Crones' Capers Camping

It was time to leave the grandchildren and head home farther north.  We took the ferry back from Vancouver Island and drove through the Vancouver city congestion and were happy to stop 2 hours from home to just rest for the afternoon and evening at a RV park on a Native Indian Reserve north of Hope.  We were home the next day for laundry, gardening, weeding and packing up to go on Wednesday to set up a communal camp for my Crones' weekend.  I like to have extra days before and after.  I didn't get the spaces I wanted but we were happy to have sites right on the lake.  We were also close to the wharf.

Ten Crones showed up over the next few days.  Some stay 5 days and some only 2 but I like to book a full week for myself.  Old Man Watching comes to watch for a night or so at each end of the Caper.   It only costs $6 a night per RV for seniors so the price is right.   I had to nail our sign upside down to make the arrow point in the right direction at the park gate.

I used my cast iron pan to bang an axe into a tough log and broke it.  |I had that pan for over 40 years.  How can you break a cast iron frying pan?  I just claimed I hit Old Man on the side of his head, as he was being cheeky again.  I am tough.  Tough to get along with and tough to look at.

 The first arrival was Rhonda in her little van.  She made guacamole for appies time.  She also brought her American friend from Washington to spend the weekend with us.  She was a hoot too.

 The first catered meal was on Friday at noon.  Germaine treated us to an Hawaiian feast of pulled pork and papaya etc.  She showed us how to do a hula and played music and gave us all leis.  Dollar stores are great places to get props.  She even put little umbrellas in the Mai Tais she made for us.  

Janice got right into the dancing thing.

Sue from the USA and Leah couldn't resist fooling around with the leis.

Leah's husband, David, brought her and set their trailer up for our stay and then left, just like Old Man.  She and Kathy supplied the delicious chicken meat-only spaghetti sauce dinner on Friday night.  That called for red wine of course.

Brenda stole my hat as the sun was so strong and a few of the wise ones got touches of burn.  Is that wise?  The heat in the day was draining so the adventurous went for walks in the woods and kayaking trips and everybody floated in the lake many times a day.  Foam noodles are fun.

 The bravest still sleep in tents.  I caught a trout in front of the red tent.  It was good too with bright pink flesh.  I fried it in the cracked iron pan.

Saturday at noon was a Mexican meal hosted by Janice.  She made quesadillas with fancy side dishes and played Mexican music and fed us Margaritas.  She had been to the dollar store too for festive napkins and wee sombreros on headbands.

 On Saturday during Happy Hour we play some games and one is a gift exchange, where you can steal somebody else's gift, twice only.  

Kathy got to keep her sign.  It says, "Thank God for Girlfriends"

Maggie stole my present but gave it back later as a thank you gift for sleeping in our RV.  All gifts must cost less than $10.  Maggie helped with appies and breakfast on her Coleman cooker and was able to stay two nights this year.  Usually she only comes for two days and one night.

It had been hot for days and forest fires were burning further north/south/east that made the air smokey.  I stayed 2.5 more days.  All the Crones had left but this is what we woke to on the last morning before Old Man drove the RV home for me and I drove the pickup.  It was difficult to see headlights and tail-lights on the road home as it got worse the further south we drove.

Where will we have our campout next year?

Another two weeks in the RV

Our oldest son's family flew to BC from Ontario safely.  The goal was to spend some time with cousins and family as they are so far apart most of the time unless there is a wedding or a funeral.  They did the Vancouver Aquarium etc and then came over to the Island to stay at my brother Art's. Before they got to the Island we had a few days with Travis' (second son's family) and spent a day at Westwood Lake.  Nolan and Eden built an elaborate sand fortress and then we buried them in sand.

​ We were all beat that night.  Too much sun and picnic foods.  They swam a lot, played on equipment and the day was sunny.  

