Do you have a Little Free Library?

While driving around Victoria I noticed a Little Free Library on a quiet side street. It's not the first I've ever seen, but I wanted to take a closer look. The following day I tried to retrace our steps, to get a photo, but I couldn't find it. As is my norm, I then went to Google for help.

An example only, but not one from the website

Tall oaks from little acorns grow

"An optimist is a man who plants two acorns and buys a hammock."

Author: Jean De Lattre De Tassigny

We're currently living in the picturesque district of Oak Bay, one of the communities in the Greater Victoria Region. The Greater Victoria Region has a population of about 350,000, whereas Oak Bay has about 20,000 residents. It has a lovely small-town feel to it.

After our trip to the market yesterday, we went to the main shopping street of Oak Bay. No big box stores here, in fact I haven't seen a Walmart or Canadian Tire since we arrived in Victoria. 

The main shopping district is nicely landscaped and maintained

Why stores may be low on stock this holiday season

House sitting in a city that's new to us often has us adopting new habits. On this house sit, I routinely read the Victoria newspaper, The Times Colonist, and I mean real paper. Most of my reading these days is online, so this is a pleasant change for me. Another pastime of mine here is to look out at the waters of the Juan de Fuca strait, which we can clearly see from our home. Let me explain how the two are particularly relevant today.

At the market today,
having a Pacific salmon burger for lunch

Today's dog and pony show

I've mentioned before that one thing we enjoy with the house sitting is that it can often be more like our usual home life, rather than being on vacation. Such has been the case over the past few days. If you're hoping to learn about some big adventure we've been on, you'll be disappointed. The past few days we've lived a fairly low-key lifestyle.

Reuniting with vacation friends

We often meet people in our travels, especially on vacation, and exchange the genuine comment that we hope we meet up again sometime. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. That wasn't the case today.

Donna, Wally, and their dog, Buddy

The high cost of electricity for Niagara Falls residents

It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sorry, none of my photos today, but many more words than usual. You can just skip today if you're the type who prefers photos ... I'll never know!

When we house sit, we try to be respectful of the cost of utilities. We do it at our home, so we feel it's even more important to do it when someone else is paying the bill.

In Niagara Falls, we have a "time of day" system, where there are three price tiers. You can see the details in the image below. Bottom line is the lowest-cost electricity is from 7 pm to 7 am on weekdays and all day on weekends.

When we're at home we routinely do our laundry on the weekends, and run the dishwasher in the evenings. It gives us significant savings.

We hadn't asked the homeowners here in British Columbia about it, so I went online to check. The system in British Columbia has a different price structure, where you pay a lower price up to a certain level of monthly usage, and after that pay a higher cost. A different approach, but still one attempting to give an incentive to those who conserve.

Here's where the story takes a turn: the cost comparison between Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Victoria, BC.

Niagara Falls:

We're not tourists - we live here!

Owning a home in Niagara Falls, we are accustomed to avoiding the popular tourist areas during the summer season. We've quickly learned that discovering Victoria is similar. Our homeowners suggested we wait until September before taking in the sights of Olde Town and the inner harbour of Victoria. It's home to majestic old buildings, whale-watching tours, and apparently great fish and chips. For now, we'll focus on other areas, saving our inner harbour walking tours until the crowds lessen.

The black blob in front of Greg is Fanci :)

Oh dear, deer

A common question from those curious about housesitting is whether we get to know the homeowners. Before we started, I'd made the assumption we'd know very little about each other. I thought we'd be like ships passing in the night, with little more than a handshake, and (hopefully) a lot of relief that our gut instinct - along with emails and video chats perhaps - would not have steered us wrong. I'm pleased to say we usually develop good relationships with the homeowners that continue on past the sit.

Fanci, sitting at the front door after her owners left for the airport

It's true, Victoria BC is beautiful

Our flight from Niagara Falls, Ontario to Victoria, British Columbia was smooth and uneventful. On a short stopover in Calgary, Alberta, we were amused by two merry-go-round type towers, powered by a big key that kids were happy to turn and were totally entertained by it. Greg and I were quite entertained by them too!

You never forget your first ...

The saying connected to the post title is that you supposedly never forget your first love. However, I'm not about to share those details with you - although I do remember - but I will reflect back on our first house sit, and from that, our first love.

An attitude adjustment: from whining to wine-ing

When we returned home earlier this year, after spending most of the winter in Arizona, I must admit I missed Arizona. After a few years now as a snowbird, it was the first time I wasn't really ready to return home. I always say you can look at any place through two different sets of eyes; focussing on the positive, or the negative. When I first returned home, I certainly focussed on the negatives.

Among other things, I miss the sunsets, cacti, and palm trees

How to break up a long journey ... Aloha, Australia!

Most of the photos here are unrelated to the post, and are just from our yard in summertime.

In my previous post, one month ago, I said that "once we leave summer and move into fall" we'd be thinking more about planning for our next season of house sitting. Well, I was off with that timing!

Since booking that first sit for 2017 in Australia, I've been actively monitoring the house-sitting websites for ones to fit either side of our January/February booked one. As well as three sites we currently use, we also joined another house-sitting website, mindahome Australia. It's not the only one dedicated to Australia, but it seems to have the most traffic and its design appealed to me.

Just loved the colour of this sky on a recent evening