An Encounter with A Gila Monster

Over the years, I have hiked many times in the desert around Tucson. Until yesterday morning, I had never seen a Gila Moster. Yesterday, on my second hike up the Ventana Canyon Trail (I had been unable to rouse my wife for the early morning hike, we spotted a large, stubby lizard lumbering along the trail ahead of us. We were very excited to see this fat Gila (pronounced Hee la) monster. This is the only venomous lizard in the USA. This would account for its slow motion and fearless behaviour. Once we spotted it, the monster casually moved into the undercover for a couple of minutes and then decided to come right back to where we were. It plodded across a dusty trail and climbed over a rock within three feet of where we were standing. I was able to get an number of pretty close photos of this not-so-scary monster.

Tucson Arizona

It's springtime in the Sonoran desertand the cactus is blooming. This is a shot of a prickly pear in bloom. The weather here has been very strange for May according to the locals. When we arrived on the 15th of May the temperature was over 100 degrees F. It stayed that way for about four days and then heavy clouds set in. On Thursday it rained all day long. The desert flora was vibrant but since we were here to be warm and dry, we were only warm. However, the rain and clouds started to lighten and by Saturday it was beautiful and sunny once again.We stayed in Ventana Canyon where there are some great hiking trails that take you up the canyon and into the Santa Catalina mountains. The landscape is dominated by the Saguaro cactus which is an amazing creature. Impossibly huge and alien-looking, it grows in incredible abundance here. The Saguaro may visually dominate the landscape, but it is by no means alone. The desert here is teeming with flora and fauna.The Gila Woodpecker is a key player in Sonoran desert. By creating it's nest in the Saguaro, it also creates a home for many other desert creatures, once the woodpeckers have left the cavity.

Whisky Review - Ardbeg 10 Year Old

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Those who know me well know I love Scotch Whisky. I have decided to include an occasional whiskey (or whisky as the Scots would say). Since I have a few different bottles on hand right now, I will start alphabetically with A for Ardbeg. Ardbeg is a single Islay malt, from the Isle of Islay, Argyll, Scotland. Islay malts are generally peaty and smoky and this is no exception.
Here's a quote from:http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/default.asp
"The last distillery on the road along the south coast from Port Ellen on the magical island of Islay, past Laphroaig and Lagavulin.
The distillery itself dates back to the final years of the eighteenth century. The site's water source, Loch Uigeadail, is superb and has had the honour of having a whisky named after it. Until 1976/'77 Ardbeg still had its own malting floor, but take their heavily peated malt from the Port Ellen maltings. Jim Murray, in his Complete Guide to Whisky, described Ardbeg as the greatest distillery to be found on Earth. This was high praise indeed, given that the distillery was mothballed for most of the 1980's until Glenmorangie took control in 1997 and secured its future. The transformation from neglect to a homely and handsome distillery with a fine restaurant has been heartening to watch. Their first new release, an unchillfiltered 10 year old, has proved to be a huge success."
This is their 10 Year Old and a fine whisky it is. Before you open it up with a few drops of water, there is initially big smoke and peat wafting up to the nose, rich and delicately balanced. With a bit of opening, some caramel floats through. Now I am not blessed with a talented nose so I probably miss a lot of the subtler notes, but it presents itself deliciously. The appearance is deceiving, it is a weak, watery-looking whisky, like a very pale citrine. Judging by looks alone, you might be tempted to think the flavour might likewise be insipid. There you would be wrong. It is wonderful, rich and sweet. It lingers sensuously on the tongue and has beautiful smooth finish. Altogether a very delicious and satisfying single malt that would be welcomed by any aficionado


Rating 8/10

I'm Not Dreaming It's a White Christmas

So here we are on Christmas Day, heading for two feet of snow in our yard. We had an amazing dump of snow where it snowed about one inch per hour for about a day and a half. Big piles of light fluffy snow just kept falling until we were beyond enchanted and all the way to fed up! There was snow fort making and sledding and general messing around but it did get tiresome. Speaking of tires, many people in this city do not understand that when you have two feet of snow on the hilly side streets, your Japanese compact front-wheel drive car will get stuck - guaranteed. Cars were abandoned every where, including in the middle of intersections - I kid you not! Not my trusty truck though. No one was laughing at my SUV this week.

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I must say that I prefer it when our yard looks like this.

