Brian McRae

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Now that the ramp down to the beach is fully functional, it felt like it was time to tackle the slope of the Bluff. The plan is to have three separate gardens, one for each of the decks. Since there is a natural little amphitheatre across from the Lovers’ Deck, it seemed like the logical place to start. As in most projects, I vastly under-estimated the amount of work involved, but once started, I was a man on a mission.

Just to give you an idea of how much wood was pulled off this small section of the bluff, here is a before picture of the garden and some pictures of the wood piled ready to burn or be chopped up for firewood.

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Clearing the dead wood and scrub brush off the Bluff took several weeks and was hard work that resulted in sore muscles, scratched up arms and the beginnings of a good ol’ farmer’s tan. It also gave me some time to think about how I wanted to landscape this garden. Because the slope is pretty steep on the Bluff, I quickly came to the conclusion that building terraces was the way to go. In order to build up, you first need to dig down. Once the land was ready, I started to haul large rocks up the ramp off the beach. Some of these rocks were so big, I could barely lift them. I always had this image in my head that retirement would be a time of leisure. In reality, it’s been almost constant manual labour (digging, cutting, hauling).

Fitting the rocks together was kind of fun and the terraces I built are now filled with good dirt and sea soil. As long as I keep the weeds from taking over, they should be an excellent environment for my plants to thrive. I’ve chosen a lot of plants that are drought tolerant, deer resistant, good on slopes and can handle all the sun that this South facing bluff receives: Corkscrew Willow, weeping Beech, Weigela, Varigated Willow, Japanese Maple, Spirea, Blue Juniper, Mock Orange, Smoke Tree, California Lilac and a few varieties of decorative grasses. Many of these plants will grow into quite large trees or bushes (upwards of 10 – 15 feet), so I’ve had to plant with an idea of what it will look like in a handful of years. In between these perennials, I’ve plopped down a bunch of Geraniums, just to introduce some colour and because they were all 50% off at the plant store and deer won’t touch them. It would be an understatement to say that the deer on this coast are always on the hunt for things to nibble and they seem to have absolutely no fear of humans. Let me introduce you to Bernie the Buck. He regularly wanders by when we are in the Love Shack, oblivious to us but keenly aware of anything that looks edible. This picture was taken this morning while we had breakfast on the deck – about fifteen feet away. I swear that Bernie was licking his lips just before I took this picture.

The original idea for the garden was to honour my Mom (and her Mom) who were both dedicated gardeners and managed to turn rough prairie land into places of tranquility and beauty. Mom is planning to come out to see the property in September, so I’m hoping that it will have grown in quite a bit over the summer. Here’s to all the Moms!

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We had our first out-of-town guests, Baz and James, visit us on Twin Eagles Bluff last night. We’re in the middle of an actual heat wave at the moment with temperatures in the high 30’s, heading into the low 40’s tomorrow. The morning was a mad dash of preparing food, cleaning up the Love Shack, chopping wood for a fire, watering gardens and setting up the shade deck. By late afternoon Mitch and I were both sweaty messes.

Fortunately, our Vancouver guests were just as hot from hiking that morning, so we all headed down the ramp with cold drinks to relax in the shade deck and go for a dip in the ocean. The Pacific is almost the perfect temperature to cool off in a heat wave. It’s a little shocking at first, but it quickly becomes comfortable as you acclimatize. Once you’ve settle in, your body thanks you and it’s super relaxing. After about 45 minutes in the water, we headed back to the shade deck for more drinks and in a much more energetic frame of mind.

I wisely did most of the food prep in the morning, so dinner was easy to pull together. Ten minutes to make the Beef Kabobs and another ten minutes on the grill and we were seated and eating. Once again, our trusty outdoor kitchen has proven that it can handle most challenges. After dinner, we sat around a small bonfire, which Baz kept burning with the help of a rather large hand fan. It’s an idea I want to borrow, it’s amazing how a little oxygen at the right time, keeps a fire burning hot and bright.

The view from the Bluff last night was a perfect summer postcard. The light turning the sky a beautiful peach colour. A good end to a great evening.

