Purple Sock Spot: plastic and salmon

After a waffle breakfast (homemade waffles + whipped cream + strawberries + blueberries + bananas = happiness), my aunt and I spent a bit of time helping my cousin, who is in the process of renovating the kitchen of his (and his wife's) newly purchased home. They've gutted the kitchen, and taken it down to studs. He wanted a little help with getting the plastic up prior to the drywall going up, so we helped. Apparently, being tall is occasionally useful - he was able to staple the plastic to the ceiling without needing a stool of any kind. The dog helped by trying her darnedest to get us to play with her.

Partially plasticked

It's a terrible view, but someone has to have it... This can be seen from the living room, the kitchen, the back deck, and one of the bedrooms. This is where I saw an eagle the other day.

Just about done

Sydney looks hopeful

After this, we went to Goldstream Park to see the salmon run. We walked along the trail to the water - it was fairly low (you could see the gravel beds). Seeing the fish was interesting - they blend in to the riverbed amazingly well.

Some of the fish were kind of beaten up because this is apparently fairly far upstream. These beaten up fish had white on their skin - this made it easier to see them in the water. The fish tend to hold still in the water before attempting to surge up the next section of water. The flash of pure white against the dark riverbed is eye-catching. Sometimes, as you watch the water, a ripple that looked like it was water flowing around a rock just doesn't look right, and then it moves, and suddenly the fish is obvious under the water.

Most of the fish were chum salmon, though there were a handful of Coho salmon as well. There were quite a few - sometimes they were visible surging upstream, jumping and fighting. Most were visible sitting in the quiet spots, thinking about the next bit before they attempted it. In a few locations, only one or two fish were easily visible. In others, fifteen or twenty fish were spotted - which probably meant there were more than that.

We also spent a little time at the nature centre. There were descriptions of the local ecosystems and some models on display. They had some taxidermied animals - mostly owls, but some other raptors, gulls, mammals (e.g., mink, raccoon, beaver), an eagle nest with taxidermied eagles, information about bats, fish, eagles, owls, etc. They also had bones, antlers and pelts of various animals for touching.

Unfortunately, there were no eagles to be seen. There were several gulls, some jumping fish (visible from the viewing platform where the nature centre docent told us were most likely to see an eagle from, but that we were a little early for eagles) and several little brown birds. We could also see the marina where my grandfather's sailboat lives.