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That’s All Folks
The past two years have gone very quickly and we still can’t quite believe that we are writing this final Canadian post from the UK. Perhaps it will sink in once the jetlag fades.
Our Penultimate Week In Canada
It’s been a busy one, so we will keep it short. Last weekend Rosie took a nature bath… Ollie returned from his ski trip and spent the next few days selling things on facebook marketplace. He no longer has any faith in humanity. We have a lot of things to sort out before we leave.…
Text Adventure
It’s the R, O, I and E in Rollie here, reporting solo once again! My week has been very quiet. I have probably done a bit too much work, but my new job is pretty exciting and there is lots to learn. On Tuesday and Wednesday evening I sent my first commands to a satellite…
He’s left me!
Ollie has finished work now and gone off on a lads lads lads trip skiing with Thom
It’s been a while since you’ve seen some mountain photos!
No excuses this week. We’re both healthy and one of us is getting used to the 5am starts, so we’ve managed to do a blog!
Sorry… again… zzz
We have both now recovered from our bouts of COVID, but still haven’t prepared anything for the blog this week… Sorry! Last Friday was Rosie’s final day working for the Canadian train company. She is now working remotely for a UK space company again, in preparation for our return in 5 weeks time (how has…
We are Ill
Ollie ill saturday – still ill Rosie looking after Ollie Saturday till Thursday. Rosie ill Thursday – still ill Blog writing skills impaired
Far Out Threads
Predictably we started 2022 with hangovers (one of us worse than the other…) but you’ll be glad to hear that we have fully recovered now. We had lots of fun on new years eve competing in “apartment olympics” – mostly featuring ping pong ball based competitions, but with one paper aeroplane javelin event. Congratulations to…
Happy New Year!
What are the chances that our blog was released on both Christmas Day and New Years Day. Aren’t you all lucky! Despite Ollie’s mum warning us not to leave the blog to the last minute on New Years Eve, we have done just that… We have some friends coming over and cocktails to make, so…
A White Christmas?
Merry Christmas everyone!! We were planning to come back to the UK for the festive period but, unfortunately, we decided to cancel our plans because of some virus. This does mean, however, that we stand a good chance of having a white Christmas in Vancouver. There is snow forecast overnight and an Arctic outflow warning……
Improved Views
Not much to report this week. Another rainy weekend last week, but we had some life admin to do – Applying to switch to a visitor visor for a few weeks after our work permits expire in February (not long now!) and filing our UK taxes (which we almost forgot about… oops). We had our…
Galiano
Last weekend there was a break in the rain so we booked a spontaneous trip to one of the gulf islands that we hadn’t visited before – Galiano. The inhabited areas are smaller than Gabirola and Salt Spring, and there are no cideries/breweries or wineries (boooo). It has just as many great beaches to explore…
Slick Skills
This week we have a video to show you some of the things we’ve been doing in our ice skating lessons. Unfortunatley we fear they feel more impressive than they look… Last weekend was as rainy as expected, but we did manage to persuade another couple of people to help with our escape room. It…
Runny Cheese Arts
First thing’s first – barge update: it’s still there. The high tide on Sunday was nowhere near high enough to float it off the rocks, so we got out of bed early for nothing! The only remaining hope for the barge owners is the “king tide” which will happen on the 6th December. The rain…
Wild Weather
For the last month or so we have done a lot of complaining about the rain… but this week it has hit whole new levels of bad. In downtown Vancouver, we actually didn’t notice much difference compared to the usual downpours. However, places further north and east of us saw rainfall that exceeded the monthly…
We’re Late!
We have approximately 4 minutes to write this blog as we are going out and we forgot about our faithful Rollie followers… This week: We have started another ice skating course, 1 level up from our previous one. The quality of participants and speed of lessons is much faster now, so hopefully we can both…
SUNSHINE!!!
We got a miraculously sunny weekend and wanted to make the most of it, so took Friday off work and caught a ferry to Salt Spring Island. Salt Spring Island is the largest and the most popular of the southern gulf islands, close to Victoria on Vancouver Island. It has a similar feel to Gabriola…
We won’t complain about the rain this week, we promise
One way to complain less is to write less.
Slippin’ and Slidin’
With the rain continuing to fall, people keep telling us we should be used to it as we are from England. So we looked into the data: Vancouver sees between 2 and 3 times more rain than London in a year! We didn’t sign up for that! To avoid the weather, we have started beginner…
Thanks for the Harvests
Last weekend was a long one, thanks to Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday. We were especially grateful for all of the harvests, as we managed to squeeze in 3 dinner parties.
That’s No Fen
We’ve never been to Burwell in the UK, where Rosie’s sister now lives, and the trip to get there seemed a bit daunting. So we decided to visit Mount Burwell instead!
