Tag Archives for B.C.

Jingle Pot Road, Nanaimo: how it got its name


 
Nanaimo Stories: How Did Jingle Pot Road Get Its Name?
 

When I first moved to Nanaimo, the name Jingle Pot Road intrigued me as a most unusual name for a street. I was so curious that I decided to do some digging to learn about the history behind the naming of this road.

My research took me to book called A Place in Time: Nanaimo Stories by Jan Peterson, a local author and historian. I learned that the East Wellington Mine was located in the area around the 1890s. When cars of coal were brought to the bottom of the shaft, the man in charge pulled on a long rope tied to a pot at the top of shaft. The pot was filled with stones, which caused it to jingle. The sound from the “jingle pot” was signal for the winch operator to start hoisting.

(Hat tip.)

Bananas grown in Vancouver

If this be climate change, bring it on! 🙂

After four years of cultivation, a Vancouver man’s banana plant has flowered and developed fruit, something he never thought was possible because of the city’s climate.

“Not in Vancouver,” said Antonio Zullo. “I mean I got the plant because it’s nice, it’s tropical. I never thought I’d see that in Vancouver, absolutely not.”

There aren’t many places in the world where you see a banana plant growing up along a cedar hedge. (Nic Amaya/CBC)

Zullo started growing the plant from a shoot, and at his home after taking a shoot from a banana plant at his previous residence.

Each winter he carefully covers it to protect if from the cold. It’s now about two metres tall.

“Maybe the climate’s warmer,” said Zullo after being asked why he thinks the plant has flowered and produced fruit. “But it’s been a great summer and I’m hoping it stays like this for another month so I can actually eat some.”

 

Never heard of the bony-eared assfish before?

Now you have! 🙂

The Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria has put on display a fish with a large head, small brain and unflattering name: a bony-eared assfish.

The deep-sea creature, about 30 centimetres long, was caught by scientists 10 years ago in Queen Charlotte Sound, off the north end of Vancouver Island.

Formally named Acanthonus armatus, the species is known to inhabit Pacific Ocean waters, but this is the first one caught off the coast of North America, said Gavin Hanke, the museum’s curator of vertebrate zoology.

[…]

“It is an ugly fish. That’s why I like it,” Hanke said. “It’s got a big bulbous head and a tapering body and flabby skin. It almost looks like a glorified tadpole. It felt very gelatinous and soft when we picked it up.

“It has a very large mouth, and off the back of the gills there are some very large spines that point backwards,” he said.

[…]

Hanke is unsure how the fish got its “ridiculous” moniker.

“There are some funny names out there for species, but that one takes the cake.”

Clocks moving slower on Vancouver Island

Truly on ‘island time’, now! 🙂

The province of British Columbia is known, and often envied, for a relaxed, laid back lifestyle that runs at a much slower pace than the rest of the country.

And recently, there is truth behind that perception, as time literally slows down on Vancouver Island this week — at least as far as the clocks are concerned.

“It’s always been known time moved at a slower pace on the west coast, but now Tofino can literally make this claim,” says Weather Network meteorologist Tyler Hamilton.

A major upgrade to the current system means individual areas are being switched off the main grid and over to local generators, according to BC Hydro. As a result, clocks plugged in are running up to fifteen minutes behind.

The industry refers to the process as ‘islanding.’ Though power is still being supplied, a very slight alteration means that the time-keeping devices are the only electrical item affected, slowing losing minutes over a 10-day period.

“Normally the frequency is 60 hertz, and so when an area is islanded, it operates at just under 60 hertz so that means the clocks run a bit slower,” Simi Heer, a spokeswoman for BC Hydro, told the Vancouver Sun.

Residents living in coastal communities such as Tofino and Ucluelet noticed that clocks were running a few minutes behind late last week, and they can expect the lapse in time to continue until all work is completed on September 24.

They noticed? Surprising! 😉

The delay only affects electric clocks that are plugged in, and will not alter the times on computers, watches or mobile devices.

No, really? People need to be told this? LOL! 🙂

For parts of Vancouver Island, the busy summer tourist season is starting to wind down, and many locals will likely welcome the return to a slower pace of life.

And if it isn’t slow enough, after some ‘B.C. bud’, it will be. 😉

Fake eyes provided for blind aquarium fish to prevent other fish from picking it to death

Whatever works, I suppose…

Veterinary staff at Vancouver Aquarium have provided prosthetic eyes for a fish. This was done so other fish would not pick it to death because it did not have eyes.

Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to get another fish?

British Columbia tax dollars at work! 🙂