Storm Watching & Video

We had storm warnings all along the east coast of the island today with winds reaching upwards of 90 km/hour at its peak, ferries between us and the mainland were cancelled and poor Hubby and the kids spent the whole day without power. Lucky me I was further down island where the power was still on *grin*.

On the way home I stopped to catch some of the action after the wind had slowed down a bit but the waves still towered way above me as they crashed over the sea wall in Qualicum this evening. I managed to stay dry but at there were a couple of times where I thought I was going to be soaked for sure as the water rushed upwards in front of me :)

I took a little bit of video on my camera while I was there to share to :) It's only about 10 seconds long but really cool to see how the water just rockets along the wall as it hits. If you are reading this via email or google reader you might have to jump over to my blog to see it :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Breathing in Beauty

Being by the ocean has to be my most favorite spot to be :)
Yesterday I had one of those rare moments when it was just me, myself and I so instead of catching up on housework that I probably should have been doing I surrendered to the call of the ocean *grin*.

I took my mom with me, a steaming hot cup of coffee, my camera and we just sat and sucked in the beauty around us. Can you truly ever tire of the sound of the waves lapping at the wooden pilings under the wharf, the smell of salt and seaweed or the brisk wind that blows stray wisps of hair around?

When we arrived we were blanketed in a thick bank of fog but as it rolled further away we were greeted by the passing splashes of a pod of dolphins and the cries of the gulls as they soared along the air currents.

The surrounding mountains and islands appeared again...

and the tug boats and fishing vessels became more than just moving gray shadows and echoes of diesel engines.

Definitely a truly wonderful way to spend an afternoon :) How about you, where is your favorite place to relax and breathe in beauty?

Hugs,
Rosina

Ocean's Day Fun

This weekend was Ocean Day. All about fish and creatures of the sea :)

Oh my goodness was it fun! There were all sorts of tanks and buckets along the dock for the kids to investigate like this up close view of an octopus' suction cups :)

It was actually quite comical when the octopus showed up. We were standing there watching a big halibut when a fisherman zipped up in front of us and dumped a giant orange blob of jello into an empty bucket and starting to fill it with salt water. Well the octopus was less than amused and shot water out in a big gush at all of the little kids peering in :)

My youngest screamed and jumped back. If I hadn't caught hold of him I think he might have flown right off the edge of the dock finger we were all standing on and plunged into the ocean LOL. He wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with it anymore *grin*.

Other kids found it absolutely fascinating and would pick up his wayward tentacles that tried to escape the bucket and would put them back in!

A more docile lingcod allowed them to pet it and feel it's slimy scales...

there were all sorts of different sea stars to be picked up...

and of course there were stranger specimens like this spiky sea cucumber...



and this very interesting Nudibranch which I think is actually a member of the sea slug family. Ewww LOL.

Just a little further down the dock we found a large box of frozen fish. At first we weren't sure what they were for since nobody was there but we quickly found out what to do with them when we noticed a very large harbour seal swimming down below the dock :)

Each time we tossed in a fish the seal would come out from under a boat and take the fish to eat. So neat!

There was lots of fresh fish to be bought as well. This fishermen had lingcod, snapper and rock fish for sale by the pound. Some of it was frozen in the hold....

others were still alive and being held in little net pens off the sides of the dock like this one full of lingcod :)

Once we were finally all finished oohing and ahhing over the fish and getting our fill of touching them we headed over to the tents to pick up the fish prints that we had made when we first arrived.

Each of the children got a chance to make a print of a salmon...

and this very interesting China rock fish. Just look at that giant eyeball and mouth!

I just love how they turned out :)
After two hours, mild sunburns and a handful of stickers and posters each we finally called it a day and headed home. For the next hour as I drove us home the kids relived each and every moment so it must have been a great day *grin*.

Hope you all had a great weekend to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Rain Rain Go Away

We've had some pretty wet weather these last few days and today was no exception. Actually as I'm writing this the rain is hammering against the windows as the bird feeders swing wildly and the house groans uncomfortably.

Needless to say we're going a little stir crazy not being able to spend as much time outdoors as we would have liked. So as a fun little outing I packed everyone into the car along with a few school books that we are reading right now and headed down to the wharf.

There we could watch the birds and sea otters play, boats coming and going and get pounded by the rain and wind while still staying dry *grin*. It was a nice change. I read aloud for about an hour while the 3 of them colored and drew pictures to go along with the story in the backseat :)

I hear we're supposed to get the sunshine back by the weekend... boy do I hope so!

~ Rosina

Camping at Miracle Beach

Monday morning we packed up our travel trailer and headed out for a little bit of camping fun :) My oldest son had to be down island for his last art class and we thought since we were going to be passing right by Miracle Beach Provincial Park and Campground we'd make an outing of it and swing in for the night!

This time of year it is still fairly quiet during the week since the school children are not quite out for the summer which pretty much gave us pick of the park *grin*. We opted for a spot right in front of the playground so that M who's 3 years old could run back and forth and I wouldn't have to worry about him :)

We were pleasantly surprised that right behind us was another family with 3 children and wouldn't you know it, they were homeschoolers to! The kids hit it off right away and spent every spare minute together that wasn't consumed by eating or sleeping. LOL. Above is L heading out for a bike ride with her new friends :)

In the morning before we had to head home again we thought we'd trek down to the beach....

and catch a little bit of the ultra low tide that was happening. There was glorious sand as far as the eye could see :)

The rainy weather held off just long enough for us to do a little tide pool exploring, sand castle building...

and just general mucking about :)

I don't know what it is about Miracle Beach but I could spend weeks on end there camping and lazing on the beach!! Maybe it just reminds me a lot of home, in the bush, with all of the wonderful fir, hemlock, alder and cedar trees looming above me. I'm such a backwoods girl! Just get rid of all the mosquitoes and I would be happy as a clam. LOL.

Where are you going camping this year?

~ Rosina