TRAVELLING EAST
15 Sep 2009 1 Comment
We have had good weather to travel, sunny, and warm. We arrived the first night in Salmon Arm, the most surprising thing the first day was the state of the forests. For a long distance on the Coqulhalla highway, it was apparent that the pine beetle had done a lot of damage. So many of the trees are dead or dying, it was the worst that I have ever seen. It makes me feel sad, the only way to get rid of the pine beetle is cold temperatures of -40 for a few weeks. It hasnn’t been that cold in the interior for a number of years.
The second day we drove on to Banff and arrived at suppertime and stayed with relatives in town. I was able to cut out my mom’s blouse. In the morning we had stopped at Three Valley Gap, and looked at the museum. The mountains are spectactular and it was a great drive. It doesn’t matter where we go there is road construction everywhere. The roads will be great eventually and another section will be torn up.
The next day we met up with family for lunch at a pub. The soup was delicious cream of chicken with corn and peas. We travelled on to Hanna for the night. I was able to sew on my mom’s blouse.
Sunday, we drove on to Saskatoon to stay with other relatives, we will be here for a few days and we haven’t made many plans yet. On Monday, we visited with various cousins.
Eleven days on the boat.
08 Jul 2009 1 Comment
I don’t have any pictures yet, the camera is still on the boat. The weather was variable wind, rain, sun, cold, hot. We stayed an extra night in Naniamo because of the wind and rain, walked around the town with 2 jackets on each. When we went through Dodd’s narrows, the current is up around 9 knots, so everyone waits for slack water and it was really busy with about 25 vessels plus a tug with a barge, every one was calling up on the radio with security messages.
We went to the Beneteau rendevous, over 60 boats. One man had just circumnavigated the globe, in a 30 foot boat. There was lots of fun and games and also some fund raising. Around $500 for children’s hospital and $600 for the Disabled sailors association. I attended a cooking demonstration with raised money for the disabled sailors, about 18 receipes to taste and I learned lots about good utensils and products to take on a boat. I didn’t go to the cooking lesson on the last rendevous but will certainly like to attend another one someday.
We visited a couple of places Chemainus, Otter Bay and Sidney Spit.
We spent 2 days in Ganges, on Salt Spring Island and I splurged at the Stitches Quilt store.The new location is wonderful. The last night was Canada day, so we had a great spot on the dock to watch the fireworks, listen to the anthem and the song which was made popular during Expo ’86, Our Home Our Canada. It was a great evening with everyone cheering and the boats with all the horns honking.
After all the years of sailing, I saw my first orca in the wild. It’s so joyous to seem them.
Here we are tied up to a mooring bouy.
The last day coming home, was long, bumpy with good sized troughs and I could only cope with that with my eyes shut. My head was just throbbing and needed ice on return home. Hubby went out the next day for another rendevous. I was glad for some downtime and stayed home.
Home Again
11 Feb 2009 1 Comment
I was in Toronto for a few days, nice to get away from home for a few days, visiting family.The weather turned fairly warm on Saturday with a warm wind. We went for lunch at the Autogrill and took part in the Winterlicious program, I had some excellent pizza with very thin crust. Then it was onto the subway and the streetcar, nearly the full length of Queen Street.
The first stop was the Purple Purl, a neat yarn shop and then a long ride again over to Dufferin and to the Workroom. I took a little side trip to look at contemporary jewelry at Made You Look and we also had a look in the fabric store, I can’ t remember the name but some excellent things in there as well. One final stop on the way home to look in Fluevog’s. I didn’t buy anything but that was OK.
I spent some time knitting and my new socks (Arequipa) are coming along quite nicely.
We had two hours of turbulence on the plane, couldn’t knit during that, just kept my eyes shut and tried to ignore the whole thing. The next plane was late due to a mechanical problem. It was a long day and just glad to get in the door at 1am.
road trip
01 Dec 2008 Leave a Comment
We drove up to Williams Lake this weekend, a seven and a half hour trip. A much better drive coming home as the road was dry but there was still a fair bit of fog. Fog, rain, slush on the road going up made us glad we had 4wheel drive. This was a fair size group of Mountain sheep at the side of the road, about 16 animals, I didn’t count.
I have never been in the Cariboo when there was snow, just a skiff on the ground but living on the coast I have never seen sage brush, and golden grasses in the snow before. I was quite taken with a different colour scheme.
