Connecting with the community...and a reality check.

Backing up just a little...about two weeks ago, Brian suggested we go for a walk - nice idea, I'm all for it. We start by crossing the road and taking the little beach access lane down to the "beach" - more like a rocky shore. Anyway, it was very pretty with a different outlook onto the water.

Then we took the road that goes behind the houses which are behind our house - more nice views of the bay. Okay that was a bit of a workout as it's uphill, now let's go downhill and home - nice little half hour walk. Wrong! Intrepid Brian launches into the woods which start at the end of the dead end street. What was I thinking about? Cougars and bears of course. Anyway, not to appear to be a wimp, I obligingly follow along behind, agreeing to all of the exclamations of beauty coming from my hiking companion - I was still thinking cougars and bears! It really was pretty and we hiked and hiked and I started to relax a bit. And we hiked and hiked some more wondering when we would get to the end of this little forest. Finally joined a more main path and asked a lady where we were. Turns out we were a very long way from home - she suggested going back the way we came. Nope. The suggestion of a lake ahead fired up my hiking companion so that's the way we went. Finally, about two hours after we started (we did see the lake), we emerged from the other side of the forest. Had not seen one animal or heard any birds the whole time. Why don't the deer stay in the forest - it's pretty nice and a lot safer than wandering along the roads. The first thing we saw after leaving the forest - two big raccoons (emphasis on the first syllable please) wandering across the road and into a culvert! 

We used the iPhone to see where we were and to pick the shortest route home through the suburbs.

Our house from above (the one with the pond on the roof)

Into the forest! 

It was very pretty.

The intrepid explorer!

Cottle Lake.

Last week was Quilt Guild meeting again and it was lovely to go and be able to say hello and chat to the many now familiar faces of those who I met at quilt camp the previous week. I was invited to join the Material Girls group who quilt in a church basement close by once a week. I went for the first time yesterday and think I will enjoy their company - about a dozen or so go so it's not too big and they are pretty outgoing so hopefully I'll fit in. I was on my best behaviour so they would let me come back next week! Also made a contact for Brian for playing ice hockey. He has since strapped on the skates for the first time in six years and gone skating a few times, which progressed to joining an oldies team and also invitations to go to the local team's games. He won the 50-50 at the first game he went to and came home with $250 which made him very happy and helped fund some much needed new hockey equipment. So, my ever-present companion now has another interest which he is really enjoying.

It's a good time to be joining all of these activities as we already have about six Christmas functions between us to attend over the next few weeks.

I have spent a lot of time this past week with quilting (sorry, boring topic to some) and decided to do some extra work on Heidi's quilt and then got it off to be quilted - waiting for a call any day to go and pick it up. Can't wait to see the finished product. Also decided to make a lap quilt as a gift for a special someone but I can't say who or it won't be a surprise. Photos will be in the blog after Christmas of above two quilts!

Some fabric coasters - just in case I need some hostess gifts.

I made these from an idea seen in another blog - not sure if
they are keepers though.

Also in the last week we have experienced a bit of real winter! On Thursday we awoke to lovely big snowflakes falling down - hardly anything accumulated so we were quite impressed. Brian went on an errand later in the morning and came home with tales of quite a bit of accumulation in the rest of Nanaimo. Out our window the sun was shining and there was not a bit of snow in sight - needless to say we were feeling quite smug about our inspired choice of location!

Then we awoke Friday morning - same thing except that as we peered out into the dark, we could see that the ground was looking very light! As dawn came, the light was revealed as a rather deep carpet of snow! Not feeling so smug now were we!  It continued to snow for a while but as it was rather wet snow, anything on the road disappeared fairly quickly and on our lawns only lasted until early afternoon.

The deck (we had just taken the cover down the night before).

Back yard.

It was pretty with the snow on the trees.

Quite a different look from the green of the day prior!

Last weekend we enjoyed all of the action from the Presidents Cup in Melbourne - hearing the birds on the broadcast was amazing - we really miss that sound a lot - I think that's why we sleep in because it's so quiet - we were always awakened very early by the kookaburras in Bateau Bay.

This week we ventured out to a meeting of the Newcomers Club and again met some really friendly people. We are off tomorrow night to someone's house for their monthly Drinks & Appies night so that will give us a chance to get to know them at close range. It's at a house fairly close to home so that's nice.

