Times Columnist, October 12, 2011

We were met in the lobby by Angel Crane from the circulation department who was our tour guide.  Waiting a few minutes gave us a moment to view the huge cedar sculptures from various angles.

Our tour was excellent, starting with the editorial department and a short presentation from the features editor.  We saw how the copy editing was completed and page layouts were created from his computer. Next we met Jack Knox who began with a (humorous) profuse apology for anything he may have written and who went on to describe his job as a columnist.  Today he was writing about Thrifty Foods co-founder Alex Campbell and was getting revved up for a rant about the senior air traveller who had her heart medications confiscated as she went through airport security in Calgary en route for Victoria. Apparently medications have to be in the bottle with the prescription label and not in a daily dispenser box. We agreed that this was an eminently rant-worthy topic.

Next we saw how the plates with the page layouts are printed and then went through to the press, which was on two floors of the building.  There we saw how the plates are used to print the final copies of the newspaper. The press guys explained how the process works - it's something like this. The TImes Columnist presses are not exactly like those on the page linked to, but the process is the same.

Finally we got to see how the paper inserts are put together and put into the finished newspapers.  We managed to get an explanation for why the TV TImes always seems to be folded incorrectly with half the pages wider than the other half. It's to allow for the bulky advertising inserts of course.

This was an excellent tour; we learned a lot in quite a short time.  The TC has a free on-line edition that is updated every day at least but which contains only limited content.  There is also a full version online that is only $11 per month and which includes all the content including puzzles and comics, full archive access, and full access to the other newspapers in the group including the National Post.  Home delivery subscribers to the TC get free access to the full electronic version.

The TC sells roll ends of newsprint for packing purposes, and people can also order mounted prints of photos or whole pages from the newspaper.

Todays paper...

...some ads and awards...

Next on our agenda was an excellent lunch at Princess Mary - the halibut was fresh today - say no more...

It's quite an interesting little spot...

and no-one else ended up in the brig.

An excellent scenic drive back to the centre rounded off a really good Let's Do It day trip!!

Let's Do It again soon....

And Slowly Beauty... October 5, 2011

And Slowly Beauty.. has been receiving rave reviews, and, seeing the play this afternoon, it was easy to see why.  The acting was very good, and the staging was excellent. Dennis Fitzgerald was warm and very credible as Mr. Mann, and the other cast members played a range of roles throughout the play. The play itself was thought-provoking, funny, and moving.

Thanks to Michael for an excellent scenic drive to the Fernwood Inn and a great stop at Mount Tolmie...

...with its excellent views, including one of either the worst case of moss ever or a grass roof without the aid of goats to keep it trimmed.

 Ah - and slowly beauty......

... and a handy guide for orientation.

The meal at the Fernwood Inn was great.  Overall, our two Belfry trips have been excellent.

Salt Spring is always great

Thanks to Michael for taking over as driver for this trip and for doing such a great job.

Here we are poised to get onto the ferry!

SInce we couldn't get a wine tasting, we decided to go for cheese instead and had a fantastic visit to the Salt Spring Island Cheese on our way up island. This turned out to be our best tasting visit yet.

On arrival, we were greeted by the owner and given a very interesting tour of the farm.

As we found out, there's quite a lot to making cheese.

The farm had some great opportunities for photography....

and some adorable livestock.  Salt Spring Island Cheese import goat and sheep milk from local suppliers and concentrate on the cheese making rather than dairy farming, so these guys are more decorative than productive.

They do sell eggs from some good looking and well cared-for hens.

The tasting and tour was free.  We got to cut our own pieces of cheese to taste on crackers, and there was a wide variety to try from absolutely fresh feta to some well cured hard cheeses.  The camembert type was especially good. The owner packed our purchases in a box with ice to keep them fresh. We will definitely be visiting Salt Spring Island Cheese again!

Ganges was beautiful as usual and a great place to browse and have lunch, and, of course, we called in to Russell Farms on the way back to the centre.

Chemainus is pretty neat

Our trip to Chemainus allowed us to spend more time browsing than we normally do when visiting to see a show.  There's quite a lot to see! First the basics you see from getting off the bus!

Next the rather lonely looking musician, who played all the time we were there.

I had never had time to venture into the old town to the beach. This trip rectified that omission.

