Travelling Into August

We travelled up to the lake where we fish and camp with the grandkids in the spring.  We were trying to escape the heat in the river valley.  We camped in the bushes near a back-eddy area, for a week, and glory of glories.... there were no bugs.  I do enjoy my evening campfires.  It is a spot that looks like there should be alligators but we don't have them in Canada.  There were a lot of goldeneye ducks and frogs and beaver though in that backwash area.  We could hear them slapping their tails to warn their friends of danger.  I watched a golden eagle for several days as he used the closest telephone pole for a perch to watch for dinner prey.  The trout are sluggish in the summer so we were not interested in fishing, but just wanted shade during the day.

  Eventually Old Man's tailbone healed enough that he didn't need to use a cushion to sit on a campchair.  He needs to stay out of hedges.  It might not hurt so much if he landed on his head instead of his butt.  He agreed with me about that.

We had a few visitors while camped in those shady bushes.  Our landlords from last winter, who both retired this year, came to see if we would like to rent the ground floor suite permanently.  They like living where they can walk everywhere in the village but are getting tired of the Bed and Breakfast work.  So it was on the market.  They want to go kayaking and fishing and camping and travel a bit.  They would take the house off the real estate market if we are there full time.  Can you see the agent's sign on their upper balcony?

The hanging baskets' colours got washed out in this picture, as they are lovely pinks and purples really.  The owners would still have 2 bedrooms to let upstairs but it sounded like a real win-win situation for us all.  We both get some freedoms back.  

We can put up our own pictures and add our own chairs etc.  Not having to care for  lawns or repairs or upkeep or snow-shoveling appeals to Old Man Watching.  We could help with guests if the owners are on holidays and share the profit.  The fellow renting our house says he will be ready to buy it in the spring.  Alleluia.  Perhaps all the coins will fall into their proper slots over the next six months.  This is a more appealing option for us than the independent/assisted living units we looked at for our old age.  At 76, with medical issues, this might be the best option for Old Man.   The hospital is 10 blocks away "in city talk" but about a mile in our talk.  Plus he claims he was born in Ashcroft (on the steps of the wee hospital in 1937) and wants to die in Ashcroft.  I am sorry I have written too much, just trying to catch up, but we will be out of Internet service for about 10 days.  

We had agreed to another house sit that was fortuitous as the weather went up into the 30's and they had A/C and a cool basement entertainment room.  I cleaned up all their flower beds and potted plants and kept the yard watered.  Duncan enjoyed the Internet and TV.  At church that Sunday a friend who is presently teaching high school English in a Christian school in Hong Kong, brought two sisters/students she was chaperoning around BC, named Shelley and Circle.  What an experience that was for them.

They got to see stars in a dark sky for the first time, made a snowman at Whistler ski hill, canned tomatoes and make jam (their kitchens at home are too small for that) and rode a horse, and make an inukshuk that they dismantled and took away for home in their backpacks as they were sad to leave it in Canada.  I wonder what airport customs will say about that?  They also were taken on a local produce farm tour, and got to go into a large field and see the miles of vines, find the flowers starting to become buds/small fruit, and then find WHOLE melons that they were allowed to pick.  At home in Hong Kong, melons come from the market.  They spoke English well, but I think they may have been a little befuddled by our liberal ways in church and the Quaker style silences, and then our welcomed discussions of the priest's teaching, by anybody after his delivery.  They did enjoy the Gospel style music though as that is what they had requested.  We had to sing, 'This Little Light of Mine' again this week but they liked it and knew the tune.  I am beginning to think that Southern Gospel is becoming international.  Imagine young ladies who had never cooked on a campfire or roasted marshmallows or fished for trout from shore but knew "This Little Light of Mine".  They thought our small part of Canada was 'totally awesome' and 'so much nature everywhere'.

A week later we decided to go back to Fountain Lake where my Crones group had their yearly campout in July.  
Other friends were already there and our future landlords came to visit for a few days also.  We were all escaping the normal summer heat in the valleys again.  I caught some nice-sized trout from shore while the boaters and kayakers weren't having much luck.  

Here I am pajama fishing one evening again.  I just have a hard time bringing in my rod until it is dark.  The purple fluffy slippers are a special good-luck fishing accessory.