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Tonight is a full moon, so this evening’s high tide is covering rocks that would ordinarily never be below the surface. It also happens to be the first day of what is promising to be a week-long heat wave. I’ve been working like mad today building rock terraces on the bluff, carting pails of dirt and bags of sea soil down the ramp to fill the terraces, and planting special trees, shrubs and flowers in my newly created gardens.

After a long sweaty day of manual labour, an evening swim in the ocean is the perfect way to cool down. You may notice that I have chosen bright red swim wear to show off my fashionable farmer’s tan. Acquired through many hours of clearing dead brush and logs off the bluff, a dark red neck and deeply tanned and scarred arms are the hot new trend this summer on the upper Sunshine Coast.

Over the years, we’ve collected a number of rafts, inner tubes and other various ways to float on the water, so we have many ways to play in the cool Pacific water for hours at a time without suffering hypothermia. Weheaded down at around 7:00 pm and just bobbed around in the water 50 feet off our beach for an hour or so. It’s the most relaxing way to finish up the day, we just float around, watching boats sail by or listening to our neighbours play in the water nearby and discuss the days affairs. An occasional seal will pop their head up to see what we’re doing. Sea Lions are also common in these waters, but they tend to stay a little further away from shore. Although Orca and Humpback whale sightings are common from the bluff, I have yet to see them pass by while I’m actually in the water myself. I’d probably pass out from excitement, so maybe it’s a good thing that I haven’t.

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It occurred to me today, that I haven’t done any painting since mid-April (other than the “rustic style” signs that I painted above to mark locations on the property). This is the longest I’ve gone without setting paint brush to canvas since we arrived on the upper Sunshine Coast last November. It’s not that I haven’t been busy: We’ve been down to Vancouver on a couple of trips, spent several weeks building an outdoor kitchen (including some nifty counter-top/cupboards made from all the left-over cuts from the big ramp), hauled a ton of dead brush and fallen trees off the slope of the bluff, started two gardens along the ramp down to the beach, hauled endless heavy stones off the beach and up the ramp to create terraces along the slope of the bluff, and cleared/setup a campsite for visitors.

Although I may feel good about all the projects that have been accomplished since we moved onto the Bluff at the start of May, my inner artist is feeling utterly neglected. I even built myself a nifty paint-brush washing station out of left over wood. It allows me to wash off my paint brushes without having any acrylic paint go into the environment and while it may not be pretty it’s very functional. Each container in the picture below allows the paint to settle to the bottom. I store the fresh water in the blue Aqua-Park. I wash the brushes under this tap and the paint water goes into container A. After it fills up container A, it goes through a pipe into container B and after it fills that container up, it goes into container C. Each container allows the paint to sink to the bottom and by the time it goes out of the third container, it is pretty much paint free. The paint in the buckets can be put into a container and dropped off at a paint recycling center. This is the prototype for the paint brush washing sink that I’ll have built into my art studio, so that I can avoid acrylic paint sludge going into our septic field. Anyway, the main point of this is that I have no reason to NOT setup a painting space and start doing some plein air painting on Twin Eagles Bluff.

I’ve also got no shortage of painting ideas, the trick is to figure out what my next painting challenge is going to be. I actually enjoy the initial part of the process while I’m going through various ideas, doing some preliminary sketches and thinking about what I want to create. To help me understand this process better and kick my butt into gear on a new painting, I’ll do my next blog on this topic.

Building a rudimentary herb garden was one of my first priorities when we moved onto the bluff. Just because I had to cook in an outdoor kitchen, didn’t mean I had to scrimp on flavour.

I started by bringing a couple of pots up to Twin Eagles Bluff from Vancouver. One pot had a very hardy Thyme plant that had flourished over the winter, the second pot was a combination of Rosemary and Summer Savory. This felt like a good start and I bought a little Purple Sage plant at the local garden centre to add to the pot of Thyme. Several of our neighbours are dedicated gardeners, and one donated a Yellow Sage plant to my growing herb garden and another neighbour dropped off a pot with Italian Parsley and Chives. Once I get a pot of Basil growing, I’ll have a reasonable herb garden at my disposal.