Last night while Brian was out at a hockey game, I decided to make a start on the Christmas decorating. I know it's early but as we will be away for a week and a half over Christmas, "we" decided to have it up in time to get some enjoyment and get into the festive spirit - it's a bit hard when you are a newbie so this will either help or make it worse! Hopefully the former.

Christmas tree in front entry.

This is one of the experimental swags I have been making
this year out of fabric which I am trying to use up/clear out -
they will likely end up on the upstairs Christmas tree.

Brian is out again this morning (see what I mean) at hockey and lunch so once I've finished blogging, I'm going to tackle some more quilting and maybe some more decorating. I just received a phone call from the wife of the fellow Brian connected with re hockey, inviting me to ladies coffee nearby. She goes every Thursday so I declined for today but said I would go next week.

I think we are starting to like this "retired" lifestyle - it's going to be tough to give it up once we get into employment - which we aren't thinking about till after Christmas so we are making the most of the time now.

That's about it...we continue to monitor the weather as today the TransCanada Highway was closed for a period of time  because of adverse winter conditions and even some ferries have been cancelled because of high winds. I hope all is well when we head out in a few weeks time. Oh well, no point worrying about it now I guess.

A stitch in time...

At my advanced age, I can finally say I've been to camp! I know, hard to believe that someone has never been to camp - especially in this country - the land of the camp. Anyway, it's done and was well worth the wait. My body wasn't happy with waiting though and protested at the hard skinny bed it had to endure. The second night there, as I lay awake trying to get comfortable, I finally reminded myself that there are many millions of people in the world who would be thrilled to have a warm, dry and safe place to sleep...SO GET TO SLEEP GINNIE! It worked and I had good sleeps after that. The accommodation was pretty basic but the plus was that the showers had lots of hot water and good pressure - that's a luxury.

Getting on the ferry to Quadra Island. 

Getting off the ferry on the island - very gloomy day.

We didn't have a chance to see much of the island, but if the rest is as pretty as Camp Homewood and Gowiland Bay, then it is well worth a visit. I'm sure we will be back one day. A few of the ladies took a day...and another ferry...to hop to the next island, Cortes, to have a look around. Apparently it is much more rustic than Quadra - no TV, no services to speak of, etc. Quite a different way of life having to take two ferries just to get to the main island and then another one if they want to get to the mainland.

To find out more about Quadra Island, click here. To find out more about Camp Homewood, click here. The camp has been running since 1948 and the founders still live on the property - more about them below.

Yeah, we are here!

The main lodge.

One of two huge areas we used for sewing.

My home away from home. 

There were about 40 of us there from Nanaimo as well as communities north and south - and even one from Vancouver. It was great to have the time to spend with people and get to know them - there were certainly some interesting characters in the group but everyone was so willing to share knowledge and opinions. I also now have connections for possible smaller groups to join so that is great.

It was a dry camp so all (well, most) of our energies and time was devoted to quilting. That's when we weren't eating. The cook produced incredible meals and we all ate too much - to be expected of course. But it was lovely not having to cook or clean up - a bell rang and we all went like lambs to the slaughter into the dining room. As it was a Christian camp, there were several young staff members - some volunteers - who added interest. Two young girls "introduced" the meal each night and then said grace. Then they came to various tables to chat with us about our day in order to distract us from the fact that it wasn't our table's turn to head up to the food line! They were very funny.

We took time out on two days to go for short walks on the property - the most picturesque route being down the path to the bay which we could see from the lodge windows. What a magic setting. I heard several women ask if they could stay on and work at the camp! If I didn't have my sweetie back home keenly awaiting my return, I might have been tempted to stay also.

The view of the bay from the lodge.

From another angle

Path down to the bay.

The fall colours were just about done but still pretty.

A highlight was a visit on a couple of afternoons by the 94 year old couple (to protect their privacy, I'll call them Romeo & Juliet as they were so loving with each other) who founded the camp as missionaries in 1948 and still live in a house there - they were amazing. I wish I'd taken a photo of them. Juliet was very petite with an incredibly pretty face and the biggest bluest eyes I've every seen. She went around to every table and spoke about what project people were working on and then exclaimed enthusiastically at the colours, the imagination, etc. etc. I learned to stay in one place or else she thought I was new prey and had to be spoken to again. I learned that after having the same discussion three times about the quilt I was working on. No matter. She was gorgeous and I hope I can be even a tiny bit as wonderful as she is when I am that age, or before would be good too.

