A Late Spring Day in Ladner and Westham Island - also known as "There's a lot of manure spread this time of year!"

A hop skip and a tunnel under the Fraser River (always remember to hold your breath as you go underwater!) is the village of Ladner (population 20,000) It is a pleasant community that makes it hard to believe you’re mere minutes from the big city. We like Ladner (and the bridge away Westham Island) for a number of stops on a spring and summer day. First stop is West Coast Seeds, because the girl has a small plot in a community garden in her neighbourhood and it’s high time to get planting underway. West Coast Seeds is a quaint little shop with everything needed for the gardener! A small basket of seeds later and we’re on the road again (one of our favourite ways to be!) in Lola, the trusty Chev with 335,000 km and still turning on the odometer.

The dyke along this arm of the river is home to fish packing plants and floating home communities, just before you get to the 101 year old wooden bridge that goes to Westham Island, most popularly known as the home of the Reifel Bird Sanctuary. Lesser known as the home of a little honey vendor down a side road that sells a number of kinds of flower honey, both creamed and clear (he likes clear, she likes creamed!)

The Westham Island Herb Farm is open from May to October and we were greeted by a glorious deep purple lilac bush as we parked the truck, both of us inhaling deeply to save and savour this heady scent of spring. A cat was eating a mouse as we arrived, reminding us just how far in the country we really were. A great local source of fresh garlic later in July, we picked up a couple of brussel sprout seedlings to add to the girls garden plot. Everything you could want for a herb and vegetable garden is here, as well as a little shop that features some local crafts and artisans work.



There are lots of interesting side roads, both on Westham Island and in Ladner that we explored, stopping to pick up some free fishing nets on the side of one of them (will make excellent garden netting!) and found lots of lovely flowering trees so fragrant we could smell them through the open windows as we cruised the back roads just that close to home.