I’m not going to try and grow vegetables this year. My focus is clearing up the bank down to the beach and getting plants established in the different zones up and down the ramp (some areas are very exposed to sun, wind and rain, other areas are in shade or protected from the wind). Overall, I’m excited by the challenge. I could turn this into a full time job (which I won’t because I still want to get some more painting done this summer), but the rewards of turning the bluff into a beautiful vertical garden has got me excited. Fortunately, there are plenty of experienced gardeners in the neighbourhood who are happy to share their ideas and suggestions. I’m finding this especially useful when it comes to gardening on the slope of the bluff down to the beach. Our next door neighbour has toured me through her gardens and given me literally years worth of plant, shrub and tree ideas to investigate. It really helps to see what people have done, what works and what is not as likely to succeed.

One constant issue I have to deal with when gardening here is the abundance of deer. The deer are all pretty fearless and are more than happy to poke around in places that they are not welcome. I’ve learned that before buying any plants I need to check on whether it is “deer resistant”. Although they are pretty cheeky, I kind of enjoy the natural ambience that they provide. It really does feel like we are living in a park. Let’s just hope that they don’t acquire a taste for fresh herbs.

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Located almost in the centre of the Twin Eagles Bluff property is our first visitor camping spot. You can drive right up to this camp site on a road that was built when we connected the water from the well down to the Love Shack. Mitch had the foresight to make sure that we placed both water and power in two places along this road, so we can host visitors even before the house is built. It took us a couple of months while we worked on extending the Love Shack, but we finally got around to building the campsite this week.

It’s about a 100 feet away from the Love Shack at the top of a little slope, nestled in among some tall pine trees. In addition to the water and power, we’ve set up a tent, picnic table and fire pit. In typical West Coast fashion, the forest is quickly filling in any bare spots with ferns and shrubbery. The site is still in its infancy and there will be several more projects to make it even more enjoyable for visitors. Coming up next, finding a comfortable camping bed for the tent and adding evening lighting around the campsite.

Something that I noticed in our forest is that the amount of bird song is remarkable. I haven’t gotten to the point that I can recognize the species by their song, but I enjoy relaxing in the forest and just listening to them sing. You can also hear the eagles, as their nest is in a big old fir tree about 70 feet from the campsite. I would never describe eagle vocalizations as melodious (unless you like the sound of rusty screen doors being opened and slammed shut repeatedly), but they are certainly entertaining. There are also a number of crows that live in this forest and who are perpetually at war with the eagles. These same crows were particularly vocal when I first started clearing the area of brush. I guess they weren’t too keen on the idea of new neighbours. Fortunately, they seem to have resigned themselves to the fact.

Since the Bluff is South facing, it can get very hot during the summer. In addition to the Shade Deck on the ramp, the forest is a great place to hang out in the shade and stay cool on a blistering hot day. I’m expecting that we’ll end up using the campsite ourselves, even when we don’t have any visitors. We are looking forward to having our first official visitor in July. I’m sure that this campsite will evolve and change over the summer. In the meantime, welcome to the newly minted “Centre Camp”!

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There’s an interesting dichotomy on the bluff. At this time of year, the two most common birds flying around the property are the Bald Eagles and the Anna’s Hummingbirds. In appearance, behaviour and attitude, I don’t think you could find two birds who are more different. About the only thing they have in common is that they are both quite territorial and spend a considerable amount of time and energy arguing and fighting with other members of their own clan.

I find the hummingbirds especially entertaining. About every three days I put out a fresh batch of sugar water in my hummingbird feeder. These feisty neighbours love to come over for a drink or two. Usually, they are spaced out and there is no friction, but when there are two or more feeding at the same time, the aerial acrobatics begin, as one dive-bombs another. Although their angry chirps are barely audible, I get the distinct impression that there is some world-class cursing going on.

