Update to mid-February

My blog has now become more of a diary for myself than interesting travel stuff for my readers.  We are "enjoying" all that winter has to offer.  We thought we were getting off easy because winter didn't really start here until the beginning of February.  And it seems Old Man Winter has a quota of cold and snow to fill.  It has been as low as -20C overnight and it barely reaches 0*C during the day.  It snows nearly every day.  No snow today and because it is 0*C some of the snow is melting.  None of this is really a problem for us.  Being retired means not having to drive in the snow unless you want to.

You see, we got railings on our front porch.

Although the lake itself does freeze over, the marina does.

This is the pile of snow at the local Walmart.  The rest of the parking lot is on the other side of this pile.

The main highway just out of Summerland was closed due to a landslide for about 10 days.  Last week we decided to take the detour which was supposed to be about 90 minutes long.  The next town from here is Peachland which is normally about 15 minutes down the highway.  The detour was almost 2 hours.  The roads were well maintained and easy to drive but remember 2 hours over, means 2 hours back and all we wanted to do was visit Costco which is normally an hour and 15 minutes from home.  To make matters even more frustrating, we found out the highway was reopened the following day!

The short cut over the mountains.

We went out for a very nice dinner Valentine's night.  It was a small venue, about 20 tables of 2, and a set menu.  The food was delicious, the staff very efficient and the music was sensational.
Local wines were featured with each of the five courses.









As Murphy's Law rules, that night after dinner, which was two towns south of here, about 25 minutes, we drove home in the pitch dark in a horrible snow storm.  Slow and easy.

The cat and the birds keep us entertained.  It is so cold now the cat, who normally wants to hide on the deck and watch the birds, refuses to go outside.  She watches from inside.  We get many and assorted birds and lately even the ducks come from the lake to our bird feeder and the neighbour's bird feeder.

We have been heating our house with the fireplace downstairs.  The fireplace is very efficient and heats the whole house.  Each time we buy a load of firewood we think that will be the last load but the load we got yesterday should do it. Hopefully it will warm up.

Doug has started quite a garden in the games room in the basement.  We have hyacinths and tulips and loads of herbs.  He bought a grow light and the plants are doing well.





Well there's an update of what we are up to.  We watch a lot of Netflix, we play cards nearly every night and do lots of relaxing.