Weather on the Southern Gulf Islands is on the average milder than the mainland or Vancouver Island and with less rainfall than the usually very wet west coast.

Temperatures in summer are generally in the low 70's with little rain and the occasional hot spell. In the winter months, mornings can be frosty, and the dampness in the air does make it feel colder than it really is -- somewhere in the low 50's.

December and January are the coldest months and can drop to freezing. It rarely snows, and when it does, it only lasts a few days and then it melts in the rainfall. Falls are mild although they can be foggy and mysteriously over cast. Fall is a great time for beach combing and picking wild blackberries, by the way. Winds are strongest in the Spring -- March and April. Evenings and nights are cooler than the days in all seasons.

This weather is perfect for the artistic Arbutus, a beautiful orange-barked tree with shiny green leaves and a twisted trunk. The rest of vegetation that survives in this gravelly landscape is primarily cedar, fir and hemlock, and the odd deciduous tree. Ferns, wild roses and lily of the valley fight to stay alive among the dreaded evasive broom that was imported by a European traveler many years ago.