October 22

This is the day my mom moved out of her house. This is how that looked since she had no house to move to yet. 

I went to the chiropractor for the first time. 

Halloween dance at my daughters high school. She went as a character from the tv show Supernatural.

Our black chicken insisted on roosting in the tree tonight and got chased out of it probably by a raccoon. She went squawking off across the street and has made herself scarce. We will look for her in the morning. 

We now have fewer and fewer hens. 

L

Fiddle camp

This July we all went to Fiddle Camp on Saltspring Island.  Three of us biked there, putting our two new to us bikes to the test.  It's two and half hours out to the ferry mostly on the Lochside Trail. It was pretty hot.

We met up with other fiddle campers on the little ferry and had our lunches and played some cards.

After setting up tents and campstoves and stowing food and instruments we treated ourselves to dinner out, not something that happens very often.  Paying for 5 each time is expensive.

My daughter and I took a dance calling class this year so we got some guinea pigs together and inflicted our new skills on them. They were generous of spirit and didn't complain.  Maybe they even had a little fun.

Jeff chilling on the field after one of the super farm lunches.

This is the daily practice of the orchestra.

I'm concentrating hard on playing my open strings.

Lise

We went to the pool in July

We went to the Commonwealth pool, both boys with a friend each, and me. It was a good swim.  I was doing lengths and working on improving my front crawl technique.  The kids were playing.

So I dried myself under the hand dryer, which was awkward but it worked.





And that was OK.

Lise

A Story of two bikes

My daughter and I both ride Xtracycles as our regular bikes, which is great.  The cargo capacity is amazing.  But they don't easily fit on the car on the roof bike rack.  Hers does just barely and mine doesn't at all.  And they are heavy. So this summer we looked on usedvictoria for some cheapish regular length lightweight bikes and we found one for me.  A Trek hybrid bike.  Nice and light and fast.  For my daughter we found the exact same model of bike that her long bike is.  So now we have two Norco Bigfoots circa 1994 or so. Once is has the Xtracycle add on and is named Sammy and one is short and light and nimble and is named Dean.

 

This my bike Tasha, pressed into service already and pulling her weight. 

These other pictures are of our first tomato.  An exciting thing. And a friend's gorgeous hydrangia, just because it was gorgeous.

 

This is a gratuitous picture of a cool bike I saw on Saltspring Island during fiddle this July.

Lise

July 8 New Boats

The Paddling store with a club on the Gorge got a new shipment of boats in.  I didn't know how they arrived.  They look like burritos.

 

Lise

July- sunglasses, tiny car and the lake

We needed some new sunglasses which I buy at the safety supply store for something like $4 a pair.  Best deal around. And then it doesn't matter when one of us loses a pair.

 

 

We saw a tiny car downtown that wasn't a Smart car so we had to take closer look.  One of those micro 2-seaters.

And this is just a snap of us a Elk Lake.  We got out there several times this summer.

Lise

Helping Out with the Spotlight

My dance teacher needed someone to help her out at the end of June.  She was rehearsing for a short performance and  needed someone to hold a portable digitally controlled spotlight.

It was once dancer and he used these paper sort of shoes which get ripped up in the course of the performance.  So he had to shape new ones at one point.

 

    

This is the frame.  So cool looking.  Kind of like a doorway or a harp. And it gets dragged and rotated over the course of the dance.  It was a totally interesting day and completely different from my regular life.

 

-Lise

Newcastle Island

This year at group camping at Newcastle Island my friend brought the wherewithal for everyone to be able to charge their devices. He developed a wide game that uses a PDF map app on a smart phone and we had a go at playing it. It's called Agent X and, I think, it was a go. A few tweaks after the first run through and the kids and adults played it again successfully. 

The forest was so dry on the island it would take very little to get a fire started. 

Some of us adults walked all the way around the whole island which takes a couple hours. There is a lookout point with a little covered amphitheatre. 

We had signed up to be there five nights but woke up on Sunday morning to forest fire smoke from the mainland and raining ash. The three of us with asthma were feeling uncomfortable breathing so we decided to leave three days early. My daughter really wanted to stay so we left her a box of food and one of the tents and she stayed behind with the other families for the last three nights. I was sad to go early as I really like this extended camping trip to this little island. A complete departure from regular life. Like a little bit of paradise. 

Jeff and the boys took the kayaks back while I waited for the little ferry with all our stuff. 

Lise

R&B and Father's Day

My friends had a surprise anniversary party planned for them complete with the R&B band from their daughter's high school. They were short a drummer so E got to fill in for a bit and give them a basic beat. 

Her friend did the high hat. 

This is a panorama from the top of Moss Rock park. I went for a walk one morning just before school let out for the summer. 

T learned how to make French toast by himself. 

And then on Father's Day he made Jeff breakfast all in his own. 

Special signs and all. 

It was very sweet of him. 

Lise