Blog 88
We don’t have much to report on this week. We travelled back from Vancouver Island on Saturday, had a very lazy Sunday and then got back into the work week. We have had a few chances to socialise, starting with dinner at Thom and Hannah’s. Hannah’s pumpkin and chocolate cake was exquisite and we look…
A Holiday from our (Working) Holiday
A short blog this week as we are on holiday without a laptop. We are writing this on a phone with pretty poor signal, so not sure it will make it to you anyway… The campsite we are in claims to have WiFi near the reception, so perhaps that will save us! Also, please excuse…
Landing Place of the Thunderbird
Last weekend we spent two nights in our favourite Garibaldi park (forgot the biscuits AGAIN). We first went to this part of the park last year for a long day trip and have wanted to return to camp since then. There are two trails which take you into the park, one goes from Cheakamus Lake…
Illalvely Weekend
We have had our glorious summer and are back to the RAIN! There are still several snow free weeks ahead of us though, with one or two more camping trips on the horizon.
Lion’s Share of the Hiking
We were supposed to be doing a famous multi-day hike in the Rockies this week, but it was cancelled as the trail is closed. It was flooded earlier in the year, thanks to excessive snow/glacial melt during the heat wave, and is still being repaired. We were actually happy to cancel our trip as there…
Chez Rollie 2
Finally! This week we have made you a video tour of our new apartment in the West End of Vancouver.
Brandywine Meadows
The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began… Lucky we’ve got friends who have a 4×4!
Under the Weather
Last weekend we went on our first night out in as long as we can remember. We went to three bars, and had more than three beers, ending with some arcade games and a dart tournament! This wasn’t totally a bad idea, as the weather was rubbish anyway. Saturday was spent with a hangover.
It’s Not Weart It!
weekend was a long one, as Monday was “British Columbia Day”. To celebrate the British invasion, we decided to go camping again! This time we were at Wedgemount Lake, a glacial lake surrounded by glaciers and mountains about a 2 hour drive north of Vancouver.
Lord of the Squirrels
No, this isn’t a post about the one nut to rule them all. It’s about a mountain biking trail near Whistler that Ollie completed last weekend with Hannah and Thom. The route is just under 30km and includes around 1400m of climbing. The start was particularly challenging, with lots of steep and tight switchbacks. This…
Rampant Drops
So far, we have had very good luck with the weather for our pre-booked camping trips. Not so much last weekend. On Friday we snuck off early from work and headed up to Elfin Lakes campsite in Garibaldi Park, one of our favourite walks from last year. Rosie bought Garibaldi biscuits from the English section…
Speed Blog
Late to leave for camping trip. Forgot blog.
Calm Seas and Cool Breeze
Thankfully it has been a bit less hot, especially with the gentle sea breeze in the Desloation Sound marine park. We had perfect weather for our kayak trip last week. The sun was shining and the sea was like a mill pond.
HOT
I’m hot.
Pushing the Boat Out
Ahoy! This week we have hoisted our main sails and launched into a week long beginners sailing course. Every evening after work we have set off windward across Vancouver to get to Jericho beach for our 6pm – 9pm lesson.
Better Late then Never…
On Friday night we went to a bar on the waterfront in Vancouver for a couple of beers with Thom and Hannah… and we totally forgot about the blog! Oops! Hopefully you can still enjoy this on Sunday instead of the usual Saturday slot. The weather was looking very rainy last weekend. Two months previously…
Heron My Own
There is not much to report this week, so a lighter post than usual. We had a nice weekend and were able to visit a couple of friends places for lunch and dinner. What a novelty! Rosie is back in the office two days a week now, so Ollie had to survive alone without supervision.…
Weekend Re-tree-t
Last weekend we were invited on a spontaneous camping trip with a friend we made on the woodwork course back in February and a group of their other friends. They knew of a campsite along the Squamish river which isn’t always fully booked. It was very sunny on Saturday and we were raring to go!…
That’s Cheating!
Rosie had a checklist of dos and don’ts from the dentist after having her wisdom teeth out. Don’t: eat anything tasty or drink anything fun, rinse for 24 hours, poke your gums with your tongue, sneeze, etc. Do relax and take things easy. Ollie was torn between making sure she followed all the rules and…
Double Dose
Wisdom teeth and vaccines… it’s been a traumatic week.
It Fell off the Back of a Lorry
We haven’t done a vlog for a while… so here is one about a haul we got this week.
Gears and Brakes
Ollie’s mountain biking course has started with some tricky new skills.
Damp and Stinky
The rain is back. Sigh. We went out for a walk anyway last weekend. We decided to revisit Norvan Falls.