Her husband Romeo was also very charming - quite tall and in darn good shape for his age. I sat with them one evening at dinner and we had a great conversation. He even told a couple of pretty good jokes - the first one was a bit slow starting as he retrieved it from his memory banks but once he got going, did a great job. I even remember one of them and retold it the next day to some others and they thought it was pretty funny (featured Canadians and Australians but all in very good taste of course). It was beautiful to watch Juliet hang onto Romeo's every word, with her hand resting on his knee. Ah, love. *I just realized that the camp website tells you that their names are Alf & Margaret so I can tell you too.

The week went by too quickly - the last night we had a silent auction of items we had all donated - proceeds going to the camp. That was lots of fun and I ended up with some interesting things and a couple of useful things.  The last morning was Show and Share - we all took turns up on the huge hearth in front of the huge fireplace to show what we had made during the week. After that it was yet another meal and then we all said our goodbyes. I was just a bit sad to leave the new friends but I know I will see many of them each month at the quilt guild meetings so that will be great.

Fever mounts around the silent auction tables.

The crowd gathers, anxiously waiting for their turn to "show & share". 

Another Aussie showing off her quilted jacket.

My main project for the week was piecing a quilt to honour Heidi's 30th birthday - she had chosen the fabric and pattern when we were in Alberta during the summer - I'd love to show you a photo of the finished quilt top but I want it to be a surprise for her. The other project I finished is this Christmas quilt I began last year and didn't finish in time for Christmas so it was put away. Hopefully I will get it quilted in time for this Christmas.

My Christmas Trees Quilt.

I had travelled up and back with a lovely lady from Duncan (south of Nanaimo). As we drove home mostly in the rain from camp, we came upon backed up traffic on the highway. We crawled along for a few kilometres until we saw that the highway in both directions was closed off and traffic was detoured through a nearby town - at snail's pace. The town was a mess of shredded leaves and fairly large evergreen branches everywhere. It was obvious a huge wind had come through. On checking on the iPad, we found out that the road was closed because of power lines being down but no reason given. We also passed a five car accident (on the other side of the road fortunately) right in Nanaimo - I was glad to get home safely after all of that! When we got home, Brian said there had been massive winds with the air full of swirling leaves. I guess it was a wind shear - not sure how that is different but it certainly caused a lot of chaos.

We didn't realize that the dark sky had caused trouble ahead.

Certainly a lot more leaves have now gone off the trees so it is really beginning to look and feel more wintery.

All well at home - Brian was busy while I was gone reconfiguring our walk in closet to make it more functional so that was a great surprise and will be much appreciated. I sure was happy to get into my own lovely comfortable bed last night! Home sweet home...

Today is catchup day and just generally taking it easy. It's another rainy one so I'm happy to be inside puttering around.

An unexpected day

I wasn't going to do another post until after next week but some interesting things have happened that I have to tell you about!

Our dinner party on Thursday night was a great success - we had the owners of a downtown guesthouse over, along with their two little kids and their parents (whom we had never met). This is the couple we met online before leaving Australia. The parents are from Alberta and spend a month here every year visiting their kids/grandkids. I think it was successful because the noise level of the conversation was constant and more than a couple of bottles of wine were consumed! The toys I have saved for decades once again were brought out and enjoyed by the kids.

Yesterday morning as we were having coffee and perusing the outside weather, the inspiration came that we should have a day of sightseeing. It was forecast to be a beautiful day so we packed a picnic lunch and off we went. Our one targeted destination was Mt Washington, the main ski area for the island and about an hour north. As we drove, we decided that after seeing Mt Washington, we would continue further north to Campbell River and see if there were any salmon still in the rivers.

Mt Washington is at an altitude of over 5,000 feet - we were surprised (don't know why) to see snow along the edge of the road as we got closer to the top of the mountain; we were shocked though to see snow everywhere as we approached the resort! We had brought an extra layer of clothing thank heavens so weren't too freezing in the 0 deg. weather. Checked out the main lodge and got lots of information from the clerk in the gift/clothing shop there - including the fact that Angelina Jolie and Celine Dion had both been there! The resort doesn't open for skiing for another month or so but it was busy with lots of renovations etc. going on. I could almost hear our car complaining as its tires were subject to the freezing temperatures of the snow when we drove through a parking area which hadn't been cleared! I have to say though, it was very pretty. I'm sure that's enough of a snow fix now until we head out through the mountains to Edmonton for Christmas!

Apparently it's busy in the summer too - you can take the chairlifts to the top and then hike down, which would be fun as the views from the top would be amazing.

Check out more about Mt Washington here, especially you skiers, snowboarders and hikers!

