My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[Kristl Walek]

My darling daughter (DD) has her heart set on Squamish, BC.

[cohan]

My darling daughter (DD) has her heart set on Squamish, BC.

we'll be eager to know what you decide

[Maggi Young]

Holy moly! What a name for a place... I presume it has native people origins but for a Brit on first hearing, it's a tad near squeamish for my liking 

But, of course, I was consumed with curiosity so here's what I learned for a quick snoop around the internet....
 the District of Squamish calls itself the|" Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada" - it seems with some justification..... so follow these links and see what you think of Alisha's choice.....
 A map to see where it is:




photos to show it is a pretty place....
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iNUCjYQagbWkw0fim_RXYw

the town site.....

http://squamish.ca/


what to do there......
http://www.tourismsquamish.com/

It's an interesting choice, for sure.

[arisaema]

A little embarassed to say the first thing I did upon reading the name was to look up what hardiness zone it lay in (It's zone 8a.)

[Kristl Walek]

This was one of the first things DD pointed out to me. But mild winters means rain and summers don't always translate into sun.

I also pointed out to her that the First Nations origin of "Squamish" means "mother of wind" with reference to the strong winds that blow at the north end of Howe Sound and the fact that it is, in fact, one of the rainiest areas of Canada.

Even here in the Annapolis Valley (almost Zone 7 winters) with significantly less rain and much more sun in the summer, the level of sunshine (which I really need psychologically) is SIGNIFICANTLY less than in Ontario (or the prairies). One can grow many woodland plants and ferns out in the open here, not something I could ever have thought of doing in Ontario. But succulents and other heat-loving plants suffer because they do not have enough intensity of sun.

Mild areas of BC can be compared in weather to south Britain with the cool damp winters and temperate summers. Nova Scotia is, on the other hand, quite similar to Scotland in geography and weather.

[cohan]

This was one of the first things DD pointed out to me. But mild winters means rain and summers don't always translate into sun.

I also pointed out to her that the First Nations origin of "Squamish" means "mother of wind" with reference to the strong winds that blow at the north end of Howe Sound and the fact that it is, in fact, one of the rainiest areas of Canada.

Even here in the Annapolis Valley (almost Zone 7 winters) with significantly less rain and much more sun in the summer, the level of sunshine (which I really need psychologically) is SIGNIFICANTLY less than in Ontario (or the prairies). One can grow many woodland plants and ferns out in the open here, not something I could ever have thought of doing in Ontario. But succulents and other heat-loving plants suffer because they do not have enough intensity of sun.

Mild areas of BC can be compared in weather to south Britain with the cool damp winters and temperate summers. Nova Scotia is, on the other hand, quite similar to Scotland in geography and weather.

as an alberta boy, that's the first thing i think of when thinking of b.c.--rain! esp the coast--the interior is much drier in many places, though even then most precip comes in winter; however, in recent years, its not clear where would be a good bet for sun in canada--much of southern manitoba had rain all summer this year, coupled with temps over 30C, and southern alberta, where some of the highest numbers of annual hours of sun are normally recorded, has been cool, cloudy and wet much of the summer...

that b.c.  coastal (low elevation) climate would be a real reversal--often a dry summer and getting drier, winter wet and green!

[Kristl Walek]

I was forced to sit tight the past week with a broken toe; and considering I was stuck indoors in any event with endless rain, good use was made of the time by filling orders, writing new species entries as well as testing and packaging seed.

Beautiful autumn weather finally arrived again today and along with it, worries over all the seed in the wild needing collecting. I managed to find a sandal that could accomodate the broken toe and headed out with Alisha, in the hopes that I could instruct her about how and what to collect, as I hobbled along beside her. At the end of the day she had collected Iris setosa and versicolor, Kalmia angustifolia, Myrica gale, Viburnum cassinoides, Sarracenia purpurea (and a distinct orange coloured form), Drosera rotundifolia, Potentilla tridentata, Nemopanthus mucronatus, early samples of Vaccinium macrocarpon and Rosa virginiana.

I love early autumn as nature begins to take on its burnished gold colour, and the fields are alive with asters. We walked on headlands solid with flat Potentilla tridentata starting to be edged with winter red and some of the Gaultheria was already fully maroon. We took home early samples of cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon, to conduct an experiment, but will probably not seriously collect this for another month. The berries were large and already quite purple-red, but the seed inside still green. In this area were hundreds of bushes of the beautiful Viburnum cassinoides at its best stage of pink and blue berries.

[Kristl Walek]

I have earlier shown you a number of colour variants of Sarracenia purpurea. Today while collecting seed of the species, we ran into a beautiful and distinct orange coloured colony, which we collected seed from separately. Tomorrow I must try to get to the site of the yellow flowered variant closer to home.

[Kristl Walek]

And because they gave Alisha and I such great pleasure, I will close this very short show and tell with some fauna, for a change.

On our trip homeward our attention was caught by a small farmyard along the side of the road -- very specifically because of the recent haircut of the resident mother llama, which was just too cute for words.

Obviously neither her adoring baby nor her sheep companions cared.

[cohan]

well, your daughter really did come at the right time! i can relate to the being stuck indoors due to rain thing
looks like our weather will finally start to turn around tomorrow....
what is the plant in the 'burnished gold' photo?

[Kristl Walek]

They are ferns, Cohen, covering the lower, wetter areas of the headlands here in great numbers. Contiguous to this area are large, open bogs and even this dryer area has low spots between the boulders where boggy plants grow (Sarracenia, Drosera, and all the woody bog species).

[Kristl Walek]

Continuing on the fauna theme, it's been a relatively quiet season thus far for the deer populations in town--but yesterday these four had to be repeatedly removed from the backyard, as they were getting dangerously close to nibbling all the small woody seedlings planted. A few leaves of Cladrastis lutea and species they *really* love (Tripterygium regelii and Cornus kousa were not so lucky).

This is a small group, relatively speaking. When they arrive, it is by the dozen.....

[annew]

And they look so innocent...

[ranunculus]

Please don't let Anne Spiegel glimpse them ... she will shoot the screen!   

[Julia]

Thanks for sharing the plants from Nova Scotia.