Cousin Rita

Cousin Rita came for a quick visit for 2 nights and 3 days after getting back from her long, boring weeks and weeks holidaying in Mexico, wink wink.  She looked tanned and fit and relaxed.  I am jealous as I have no tan left at all this year. We did not do the snow-birds thing over our cold Canadian winter and probably never will again.   She needed to drive from Kelowna, British Columbia, about 3 hours away, before going back to work on a long contract and long hours at a road construction site this week.  The roads were good for her route last week, but we have been having bad avalanches on our BC roads in mountain areas.  

We always enjoy talking with her.  She is researching the valley and the settlers and ranchers who lived around Pavilion BC, where she and Old Man were raised.  So she is always asking Old Man about what he remembers.  She is getting info from people she has never met, as they connect with her researching forays on the Internet.  It gets exciting to find out who ranched/managed which ranch for years and years and to read about their memories.  

We went to a funky little local restaurant that has been a part of the town since the turn of the 1900's, which also now sells antiques.  We went for their large wonton soup lunch on Thursdays at noon.  
Rita paid the bill so it was extra tasty.  

I also took her to a friend's art gallery up on the hill.   Rita absolutely stunned me by buying paintings of her birthplace for $1200 and then asking for a commissioned one of a specific view.  

You have to have experienced Marble Canyon to appreciate Jo Petty's paintings of it.  It is a magical and spiritual place.  We love camping there.  Jo Petty, the artist, is holding up one of the paintings.  We also know all the old Indian legends that are attached to different places in the area.  Those tales make the paintings come to life and make them more meaningful.   I also brought home two paintings ... to try out ...but am shaking my head as we are supposed to be DOWN-SIZING.  I may keep the smaller one.

Old Man Watching's brother has written a book called

"A Cowboy's Life" which is mostly about his/our early years when we were on the Empire Valley Ranch.  He acknowledged that our cousin who was visiting, Rita Morrison-Bryson had done much of the research that he quoted.   

Below is our GReeaaaaaat Auntie Liz and Old Man Watching's brother, Mack, who wrote the book.  Somehow I feel Liz may have helped quite bit with the editing and the fine tuning of Mack's stories.  But local people seem to love the book.  I actually enjoyed the stories about the interactions 50 years ago with the local First Nations folk, as much, if not more than, our family history.  The Indian cowboys and their families, just make me laugh and laugh.  It is a special sense of humour they have.