Hello Rollie followers. We shall start this week by attempting to meet some requests from one of our most loyal Rollie followers. Maria asked for a walk around/through of our building (we forgot to google what “Mary, Mungo and Midge” is…) Due to social distancing and the fact that you can’t access the stairs from the ground floor, there was a huge queue at the lifts earlier, so we chickened out. Maria also suggested more in the “Where’s Wollie!?” series, so instead we’ve attempted to combine the two. Slightly disappointing, this is a “Where’s Rosie”? Can you spot her? The second picture is slightly easier. (Sorry about the quality, Rosie accidentally gave Ollie the camera in manual focus mode from an earlier shot).
We’ve had a more recent request for a photo of a Mountie, but I don’t think we’ve seen one yet. We will overcome our embarrassment and ask for a social-distanced selfie if we ever do come across one.
This weekend, we went for a walk in Minnekhada regional park. It reminded us a lot of home because of all the wetlands and ducks. On Saturday morning it was clear and frosty, which made it extra picturesque. We climbed up to “High Knoll” to get a good view back towards Vancouver and the surrounding cities.
Afterwards, we drove a bit further away to a village called “Fort Langley”. It was a bit posh with trendy independent shops and a dog spa. We had some great burritos for lunch. There is also a national historic sight called, you guessed it, “Fort Langley”. We got in for free using our annual National Park passes, but were severely disappointed when there were no turrets, no trebuchets or cannons, no moats, no mottes or baileys, not even any brick walls!
Built in 1827, Fort Langley was basically a warehouse for the Hudson’s Bay Company and part of a trading route with the British Empire. It packaged up fur from the interior, as well as salmon and cranberries from surrounding farm land. There is one original building still standing, but the rest are reconstructions. There were some extremely knowledgeable volunteers on the site – a cooper and a blacksmith. We learnt about how barrels were the Amazon parcels of their day, used as disposable packaging for cranberries and salmon. We also learnt how to reliably start a fire using a striker, a flint and charcloth. Maybe we’ll have better luck with campfires now!
We’re not entirely sure of our plans this weekend. Any suggestions?
Finally, a big congratulations to Jen and Pete on the arrival of their baby daughter! We are sure she will become a Roaming Rollie fan in no time.
Roaming Rollie 
What can you do this weekend…. humm…
1. Release a ‘help’ sheet for Where’s Rosie.
2. Make friends with the slime mould so when the time comes, they spare you from their great masacre of human kind and adopt you as pets.
3. Take some pictures of trains.
4. Plan your invasion of the ‘fort’ to collect all the hipster goodies to fill your flat… by the looks of things you won’t have any problems.
5. Take a selfie with the mountie that tries to stop you.
Is that enough? Failing that you could always do some more crochet, make sourdough and watch films on Netflix…
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We didn’t do any of those things
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Thanks Rollie! We read Emily Frances your blog during the 4am feed and she seemed to like it, but then again it could have just been wind…
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Wind is the usual reaction to our blog posts
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Thanks for the honorable mention! (Mary was a little girl, Mungo a dog, and Midge a little know-it-all mouse!). You really need to google it!
Very impressed with you living in what looks like the highest tower in the city!!
I FOUND ROSIE!!
That fungus looks like something that they talked about on the TV programme ‘Winterwatch’ recently – a fungus which forces the freezing water out of the wood so that it looks like frozen hair!
What to do at the weekend?
Crochet a little mouse and practice Mary, Mungo and Midge in the lift, then get reported for being mad and maybe you’ll get that shot of a Mountie!!
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Two people told us it was the frozen hair thingy! I thought it looked like ice when I first saw it, but I also saw some in full sun that didn’t seem to have melted at all… I really want to see it again now so I can poke it and find out
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The ducks are concentrated on the strips of calmer water, presumably ridges where the water is shallow, where they can find more food.
Predictably I would say next weekend you should get some binoculars, and go birdwatching: there are two spectacular bird species to see in the wild: Harlequin Duck seem to like the area around Anvil Island to the north, and Wood Ducks are supposed to be around Vancouver all year.Maybe some of those in the photo were Wood Duck.
Buy a book on British Colombia flora and fauna.
Try to find out about the native Americans we interlopers chucked out.
Find a hydroelectric power station.
Torture Kyle by placing a pile of crumbs on top of him and see if he can figure out his best option is NOT to move.
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The lake was frozen, they have an unfrozen pathway (not sure if they made it or were just using it). I always want to go bird watching, but Ollie complains 😦
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