An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in BC, Canada, history & archaeology on Nov 3rd, 2008
From the Vancouver Sun: Petroglyph returned to first nation.
The Snuneymuxw people officially celebrated the return of their salmon petroglyph this week, more than three decades after it was removed by the City of Nanaimo and hauled to a museum.
Snuneymuxw First Nation archeologist Lorraine Littlefield said the petroglyph, carved into a boulder, sat at Jack Point [...]
Posted in BC, animals, birds, insects, etc, outdoors on Sep 29th, 2008
If you were here I would take you to the beach in the mornings, right after coffee. In addition to the usual seaside delights, we now have Dead Jellyfish Season: every morning there are dozens of dead Lion’s Mane jellyfish sparkling on the beach. Some are small — just a foot or so across — [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, history & archaeology on Sep 10th, 2008
From the Nanaimo Daily News: Aboriginal relics destroyed by bikes.
Dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles are grinding away ancient First Nations artifacts in the Nanaimo area.
Geraldine Manson, with the Snuneymuxw First Nation, said several petroglyphs located near Harewood Mines Road have been pounded by both vehicles and hikers over the years. She hopes a barrier will [...]
Posted in BC, animals, birds, insects, etc on Sep 2nd, 2008
From the Beeb: Wolves prefer fishing to hunting.
Wolves in western Canada prefer to fish for salmon when it is in season rather than hunt deer or other wild game, researchers have found.
Scientists studied the eating habits of wolf packs in British Columbia.
Deer is the staple food of the wolves in the spring and summer but [...]
Posted in BC, animals, birds, insects, etc, health on Aug 14th, 2008
Now here’s a public service announcement. Do you have a weed in your neighbourhood that has cheery yellow flowers about now, like a bunch of miniature yellow daisies? Take a moment to see if it’s tansy ragwort. And if it is, you’ll want to yank it out or cut it so that the plant doesn’t [...]
Posted in BC, history & archaeology on Aug 11th, 2008
This is a must-read for those interested in native traditions and archaeology. From the Vancouver Sun: A Memory Place.
The goal was to connect those stories with the evidence in the archeological record. The archeology revealed very quickly the truth of the spoken record.
For Washington, the experience was life-altering.
"I’ve started to look at the land in [...]
Goodness! Somebody’s growing truffles on Vancouver Island. From the Vancouver Sun: Wait worth it for patient truffles harvesters.
It took seven years for Betty and Grant Duckett to harvest their first truffle, but for them it was worth the wait.
The couple retired to Vancouver Island after years of raising livestock on the Prairies. They wanted to [...]
Posted in BC on Jun 22nd, 2008
Here’s a a Coast Salish legend. From the Camosun College website: The Legend of Camossung.
After the flood, the transformer Haylas was travelling with Raven and Mink teaching the people how things were to be done.
They found a young girl, named Camossung and her grandfather. She was crying, so Haylas asked her why. She answered, "My [...]
From Now Public: Insects on the menu for Vij’s restaurant.
The world is in a frenzy to help protect the environment and lead ‘green lifestyles’. Meeru Dhalwala, the chef and co-owner with husband Vikram Vij, is adopting this go-green attitude for their Vancouver based restaurant- in the form of BUGS.
That’s right! They have decided to [...]
This is from McMaster University , via EurekAlert: Mini subs to probe odd structures in BC lake.
Single person submersibles have been called in to help scientists retrieve samples from a lake in northern British Columbia that may hold vital clues to the history of life on Earth and on other planets.
Greg Slater, an environmental geochemist [...]
At the beach we see marvels: zillions of starfish, peculiar sea creatures, otters, sea lions, and herons. Eagles land near us on the rocks, tiny silver fishies squirm out of the sand, and seagulls come for lunch. The Chaos puppy jumps when geoducks squirt her.
I keep meaning to take some photos to share here, but [...]
Posted in BC, food, health, history & archaeology on Jun 8th, 2008
From the CBC: West Coast aboriginal community tests low-carb diet.
A remote community off the north coast of Vancouver Island is the unlikely venue for an experiment that uses diet to try to improve the health of native communities.
