Summer Screens

Dave took the screen doors off today and that always makes me feel a bit sad. I love the sound of the door slamming closed - it has such a summer sound to it. I cleaned up the gardens at the hospital grounds and brought home the pots. Today we made a quick trip out to the local nursery and picked up a couple of plants. I closed down one of the water gardens and pulled up a few more plants out of the garden that aren't producing well. We're actually ready for those grandchildren to be born .... now if only they'd get at it!

Signs of Fall

Summer took a long time to get here, but we've being enjoying summer weather now for two months. The first hints of fall have appeared - we've even had to wait until this week to start picking fruit! Today, we headed off to Monica Meadows and I realized that I hadn't been up here for two years. It's worth a trip EVERY year. Fall is the best time. The larches haven't turned at all in the valley but up here, everything is golden. We travelled over some bits of icy trail and it was coolish, but a perfect day to hike in the alpine. The view here is of the Horseshoe Glacier from the larch laden slopes of Monica Meadows.

It Takes A Village!

The library has been moving back to our "old" location in the 1898 City Hall building. The renos included the installation of a sprinkler system (won't that be good for a library if it goes off unnecessarily?), a geothermal heating system, new wiring, and a somewhat raised ceiling. We started the work last Friday by having a cleaning crew come in to wash all the shelving, clean the bathroom (a new one), and to start putting things away. Last weekend, volunteer crews came in to pack books at the temporary location. That went so well that Monday we were able to cancel the work party. Tuesday, the grade 7 class helped us move our things from their storage location (this was half of our collection, packed into boxes since January) and they did a superb job. Everything was placed into our permanent location and it was colour-coded for location. Wednesday and Thursday, we had volunteers shelving materials from all the boxes. We all worked like stink. It got done. Saturday we plan to be open! Let's hope that the internet gods and goddesses continue to bless us. Our librarian, Eva, is a master of moves!

Fall Planting

We had rain in the forecast so yesterday I got busy in the garden and planted the garlic. We doubled the amount we planted this year. Garlic was a super crop for us this year, but I know it won't "see us through" until next season. I also got a few shrubs planted that were generously given to me by my sister in Summerland. Guess what? It didn't rain!

Yahoos and Moonlight

Monday was the full moon and we had a calm and quiet Kootenay Lake that afternoon. We decided to go "out" for supper and headed across the lake to Powder Falls with all the fixings for a wiener roast and a few beer. Luckily for us, someone just pulled out of the area before we arrived. We had a very nice couple of hours and then headed out at 7 p.m. It's now getting dark at 8 p.m. so we went for a short paddle south on the lake before heading across. It was absolutely magnificent with the reflections. Unfortunately, we had a constant humming in the background as a couple of yahoos followed us and were attempting to come close, but would veer off and head back towards Kaslo. This behaviour was repeated 3 times. As we got close to Garland Bay (directly across from our place), they seem to have given up their hollering and following and we made the sprint for the 30 minute canoe paddle across the lake. The full moon appeared and it was all good! Those moons bring out the madness in all of us.

Go Figure

We just came back from a short trip Stateside while this gorgeous summer weather continues. We understand that America is broke. The day after Labour Day it appears that camping in the national forests of two states has become free! In Washington, we were able to get free trail guides and maps of Colville National Forest. In Idaho, conditions were much the same, although we didn't obtain free literature. Its should be reassuring to see that things haven't changed a bit - "everything's free in America" - but we all know that it isn't true.

We did enjoy the great weather, some nice biking along Sullivan Lake and a new trail into Copper Falls, ID about 1.6 km south of the border. We also enjoyed cheaper prices on many things. I'll confess that my first items of purchase were beer, taco chips and salsa. We loved going out for lunch for less than $30.00 and that includes beer, tax and tip. On our return into Canada, the customs agent asked us how long we'd been in the U.S., if we had any alcohol or tobacco on board, and then said she had to deal with a wasp and waved us on. Free camping and fearful customs officers - go figure!

Hiking 2011: Healy Creek area

The "Sunday" hikers were out on Labour Day yesterday in a new area for me. It's located off "highway" 31 (a gravel road) near Gerrard. It took about 2.5 hours to get to the hiking area from Kaslo and we only walked for about 5 hours so it wasn't the most efficient use of our time. However, the views were amazing! We first walked toward a saddle and had really good views out to the Badshot Range. I wasn't willing to walk to the second saddle (too much gray rock and snow in bright sunshine), so some of us headed back to walk the opposite direction where green alpine slopes gave us views of the Healy Creek Valley. We also had a chance to spot a couple of the spires of the Bugaboos way off in the distance. We're still into full on summer here in the Koots so it was a great day for 14 keen hikers. A bonus for us on the way home was a mother grizzly with 2 cubs (her twins!) crossing highway 31 - beautiful silver-hair on all 3 of them. Mum was very relaxed about us and re-crossed the road, watching the truck all the time before disappearing into the brush with the babes. They were probably going to take a dip in the Lardeau River.