Nearly Stepping Off the Edge!!

As you know I love to hike. One of the benefits of living in Victoria is being close to lots of good hiking trails.

Mt. Finlayson is in Goldstream Provincial Park and with Stefanie here for a week we decided to hike the highly recommended trail on Saturday. 

The start of the trail has stairs, then the path wanders through the trees up and up with maps showing where you are every half kilometre or so.

It was a beautiful afternoon and we were surprised that we only encountered one other couple. 

We came to a map that showed a loop off the trail with a lookout and decided to check it out. The vistas were lovely looking over to other hilltops. We continued on through a temperate rainforest with huge ferns and a stream then hiked high to more vistas of the ocean. We hiked through forests of arbutus and golden Genista in bloom contrasted with purple fireweed. We saw an owl, a turkey buzzard, a snake and many beautiful songbirds.
At 4 o'clock I decided we should head back down the mountain. We retraced out steps and then found ourselves on new terrain. We figured that it was the spot we went off the main path but suddenly there was no trail!  We went back and forth for about an hour looking for the path to now avail. Getting panicky I decided we should go back to an opening we had seen. We found our way back there and low and behold there was a golf course!
Approaching some people we found out that somehow we had left Mt. Finlayson and were now on Bear Mountain!!  They seemed surprised at where we had come from and pointed to the rocky summit of the mountain where we should have been. We told them we were not going back in the woods so they
directed us down a gravel road to the highway and the parking lot. As we marched down the road we heard a rustling in the trees beside us which sounded like a large animal. I prayed it was a deer and not a cougar, known in these parts.
Three hours later and with sore feet we were back at the car. After showers and dinner we were relaxing and reading when I felt a sharp pain in my side. I looked down and there was a black tick burrowing in my skin...also known in these parts. What an adventure!

Hummingbirds

For those of you in Australia and other parts of the globe who are not familiar with the Hummingbird, they are petite birds with iridescent feathers found in the Americas. Their name comes from the fact that they flap their wings so fast (about 80 times per second) that they make a humming noise. Apparently they can even fly backwards and upside down.
I have always been fascinated with these tiny creatures, enjoying them at friend's feeders on the Canadian Prairie and Okanagan. Recently Keith and I had the pleasure of experiencing a variety of them in Costa Rica where about 50 species live.
I have learned that there is both a local and migrating hummingbird species on Vancouver Island. I had noticed one enjoying my patio flowers last fall but had not seen any this spring.
The day I sent off my final dissertation one fluttered at my office window. I took it as a good omen.
In celebration of the completion of the dissertation Keith bought me a feeder which is attached to that window and today I have had regular visits from the shy but sweet bird. Who, as a matter of fact is enjoying the sugar water as I write. I would have to pull up the blind to take a photo and probably scare him or her off so here are a couple of photos of the birds we saw in Costa Rica.