Dr. Jay Wortman, a Métis, is working with aboriginal Canadians in Alert Bay on B.C.’s Cormorant Island in [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, art, history & archaeology on Jun 6th, 2008
From the Globe and Mail: Centuries-old sketch comes home.
He stares at us from centuries past, a clear, unflinching gaze attesting to his status as a great warrior chief of the Musqueam. Strands of long, dark hair curl past his shoulders and he wears a stylish conical cedar hat adorned with feathers.
Call him Qeyapaplanewx. That we [...]
By now much of the world has heard of the recent art theft at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. A terrible pity, but I didn’t blog it because stories of yet another theft usually bore me.
This however, is not boring: the story of how the thief –or thieves — got away with the treasure. From the [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, DNA, history & archaeology on Aug 22nd, 2007
From the Vancouver Sun: Sea floor off Charlottes may explain how people came to the Americas.
In a Canadian archeological project that could revolutionize understanding of when and how humans first reached the New World, federal researchers in B.C. have begun probing an underwater site off the Queen Charlotte Islands for traces of a possible prehistoric [...]
Posted in BC on Aug 20th, 2007
Can anybody tell me what kind of mushroom this is? I’ve looked around a few mushroom websites, but haven’t been able to identify it yet. Since Mirabilis.ca readers solved my crab mystery, I thought I’d see if any of you can help me out.
Here, this gives a bit of perspective:
I always thought we were [...]
One of the things I miss about Italy is the bocconcini made from water buffalo milk — mozzarella di bufala. It’s splendid, and almost impossible to get in Canada, from what I’ve seen. (Of course you can buy bocconcini at most supermarkets here, but that stuff is almost certainly made from cows’ milk. What’s worse [...]
Posted in BC, environment on Aug 2nd, 2007
So it turns out that a bunch of people are heading into the woods to pick native plants. Now, that’s been going on for a zillion generations and it’s never been a problem before, but it’s a big problem now that commercial pickers are harvesting vast swaths of plants to sell to floral shops and [...]
Posted in BC on May 17th, 2007
Do any of you know what kind of crab this is? I’ve seen two of them on the beach within the last week, and never before that.
I’ve noodled around on the web, looking for photos of the sorts of crabs one can expect on the coast in southwest BC. No matches. I tried the [...]
Oooh, this Chocoatl place sounds like it’d be worth a visit. From the Vancouver Sun: Sweetness from way down south.
When Thelmis Velgis opened Chocoatl in Yaletown a year ago, he dove deep into chocolate and history. Figuratively speaking.
The shop specializes in chocolate drinks long established in Mexico (going back a couple thousand years), but new [...]
Posted in BC, outdoors, strange stuff on Mar 22nd, 2007
From E-Flora BC we have this fascinating article on slime mould.
In an environment that is varying hues of brown and green, hot pink or coral red is hard to miss, so even the most preoccupied of hikers will stop agog having come across a slime mold, one of nature’s most mysterious creations.
The typical first reaction [...]
From the Vancouver Sun: Harvest of luxury.
Traditionally, the highest pedigreed truffles — black Perigords and white Albas — come from France and Italy and sell for more than $1,000 and $3,000 a pound, fluctuating with supply and demand. Order pasta with paper-thin shavings of white Alba truffles drifting on the surface and you’re looking at [...]
Posted in BC, history & archaeology on Mar 18th, 2007
From Graveyard of the Pacific:
The captain strained his eyes into the darkness, but no lights were in sight. White water crashed over the deck. The ship listed, its cargo shifted, and the boat grazed rock on its port side. Waves pushed the vessel further upon the jagged outcropping with a snap of splintering wood as [...]
Posted in BC, miscellaneous, outdoors on Mar 15th, 2007
Isn’t this an amazing leaf? I’ve never seen one like it before, which just goes to show that I haven’t been paying enough attention. (You’d be surprised at what I’ve learned about the woods since we got a dog.)
Anyway, I’ll confess that it took me a while to figure out just what kind of plant [...]