Santa was Good to Us

My sister Sybille was into pinecone crafts this Christmas.  We got this lovely wreath from her.  Also some owl ornaments:

And then Santa left another owl in Leo's stocking!

Last Day in Smithers

We hit the sweet spot between 1 and 2 pm on Seymour Lake for a last ski.  It was pretty cloudy but the sun peaked through just before 2 pm for this lovely skyscape.

Christmas in Smithers

There's not much snow in Smithers this Christmas so the ski hill has only one lift open and the cross-country ski trails are suffering from lack of fresh snow.  But Seymour Lake is hopping with skaters though you can't tell from this photo.

Imagine our surprise when we skied out on the lake to find this:

Yes, a wealthy Smithereen has purchased himself a mini Zamboni and the Seymour Lake crowds will all benefit from it.  Here he is icing his personal hockey rink, but he'll also be maintaining the public skate trail that winds around the lake.

I'm a little nervous about falling and rebreaking my ribs for skating, but skiing around the lake was just about right.  Today we managed to hit the warmest part of the day after lunch and before the sun falls behind the mountains at 2 pm.

In other news my mom and I had a good laugh.

Soon we are off to my sister's house for turkey dinner.

Merry Christmas!

Last Sunday Walk before Christmas

It's a winter wonderland out there!

The walkers posed for a photo, courtesy of Pat Radolla.

Tuba Christmas

This year's Tuba Christmas is on Youtube, featuring Leo in the Men's Choir and Connie in the Brass Ensemble.

Community Band Christmas Concert

Our conductor Laura video'ed the entire concert on Facebook.

Ha Ha

(Via Bryan Chubb's twitter account)

According to this I used to be an unbearable young snob but only while camping.  Now I have a New Yorker subscription but never read it (half accurate) while Leo is faking fancy.

Finally a Dusting of Snow

We had periods of snow in the forecast for three days and finally got a 1-inch dusting on Wednesday.

Crossing the bridge in the Williams Lake Creek Valley with the Wednesday walking group.

Williams Lake is Freezing up

The ice is moving further and further out into the lake. It's making interesting patterns as it freezes.

Leo spotted two marsh wrens at Otter Point boardwalk.  It's very late for them to be hanging around.

Busy Season

Leo and the Cariboo Men's Choir sang Christmas carols at the Hobby Con on the weekend.

It was a busy weekend.  We went to 2 (!) concerts - Cod Gone Wild (Celtic Rock) on Friday night, and on Saturday night our local Juno Award winning musicians Pharis and Jason Romero played at the United Church.

And it continues to be busy for the rest of the week.  I have practices on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, the community band Christmas concert on Friday, more performances on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday next week.  Leo is singing at the Salvation Army kettle throughout the week.

Frosty!

It was -16 this morning when we got up.

I was the only person on the trails at Scout Island this afternoon.

The lake is starting to freeze up.  The ducks are all congregating at the outlet where the water remains open.  Still, there were quite a few birds out and about:  chickadees, American goldfinches, house sparrows, a flicker, mallards and goldeneyes, crows, and five swans flew over.

Inaugural Walk on new Scout Island Bridge

There was a locked gate at the other end so we didn't get very far.

View from the bridge

A cold and dark afternoon.  Very few birds around.  Only a few mallards and coots in the lake.

Sunset at Scout Island

Went for a walk at Scout Island in the late afternoon.  The sun was already setting at 3:30.

Out and About

We had a buck and a doe in our backyard the other day.

We went to Scout Island twice last week for short slow walks.

The city is putting in a pedestrian bridge for about $650,000.  At the moment it is a bridge to nowhere.

The weather has been cold and grey this week.

World O'Pain

Two weeks ago I was cleaning out my compost box when I slipped on wet grass and fell onto a large boulder.  Turns out I fractured 3 ribs.

It could have been worse, I could have landed on my head and lay there unconscious for hour till Leo found me.  As it was I got up and struggled down the stairs and lay in bed till Leo came home and took me to the hospital.

I was lucky I didn't puncture my lung. The ribs were not dislocated either, which is good.  I had no difficulty breathing, and I could stand, walk, and sit relatively painlessly.  It was just the transitioning between those positions that was excruciating.  Burping and coughing weren't much fun either.  Fortunately I lost all my sense of humour so I don't have to worry about the effects of laughing.

The doctor in Emergency told us it would take 2 weeks for the bones to start knitting together and a total of 8 weeks before I'm healed.

I won't be able to play the trombone for the foreseeable future either, and I have two concerts coming up that I'll have to miss.

Scene of the crime:  won't be popping out of any pumpkin patches anytime soon!

Anyway two weeks later I'm feeling a lot better.  I've been getting out of the house and going for short walks for the last 3 days.  I still can't lie flat in bed to sleep so I've been sleeping on the LaZboy in the livingroom.

Okanagan (Half) Marathon

On Sunday Leo got up early and jogged down to the Okanagan Marathon startling on the waterfront.  I slept in and arrived just in time to see him run in at 1:46:06.  I couldn't get my camera to work so I am relying on stolen official photos to illustrate.

