Mary Maxim Moves to New Millenium

 I know that there are lots of people still knitting Christmas socks out of old Mary Maxim patterns but I just got sent this picture from NJ and I'm very happy to see that these Christmas stockings still stand up!  We're now on the second generation and it appears that this is one old tradition that intends to last in our family.  I guess if something remains for two generations in this fast-changing world, well, I'd have to call it a tradition.  Happy Christmas, all!

December Gardening

Other than my year in Isle of Man, I can't recall doing any gardening in December.  Today, I dug the carrots. This event took place because I fear the colder weather arriving and we won't have snow cover.  We seem to be on the fringes of the snow area, although tonight's forecast says that it is coming.  We shall see if it arrives.  If it does, fine.  My carrots are cleaned and currently stored in the fridge.  Plan to make a carrot, cashew and curry soup later in the week.  Nice to have 9 gardening months here in the Kootenays.

Remembrance Day, 2013

I'm always a little surprised at how many younger people will come out to honour Remembrance Day.  In Kaslo, there is about a 15 minute outdoor commemoration with the placing of a number of wreaths around the cenotaph.  Yesterday we had a beautiful sky day, with a very brisk wind off the lake, and fairly cool temperatures.  People stood respectfully and watched.  Following this, many people go into the Legion Hall for a more formal "service" with some music, an address, and the national anthem and a prayer or two.  I find it refreshing that young families will bring fairly young children to this event - not many, but there are a few.  I was also pleased to see the degree of respect shown by adolescents and youngsters who attended the outdoor ceremony.  In fact, I only heard one cell phone ring twice just before the Kuimba choir was about to sing.  There were actually considerably more people at the Remembrance Day service than showed up to support our protest over the cancellation of 24/7 ER care here in Kaslo.  Interesting.

Thanksgiving, 2013: Flying Solo

Dave left for Nepal on the eve of Thanksgiving weekend so it has been a very different weekend for me!  I didn't cook a turkey, nor bake a pumpkin pie.  I did buy a pumpkin pie in Trail and have been enjoying it in bits over the entire weekend.  Not as good as homemade, however.  Had a great run with Jennifer on Saturday a.m. and then spent Saturday p.m. reading and snoozing in the armchair.  Headed off to the launch of Requiem for A Glacier at the Langham - will have to revisit it because it was CROWDED!  Sunday, I made squash soup for my Thanksgiving supper and it was divine.  Thanks to Gerry and Pete Burgess for that recipe so many years ago and thanks to the earth for growing those great squash!  I planted spring bulbs on Sunday p.m.  Today, I did more work in the garden, had a nice run around Mirror Lake and rode my bike into Kaslo to see my hospice client.  Even got to watch some of the movie, Secretariat, while holding her hand. Whenever  I visit, I'm always thankful for the good health of my parents, both mentally and physically.  I had a fine conversation with my Dad on Sunday.    I'm ever so thankful for the beauty of the land where I live.

SUFFERfest 2013

There was a pretty good amount of suffering that went on during this year's SUFFERfest.  After a beautiful summer and September, the weather turned ugly on Saturday.  I was busy all week with pre-registration which basically meant getting the bags prepared for each athlete to pick up.  I had a great team of workers for the bag packing and we got everything arranged alphabetically.  The other big job was to get the bags distributed and we had pre-arranged pickup times.  All of my workers at these sessions were great and I don't think we had any major screwups.  A couple of people didn't get their pre-ordered t-shirt, but otherwise, things went smoothly.  With the poor weather, quite a few athletes didn't show up but on Sunday morning, the other worker and I had a steady flow of people coming in to pick up their bag for the 10 km run and the 25 km run.  For me, the hardest task was to "balance the books" at the end of the day and I'm always nervous working with money.  Because of the weather, we didn't get a ton of walk in registrations or event changes so it was good year to find out what it's all about.  It was fun talking with the athletes and on Sunday, when the weather cleared up a bit it was good to see the SUFFER fever in town!  Andrea participated in the 45 km bike ride and the 10 km run.  Congratulations to Janis for another successful year as Race Director for SUFFERfest.

Blue Heron Run

Sunday, Sept. 22, I participated in the Blue Heron Run (10 km or half-marathon) in Creston, B.C.  The run takes place at the Wildlife Centre outside of Creston and I had anticipated that at least half of it would be on trails.  It isn't - the entire run is on pavement.  My goal early in the season had been to do the half-marathon, but a cranky knee has kept me from running as much as I would have liked so I opted for the 10 km.  It's a pretty enough place to run and it's mostly flat.  I surprised myself right at the start by finding myself at the back of the first third of the runners, rather than at the front of the last third of the runners.  This wasn't a very elite group, but it still felt good to be seeing the leaders up ahead.  At the turn around point, I could actually see most of the runners other than the first 3 who were way ahead of the rest of us.  I was able to maintain a steady pace and felt good throughout.  I was very pleased to have a finish time of 62 minutes when my goal had been 65 minutes.  Cool, cloudy weather helped too.

Hiking at Top of the World

 Last week, Dave and I did a backpacking trip into Top of the World Provincial Park in the East Kootenays.  This is one photo that does make it appear that we are at the "top of the world".  The hike into the campground is in excellent shape and is an easy hike.  The campground, located at Fish Lake, was lovely and clean and not very busy while we stayed (3 nights).  We enjoyed hikes to Sparkle Lake and to the top of Sugarloaf, where this picture was taken.  I also hiked to the Alpine View.  One thing I found to be a bit frustrating is that two trails were starred as "not maintained" so I expected to find a poor trail.  It was fine.  The hike to Sugarloaf, which is supposed to be maintained, had 64 things to climb over or go under.  It is also largely "in the woods" so the final destination is what got us to the top of the world.  We were surprised at how low in the alpine terrain we found ourselves most of the time.  It's a nice place but doesn't feel too much like the "top of the world".  A great place for a beginner backpacking trip.