Coho on the Fly

Early August found me winging my way to Dundas Island. This is the most northerly island on the coast of British Columbia. My mission was to attempt to catch the muscular northern Coho on an 8 weight fly rod. My friends, Clayton Vanier and his beautiful wife, Jennifer Nelson, own and operate the Haa Nee Naa fishing lodge on this island. Every spring, they tow in the lodge and set up the resort. It is a wilderness experience with all the mod cons. It's sinfully sumptuous for a man who has learned that catching fish in Canada involves some sort of suffering. Usually fishing in Canada is accompanied by cans cold wind, rain and or snow merciless onslaughts of by black flies, no seeums or mosquitoes and some beans for lunch, breakfast or dinner. At Haa Nee Naa, you are pampered with delicious, gourmet food, a beautifully appointed lodge with comfortable beds and luxuriously appointed bathrooms. Once out on the water, you may have to suffer a little wind and this year it was chilly but as I always say, when you live in canada you can be cold at some point in all 12 months of the year!

However catching coho on the fly is a world-class fishing experience and this year was my 2nd attempt and it was great. I managed to land eight 10lb to 14 lb. beauties like the one in this photo.

France - Les Bourdas

If you want a truly relaxing, delicious, picturesque and entirely French vacation Les Bourdas is the perfect destination. Majestically situated overlooking a bucolic valley, this charming house with a very well-appointed guest house, is the product of many years of renovation and good taste by our friend Alison Bridger. After 3 days of planes, trains and automobiles, (not to mention a taxi and a funiculaire), we arrived in the dark, exhausted at Les Bourdas around midnight. We were delighted with the house, but too tired to really absorb anything. The four of us, my wife and our two boys collapsed into bed for 12 hours of sleep. At noon the next day, I woke up, swung my legs out of bed and opened the windows and the shutters to gaze out at this scene.The accomodation at Les Bourdas was lovely. Beautifully modernized, yet retaining an antique and rustic charm it was really the perfect home for our time in this region of France. We spent two fabulous weeks of exploring the Southwest of France. Les Bourdas is situated in the northern reaches of the Haute Pyrennees region. CLose to the mounains and only and hour and a half to Biarritz on the Atlantic coast, it was a great spot for day trips. I think we most enjoyed taking the short journeys to the local villages for market day.
At the market we would be the local cheese, perhaps a fabulous chevre, a pheasant and cognac sausage, a pain de campagne. Anyway the food was unbelievably good. It is amazing the difference between the industrial approach to foof production that we favour in North America versus the artisanal approach in France. If you are interested contact:

TERRACARTA, Landscape Design
Alison Bridger, 604 294 4864
abridger@shaw.ca

France - The Sud-Ouest

I have just returned from 3 weeks in France with my family. This was my first trip to France and only my 2nd visit ever to Europe. The last time being in 1971! It was our first major overseas family vacation. Our journey began with a flight from Vancouver to Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris and an overnight stay in the Montparnassse district of that great city. This part of the trip was a bit of a blur since we spent only a few hours in Paris the afternoon of our arrival before tucking in for the night into our tiny but clean and well-appointed Hotel Mercure on Boulevard Raspail. The next morning we walked to the Gare Montparnasse to take the TGV (the French bullet train)to Pau, the capital of the Haute Pyrenee region we would be exploring. From Pau we rented a car and drove 45 minutes to the northeast to our destination, Les Bourdas in the village of Vidouze. We spent the first 2 weeks in a beautiful home in the Southwest of France. Les Bourdas is owned by our friend and neighbour here in Burnaby, Alison Bridger. Alison and her family have spent the last 4 or 5 years renovating an old country house with an accompanying guest house (called a Gite in France). She has done a wonderful job, creating a sense of tradition with style and all the mod-cons. More on that later. This region in which it is situated is bordering several areas comprised of the Midi-Pyreneees, the Haute Pyrenees, the Pyrenees Atlantique, and the Gers. It is a marvelous tapestry of rolling hills and valleys, turning into the snow-capped Pyrennes to the south, the Atlantic seaside resort of Biarritz to the west and the Armagnac region to the north and more rollimg hills to the east. It is very rural, in fact what struck me about France is what a great agricultural nation it is. From Paris south, there is vast agricultural development. What we found most outstanding about the Southwest was the food. The cuisine of this region is simple and the secret is quality. We went to many of the small incredibly picteresque towns near Les Bourdas on market day to buy cheese, sausage, produce and duck directly from the producers. Of course as throughout France, the Boulangerie and Patisseries create deicious bread and pastry. Our days focused around finding food, preparing food and eating food. And the food was fantastic.