Hope Bay on a Grey Day

After a rather “interesting” week in the blog-a-sphere I have finally put together another Island Home post. You are probably wondering what could be so “interesting”. Last week I was on another site that I frequent and someone asked a simple question about tables that seated several people, I knew I had a picture of our table that seats 10-12 people on “Island Home” so I posted a simple link. Well the views for the site went crazy. One day 750 views, with the next few days not far behind. Who would have thought a picture of a table could be so popular. The “views” are now returning to normal-ish levels so I thought it was time to put up a post for those who love the island lifestyle.

These images were taken by Hope Bay on Pender Island. It was a very grey day, one of those days where you drink endless cups of tea just to stay warm. I decided a couple of minutes on Photoshop would take the images from dull to picturesque. The boathouse in the above picture is really interesting, I am pretty sure it has fallen down a bit more since I photographed it in the summer when I managed a closer view, but it is still a unique view. This time I opted for a more distant view as my previous shooting experience resulted in a tumble/slide down the hill and a bruise that lasted for two weeks….and that was on a dry sunny day. Can you imagine the damage I could have done on a wet slippery day?!

In this scene you can see the Hope Bay Store on the left with the dock on the right. We’ve discovered the Cafe at Hope Bay is a great place to grab a nice cup of tea when we are on the north end of the island. Another added bonus of the Hope Bay location in winter is that the parking lot faces over the water. This is fabulous when you want to sketch from your warm dry car (with a cup of tea in the cup holder of course!); this is on my “places to sketch from on a rainy day” list.

The above image is the dock at Hope Bay. This was clearly a quiet day on the boating front. In the past we’ve seen everything from sailboats to canoes at the dock, and sometimes in the distance we are treated to seeing a huge container ship anchored and waiting to go to the docks in Vancouver.

Hope Bay is always a stopping place for us when we are on the island. We like to stroll down to the dock and check out any boats that are in. The view is always pretty, and on occasion we have even been treated to seeing an otter swim by.