Evening wander ....

…… on Crescent Beach, Bush and Bell Islands.

The sun was slowly disappearing to the west and tide approaching an exciting high level of 6’ 7” just 4" below its maximum range. For us we had never seen the local tide so high. Checking the charts I see the tide levels will fall for the remainder of the week.

With the advancing low light levels, it was a good opportunity to check out the some corners of islands to see the late evening effects.



The BIG grey circle is gone

The BIG grey circle was left for us when we moved in. I believe up until early 2015, there was an above ground pool in that location. Apparently it was badly damaged beyond repair in an ice storm and was removed.

We went through various thoughts of what to do with this ugly scar. Some of our ideas included, relocating the fire pit to the centre of the circle and surround it with a creative design of patio slabs. Another suggestion was to use the area as a vegetable/herb garden by arranging homemade wooden garden frames with walkways between them. The eventual winner was to remove the crushed stone, fill with top soil and sod to the lot ....

I thought perhaps we could do this ourselves, but this idea was soon consigned to the deep when I was advised that the crushed stone could be about 18" deep. I did try to dig at it, but I would have had as more success denting solid concrete with a toothpick.

 

Enter Terry and his backhoe ~

Terry a local guy came by on the 5th May and spent a couple of hours digging up the crushed stone and filling the area with top soil. The removed stone was then spread around the lot in front and to the side of the single garage.

Today 23 June, the sod finally arrived and now we have a BIG green circle .....





It was never nice to look at.

A BIG grey circle and two dropped logs.



Fun .....



 

Scraping up the last of the crushed stone with the fill being dumped out.



 

 

 

 

 

Spreading the fill.

Top soil arrived and is being spread out.





Looks better.



 

 





Crushed stone spread around.

 

 

 

Sod it ....



 

 

The first oil and change and blade sharpen

The Husqvarna lawnmower (Lawrence ..!!!) has now done five hours of running which coincidently is also five cuts. At this point Honda recommend on a new engine the oil be changed.

A nice feature on my 28 year old Crappy Tire lawnmower was the oil drained from the bottom of the engine via a drain plug, which always ensured complete drainage and no spills. The Honda engine does not have this, the oil iinstead is drained through the filler pipe as the lawnmower is carefully tilted, I am not too impressed by this. From the photos below you will see I had to be creative to avoid any spillage.

I also took the blade off and with my a diamond file dressed it good and very sharp.

All done now and ready for the rest of the cutting season ...

 

Oil pan in place.

 

Lawrence in place.

 

The filler pipe which today was the drain pipe.

 

Being creative.

 

It works.

 

Funnel in place for the SAE30.

 

Taking the blade off.

 

 

We have Fragaria Vesca ...

............. or for the uneducated that's Wild Strawberries.

Yesterday after a few days of alternate heavy rain and bright sunshine, I took a wander around the empire to discover the delightful sight hundreds or perhaps thousands of bright red Wild Strawberries. I reckon between the front, side and back grass the strawberries have taken hold of about 60% of the area.

Today about four cups were collected which provided a nice treat. The grass was also cut, fortunately the blade height is such that all the strawberries remained for another picking session.

 

 

 

 

 



Jelly Fish and things ...

With a fast approaching high tide and lovely wind coming in from the south another fantastic beach wander on Crescent Beach. Below are random photos of some things around us on todays beach.