While my husband was out lecturing, I stayed in the hotel and sewed a jacket. It was just a track jacket made of sweatpant fabric but there was a few things new to me and I still have the zipper to put in.
I met up with my cousin for a chat and on the way home stopped for a bite to eat at Bridal Falls and a nursing buddy was in the next booth. It was great to catch up with her as well.
Memories of Nice
31 Oct 2008 Leave a Comment
Nice is known for the colourful building with iron balconies, the beach and promenade walk and the big yachts. The Four Point Hotel we discovered on one of our walks and I was intrigued to find this statue of a woman, in the side of the building.
The yacht basin is beautiful with colourful buildings surrounding the area and all types of boats in the harbour. The marina is in between the hills in the last picture.
Both days that we were there last April, were windy but very pleasant.
The last look.
23 Oct 2008 Leave a Comment
The first three pictures were from Vatican city. The mosaic was wonderful, the marble floors mind blowing and my head was bursting with all the details. Sculpture, paintings, altars, ceilings, incredible workmanship everywhere.
Dh and I in Harry’s Bar having a lunch after wandering through the Villa Borgese. It isn’t just a villa but a huge park with lakes, zoo, gardens, galleries and much more.
A day at the Colosseum
19 Oct 2008 1 Comment
Rome was celebrating a birthday, #2761, the day we visited the Colosseum, lots of flags, people, vendors and a parade. Who could ask for anything more?
We posed in the plastic armor, thinking that was the only pictures we would get to take. The Roman Legions were out in full force, along with the women in their flowing gowns.
As usual click on pictures for more details.
Rome, still day one
17 Oct 2008 1 Comment
A group of people selling their knock-offs outside of the Vatican. Within minutes all was packed up and people were running to keep out of the clutches of the police.
It is best if you have a small car, we were glad to be walking and relying on bus transport. My husband would never have found a parking spot.
It is always fun to look at architecture and the size of the doors on the old buildings, my dh is over 6 feet and still look at the size of the door and how far up the door knockers are off the ground. We thought that if you were on horseback, you’d have no problem.
The Spanish steps in daytime, fabulous potted flowers, loads of people, a fountain, fabulous shops, Missoni, Just Cavali, Salvatore Ferragamo and MiuMiu grouped around the square. I had lots of fun window shopping.
Sculpture just amazes me, and all these figures. Lots of inspiration. The sky behind the most incredible blue.
On the boat
26 Aug 2008 1 Comment
The first night on the boat in Clam Bay in the Gulf Islands.
I loved these rusted sculptures in the garden at the marina in Genoa Bay on Vancouver Island. I’d love one of these in my own garden. Some wild life on the rocks in one of the channels.
A poor colour rendering of my bag of many pockets from Felt Frenzy, I used Patons Classic Merino, 2 strands throughout, the green is jade heather and I can’t find the label for the tweed. Edit: it is Rich red tweed. I have attempted a matching wallet and now they need to go into the washing machine.
Entering the Pass, pretty calm and out the other side of the pass, with West Vancouver just under the dark section of cloud with the UBC bluff. You’ll have to zoom in to see it! The water was so calm, a big giant could skip a stone to Vancouver.
I have gone through here before, praying for it to soon be over as the boat rocked to and fro as it hit eddys and the ocean swell. But this time, I actually sat in the cockpit and knit!
Boating but no sailing
26 Aug 2008 1 Comment
Nothing like taking a sailing vacation and having the weather do the unexpected. We were gone 8 days and had the sails up for 45 minutes. Most of the time no wind and the time the sails were up, it was blowing pretty good with whitecaps on the water pushing us from behind. I, of course, am not much of a sailor, so I enjoyed the motoring.
The first five days the weather was hot, and we stayed in Clam Bay, Ganges and Sidney. I had lots of knitting time and the only hobby things I took this trip was my knitting.
We spent one night in Genoa Bay, neat spot and we hadn’t been there before and it was good shelter from the wind.
The last 2 night were spent at Telegraph Harbour. We stayed an extra night because of small craft warning and the barometer was really dropping. That afternoon, 4 hours of rain. We were content in our boat, knitting, reading and surfing, we had good internet access. Got to love wireless internet. So I spent my time looking at ravelry and reading my favorite blogs.
The next day, the pass had slack water at 2pm, we left the moorage at noon, the sea was as smooth as glass all the way to Vancouver and we were home by 7:30.
Pictures next time.
