Gills Chickens 

Gills Chickens 

One of Gills Chickens 

Snow Geese in the Air!!!!

Snow Geese in the Air!!!! (view the large size)
Originally uploaded by Rick Leche.

Another picture from RicK Leche of the Snow Geese.

The birds are back-and after a 4,000 kilometre flight from Wrangel Island, Siberia, they're hungry. You can find them foraging for intertidal plants in the foreshore marsh areas of west Richmond as well as on Westham Island and Brunswick Point in Delta. Some geese that arrived with the large flock on Oct. 13 will stay for the winter, while others will continue on to the Skagit River in Washington or as far away as California.

Survival of the fittest

This week we have had a reminder that during the Rut it is the fittest bucks that get to mate with the does. Yesterday whilst Gill was walking Dora she came across a buck sitting upright on the path. It was strange that he didn't move and Gill was a little surprised to find that he was dead. It was a little scary to feel she was being watched by a dead buck.
It is fairly unusual to come across recently dead deer in the forest ....normally the dogs find the almost bare bones. So it was a surprise to find another dead buck on our walk today. This one was very thin but other than that did not appear to have any injuries It is normal for the bucks to starve themselves during the rut as they concentrate on competing with each other for the does and I suppose sometimes some of them are just too weak to survive.

Missy is ready to start a game of chase with Dora. 

Dora is ready and waiting 

Any minute now the dogs will race around in a mad circle. 

Missy and Dora in full spin 

A sad reminder that during the rut not all the bucks survive. They stop eating and the weaker ones die. 

The sun sets on another day 

Oh what a lot of rain !

Its been raining! It started Tuesday night. It rained all day Wednesday and it rained all night. It rained this morning, but it didn't rain this afternoon. It was still very windy though and we got very windswept on our walk from the Canadian Cross. The little stream has filled up and in places it had broken its banks. In someplaces it had carved out new streams. On Saturday we walked along the stream and crossed it several times but today we could only cross by the bridge. Several times we tried to wade across but it was always too deep and we had to walk back to the bridge. The pond which has been a small muddy puddle for most of the summer is now full again and the gravel track was just a continuous line of puddles which are a lot of fun for dogs.

Lots of water today

In places the stream has overflowed its banks 

The stream rushes past 

The Gravel track is under water. 

The pond at Canadian is full again.

Stormy Sky 

How I made my first pot!

Here are my finished pots! The small pot is the one I made on the wheel and the larger pot is one that Gill made for me to practice turning and glazing.
In my first lesson I made the little pot on the wheel, but a lot has happened to it since then.
First I had to turn it. This removes the excess clay and gives the pot a better shape. I had to remove a lot of clay from the little pot. Basically you use a sharp blade to remove the excess clay . Its a bit like shaving wood.I forgot to take the camera with me the day we did this so no pictures. The pot is then fired and it it then ready for glazing.
The bottom of the pots are brushed with wax so that the glaze does not get on the bottom and from there onto the Kiln shelves. Gill had already made the glazes so I just had to stir them. Glaze was poured into the inside of the pots and then quickly tipped out trying not to let it drip down the outside of the pot. Because I had some drips we had to scrape it off and then the outside was glazed by dipping the inverted pots into the glaze. The pots were then carefully put into the kiln making sure they were not touching. Finally Gill calculated the firing times and temperatures. It takes several hours to reach the final firing temperature which was about 1250 degrees centigrade. it also takes several hours for the Kiln to cool down before opening but finally by pots came home with me. 

making the pot. 

pot as it came of the wheel 

Turned pot now has more shape 

Waxing the bottoms of the pots 

Stirring the glaze. 

The glazed pot 

The pots go into the Kiln 

Stacking the Kiln 

The pots are glazed and fired.