Flora and Fauna

As promised, portraits of UVic campus resident rabbits. These photos were taken just a few moments ago, out on the lawn in front of the building my two classes are held in. Today is a grey day, but there were still many rabbits out. They only seem to take cover in the bushes when it rains.

Before I had kids, I read a rather depressing survey done amongst kindergarten-aged children, revealing that they could correctly identify a startlingly large number of corporate logos, but only a very limited number of plants and animals in their own environment. I'm sure that this observation is true for most adults in urban settings as well - I know that it is for me, despite the flower walks my mother used to take me on, and the bird-watching trips to Point Pelee I went on with family friends. It has been one of my goals to attempt to reverse this trend in myself and my children, and one of my hopes in moving to Victoria was that this task would become easier. So far, I think the learning curve has been pretty good. Yesterday, I finally spotted some birds at our feeder, and I think I am correct in identifying them as Northern Juncos. They matched the description fairly closely, with black hoods and their white tail feathers flashing as they fed. Dylan says he thinks they are roosting in our roof.

Sunday we all went for breakfast at the Beacon Drive-In, and carried on to the beach for a walk (and a wade). Sam pulled off his boots and his pants and went in this time. We just sat on a log, watching in disbelief. We saw seagulls snacking on crabs, a bald eagle flew right over us, and we spotted an interesting bird with a bright orange beak, that we later identified as a black oystercatcher. (We have a very handy pocket naturalist's guide to the BC shoreline wildlife, but I haven't managed to remember to bring it with us yet, so we just struggle to remember all the things we want to identify on the way home.) We strolled back, past the pond where the men with remote control boats were out once again.



I hope the following picture provides a little respite from the scenery most of my readers are used to these days. (Snowdrops instead of snow). If it is more irritating than enjoyable, feel free to say so in the comments, and I will stop posting this sort of thing.



Tuesday brought lengthy sessions of lego in the sun on the stairs for some:



And scenic bike rides for others:



It's a strange sort of season. It seems like spring, with the snowdrops and little green buds appearing on some plants. Even the neighbour's rhododendrons have a few pink blossoms opening up. I can't help feel like we're cheating winter somehow. But there is snow in the forecast for Saturday, so we'll see what comes next.

Holiday Recap

All aboard the Christmas Train!



This picture is from our lovely après-Noel visit to Vancouver. My sister had bought tickets for us to go to the Bright Lights show in Stanley Park, complete with train ride through all the lights and Christmas displays,with musical accompaniment and culminating in a dancing stiltsman (when I checked stiltman in my computer's dictionary it asks "did you mean Stilton?!"). For my regular readers, you can now put a face to "George" (centre) and "Amalia" (right). We had a wonderful time in snowy Vancouver. Our timing was really lucky as we were able to get there and back without any snow-related trouble. Our other outing was up Grouse Mountain (on gondola) for skating, rides on a snowtractor-pulled-sleigh and hot chocolate in the lodge. It was quite a mob scene on the mountain, and a thick fog set in while we were there, so we were happy to head back down a few hours later and return to their cozy house for homemade mac and cheese. Really my sister should go into travel planning.

Candy on the beach



Less than one week later (Jan. 2nd) we had a Beautiful day, so I convinced Sam and Lily to join me for a walk to the beach (they were in full vacation mode, still in pjs, and had already declined a visit to the museum with Dylan and Alex, but I was quite determined to get out and enjoy the sun/give the kids a good dose of vitamin D, so I bribed them with a stop for penny candy at the confectionary - hence, candy on the beach) Followed by:

Rock hopping



Cliff scrambling



Building a driftwood staircase




And finally, the sunset



I had to keep reminding myself it was January 2nd. Sam absolutely wanted to go swimming and was furious I hadn't brought his trunks. I'll have to sign him up for the next polar bear dip. If it is any consolation to those who may not have enjoyed these activities so early in the New Year, we have had almost continuous grey weather since. This has actually worked out for me, since 2009 got busy fast, what with deadlines looming for the book and deciding to finally, at long last, complete my neverending B.A. Yes, it's true - if all goes well I will graduate in the spring. I worked my way through a pile of paperwork to get Concordia to grant me permission to finish my last two courses at UVic, and went through the pile of paperwork to be admitted as a visiting student. Classes started on the 5th, and despite increased stress levels, I'm very happy to be there. And what UVic lacks in architectural charm it makes up for in spades with its large population of adorable rabbits (I don't use the word adorable very often, but it really applies here). On the first day of class I counted 9 rabbits on the lawn in front of the building my classes are in. I think that for the next little while, as I am a little overwhelmed by work and school, this may become more of a photo blog, so there may be some UVic bunny portraits coming up. Wait and see! Happy New Year!