IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE CHRISTMAS

I offer to you an update with pictures.

We have decorated the house with pretty Christmas lights.

We are working on plans for who, what and where.  Who will be coming to Christmas, what we are going to do, and where the tree will go.  There will be minimal physical Christmas shopping.  We will do it on-line or we will gift with gift cards.  I don't like to shop at the best of times and at this age, at this time of year, I will do whatever I can to avoid it.

We took a short run over to Merritt for a surprise birthday party for our sister-in-law.  We had a lot of fun, with dancing and plenty to eat and drink.

The birthday girl and her two sons

A Congo line through the kitchen

To reach Merritt, we have to travel over the pass through the mountains.  Although there was a lot of snow, the roads were quite good.  We only saw two vehicles off the road.

It's very pretty in the snow.

Soon it will be time for Christmas and another blog.

A PICTURE BLOG

I am quite certain that you wouldn't be interested in our day to day doings but Doug takes some awesome pictures and I would love to share some with you.

The point at dusk

The lonely pier

Along the beach 

I love pictures of benches

Happy duckies

Zoe is Grampa Laird's chair that Doug recently inherited

Zoe supervises the building of the puzzle

Seems suitable to end this picture blog with these.

END OF OCTOBER BEGINNING OF NOVEMBER

Doug painted the front door red.  So attractive.

Time is flying by.  Hard to remember where I left off.

A couple of weeks ago, we made the trip to Doug's cousin Robert and his wife Solveig's place on Quadra Island.  

Robert, Solveig and their friend Dennis

The trip to Quadra Island involves two ferries.  We ferried from Horseshoe Bay on the mainland north of Vancouver to Nanaimo and then drove up Vancouver Island to Campbell River where we took the little ferry to Quadra Island and the little town of Heriot Bay.  

A long trip (10 hours including ferries) and we just stayed overnight but we have been promising and so we went.  We had a nice time including a dinner out the Sol's sister Kirsten and her husband, also Robert.

The wharf at Heriot Bay

Having to travel through the city of Vancouver reminds us of how much we hate the traffic.

Traffic in the Cassiar Tunnel

Other than this little overnight trip, we have been sticking close to home, I with my crafts and Doug with yard stuff.

One day I made pasta

We scored a lot of perennials from a Garden Club member, dahlias and a lily.

Doug likes to take long walks/hikes.  At this point I cannot walk long distances.  He takes nice pictures and shares with me.

Ducks on the creek

There are still unpicked apples

Between the cat, doing a jigsaw puzzle and Netflix we are well entertained.

This hill is referred to as Dragon Head.  It's what we see out our bedroom window

Doug made a terrarium

Before and.....

after.

Until next time, ta ra and cheerio!

OUR FIRST CANADIAN AUTUMN IN 10 YEARS

Yes it's true, we have not experienced autumn in Canada since 2008.  

The trees are all turning.  We didn't not realize that the grape vines all change colour too.  It's quite simply beautiful around here.

Very red tree in the neighbour's yard

Looking down on the Summerland marina.

A  handy bench with a view.

Our friends have left for the south but we are making new friends.  I doubt we will go south this winter at all.  We have lots of plans both around the house and further.  Tomorrow we are going to Vancouver Island (and then Quadra Island) to visit Doug's cousin and his wife in a little place on Quadra called Heriot Bay.  We are not taking the motorhome and are staying in an Inn overnight.  Should be fun.  I like riding the ferry.  We will have to be on the road by 5:30 am to make the ferry.

Doug continues to ride his bike a couple of times a week.  He likes the trails on the other side of the lake more but is still exploring.

The beach at the bottom of hill

Some boats at the marina

Hey Jim, we hear the fishing is good

I finished my second quilting project, a Christmas Tree skirt.  It was fun.  I am just starting my next project.  I am going to try to make most of my Christmas gifts this year.

We had quite a bit of company on Thanksgiving weekend.  Graeme got the date wrong and he and Adrienne came for an overnight on the Saturday.  Short visit but nice to see them.  Sunday we had our friends Dale and Cathy and Chuck and Linda for Thanksgiving dinner.  After dinner we played games.  They are all our RVing friends and they have now left for Arizona.