The Great Canadian Camp-off
Our friends Thom and Hannah invited us to spend Friday night with them on Mount Seymour. We had already booked a campsite by the beach at Porteau Cove, luckily this was just for Saturday night… Double camping!
Are we nearly there yet?
It’s finally not raining in Vancouver! So that means we have had a busy week walking around outside.
Camping was Brrrrrrilliant
Hopefully the stressful suspense last week has not killed off too many of our readers…
Quantum Camping
We are writing this from the past – on Thursday night. We’ve just packed the car for a trip to EC Manning Provincial Park tomorrow. We want to try out our new snowshoes – which we purchased last weekend.
Curse You Henry Ford
Who told Mother Nature about our capitalist overlords and why is she punishing us using their arbitrary pattern of free and indentured time!?
Micro-hike and Micro-farm
Well we made it back from our trip up Dog Mountain (referred to in a hiking book we’ve recently bought as “one of the least technically difficult summits in BC, if not the world).
Nothing is Certain but Death and…?
It’s a bit of a boring one this week – the major activity for last weekend was filing our taxes.
Tumbling Interminable Torrents
Are you bored of waterfalls? Oh dear, well we thought this one was a good one, so we’ll show you anyway! On Saturday morning, the skies were clear (shockingly). Without a proper plan, we attempted to go for a walk to a popular viewpoint, but the car park was full. Second choice was Kennedy Falls.…
Happy 30th Birhtday Ollie!
Last Monday, Ollie woke up to find Rosie had snuck out of bed.
Clothes Removed, Arctic Paddling
On Saturday we finally had some snow in Vancouver! Not quite as much as the UK, but it still made for a fun morning watching trucks skid around the corner outside our apartment block.
Fun Arty Relaxation Time
Last week in our rainy spare time we decided to try creating some art for our walls. We thought about potato stamps or colouring in with crayons, but eventually settled on one level up – chalk pastels.
The Thing from the Tea
Last weekend we spent a rainy day making kombucha and some sourdough. We decided to document the kombucha process as we couldn’t have our readers missing out on seeing the beautiful scoby Ollie made.
Call that a Fort!?
We shall start this week by attempting to meet some requests from one of our most loyal Rollie followers.
Our New Friend Sucks
This week Rosie is back in control of the blog! No more silly lists and mystic nonsense. Just some good old fashioned updates, nature pictures and an exciting new addition to the Rollie family.
5 things we’ve picked up in Canada
A bit random this week, but we thought we would enlighten you into some of the things we have picked up since coming to canada. Not all of them are specifically Canadian, but hey ho. 1. We can cope with snowy conditions now Unlike the UK that seems to shut down due to some light…
Chez Rollie
This week we have made you a video tour of our new apartment (with all the usual quality lighting and Rollie production value). We haven’t quite got all the furniture we need and we keep running out of spoons, but it’s more than comfortable!
Twenty Twenty Aplenty
Happy new year everybody! This week we have had fun looking back though all of our 48 blog posts from 2020 and trying to come up with some highlights. It was pretty hard to come up with a short list, so here is our long list instead!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
We totally forgot about the blog, dropping the ball for the first time in 10 months… We blame the Christmas food coma. We miss all of our friends and family back home and hope you are having a fun filled festive period. Next week will have a doublely long post to make up it!
Furniture Fail
Last weekend wasn’t a total success: we did get outside as we hoped, but we did not buy any furniture.
Slightly better than the tent…
Last weekend was spent looking for an apartment and are happy to say that we have found one that met our criteria: space for two desks, natural light and a mountain view.
A Busy Week
We’ve been quite busy this week, with work and Ollie moving from Sun Peaks to Burnaby. Luckily, Hannah did some video editing for us, featuring Ollie’s highlights from his first ever black run.
Working Hard and Hardly Working
Rosie headed to Burnaby on Sunday to start her new job the following day. Ollie made the best use of the airbnb to ski all weekend
Juggling Commitments
This week was Rosie’s last week of freedom before moving to Vancouver and starting full-time work again.
Ready Sleddy Go! (back to Vancouver)
Well we’re still here! The vote resulted in a landslide victory for the “I need something to read in lockdown” party. This week we have more woodwork and snow fun, plus an update on our longer term plans.
Baking with Rollie
This week we have mostly been baking… “What’s new?” I hear you cry. Well, this week Ollie has felt the knead to get involved!
Manual Labour
With a mitre saw, bits of wood, screws, a screwdriver and two willing helpers, Monday night was spent doing some carpentry
A Day in the Life of Rollie
Good day Rollie followers. After some hype surrounding Ollie’s video masterpiece a couple of weeks back, he wanted to create another one! But then he delegated… and Rosie made this.