Last season, Mt Washington had a record amount of snow (over 18 metres) - more than any other ski resort in the world apparently. They are in the process of expanding their learners area and have just finished building these really cool things to help you get around (called Magic Carpets) - we saw them but didn't realize at the time just what they were (photos are an artist's impression from their website). They may be common at ski areas but, because we don't ski nowadays, we aren't up on such things.

From the snow to the ocean...Campbell River (known as the Salmon Capital of the World) is a town of about 30,000 people another hour or so further north. We arrived just after lunch and found a beautiful spot to park beside the ocean to enjoy our picnic - it was a bit too chilly to sit out. Then we did a drive around the town - parts of which are beautiful and parts pretty old and grotty - typical I guess of many towns.

Our lunch spot.

Campbell River neighbourhood with views across to
Quadra Island - where I'll be next week.

Not a great shot, but two of the many totem poles we saw.

I didn't realize that Campbell River is on the 50th parallel.

Campbell River view - not my photo.

The area is home to several native Indian reserves and their influence is seen very strongly in the town - most businesses and parks sport amazing carved statues of Indian themes - fish, birds, people, etc. It was really impressive. **Just did some research on these carvings and discover they are the result of an annual chainsaw carving competition - who knew? Maybe an idea for the Central Coast?  Check out the website for more images.

This year's winner.

And some others.

We drove out of town a bit and saw a sign for a Fish Hatchery so checked that out. They were doing a major renovation so we couldn't see much. We went for a walk and saw a few salmon making their way up the river - also saw several dead salmon along the edges (I won't show you the photos of that). A worker onsite told us "you should have been here a couple of weeks ago, there were so many in the water that you could almost have walked across the river on their backs"! Next year maybe. Lots of big birds were hanging around, waiting I guess for the opportunity of a feed.

Can you see the salmon jumping?? Got to be quick!

Much easier to see in this photo! 

After leaving Campbell River, we headed south towards Nanaimo but along the Oceanside Route - it really is oceanside with lots of spots where the road has amazing views of the water - when not by the water, the road went through pretty forested areas with fall colours still putting on a show and lovely acreages to look at.

We stopped and parked the car in Courtenay for a walk down their main street. What a surprise that was! It's a beautiful town and the shop windows were all done in an autumn theme. The shops were of a quality which would rival Banff or other popular spots but without the heavy touristy feel. I think it is definitely a destination worthy of a revisit. I didn't take any photos of the downtown so the few small images below were "borrowed" from another website.

Right across the river from Courtenay is Comox - home to a Canadian Forces Air Base - which shares facilities with Comox International Airport, similar to the situation in Newcastle. This base mostly focuses on search and rescue operations - not sure how many people are based there but I think it's fairly large - and likely the reason why the town seems prosperous. It's another option for people, or us, flying to and from the island as it's just over an hour from home. The area also has around 30,000 residents.

After our little walk, we hopped in the car, gave Zelda a chance to help us find the way back onto the highway - she failed - so we followed our nose instead. What a great day though - it's always nice to discover and see new things.

This morning we were again having our morning coffee when Brian spied two deer in the front yard - not too unusual. Then came a big buck on the scene and everyone looked nervous! Then came another buck and sandwiched the two deer on the bank at the front of the property. Things were at a standoff for a while until the buck made his move on the doe - she took off with the other deer in pursuit. The second buck I think decided that he was not in the running and had a feed instead! Watching their behaviour, I can see why our front yard takes a beating - they don't care what they step on or walk through or eat - it's all fair game.

On a more trivial note, as I poured my cereal this morning, I remembered my frustrating grocery shopping trip the other day - all packaging in Canada is bilingual and it seemed that every packet in the store was turned so that the French side was facing out! What a pain it was trying to figure out what I was looking for - some things are identifiable by their packaging but as I am still getting used to different brands, that wasn't  very helpful. This is the cereal I am eating at the moment - the cereal here is mostly very sweet and I'm still trying out different ones - have yet to find a favourite. Anyway, one can work on one's French reading skills while eating I guess!

And I couldn't leave without just a couple more beautiful shots from my window...

Yesterday morning's sunrise.

We were surprised to see this ferry come quite close and sit in
the middle of the bay for an hour or so. Next time we saw it leaving
we realized that all the branding on the side had been changed
 and updated to remove the Olympics pictures. 

These leaves seem to be hanging on much longer than on
other trees - much prettier to look at than bare branches.