Canada Day in a far off land

Happy Canada Day to all of you on the North American continent! It was a big day here with lots of celebrations. Being the only Canuck on campus, I promptly hung my Canadian flag from the bunk house, here-by annexing this lab in the name of Canada. Well, at least for the day, and what a beautiful day it was! The sun was shining with only a few clouds to offer a bit of shade from the intense light. After admiring the view, I gazed up at that glorious leaf adorned symbol of everything I love and then proceeded to the kitchen to begin my Maritime kitchen party!

I quickly set up my computer, turned off the radio, and filled the dinning area with the sounds of Great Big Sea. I spent the morning setting out the cookies and cake I had laboured over the night before, icing the cake and putting a brown sugar maple leaf on my maple cake! The cookies, for those Wilcox's reading this, will be recognized as the Wilcox family ginger cookies, which turns out to be a recipe that the internet considers a nationally identified cookie with Canada, although the molasses was not Crosby's.

It was great, fun was had by all, and coincidentally, there was also a visiting professor applying for the head of department, so all were gathering in the dining room anyway! Free food is a good way to get graduate students coming out of the works. I did get many a confused, amused, and questioning looks all day as I proclaimed a happy Canada Day to all I met, but we laughed, and I think we all know a bit more about Canada now. Unfortunately it was also a busy day for all so the festivities were a bit cut short, but the excitement for the day was not to end yet! I needed a walk as I was quite stiff from diving and frisbee the other day (more on that to come!), so I wandered down to the beach. I got about half way and then in a pathetic manner, hobbled back as quickly as I could to get my camera, and then hobbled back. I'll just show you what I saw.

For those of you who are guessing shark, your wrong. Surprisingly I would have jumped into the water with small sharks before I would with these guys. That being said, if they are there tomorrow, I may find myself with my drysuit on after lunch. A small pod of bottle-nosed dolphins were in the shallows around Goat Island, including a playful youngster. I watched them for a good half an hour, but when the moved farther out I called it a day. They stayed all afternoon, darting around in the reserve, coming close to shore and going around in circles, possibly preying on the fish that are in complete refuge from human impacts, but not out of the reach of these mammalian predators.

I especially enjoyed the last two where the tail was clearly out of the water. I saw a few spy hops and jumps clear out of the water, as well as a fair number of lunges, possibly in chase of fish. I spent the rest of the day working on my proposal and going over my pictures. Shortly I will be heading up to the bunkhouse to get some much needed rest, taking down the flag of my favourite nation (no bias, I swear), and writing Mary-Ellen an email. A great Canada Day here in the future, though I missed having you all around and all of Dad's flags. I wish you all a safe and Happy Canada Day as you head into it yourselves. As for us here, it was "just another day at the office" with a splash of maple syrup!