It's been a busy hot summer up until the time of writing. I believe it would be safe to say that very few of us out west could have complained about the summer we have enjoyed this year (apart from those affected by the smoke in areas of BC and Alberta).
There were probably ten or twenty days this summer that we could have benefitted from air conditioning or a heat pump, but the cost to install it on the Island, by far outweighs the benefits of actually having it for the few days that we felt uncomfortably hot.
Healthwise, we are doing OK - just about. I (Ken) had an almost immediate onset of hip pain that has left me somewhat incapacitated. It has been confirmed by X-rays that I have medium stage osteoarthritis in the hips.
We anticipate that I will have to have my right hip replaced, but when I made a call to the specialist's appointments coordinator, her words were "the wait list to see the specialist is between one and a half to two years, so if you are thinking of going away anytime soon, by all means do so, as you are unlikely to be hearing from us in the near future. I was shocked but what can one do? Not a lot.
Apart from that morale is good. We are in preparation mode for "hatches down" as the rains arrive at some stage this fall or early winter. We may try to take off to Calgary later on towards years end and maybe down to Las Vegas and Mesquite, Nevada in the early part of 2018. We will have to wait and see nearer the time. One thing we always watch is the Canadian dollar exchange rate to US dollars which at the moment is not that good for us going south.
During the summer we have had well over 130 large fires burning in BC. One such fire was at last extinguished a few weeks ago after burning for over a year.
Some of these fires are naturally occurring, the result of lightning but sadly, others are caused by careless people discarding cigarette ends or not extinguishing camp-fires properly before they depart which results in millions if not billions of dollars worth of property damage and tree losses
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| Actually honey, Wayne just hooked a big one. I am still looking for that reasonable bite that might result in me catching a monster Salmon shortly. |
Fishing has wound down now as the adult Salmon have reached the rivers to spawn. The Halibut once again thwarted us this year, but my rods are both rigged and ready for next year's season.
With the approach of fall, we are beginning to feel the change in temperature so we picked off the remaining tomatoes and rid ourselves of the plants that adorned our front patio throughout the summer giving us heaps of sweet fresh red tomatoes to slice and make sauces and salsa.
We are seeing many of the leaves on the trees beginning to turn the rich gold, brown, and deep reds we often see in areas lucky enough to enjoy the four seasons but on the flipside of that coin, we know the winds will increase and the rains will arrive fairly soon.
We have to endure the loud sound of the frogs that wake us in the early morning on a daily basis. Something we never had experienced in Alberta. We are pretty sure that some of them camp underneath our bedroom window all night just to annoy us in the mornings.
In anticipation of a change in the weather, we have completed the fall cleanup and returned the yard back to just lawns and flowerbeds - getting rid of our raised veggie beds that were more trouble than they were worth in the end. We have concluded that farming is not one of our strong points.
The hummingbirds seem to have headed south for the winter which is surprising because we had them all year around for the past two years up until a month ago, but now they are gone.
However, in their place we have the Stellars Jays coming to the yard. Gorgeous birds that are a part of the Jay family. I believe that maybe they have frightened off the hummingbirds and that's why we aren't seeing them around any longer.__________________
As many of our North American readers know, that wonderful time of year - Thanksgiving is fast approaching. But for the uninitiated across the pond, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving a good month to six weeks before it is celebrated in the US. I believe it is because the harvest is gathered here sooner due to our colder weather. We love to cook the traditional turkey that day, even if it is just us sitting down to enjoy it.
As the kids have aged, married and moved away, and some relatives have passed on, our group has dwindled somewhat over the past few years down to a table laid for two in some cases but that's to be expected as we age and due to where we live relative to everyone else.
That having been said, we love the US thanksgiving celebrations. They seem to make more of it than Canada does, culminating in Black Friday when you cannot move in the stores down south. That's due to the fact that it signals the first official shopping day to Christmas. The stores in the US offer huge discounts and in most cases, it's their busiest shopping season.
After Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween is just around the corner. The traditional pumpkins are now in the stores so we can prepare for the little ones on their rounds on Halloween. Better head to Walmart to buy some candy.
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Christmas and 2018 are not far away. With those celebrations behind us, we will prepare for the next items on the agenda.
The first is those, is August 7, when Donna and I celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Then on August 20th, I will celebrate my 70th birthday.
We have decided to combine the two occasions into one, so on August 11th, we will be having a party at our home in Crown Isle Courtenay.
Of course, we are aware that not everyone who will be invited will be free at that time, but if we know well in advance that people will be arriving, we can book rooms or suites for them locally a three-minute walk from our home at discounted rates at the local Resort and Golf Club or at one of the local RV sites for those travelling with RV's.
Rooms in hotels, motels and RV sites book up very quickly for the summer on the Island. For that reason, we will be sending out the invites in the early part of 2018 so people can plan well ahead.
If visitors are going to be here for any length of time, we can arrange tours of the local wineries, golf and/or salmon fishing charters as it will be the height of the salmon fishing season here at that time. There's lots to do here, lots of walks to go on and things to see and visit.
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Finally, I am not quite sure how many of you have had the opportunity to see and share in the sheer delight and beauty of nature at its best.
The two shots below were taken in Campbell River here on Vancouver Island not 36 miles or 60 km north of where we live. It is of course of the Aurora Borealis. It was not taken by me but this was it, just six weeks ago.
If you come up in August of next year and are out later on in the evening, you may get a chance to see it if you are lucky but the sun and atmospheric conditions need to be just right.
That's it for this blog. Keep safe and we hope to see many of you in August.
Post Script:
We have been watching this morning on the TV, the terrible carnage in Las Vegas Nevada. Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to all those poor souls who lost their lives and their families and to the over 500 people who were injured by this madman and to the police and EMS and first responders. It makes us wonder where and when will this all end.
