VISITORS

A few weeks ago our friends from Surrey stopped in to visit us on their way to see their son in Winnipeg and we had a wonderful time.  They were here for a day and half so on the full day, we took them out in our boat on Christina Lake.  It wasn’t very busy out there as a lot of the “summer visitors” head home in mid-August and we locals feel like we get our lake back.  Of course, the boat launch area is not as entertaining, but for me, it is less stressful with less traffic.

The day was sunny and warm and we were able to borrow a big tube to pull around behind the boat.  We went out two at a time and had some thrills going over the boat wake and swinging from side to side.  It was very stable so no one got dunked “by mistake”.

We had two weeks on our own and then Stuart’s Mom from Abbotsford came to visit for four days.  She took the Greyhound bus this time and it was a long but interesting trip.  She did plenty of reading and said that the trip home was more comfortable.

While she was here, we went on a hike along the old Kettle Valley rail bed that crosses Hardy Mountain right in front of our house.  We had talked about going up there every year since we moved here and finally made it.  What a fantastic view from there.

WEST END OF THE VALLEY

VIEW OF OUR PROPERTY FROM THE TRAIL

So now we are back to our regular routine and I’m pleased to report that I’ve started playing pickleball again.  We’ve been out 3 times and have enjoyed it very much.  I wear a sturdy knee brace for protection, but I still can’t move around as quickly as I’d like.  I’ve started laser therapy on the knee and it seems to be helping.

We had an early frost a couple of days ago and even though I covered the tomatoes, peppers and basil, the plants still suffered frost damage.  The tomatoes and peppers are still alive but not the basil.  The acorn squashes and zucchini died so I harvested everything that was mature.  The butternut squashes are half alive so I’ll leave the butternuts on for a few days to ripen.  The weather is warmer again which is really nice as summer doesn’t end until September 22 this year.