Graeme and Adrienne

Dale at the buffet, Linda, Cathy, Chuck and I

We joined the Naramata Garden club.  Yeah, I know we don't live in Naramata but our friends do and the club doesn't mind.  I seem to have gotten myself more involved with the Christmas party than I had intended.  Oh well, I can do it.

That's about it for now.  Ta Ra.

CHECKING IN

Well it's October and time I checked in.  As many bloggers will tell you there are times that blogging is more like keeping a personal diary.  Some things may not be interesting to my followers but in years to come, I will know what we did in September 2018.

We have finally finished furnishing all the rooms that we plan to furnish.  We have a games room that is still unfurnished but I did hear someone mention "pooltable".

Naming the rooms of this house is a bit of a problem.  Is it Craft Room or Sewing Room or my office?  Is it family room (we don't have any family here except us) or rec room? We are calling this one the fire place room.

Fireplace room because we can have a real fire here.

We have wildlife.  No not just the crazy cat and she is crazy often.  Smart but crazy.  One night at 3 a.m., we were awoken by a sound on the deck outside our bedroom window.  There were 7 or 8 raccoons out there.  We have deer visit almost daily.

In my sewing (or is it craft) room, I do sewing and craft projects.  For years I have wanted to take up quilting.   I registered for a quilting class but it was cancelled.  With a little prodding from a friend, I explored Youtube and came up with a plan.  I shopped for the materials I needed (holy cow - expensive!) and finished my first project, a table runner.  Not perfect but not bad for a first try.

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Yesterday we had a chance to explore the Summerland Ornamental Gardens.  We have driven by dozens of times.  The gardens did not disappoint.

Fall is about as pretty as spring I would say.

September in a Nutshell

In some ways this has been a very quick month, in others it was long.   Long was because we did a lot in September, short because, well, at this age time does seem to fly by.

First there was moving.  Moving wore us both out more than either of us realized.

Disassembling the recliner

Loading up the motorhome

Even the car was loaded

August and September were harvest months and I don't like anything to go to waste.  Canning and freezing.  We even made prunes.  We did our best to eat all the vegetables and even made grape juice.  Our friend just gave us another box of apples which I will get to tomorrow.

Tomatoes became sauce and canned tomatoes

Peaches became jam, preserves and frozen

Plums became prunes

We made a quick trip to Manitoba to see our daughter Charlette, her husband and their two teenaged sons.  They had just acquired a big dog, Ken, to add to their 3 cats and a rabbit.




In September we were thrilled to find a doctor.  Dr. Mackay 
(pronounced the Scottish way Ma key).  He and his family are not long from Scotland.  He seems like a real go-getter .   He had me going for  blood tests, chest x-rays and I had a trip to the Sleep Clinic (no fun believe me).  I have a follow-up appointment coming up and will have some kind of contraption to help me breath properly.

I was excited to find a quilting class, two mornings a week for the month of October.  And then it was cancelled due to lack of interest.  I will teach myself with the help of YouTube.

Seems strange but suddenly there is wild life all over.  Quail to torment Zoe in the yard.

And deer in the yard to show us that we have to put more fence in if we expect to grown vegetables.  

Not a good picture but that's what you get when you have to run, get the camera and shoot.

We have joined the garden club and went to our second meeting Thursday night.  Seems like a very fun group of men and women.  

Driving home after the garden club meeting we hit a raccoon on the highway.  Sorry guy but hey you cross a highway with a 100 km speed limit after dark chances are....

Strangely enough the following night, there were 7 or 8 raccoons on the deck outside our bedroom.  Doug took a bunch of pictures but we have screens on the windows and not one turned out.  He thinks the raccoons are seeking revenge.

Yesterday I got a tattoo.  Something I have been thinking about for a while.  Neither of us want to grow old so we do things that younger people do.  I chose to memorialize our cat Zoe.  I was amazed that it did not hurt at all.  Not at all.  I am so pleased.  The tattoo artist, a girl, was great. She made the stencil from pictures I shared with her.  The resemblance is unreal.

Monday will be the first day of October.  Let's see what we can get up to then.