At the finish line

He did pretty good, 6th in his age class, considering he's at the top end of the 60-69 age group*. 

*We attribute his good showing to his new (expensive) high tech Hoka Carbon X road running shoes which feature the same carbon fibre plate that adds an asterisk to the recent world record breaking performances in the men's and women's marathons.

Back at the motel with medal and high performance runners.

Saturday Afternoon in Kelowna

We found a dimsum restaurant in Kelowna for lunch.  Oddly it's got a Japanese name, Yamato, and calls itself pan-Asian.  Not a good sign, generally, but the dishes were good though there wasn't the variety you'd find in Vancouver, and we scratched our dimsum itch we've rarely satisfied since moving away from Vancouver 31(!) years ago.

Next stop was the Gellatly Nut farm in West Kelowna, a former farm and now regional park.   The nut orchard is still there and you can buy nuts or harvest your own. We've been here before; I discovered it while attending a conference at the Cove Resort next door when I was still working.  Later I came back with Leo in the fall and we harvested hazelnuts.  Fresh hazelnuts are insanely delicious.

Strolling through the nut farm

When we arrived this year the hazelnuts were finished but they had chestnuts and walnuts for sale.  We don't like chestnuts and the volunteer told us there were only a few walnuts left on the ground.  We decided we'd walk around and come back to buy some walnuts.

But on our stroll we saw lots of walnuts so went back and got a bucket and harvested our own.  It turns out fresh walnuts are also insanely delicious, and of course anything you harvest yourself tastes better.

Our harvest

We found a squirrel's cache of nuts at the base of a tree:

Hazelnuts, walnuts, and chestnuts

Just up the road from the nut farm we found another regional park, Glen Canyon, so we checked it out.

Heading out on Glen Canyon trail

There's lots of up and down stairways:

A shot into the canyon:

And the bird of the day!  Stellars Jay, BC's provincial bird.

Back to Kelowna

Okanagan Lake from Maud Roxby Wetlands Boardwalk

Back in Kelowna again.  Didn't we say we hated Kelowna after spending a week here in September for the Seniors' Games?  Suckers for punishment, we were back so Leo could run the Okanagan Half Marathon.

Turns out traffic's not nearly so bad when you're not crossing the bridge at rush hour with all the local workers and an additional 4000 senior athletes heading to their sport venues.  Plus we stayed right off Harvey Street and within walking distance restaurants, shopping and the race venue downtown so less driving was required.  And out we had some Airmiles so we stayed practically for free at the Kelowna Inn and Suites, a cut above our usual cheap mom and pop motel.

We've been to Kelowna many times before so we searched out some lesser known parks to visit on Saturday.

First off we headed to the Maude-Roxby Wetland in South Kelowna.  It was a challenge to find the entrance since Google Maps sent us to a locked gate on a private driveway.  But a little extra walking rewarded us with a little gem, supposedly the last remaining piece of wetland on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna.  (Actually there's another very nice reconstructed wetland located on the waterfront right downtown near the big Delta Hotel and the casino.)

There weren't a lot of birds around in late October, but in the spring I imagine it is full of ducks and warblers.

Next it was on to Father Pandosy Mission, the first non-native permanent settlement in the interior of BC.

It's a low-key heritage site with the original log cabins and a few more from the area moved on site.  We were the only people there.  You can go inside the buildings which have been furnished with period furniture.

As well, there's a fair-sized collection of horse buggies and farm machinery to check out.

We took the obligatory selfie:

Best Birthday Card Ever

I turned 61 recently (not saying when exactly, but apparently Google already knows because it was displaying birthday candles on the day, grrrr).

My friend Janet sent me the above photo - I thought it was pretty funny.  You may recognize those photoshopped images from some previous blog posts. That photo of my garden was taken before the frost and before a black bear visited.

I had thrown some rotten apples in the compost and in the night the bear ripped apart our compost bin right where I put the apples. Leo has now repaired the bin for the winter and we've had no more visits.

Thanksgiving in Smithers

I drove up to Smithers with my sister Dorothea for Thanksgiving.

We were lucky to have 2 days of decent weather.  On Saturday we hiked in Call Lake Provincial Park.  We hiked up to a ridge with great views of  Hudson Bay Mountain to the West and the Babine Mountains in the other direction.

Hudson Bay Mountain in background.

The next day we did our traditional hike up the Seymour Ridge Nature Trail to pick wild cranberries for Thanksgiving dinner.

Considering how frosty it's been there were still some mushrooms to be seen.  We collected some fresh looking but frozen hedgehog mushrooms which later made a tasty appetizer and also saw these club fungi:

(About 2" high)

We also spotted this,

the featured poop of the day!  (Martin or some other member of the weasel family, perhaps?)

We also heard an owl call, which we think was a boreal owl, followed by the sounds of mobbing chickadees and nuthatches.

The cranberry harvest has been better, but we did collect about a cup of berries.

Picking cranberries in the bog

which we ate with our excellent turkey dinner.

Dorothea and Cousin Ken tuck in