Fortunately, they don’t seem to be bothered by humans. The feeder is hanging off the eaves of the front porch of the Love Shack, which also serves as our make-shift work bench when we are building anything. Despite constant tromping around the porch, the buzzing of circular saws or the sound of an electric screw driver, the little fellas are unfazed as long as I keep their bar well stocked. I’m sure that when I’m wearing my yellow and green baseball hat, they just think that I’m a large particularly mobile (and inedible) flower.

And god forbid that I don’t replace the feeder in a timely fashion. I’ve learned it’s best to get the replacement feeder ready before the current one runs dry. Then it’s a quick and smooth transition. If I take the old one down and don’t replace it with a new one immediately, I start to see hummingbirds peering in through the solarium window or buzzing the kitchen area. I also get the distinct feeling that I’m being judged and found wanting.

For several months, Mitch has been designing a ramp that would start at the top of the Bluff and go down to the beach without any turns. Since we have about 435 feet of ocean front, a ramp like this was feasible, although the terrain was rough and it would have to be built carefully. Along this coast line there are houses that are defined as “High Bank” (about 50 feet or higher than sea level), “Mid-bank” (around 25 feet higher than sea level) and “Low Bank” (only a few feet above sea level). There are pluses and minuses with each type of property, but in all cases you want to be able to access the beach as easily as possible. Some people have built roadways, others have built stairs, ramps or paths. Usually it is just a ‘means of access”, nothing more.

We decided that we wanted the ramp to be an experience in itself. Starting at the Eastern end of the meadow, there is a short path that leads you into the woods with a sign “to the beach”. This little 25 foot path takes you to the top of the ramp and will end up being a little shade garden in it’s own right. At the moment, it is a rough path and will need a lot of cleanup, landscaping and planting. However on hot days it will be a pleasant start to the ramp.

The ramp itself has three different decks. The first deck near the top of the ramp is the “Sky View Deck”. It has room for six or eight people to enjoy the view down the strait and across to Texada Island. We keep four bar chairs on this deck and use it regularly for cocktail hour, impromptu lunches or little get-togethers with friends. The next deck is the “Lovers’ Deck”. This is smaller and only has room for two chairs. It faces into the Bluff where I am creating a special garden in a natural amphitheater on the side of the bluff, called the “Mom’s Garden”. This will be the topic of it’s own post, once I get it built out a bit more. The amount of brush, tree trunks and Blackberry brambles I’ve had to remove has kept me busy for several weeks. The two pictures below are brush and trees that I removed from about 25 feet of bank. The last deck, which will be ideal on hot summer days is the “Shade Deck”. This deck is nestled in underneath some maple trees, a fir tree and a couple of cedar trees. It’s also close enough to the beach that it gets a nice cool breeze off the ocean.

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You may wonder why we’ve called it the “Great Ramp of Graham”. This ramp was built almost single-handedly by a local fellow named Graham. When he first started, we could see that this was going to be a big project, so l (somewhat jokingly) said we’d call it “The Great Ramp of Graham”. I’ve since learned that names have a way of sticking. Perfect case in point.
Enjoy Mitch’s video of the GRG at the top of this post. It gives you a good sense of the ramp. As we clean up the bank and get it planted, I’ll do posts on some of the specific gardens. We have a LOT of work to do now down at the beach and all along the bluff. These projects will keep us busy all summer and for several more to come.

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Sometimes, the best thing to do on a cold wet day is turn to comfort food. We had a tempest blow up the strait last night and it was round after round of rain and wind all night long and well into the morning. By the time I got dressed, it wasn’t pelting rain but it was still a chilly West Coast Spring day. Our outdoor kitchen was still functional, although we had to wipe significant rain off the counters and the grill. Mitch went for his second standby breakfast of French Toast. My go-to comfort breakfast is Eggs Benedict.

I wasn’t sure that we’d be able to pull it off in our “Glamping Kitchen”, but it actually worked quite well. Without stepping on each other’s toes, we were able to produce both breakfasts at almost the same time. I even found that the griddle we bought for our camp stove functioned effectively as a griddle to crisp the ham as well as a plate warmer to warm up the plate and keep the Hollandaise Sauce warm.

It’s the little things that turn regular camping into glamping.

