Coming up Daisy's

In a field behind Monague Harbour, Galiano Island last weekend.

I just had to take these shots of Daisy our Australian Shepherd.

I should have made her a Daisy chain..

Kalena

Salt Spring Island Market

Truly one of the best things to do on a sunny Saturday is to head over to Salt Spring Island and walk thru the market...

It is open every Saturday rain or shine from 8am to 4pm in Centennial Park, a short walk up from the docks at Ganges town centre. You cannot miss it, there are usually lots of people strolling around.








There are over 140 vendors who must

"make it, bake it, or grow it" !

Creative Islanders show off their wonderful wares... including pottery, jewellry, flowers, fruit and vegetables, crafts of many kinds, and food products.

We especially love Moonstruck Organic Cheeses, a handmade product from their small herd of Jersey Cows. You can sample all their cheeses and choose as many as you like.

Our favorite is Savory Moon, it always tastes even better on board at sunset with a glass of Cabernet!






We try to stock up on a couple of jars of spice mixtures from Monsoon Coast Exotic World Spices, just love their curry mixes. Monsoon Balti, Moghul Curry, and Arabian Baharat we can personally vouch for - delicious! They usually have a couple of pots simmering featuring their spices that you can taste.



A stop in all the little shops in Ganges, particularly Mouat's treasure trove of boating, fishing, and clothing goods, rounds out the day. There are lots of restaurants as well and if you need supplies, Thrifty's Market is excellent! They have everything you could need and will even deliver your groceries to the dock.


The market runs from April to the last Saturday in October, it is great fun and you can ferry over or dock at the two marinas, or anchor in the bay and dinghy in, the government dock is free during the day.




This is Daisy waiting impatiently for us to finish shopping.


Ganges is a dog friendly town, but dogs are not allowed in the market. One of us usually sits with Daisy in the park, spelling each other off every little while.








Kalena

Crabby Mushrooms

What to do if you have too much crab left over from crabbing season?

Make this great appetizer for four of course. Hope you enjoy my recipe for Crab Stuffed Mushrooms, our guests sure seem to ;)











Clean and wipe 20 large mushrooms, remove stems and hollow out the caps a little.



In a saucepan combine :


half a brick of cream cheese (125 grams)

6 oz fresh or frozen crab meat (Dungeness is the best if possible)

1 tsp of Old Bay seasoning

1/4 cup of green onions or shallots finely diced

1/4 tsp of horseradish (slightly more if you like)

squeeze of lemon juice

1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste


heat over low heat and mix well, taking care not to thrash the crab meat up too much, aproximately 5 minutes.


place mushroom caps on an baking tray and fill completely with crab and cheese mixture.

bake in 425 degree oven for 10 minutes and put on broil for last few minutes.


Boaters can use their Seabque just as well, place on a tray on low for aprox 10 minutes with lid down. Check after 5 minutes.


Leftover crab mixture can be frozen for the next trip.



Enjoy,

Kalena

Active Pass

The entry into Active Pass




















Two Ferries entering and exiting





















This most beautiful pass,

of all entryways and exits thru the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island is mythic. A million visitors pass this way every year on their way to Victoria and it is without doubt the best part of the ferry ride and definitely worth leaving the food court and venturing onto the deck to see. Beautiful island homes, multitudes of seals, and boat traffic, beautiful deserted beaches are only a part of it.

A beautiful deserted beach

Seals resting in the sun at western end of Active Pass Galiano Island side...

Click and enlarge

When I was younger (not that much) and coming out of Active Pass into Trincomali Channel looking northward, I sighed and wished with all my heart for a boat. To be able to go in almost any direction, West to Saltspring, Vancouver Island. North to Thetis, Gabriola, Gibsons, Pender Harbour, Desolation Sound, Charlottes, Alaska. South to the San Juans, Seattle, Oregon.

It all seems possible when I exit this magic spot at Mayne and Gabriola Islands.

When John was much younger the fishing in Active Pass was something else. Fast currents, slack and high tides made it tricky let alone dealing with the big boat and ferry activity. Nonetheless, fishermen persevered and were rewarded. Now, not as many fish boats can be seen and the BC Ferries definitely rule the waves in this beautiful passage.

We fished here on Friday, something we have wanted to do for a number of years. We were not rewarded with fish this time, but loved it again nonetheless.

A week ago we played hooky and had lunch at Montague Harbour Galiano Island, and we had the whole marine park to ourselves. We had forgotten our camera and so we knew we would see something spectacular and sure enough coming back thru Active Pass we saw two huge Steller Seals (Galiano side) and then amazingly two Orcas with a new baby between them. It was so young it was still jaundiced, with orange stripes on it's side instead of white. Mother and auntie kept the baby between them like a sandwich.

We reported this wonderful sighting to www.orcanetwork.org/ This is a great website incidentally, that follows and researches the three local whale groups: j,k,and l pods as well as transients and other whales as well. If you want to know where the whales are this is the site that knows, it is just excellent.



Kalena