​We left Nanaimo to go to Qualicum Beach a little further north, set up an RV camp,  and wait for the Ontario crew to arrive.  We had a few fun days at brother Art's, as he has a huge yard for his relatives and dogs.  Wee Dana from Ontario, fell in love with the dogs who are so gentle. 

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​We looked like a bunch of gypsies had descended on brother Art's side yard by his machine shops.  It was so hot that brother put the sprinklers on and then the children would get wet and laugh at sitting on me to make me cold. 

Then the happy families all went south an hour to Parksville for Canada Day beach activities

and night-time fireworks.  

Brother Art and Ingrid belong to a local old cars club so they drove up the Island to their Canada Day festivities.Duncan and I sneaked away out to the campground at Horne Lake where it was quiet for 2 nights.  Then the gang descended for lunch but to also go spelunking at the Horne Lake Caves on a family tour.  

​Jacklyn and the others all like teddy-bear pancakes made by Grandad and Nanny.  We had 5 adults and 5 children camping with us for most of two days. The campsites at Horne Lake each have privacy hedges between them and a private beach area.  Paradise Bay at the south campground is a tranquil spot with pristine waters.  I went for two morning showers/ dips there.

 I only landed 2 fish.  

The kayaking and swimming and running around playing hiding games in the woods will be wonderful memories for all of us.  Everybody else left on Friday but we had a lot of

fun.  

The sunsets were lovely and the weather warm.

We took the ferry from Vancouver Island to the mainland and drove through the crazies of Vancouver congestion.  Now it is time to clean the RV, do laundry and get ready to go to the Cariboo for my Crone's Capers week.  Every year we go to a different lake.  This year it is Greeny Lake just east of Lac La Hache.  We pride ourselves on being wise and gentle and easy going old ladies who like to poke sticks in fires and talk a lot.  

June camping and and and

I will miss a lot but here are the June highlights.  Our grand-daughter's first riding lessons week was delightful to watch.  She also caught her quota of fish.  She missed a week of  Kindergarten but learned a lot of real-life stuff.  She even got brave enough to bonk the trout and cut off the head.  Gutting is still not her job but she will watch it now.  

The first day of Nolan's week of playing hooky from school had turbulent weather.   He usually has luck with praying to the weather gods. :)  The first day was cancelled though due to lightning.  However the sky cleared to go back up the hill (behind his head in this picture) and catch more fish.  This is the second day as he practiced his arm circles while moving forward.

He worked on his homework while I did laundry at our suite.  It is also an easier place to clean fish as there is fresh running water. 

He got to go kayaking also as another friend came with kayaks and took him.  They left the kayaks for us to use anytime that week.  That was an unexpected treat.  They also came with a load of wood and visited often in the evenings.  He happily went home with a quota of trout for transporting.  

After we returned him to his father I invited a single mother and her daughter to visit the camp.  The daughter caught her first fish and also went kayaking.  She was so proud of herself.  She cooked on the fire and had a delightful time.  On Saturday I kept her overnight so her mother could have a break.  But all good things must come to an end and you are only supposed to camp at these wilderness recreational sites for 2 weeks at a time and we had been there 3 weeks.  So the big job of returning the RV to the village and cleaning it out had to be done. Then one of my former students, a special needs girl, invited me to her graduation.  She also got a scholarship to go to the nearest big college in the fall.  She is relishing the thought of independent living.  Here she is on the big day with her supportive cousin.

June is a busy month.  Father's Day weekend is also the local rodeo weekend and it is kick-started with a charming small town parade, led by an RCMP officer in full regalia.  

The grandchildrens' riding instructor also entered a horse group in the parade.  We just watched it go by down our street in lawn chairs out front.  That is our rv parked on the other side of the street.

My favourites are also the pipe bands.  It stirs something in my celtic soul.

I will do the rest of June at a later date.  

Been away a month

I actually thought about not blogging anymore because I had been away so long.  Then my fingers and brain got itchy to write.  I also needed to see what you folk out there had been doing.  So I think the best way for all of us, is to do a quick pictorial of May and then two of June.  I have been camping for over three weeks this time and am now at home for a week with Internet access.  So here are some May photos.  

