little hike today... one I'd never been on before. 

I love new hikes... and the weather was half-decent too...

It's beary pretty here.

There is apparently a waterfall down here somewhere.

Found the creek!

And the waterfall is... well... you be the judge...

We haven't had the fall rains yet sooooo... it's a little.... trickly...

But it would be pretty at a rainier time of year!

We went down to get to the falls and now... we have to go up... sigh.

Still very pretty...

And that's what it can look like with more water!

When we finished the hike, we saw a farm stand had opened... and we got a scone!

Lemon cranberry or something...

It was seriously yummy!!!

Then we went to a farmer's market and the weather was gorgeous!

Lots of produce to be had. How do they get their carrots to look like that? We have given up on carrots!

And pretty flowers... those zinnias are gorgeous.

And bit squash too! It was great fun!

A Day out on a Boat

 Hullo!!! We have visitors from Manitoba staying with us... and friends of ours are going out prawning and crabbing today and... we got invited along!!!

That's Scott... He knows what he's doing. We don't...

We are all loaded up with prawn and crab traps...

I wonder if I can drive for a bit?

Hmmm... what did those boaters come back with??

Salmon!!!! They have salmon!!! 

Ummm... can I get off and go with those guys... No... I guess not.

Alright... we are going prawning and crabbing... any seafood in a pinch, eh...

This is a crab trap... you can tell because the mesh of the trap is quite wide.

Scott's driving...

And this is the navigation thingie...

Ahoy maties!!! We are off on our adventure!

Ooohh... see that pier... well it belongs to a beary famous actress and... model and... person... can you guess who?

This little bear was getting a bit queasy inside so we are hanging out at the back of the boat...

This is prawn bait... cat food... go figure.

There's a chart here....

That explains how to identify all the different types of salmon!! It's complicated...

Oooh... we are putting out some traps!! It's all about finding the right depth... crab are shallow and prawns are deeper...

We are putting crab traps in first... the bait for that is chicken carcasses and fish tails...

And there goes one! Hopefully we can find them again (that was fun... not)...

This is exciting!!

The nav display can also show "bio-mass" or something on the seafloor and so they were looking at that too...

After putting out some more traps, we came back to the first one to see if it was a good spot. We already had some little crabs!!

And some bigger ones...

Ummm... don't let those little get you... they are nasty!

We put that trap back and then headed off to wait for the traps to do their thing... which meant lunch on Thetis Island!!!

I've never been here...

We are eating at the Thetis Island Pub, just off the dock. Yum!!!

And yes, I'll have a Hoyne's Dark Matter please... yum!

And then a delicious salmon sandwich. Soooo good!!!!

TO BE CONTINUED

Strange Fountains and Stone Bridges

 Hullo! Sooo... on my way back from Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse... we made a little detour down to the old highway around Mill Bay... I had come across a strange thing online and thought I would check it out...

It should be right up there, on the other side of the road...

Where there's water... we must be getting close...

Sooo... if anyone wants some water cress to eat... I know where to find lots!

Ta-dah!!!! It's an old roadside fountain!!

It was put here in 1924 by the Victoria Rotary Club. This used to be the route the old Malahat highway took, over the Malahat Pass... and cars would need to stop and fill their radiators... and horses would drink here too!

It replaced one that had been built in 1911 and was made out of wood. Up until a few years ago, there was water still flowing out of the fountain but... it's now disconnected due to safety issues (beaver fever anyone?).

See... in back... there's the hose but it doesn't suck water anymore.

That's too bad... Which reminds me... there is a place like this near where Gramma used to live... a pipe coming out of a tree that people still come and fill up their water jugs... Anyhow... on to our next stop!

Here we are! Our next stop is to find the mysterious "stone bridge"... we don't have a lot of stone bridges here (like... none). So this would be kind of cool.

It's not far... there's the creek...

And there's the bridge... hmmm...

Let's check it out...

Yep... it's a stone bridge (and some cement).

Pretty cool! Let's look at it from the downstream side.

Errr... q'est que c'est?

This looks mysterious!!!

A whole in the ground with some plastic conduits....

And an old concrete thingie which probably had a door at one point with more plastic conduits and wiring. 

Perhaps a water pump station??

Ah, here we go... this is a nice view...

But not quite what we are looking for...

this isn't quite it either... too far away...

Think we could hop across the stream from slick mossy rock to slick mossy rock?

Yeah. No.

We went back over the bridge and here we go... this is looking better!

Yes!! Perfect! Love it... Usually there is much more water flowing (spring and fall) so we might have to come back here and see what it looks like...

Very cute... Glad we came!

And then... one final stop!! We had read about another fountain near Oyster Bay but the directions were... messy... "On the opposite side of the road from where it used to be"... Not helpful!!! But... with a bit of sleuthing and another clue ("On the access road parallel to the highway"... we found it!

It is seriously getting covered by blackberries... but this old road fountain used to be on the other side of the highway and people would stop and fill up their containers with fresh, clean water...

Those were the days I guess... when you could just drink water from any little creek or spring or seepage... Pretty cool! We found some nifty old things today...