Fifty Shades of Brown and Grey

At the end of last week we went to Oliver.  It's been a long time since we have been able to go over a weekend, but since our farmer's markets are over the year, that option has been opened back up to us.  I also thought it might be easier for our lovely housesitter Meredith to be there on a weekend, when she doesn't have to dash off to work.

Unlike our previous trip in early October, we did not run into any snow, at all.  Just rain, and a fair bit of it until we got closer to Princeton, and into the drier climate of the Southern Interior of the province.  The sky cleared for a little bit, and I think that was the only bit of sun we saw for the whole four days, and we saw the most beautiful of rainbows.  I think you have to have a really good camera to pick up the rainbow colours well, and so my photos do not do it justice. Even though I played around a with them a bit to try make the rainbow glow with the vibrance we saw, I was mostly unsuccessful.

We were in Oliver for three nights.  It was mostly an uneventful trip.  The sky was gray the whole time, except for late one afternoon when it cleared off a bit, but the sun was behind the mountain by then.  We did lots of dog walks, like usual.  Maybe not as long as we used to, as Jake doesn't have the endurance now at 15+ years old, that he used to.  He tends to lag behind before too long, and we have to keep turning around to check that he is still coming.  And one time I turned around...no Jake!  No point in calling him, as he can only hear you if you use the right pitch and is within a 100 feet or so. I started walking back, expecting to see him in the brush off to the side.  And I didn't see him, and then panic starts to build and the walking gets faster and turns into a jog, and then finally I spotted him, down the bank, chowing down on a dead salmon.  Bad dog Jake!  Well hopefully he didn't get much, and at least he didn't roll in it which might have been Luna's first choice.  

Even though the Fall colours had now just turned to fifty shades of grey and brown, the textures and lines were amazing.  The vegetation is so different to what we have here down near the coast, in our rainforest type climate, and I find it fascinating.

Milkweed pods drying up.

These almost look like withered grapes, but as far as I know they are the drooping berry clusters of the Smooth Sumac Rhus Glabra.  This spot must have got hit harder with some freezing weather than others.

I walked down the bank towards the river, and didn't even realized I picked up these travellers.  Thankfully not ticks, but a small flattened burr.  I left them until we were back at the car, and picked them off into the garbage.

Someone doing a little self promotion.  I thought there might be some bird seed in it, but no evidence of any.

And Luna, dear Luna.....if there is a prickly pear cactus to be found, she will find it! She couldn't move, as she had the cactus stuck to two feet.

The remnants of a wasp nest

A grove of cottonwoods with wood pecker holes

Walking north, south of Road 14

Looking southwest

Looking northwest

The cottonwoods from the other side of the river

I had to look twice at this....and then realized that was the name of the winery at the bottom of the sign.

Looking north

Looking south.  A couple of remnants of summer down there on the bank

Nearly 10 years ago, a small lake behind an crumbling earthen dam, broke free and roared down the creek bed (right in the centre of the picture, at the lowest spot of the foreground hills). It covered the highway and the orchards and roared toward the river.  The grass covered berm right in front of me is some of that mud and rock debris piled up.  There is really now no evidence that it ever happened, unless you know what to look for.

Well the close branch and the black berries were supposed to be in focus, not the other way around.  The silver foliage in the background was lovely though.  I don't know what kind of tree it was, but made me think of olives...

We had to wonder why these apples had been left.  If there hadn't been an 8' fence between us and them, we would have had a sample.

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Leaves

I've decided I want to get back into some blogging.....time will tell as to how that goes, lol!  A while back I was looking for something that I knew I'd blogged about, and then I started reading some old posts, and I enjoyed reading them.  After all, this blog is for me, it's just a lucky by-product that a few other people enjoy it as well, so I hope I can continue to keep you interested and amused.

This was part of our trail through the back bush, as we call it, about three weeks ago.  So pretty!  After what is sticking in my memory as a quite rainy September and most of October, we finally got some Indian summer.  I did wonder if it was even politically correct to call it that, and went to the 'knower of all things', otherwise known as Google, and the jury seems to be out on that one.

And this is the same part of the trail, just this past week.  

All the leaves are down, and they are very thick on the trail as they are in the underbrush around the trees, but you can't rake the leaves out of the underbrush.  Besides, there is an eco system out there, and I didn't want to disturb it that much, so decided to gather only leaves in the really thick spots on the trail.  I've always mulched our raspberries with leaves, it keeps the weeds down somewhat, as I gave up trying to keep them weed free, and the leaves are the only fertilizer they get.  After we lost half of the big maple at the bottom of the driveway, and some big pieces at the one by the gate, the leaves on the driveway are much much less, and not enough to fully mulch the raspberries.  As well as that, in the gardening group I belong to on Facebook, lots of info has appeared on the benefits of leaves as mulch, so I'm trying to get more on board with that.

