Tuesday 5 September 2023

Back to Work!

It's the first day of school today and that always reminds me of those days of yesteryear - nearly 20 of them now.  I haven't missed it a bit.  This year, it sounds as if there is a complete shortage of teachers and lots of places are looking for any "responsible adult" to manage the classes.  I heard this morning that Sooke SD has 800 more students this year than last.  I can't believe people would want to live on Vancouver Island with all of its ferry disruptions, particularly on long weekends!  So glad that I don't have to deal with that issue.  

I fully expected to be "locked out" of this blog post.  It's been more than 3 years since my last entry.  I'd like to get back at it on a regular basis.  I haven't done the writing in my diary, and I don't get up early to do writing pages, so perhaps blogspot will keep me motivated. If it does, I'll try to get a readership!

I've entitled this post "back to work" because it's the first day of the return to the regular season of life in Kaslo.  I've got a list started of the different organizations I need to contact to meet once again.  My choir practices begin tomorrow night.  It always seems as if I accomplish much more work when I am part of a "schedule" than when I am not, so I welcome this return to routine.  This morning I even went out with my running group for an hour, came home to make supper and prepare a few pears for the drying racks and then rode back to town to have my mammogram and pick up my first "Lucke" eggs from my friend, Jenn.  This afternoon, we canned some Damson plums - pretty hard to get them apart so probably a day or two early from when we "should" have done them.  Tonight, I hope to prepare some apples for the freezer!




 

Monday 31 August 2020

Harvest Time

I think this is my first post in August - on the last day.  And I've been home most of the month but just busy in the garden.  It's been a good year for doing projects because I'm not doing much other volunteer work.  Off to the Food Hub this pm to donate the potatoes we grew at the Community Garden.   I need to bring in the rest of the onions and beets from my plot because our fence project is scheduled to begin in mid-September.  This year, the peaches have been the item that has done well in our garden and we've canned 14 quarts and I've frozen 3 large bags full.  We'll see how well we like the frozen peaches (first attempt) but we've really enjoyed the peaches baked and I think that will work well with frozen peaches.   We don't peel our peaches when canning any longer and they really do turn out quite well.  I wish I'd known that 30 years ago!  


Wednesday 29 July 2020

Camping at Champion Lakes

One of my favourite BC provincial parks is Champion Lakes, near Fruitvale.  It's far enough away from the highway to get away from traffic noise, there's always wildlife to view and the lake is refreshingly cool, but not so frigid that is painful to go swimming.  Last week I spent a couple of days there with Andrea and boys.  We discovered there is a big rock out in Third Lake which acts like a barrier reef and is home and space to some rather plain looking fish.  But it's fish and our boys like fish right now.   We'd heard that there was a mother moose with 2 young in the Second Lake area; alas we did not see them.  But we had a loon calling and calling during our entire time there.  Swimming, biking, hiking and eating marshmallows were favourite activities.  The boys are also enjoying some of the Hardy Boy mysteries; the picture below shows them listening with attention.

I really lucked into the campsites.  It had the FULL sign at the highway but I went up anyway and someone had left early so I got the site - it had a lovely lookout over Second Lake where we could really hear the loon well.  The next day we had to move sites but lucked in again to one site which could not be reserved because of some internet glitch.  And even the mosquitoes weren't too bothersome!   I'm happy to see our parks being used.  It may get people a little more in touch with nature.  

Sunday 19 July 2020

Lupines and Gallardia

It's past the middle of July and I'm finally posting.  We took a wee trip to the west and spent a bit of time on the KVR - the Kettle Valley Rail Trails.  It began with a bike ride from Coalmont towards Princeton which was a very scenic bit of territory.  I'd highly recommend it.  We also biked, later in the day, from Princeton toward Coalmont so pretty much covered that section of trail.  We had planned a bit of a bike ride north of Otter Lake but the provincial campground was full and we ended up biking along Otter Lake and a bit north of it.  Not the nicest trail in terms of a busy lake in summer.  Also the dirt bikes and ATVs frequent the trail.   Here's Dave at the bridge where we turned around north of Princeton.  




Why this title?  The next day I did a bike from a place on the map called Jura downhill towards Princeton.  It was a very fine ride, all downhill, through farming country with good views of the Similkameen Valley and some rocky peaks in the Cascades.  The best part was the wild flowers, however, which speaks for the title.  My picture didn't really work out that well.  Take this trail in the early part of May and you'll enjoy balsalm root blossoming all over the hillsides.                            





Sunday 28 June 2020

State of the Garden 4


Maintaining 3 gardens is pretty time consuming and I've never taken a picture of the garden in Trail. We're harvesting pea pods and I think it will be a couple of more weeks before we can pick raspberries.  There's lots of them out there but they aren't very big or at all red.  You can see the corn on the right hand side of the picture.  There's actually a guy in Trail who has corn that is heading out at the moment.  Go figure.   I've had a couple of days here and it's been good to garden.  I'm not really ready to take a picture of the front yet - I'm doing a lot of what I had done in Saskatoon with a perennial border.  Here it's planned as an orchard on one side and a perennial border with pathways on the other.  Things just aren't grown up enough for a good picture.  One thing that I do love about Trail - the sandy soil is so easy to dig!  Too bad it has lead dust in it!  But the plants do seem to thrive on that combination.                                                                                                                                 


Saturday 20 June 2020

Nakusp: Could I Live There?

Since coming to Kaslo I realize that I live somewhat off the beaten track.  After getting a home in Trail, I realize that it is much easier to get places from Trail than it is in Kaslo.  We went to Nakusp for Campout 3 and it is even more remote.  Nakusp is located on Arrow Lake and is a 30 minute drive from a 30 minute ferry ride plus another 30 minute drive to Revelstoke.  OR it is a 2.5 hour drive to Nelson.  

Nakusp IS a lovely little town and the refurbishment of the water front is a total credit to the town and its designers.  The town really does have everything you need, including a bike and ski shop, a thrift store, a library, a burger joint and lots of reasonable restaurants.  The access to hiking, biking and skiing is outstanding.  I can tell that there's lots of people in Nakusp who like to garden and I could certainly be happy there.  But it is a bit far removed from other places.  If you live in Nakusp, I know my tendency would be to stay in Nakusp and I just don't know if it's my kind of town since I have never lived there.  I like its amenities and I don't need much beyond the great outdoors.  It's the access to other places and spaces that could become troublesome.  


Gardens along Nakusp waterfront

Friday 19 June 2020

State of the Garden III

It's been a cool, late spring even here.  Our lilacs are actually still in bloom, although looking a little ragged now.  My 'June' daylily is glorious and pictured below.



I would have to say that second harvest occurred yesterday;  I picked dill that is now drying on newsprint in the greenhouse.   Next will be oregano - we have lots of it on this land and I never planted a bit of it.  The basil looks frightful - I put it out too early and it has shivered ever since.   Even the purchased plants from nurseries that fill several pots are not blooming with much encouragement.  The marigolds that I started from collected seed last fall are finally blooming - each plant has ONE open blossom.  We await the colour!  Greens are doing well, however, and yesterday I seeded some lettuce which I will call NDP lettuce, collected by our former MP, Wayne Stetski.  Carrots were also planted - plant late here to avoid carrot fly.