No man is an island.

Around the neighborhood, The Habitat Island, an island was created as part of the development at Southeast False Creek, site of the 2010 Winter Games Athletes Village.

It’s an urban sanctuary not just for people but as well as birds, insects, barnacles, starfishes and other living things. Tall grasses, plenty of hiding places, wild berries growing, playground and sometimes a place just to hang around to look at the tide come and go, watch the boats motor by and soak up nature.

Building this island, shoreline and inlet required 60,000 cubic meters of rocks, gravel, sand, cobble, and boulders used. A thick layer of nourishing soil was added to plant new growth of Douglas Fir Tree, marsh grasses, shrubs, flowers and anything that will grow naturally on the island. A rapture perch was erected for eagles soaring high above.

In the summertime, it’s a place for dogs to go hid and seek. Can you see the tail?

An intertidal channel at low tide is an excellent place to see different layers of rocks and sediments that build up naturally and created carefully. Even during high tide, there nothing to fret that one will be enclosed by bodies of water because the earth beneath the was raised for connecting step rocks as an entrance and exit to the island.

Not only that, logs found commonly found in British Columbia not lined this area for people as resting places.

This is one place that I make sure to visit when I am around False Creek to seek solitude or to amuse myself or just being plain neighborly.