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Although I’ve been doing a dip in the Pacific each month for the last year, this usually involves me wading in, quickly submerging and then immediately heading for shore. The whole thing lasts less than a minute. However, now that we’re into June, there are the occasional hot days where a swim in the ocean is in order.

We had one of those days this week. The temperature was up in the 20’s, the sun was blasting hot and it was a touch humid so that after several hours of pulling dead brush off the bank, I was feeling hot and sweaty. Since the ramp down to the beach is now finished, I was finally ready to have a swim in the ocean off our own property, rather than down the street at our friend’s place. I was actually pretty excited by this inaugural swim and in desperate need to cool down and wash the dust and dirt off.

There’s two things to remember about the beaches along this part of the coast. The water is crystal clear, with no sand or soil silting up the sea, and the boulders are covered in barnacles. The beach is made up of round rocks of various sizes and shapes. Although you can see where you are walking, it is kind of treacherous. If you happen to fall and land on the rocks, it’s like tangling with a sharp cheese grater. I did manage one tumble and scraped my arm where I landed. Let’s hope that the Salish Sea gods’ appreciate a small blood sacrifice in their honour.

The water was crisp and cold, but after you were in the water for a minute, it actually felt warm. I spent several minutes wading around, enjoying the view across to Texada and occasionally submerging myself. Afterwards, Mitch and I sat up on the Sea View Deck drinking some White Zinfandel while I dried off in the late afternoon sun. I’m looking forward to plenty of more days when the water is even warmer and we can have full afternoons down at the beach, swimming, sunning and enjoying the Salish Sea.

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It’s been a few weeks since I’ve taken the time to write a blog post. The month of May quickly slid into a pit of projects. We’ve been busy adding to the Love Shack, clearing dead wood and brush off the slope of the bluff and burning it in bon-fires, planting trees, bushes and grasses on the newly cleaned areas of the bluff. We’ve also had time to host some Drive-In movie nights, make a fast trip to Vancouver to pick up a fridge and bring up more items from the house, and meet with the builder and architect in preparation of the big house build. The entire month of May seems like it was over before it started.

I told Mitch that if we were going to be living on the Bluff this summer, we needed to figure out how to cook meals, store food and keep items cold or frozen. Otherwise, we’d be eating take-out, trying to cook everything on a BBQ and be unable to keep food from going bad. I don’t mind hard work, sweaty days and living an indoor/outdoor glamping lifestyle for the summer, but if I couldn’t cook regular food and avoid constant restaurant take-out fare, then I’d be spending more time in Vancouver than up here. Since I keep Mitch well fed, he wasn’t about to argue, so we planned out our new glamping kitchen and built it ourselves. We started out with a camp stove, a cooler and one assemble-yourself metal counter. That only got us so far and so we then added a roof and a built-in food and dish cupboard. At last, Mitch agreed that we needed to make this a legitimate part of our “Love Shack” complex, so we added on a floor deck, a fridge hutch, a washing station, a food preparation station, and a pot cupboard and counter top to go beside the Camp Stove. By the way, that camp stove puts out 30,000 BTU and works like a dream. We bought the grill that goes on top of one of the burners and that also works incredibly well. It’s now my favourite way to do shish kabobs.

The new kitchen is just to the East of the Solarium. It gets the morning sun and is a really nice place to have breakfast and look out over the Salish Sea. It’s surrounded by forest and the bird-song in the morning is amazing. Also, there are a lot of humming birds around, so we get a lot of little visitors checking out the new neighbours and making good use of the humming bird feeder that I hung from he Love Shack. Everything locks up and is contained enough to handle wild animals (the jury is still out on whether it’s actually bear proof). However, the kitchen functions beautifully and I’ve been able to cook just about any meals I can think of (although with no oven, I have learned the ancient Jedi ways of the “Instant Pot”).

Finally, because Mitch can’t live without long hot showers, we also added in a propane hot-water heater which works for dish washing, but also provides a seated shower area (see the second last photo above). This is behind the Love Shack and hidden from view, so privacy concerns are not an issue.