Cow Bay Float Homes & Elkington Heritage House

The sun is almost up... just about... alllllmoooost! Perfect timing for an adventure to Cow Bay (Cowichan Bay) down the coast.

Cow Bay is beary cool because...

There are float homes here!!! This is obviously a beary nice one because...

It has a salmon painted on the side!

It's fun to poke around out here...

But the sun is taking its sweet time getting up this morning soooo... we will have to move on. Places to go and things to see!

Does that count as sunrise? I think so...

I'm not sure this little bear could live here though... not a lot of privacy and the rocking might make for a queasy bear tummy!

Which would mean there would be no space (or inclination) for ice cream!! Of course... with sunrise at 7:21 am... the ice cream place was NOT open. Sigh... maybe next time! But you can see the "cow" theme coming through!

Fun Fact... did you know that there is ANOTHER Cow Bay in BC?? Is true!! But do you know where???

Alrightee... our next stop is... pretty purple flowers!

I saw them the other day and... now I need to know... what are they called? I looked it up... ready... They are called Glory of the Snow! How is that for a fancy name! They are originally from Turkey... which one would think wouldn't have a lot of snow but... I guess in the mountains.

Right. We are here at the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve. The Garry Oak ecosystem is beary special and endangered so this is a nice little preserve which... unfortunately is not open to the public (human or bear...).

But there is a walkway here that takes us a ways into the preserve.

It's beary calm and peaceful here. And we are behind a mountain so the sun is not quite up yet here...

And... wait... what is that??? Do you see it? Through the trees?

It's a house!!! It's Elkington House, an old heritage house (with no money for upkeep) that has been around for over 120 years!

Umm... and yes... shhhhh... don't tell anyone but... this little bear hopped the fence.

I can hear dogs barking over there... Let's move!

Goes without saying... do not follow in this little bear's footsteps!

Just want... a good picture... cute daffodils...

It's gorgeous!!!

Except the boarded up windows on the bottom... and the security cameras...  One more pic and then... bug out!!!

And now... a quick pit stop here...

And the only reason we are stopping here is for hanging lichen...

On these big maple trees... but the angle is just not right...

I need to back up a bit but these trees are sooo cool...

This moss is several feet long!

And I think these trees are beary, beary old.

Grumble... still doesn't look as good as in real life!

How about now???

And a bit closer and... voila!!!

They are beary impressive and remind me of those trees in the south... of the USA... what are they called... the Spanish Moss hanging from oak and myrtle trees?

Beary cool!!! And now... for our next adventure... we are headed to an abandoned... haunted (apparently)... mansion! Stay tuned...