Luna loves to attack the rake, which can actually be pretty darn annoying....

Nine bags of leaves collected from the back bush.  Larry went out with the tractor and trailer and brought them back.  I'll do some mulching at the upper garden, if I ever get it cleaned up.

Then Friday evening, just on the edge of dark and before the predicted rain I drove the car down the road.  There I met Larry who had taken the dogs for a walk while I finished off some jam, and we raked 6 more bags full from where the leaves had piled up along the shoulder.

Some leaves mulching the kale, and in the background the raspberries.

And then just some random Fall shots, playing around with a little point and shoot Nikon that I had bought second hand.  Unfortunately some coffee got spilled and ran down the back of LED screen of my DSLR (so little that I didn't even think it was an issue), but despite all my efforts, the camera died.

Happy New Year!

Where has the time gone!  I started this blog with great enthusiasm nine years ago.  The enthusiasm has certainly waned over the last few years, and this year it was pretty pathetic.  I thought I could do a brief recap of some of the things that happened in 2018, just to prove that we didn't actually fall off the edge of the earth.

Larry and I, Christmas Day 2018, during an afternoon walk around Mill Lake in Abbotsford.  We had gone to lunch at Meredith's.  Our Christmas dinner was on Boxing Day when we could be all together, as David and Melissa were at her parents on Chrismas Day.  A very relaxing Christmas Day, we kind of liked it that way.

Our annual photo.  I aim to take a different one each year.  Last year we had the massive tree hanging over our driveway, courtesy of the ice storm.  This year we had a bit of a post pounding party on Dec. 28.  Might as well take advantage of the younger muscles to replace a few fence posts.

Left to right... Meredith, me, David, Larry and David's significant other, Melissa.

Our dogs Jake and Luna, and David and Melissa's dogs, Chy(ene) and Tucker.  I had enough thrift store sourced rain gear to outfit the visitors!  No ice storms this Christmas, it was mild and wet.

Our sweet Jake, at somewhere around 14 1/2 years old, is showing signs of some Canine Cognitive Dysfunction.  We had some weird nighttime barking happening in the early Spring.  We finally figured out that his night vision was not good, and once we left a lamp on and some night lights, he was okay.  In August he had an odd event, and then some lesser similar ones a couple of months later.       I did decide that they were probably some sort of seizures.  He also has a perianal adenoma under his tail.  He has been to the vet a couple of times about these things, but I don't think this vet is going to be a huge help with the doggy dementia.  I've joined a group on Facebook and from what I see there, every dog is different, and a different cocktail of drugs and supplements may or may not work for each one.  He also showed signs of anxiety in the evenings, and being unable to settle.  One day I happened to read something in the Tumeric User Group on Facebook.  Sundowner Syndrome was mentioned, I looked it up, and there were Jake's symptoms all laid out in front of me.  He seems pretty stable right now.  I've added an Omega 3 supplement, he was already getting turmeric Golden Paste.  I've bumped that up and am giving it to him four times a day (when I remember) with a small add on of a curcumin supplement.  I've added in a bit of CBD oil.  He settles well in the evening, most days. One day at a time.

I grew lots of veggies again this year.  Some successes, some failures.  I failed to get a proper roof over my tomatoes, and they fell to the usual viruses that hit tomatoes here in the late summer.  They need to be protected from the rains at that time of the year.  This year was a bumper crop for fruit, so we had lots of pears and apples to sell, as well as plums and a few raspberries and blueberries.

Our winter has been very mild so far, so I'm still picking things from the garden.  The carrots, broccoli and greens were picked just recently.

So, not long ago I had this post finished, all ready to hit publish.  I was working on the old laptop and it was giving me a bit of trouble.  I hit something wrong, after I thought it had saved the post, which hadn't happened.  So everything from here on down was lost.  I wanted to cry.  So probably a couple of more weeks has passed since then....

This was the year of Larry getting a hear aid.  I was probably happier about it than him.  At least I didn't have to repeat myself so often!  He was able to hear customers at the market much better, and he would definitely notice the difference if he didn't have it in.  Thankfully he only needed one in his left ear.  

This is one recurring problem though.  The clear tube keeps turning red.  No one seems to be able to tell us why.  He is now on his third tube, and it is already 'pinking' up after just a week.  The hearing place is stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

We started two things in 2018.  One of them was puzzles. It all started in the Spring when I picked up a free brand new puzzle at a garage sale.  When we put all the leaves in our dining room table, there is enough room for the puzzle at one end, us to eat, and leftover horizontal surface at the other end for piles of papers, lol.  We don't have a puzzle going all the time.  One was finished over Christmas when David and Meredith really got gungho and spent a lot of time working on it.  I just got another one out yesterday.