Of course the murals and statuary are worth seeing.

The Wednesday Market was in full swing.

The obliging coffee shop owner made me an Africano coffee from my own recipe - it was good.

 Someone seemed to have left lots of driftwood around, but the German and Korean tourists were thoroughly enjoying the view.

Of course we stopped in to Russels farm store on the way back to the centre, and we all decided to do this trip again next year.

Goats and parrots - Coombs, August 24, 2011

What fantastic marketing. This is a better idea than the invention of the ploughman's lunch by the British Milk Marketing Board in the 1960's.  Take a few goats - fairly innocuous so far.  Take a roof - boring is the word that springs to mind, although make the roof grass and it becomes a little more interesting. However put a few goats on the roof and you have an explosion of excitement.  Good on Coombs for juxtaposing two simple components to create a fusion of pure marketing power.  Enter our competition to put two simple items like this together to produce a maelstrom of interest around our upcoming showcase of the arts!

We called into Chemainus for a pit stop en route to Coombs.  The market was in operation, but with a trip arranged for Chemainus for next week (August 31, 2011 - some tickets still available), and with a fair way still to go to Coombs, we restricted our stop to 10 minutes.

Coombs is great!

the rustic shops with great import bargains, produce, statuary etc., etc.

 some great imported hand carving .. this guy was huge

 novelty buildings...

good food available ...

and - of course goats on a roof - that's right - goats on a roof!! We could have browsed longer at Coombs, but we'll visit again soon.  At 1:30 it was off to the world parrot refuge to meet some delightful avian friends. According to the guides, trading in wild parrots and other exotic birds is second in profitability only to the international illegal drugs trade.  The greed around this business inevitable leaves casualties such as these two beauties.

The refuge is a great place to see parrots up close and handle them.  It's very noisy, but the birds seem to be well looked after, and their food and accommodation looked excellent.  On reflection, having a conversation about Hitchcock's movie The Birds on the journey up to Coombs wasn't the soundest idea, but some of these parrots were just so friendly!!

Back on the bus, we had birthday wishes for Noreen and very special fiftieth wedding anniversary greetings for our driver, John.  Many congratulations and best wishes to you both.

A quick pit stop at Russels completed our Coombs visit.

It was an eye-opening trip.  We'll definitely be going back to Coombs soon, and remember to pick up your ticket for next week's Chemainus visit.

Don't forget to enter our great juxtaposition contest - just reply with your idea- the winner will win a great prize! (Well - a prize at any rate)

Eco cruising is great, August 17, 2011

What a great day driving to Canoe Cove for an eco cruise. FIrstly, though, just getting out the camera for our trip I managed to get some shots of California Quail in our back yard.

This was the first time to Canoe Cove for many of us despite the number of times we've used the ferry and gone right past the entrance.

The boats are excellent, it was like being in a living room, and, almost immediately we'd spotted a couple of eagles.

This was a young one, and

this one was more mature.  We saw around 60 or 70 seals including pregnant females and several young ones.

An obliging heron flew in for a photo-op.

Then we saw even more cute-looking seals.

This was our sister vessel for the cruise; it carried half of our party.

Our skipper gave an extremely interesting commentary throughout the two hour cruise. We pulled into Dock Cove, a natural dry dock for botton scraping.  We decided our bottom was fine but took in a view of the erosion etched larva...

...bull kelp, and a sea star. 

We took samples and learned about kelp propagation and growth in the ocean, the several uses of kelp by First Nations people in history, the interesting but rather disgusting way that sea stars eat barnacles, and the use of this small cove in the past. We also picked up a small crab that was clinging to the kelp. (Clinging to the Kelp - Wasn't that the title of an AC/DC album in the eighties?) Our sister ship passengers got to taste the kelp, but we held on for lunch.

Our final wildlife view was of cormorants happily drying their wings near to their accompanying seagulls.  The gulls keep an eye out for winged and other predators in exchange for fish the cormorants provide to them inadvertently.

As always, lunch was a feature of our trip, and we went to the Stonehouse Pub for a good meal set up on the patio. The weather cooperated; it was a glorious day for the whole trip. We took the scenic route back to the centre, calling in at the Red Barn. This was an excellent trip.  The cruise was fantastic and very interesting.  This could become an annual Let's Do It Day Trip.