Today started with me visiting my new Strength and Conditioning coach to work on gaining my strength and balance in my leg. The convenient circumstance to finding him so quickly, was that his partner is my osteopath! Paul and Abigail arrived from London, England almost 2 years ago to establish practises in Courtenay, B.C. They were attracted to Vancouver Island because of the outdoor lifestyle, with lots of places to hike and bike.
After understanding what I am currently capable of, we went straight into a work out. OMG am I sore! The good thing about Paul is he is very understanding of my current and former injuries and isn’t pushing me to re-injure anything. So that’s a good thing. I’m signing up for 10 sessions and he is giving me a program to work on in Newman and hopefully I will be a lot stronger coming out of this! My golf game better improve after this!
The nice thing about the set up with Paul is there is only him and me in a very small gym, in an industrial area of town. My temperature was taken and a questionnaire filled out and both of us wear masks during the workout. He wiped down all of the equipment before I arrived and I felt pretty safe to be working out in such a private space.
While I was having a workout, Richard was off to Lordco to buy new LED bulbs for the reading/map lights in Newman. Richard having bought some new books to read, is turning into quite the ’bibliophile’!
I must say that the weather here today was just awful!!!!! Cold and wet at +3C with a constant pouring rain. Not nice at all. A day to stay inside, if we could, but definitely not a day for hiking or prolonged outdoor activities!
We have taken to shopping at Quality Foods in Courtenay and today we received our Quality Food loyalty cards, which we had ordered last week. We didn’t understand why there wasn’t a ‘Save on Foods’ in the area and now we know why. Quality Foods was an independent Vancouver Island small chain of 13 grocery stores, mid-island, until 2017 when the chain was bought by Jim Pattison, who also owns Save on Foods. It’s really lovely not to have to wait in line to get into the store to grocery shop, while still having only few people in the store at the same time....and their home made sushi is very good and fresh too!
Driving home we were curious to know more about the oyster farming that goes on in Fanny Bay and Maynes Sound. We see these oyster barges floating all the way from Fanny Bay up to Courtenay/Comox and didn’t really understand why this area of Vancouver Island is so conducive to oyster farming. Then I did my research! Oysters are farmed best where Denman Island protects the oyster farms from the open water of the Strait of Georgia/Salish Sea. Oysters are farmed either by beach growing, or suspended-grown, in deep waters. What we have farmed next to us by the Fanny Bay Oyster Company is suspended oysters in traps, grown in the deep waters of Fanny Bay, Maynes Sound and beach farmed oysters. There are 34 different varieties of oysters farmed in B.C.! Some of the Fanny Bay oysters are started in traps and then finished on the beach (Royal Miyagi oysters); some oysters are just farmed on the beach (Fanny Bay oysters); and some oysters are farmed in traps (Golden Mantle oysters). A new variety of oysters for Fanny Bay oysters, called the Sun Seeker variety is grown on floating oyster bags.
Floating oyster barges
A close up of a portion of the oyster barge
O of
The birds with the orange beaks (above) are called “Black Oystercatcher”. They are very smart birds. They catch the oyster and then they drop it on something hard to smash it open, and then eat the oyster meat. We’ve heard them on the roof of Newman dropping the oyster shells, so they can have a feast!
The weather is supposed to be much better tomorrow and we have another tee time at a new to us golf course! Imagine December 14th and still playing golf in Canada?!!!
But first...to run an epsom salts bath in Newman! Thank god this RV has a bathtub. It is an upgrade that we were very happy to see when we purchased him!!
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