  I gave out carnations and baby's breath to mothers/grand-mothers/great-grandmothers on Mother's Day Sunday at church.  The leftovers came back to me.

May's lilacs were lovely, scenting the village.  The pioneers who first settled here during the gold rush, must have missed this shrub from their homelands, as they are everywhere.  I went up and down the alleys of the village to pick these that hung over fences.  My mother painted lilacs on the limoge china vase for Old Man Watching and was painting his favorite flower on it when she died.  It needed another firing but Old Man liked it the way it was.  She was making it for a Christmas present but died on St.Patrick's Day in March.  I can't believe it was the 80's when she died.

We had taken the RV home for a week and went back to luckily find the best spot for the Grandkids' visit.  The geese came early one morning with 4 goslings.

Our grand-daughter came for her week of playing hooky and being with Nanny for fishing/camping/horsemanship.  

  She loves fishing in the AM in pajamas.  This was her second trout.

  A

friend came to take her kayaking to see the beaver lodges on the other side of the lake.  But she still had to do her violin practising every day.

  She took 4 days of horsemanship and was doing rising trots by the last afternoon.  She was even doing hoof pick up and cleaning on the second day....

  Nanny had a fun time with her.

I got to go camping

Eventually it stopped raining and  dried  up enough to get our RV into the lake spot that is our second choice.  I sleep so well up there.  

Here I am threading line on to tiny hooks.  The fishing was not good at all.  They seemed to be still down deep in the middle of the lake and lethargic even though the ice had been off the lake for a few weeks.  But I just love being out by a campfire and reading and getting some sun again finally after 6 months of fall and winter.  I actually got burned one day so had to get out my straw Minnie Pearl hat.  

 The willow trees along the shore were just starting to bud out and the hummingbirds came back.  The first morning they came to camp I was outside in my  housecoat to put in my lines, when one came right up to my nose and hovered as if to say, "Nope, no nectar in there."  So I put out two feeders but the first visitor was a butterfly.  Can you see it hanging underneath.  It returned to sip even when the hummers were fighting over the best red metal flower.

There is some kind of primal soothing that goes on around an evening campfire.  

A new immigrant, single mother from Dublin, and her daughter, came for one night to visit and experience the lake.  They loved it.  When it was too cold they played snap inside the RV.  It was an adventure for them to just open the sofa and sleep nose-to-toes for the night.  The dinette table also collapses into a 3/4 bed but they used the sofa as it is roomier.

It was cold in the morning, near freezing, and they had to wait for me to get up and put the gas furnace on and have coffee.  They made the coffee actually.  Fishing was poor but the sun was shining.  So the daughter, Trinity, decided to go floating on the lake.

They had to leave for school duties.  Another Old Scotsman who was there in a tent was doing an AA dry out.  He is hilarious and was there last year doing the same kind of retreat.  We had some cold nights and rain so I offered him the joy of coming inside to watch a DVD while the generator charged up the batteries.  He chose some old oaters like Bonanza and an old Mel Gibson.  He fell asleep on the sofa without it being opened so I just threw some more blankets on him and let him snore.  I was glad that I had shown him some Christian charity that cold night as in the morning the generator would not start.  He pulled out the batteries which was a tough job for a 73 year old.  He tried many tricks but decided one of the batteries was dragging the other down.  So we hauled them to town for testing and sure enough Old Man had to pay for a new deep cell battery.  Old Bill also re-installed them.  

I was so glad when I could clean up all the mess and have a furnace again and a generator that would re-charge things.

I was so happy to have the place uncluttered that I bought myself a bouquet of flowers for the wee table the next time we went down to the village.

 I was very thankful for my warm bed during the cold nights.

But oh how I love the peacefulness

of being out in the wilds.  The quiet and the flops of jumping fish and the beaver going by and watching eagles and osprey fish to feed their young is such a delight.