The other thing we started was square dancing.  Oh my! Never ever thought we'd be square dancers.  I remember my mum and dad going to square dancing when I was a kid, and we still have their square dancing badges.  January 2018 we took advantage of the three free lessons offered by our local club, and we were hooked!  So much fun, and quite a workout too.  I swore I'd never wear one of those big poufy skirts (much more poufy than in my parent's era).  I do like to wear a skirt, and I've got some pretty full skirts, but haven't taken the crinoline plunge just yet, although I'm close, very close, lol!  It's funny, I've talked to quite a few women that also swore that they were never going to wear one of 'those' skirts, and now they do.

Here's Larry front and centre at a demo our club did at a Christmas festival.  I'm there too, just a head visible between two other heads on the left.

And then, after much thought, I made a big decision.  A huge decision, to mostly put an end to the market that has been a part of my life for 20 years.  Add another 6 or so years before that, that I did other markets, fairs, events.  I feel like I'm losing a part of myself to end it, but it's time to make time for other things.  I have admitted that I might still go to the market randomly, maybe once a month. It's the pressure of having to keep up production enough to put on a good show every week that I want to get away from.  I still don't know how this is all going to play out.  We shall see.

I have a massive amount of fabric, so have been putting some effort into getting some things sewn up.   

Aprons, bags, bibs, tea cosies maybe, lap blankets,  all coming up I hope. I'm working on aprons at the moment.  Thirty six so far.  

Our winter has been so mild, we've been able to work on outside stuff.  So much to do, not enough energy, or maybe not enough enthusiasm.

Better go out and clean out another chicken coop!

Paddling on the Pitt

I really should do a post on things around here, but sometimes a post just presents itself and it's just easier to take the path of least resistance, lol!  

Meredith had some time off work, and no big plans for it, so we figured we could at least get one day of kayaking in there.  I wanted to go to to Pitt Lake, which is what we did.  The plan was to cross the lake and go into Widgeon slough and paddle up the creek from there.  We weren't exactly sure where the entrance was, so went across the lake and up the shore to the north a bit, for some sight seeing.

Below is where we set off from, although the picture was taken when we got back.  It was cloudy when we started out.

The entrance to the slough was just behind the boat to the right, we could tell that when we got out on the water, but still kept to the original plan of paddling to the right once we got across.  It was quite breezy there, and I had read that it often gets windy, but just a light bit of chop on the lake at that point.

The sky was looking promising, and the forecast was for some sunshine, so we were hopeful.  Meredith took most of these pictures, so that is me.

Heading back south down the lake.  Depending where you read, Pitt Lake is either the largest or second largest tidal fresh water lake in the world.  I couldn't find out which lake is considered larger, if there is one.

The water was very shallow along that grassy area, and at low tide is probably dry ground.  There is a 2-3' tide change.

Look at that sky.  The sky was amazing that day.

We found the slough and it was quite calm behind Siwash Island.   Some very shallow bits there too, Meredith and I both ran aground, gently enough that we were able to push ourselves off with our paddle.  Parts were a bit weedy in the slough.  The sky was a bit ominous, coming over the mountains on the west side of the lake.

We found the entrance to the creek.  

We were heading northwest and then north.  The sky was looking pretty ominous now, and Meredith was sure she felt a drop of rain.  

We had been paddling for an hour or more by this point, and shoulders and arms were aching.  A sandy bank presented itself and that seemed like a good place to stop and stretch our legs and put on a long sleeved layer.  It had gotten quite cool.  We had taken some muffins and dried apples, so we called that lunch.  

Those two mountains were interesting looking.  We weren't quite sure where we were, we had passed a side channel that may have been the way to the actual creek, and we couldn't get any phone reception so no help from google.   Since we were tired and knew we had quite a way to go to get to where we had started from, we called it good and headed back.  We were paddling into the wind now, but it wasn't as hard as we thought it might be.

The tide was going out, so the water level was dropping.  We kept to the deeper channel on the way out.  When we got to the open lake the wind had definitely picked up.  There were white caps and some big swells.  We made out okay going across, at an angle to the wind.  It was a bit exhilarating, not really scary, but you had to pay attention and there was no stopping paddling to take any pictures.

I think that dark double topped mountain over Larry and I is actually a sideways view of the two humps in the previous two photos.

The sun was shining on the east side of the lake, and we were happy to have made it back in one piece.  None of us felt anywhere close to tipping coming across the lake, but we were glad that the wind wasn't blowing any harder.

The longest paddle we have done this summer, and but it was probably the most interesting one too.