Snow Peaks
We have spent the week settling into our new routine of staying inside most of the day in front of a computer. We’ve started to apply for some work, but given the global situation it might take a while to get some. We’ve been trying our best to keep morale up… by getting in the…
Mission Accomplished
Mission accomplished.
Road Trippin’ and Rock Slippin’
Since Saturday, we have been on a road trip starting in the central Okanagan and including nearly risking a run in with Trump along the US border, a mountain retreat in Fernie and some laundry in Radium Hot Springs.
“Sun” Peaks is a Lie
We started the week visiting our friends Thom and Hannah in their new apartment and finished it with a very fat cat, nicknamed ‘The Pudge’.
Smoky Eyes
It’s been smoky in British Columbia as a result of the wildfires along the west coast of the States. We’ve completed another workaway, spent a few days in Kamloops and driven to Sun Peaks to visit our retired friends.
Animal Attacks in Grizzly Country!
At the start of this week, we set off with our new tent for our first overnight hike in Canada. We were pretty scared of the wildlife and with good reason…
Don’t Tell Our Parents
This week we have been at a brilliant workaway just north of Pemberton. We’ve spent lots more time swimming in lakes and going for hikes, as well as learning about some different crops…
What’s SUP in Beautiful British Columbia
On Saturday, Thom and Hannah took us out for our first time on Stand Up Paddleboards and we both loved it. Unfortunately Milky couldn’t come. Most of the remainder of the week has been filled with a lot of hiking, so prepare yourself for lots of blue skies, blue lakes and big mountains.
Camping or Cramping?
A week ago we left our farming lives behind us temporarily and set off to see some mountains… our legs hurt.
Into the Wild
This was our last week farming for a while. Tomorrow we will be heading out into into the wild! Instead of staying on a bus, we will be staying in our car.
SUV Camper: Building a Bed
We spent a lot of our free time this week shopping for parts and building a bed frame that we will sleep on when camping in our new car.
Meet Elsie
We now have our very own car and we have named her Elsie! Firstly, a big thanks must go to Thomas Lane Thomas Lane and Hannah Kacary Hannah Kacary, who actually paid for Elsie…
Rolliebusters
Good news – after this week, we will have some new found freedom and some different things to write about. We are picking up our new (to us) Kia Sportage on Saturday! But for now, you can read about us picking vegetables and going to the beach again.
A Moment of Reflection
This week was suppose to be the end of our travels across Canada, from west to east coast, so we are feeling reflective. Also we have a nice photo of a duck.
Time for a Change
Rosie decided it was time for a change and took matters into her own hands!
A Rollie Quiz
This week, we thought we would test out your Rollie knowledge with a short quiz.
The Glamping Kitchen
After numerous requests for another video we felt compelled to make one. We hope you enjoy Rosie staying calm throughout.
Start of the Slothful Summer
It was rainy and cold for our first week at the new farm, but on Tuesday the sun came out! All of a sudden our shoes are dry and the factor 50 is out. The theme of our free time seems to be laziness and it looks like we’re set for a lovely summer!
Veggie Heaven
Last Sunday we made the long and arduous car ride (all of 10 minutes) to our new Workaway. We are now on an organic farm where they make all of their income from the vegetables they grow.
Rollie Roams Again (sort of)
The title of our blog hasn’t really reflected the reality of our trip so far. COVID has meant that we’ve stayed put longer than we intended. After two months on this farm, we will be moving on Sunday.
Look What We Have Grown
It’s been an exciting week for us because we have started to harvest some of the crops we planted in April, mostly leafy greens, and thought we would take the opportunity to show you what we have got so far.
Creatures in Peril
This week Ollie rescued a dumdum sheep from a hay bag and Rosie found a tiny birds nest that almost got trampled whilst we were weeding.
Planet Earth III
Rosie has tried her hand at making a wildlife documentary this week. We hope you find it both educational and enjoyable.
We Wet Our Plants
It has been raining and then sunny this week on the farm, which has been great for the vegetables! Lots of our seed babies are starting to emerge.
A walk in the park
After the viral success of our video last week (well, some people said they liked it), we thought we would do another one. This vlog is based on our potential need to learn foraging to keep well fed on Gabriola Island.
Video Diary: Our Morning Routine
A video diary outlining our morning routine with the animals on the farm.
Plain Sailing Weather
We’ve made our fair share of ‘mistakes’ this week on the farm. At least we got to go sailing.
Video Tour: Gabriola Island Workaway
Hello readers, we’ve been quite busy with getting the garden set up for the year and babysitting, as well as exploring Gabriola Island. Therefore this week we have decided to go for a different approach to the blog and do a quick video tour around the farm.
Delayed Departure
You may remember that we were planning to change locations this week. On Monday we packed up our bags, tidied our room and put the bedsheets in the wash. But soon after we got a call that would delay our departure…
Roaming Rollie 