WE'RE ON VANCOUVER ISLAND AGAIN

After wrapping up our list in Salmon Arm, it was time to head over to Vancouver Island.  After some lost communication,I was able to meet up with my friend Doug Tuesday evening.  I had emailed him and he phoned and left a message on our cell phone last Saturday at 12:39.  I checked the phone several times over the weekend and there was no message or record of a call.  Then about 10 pm Monday night the phone made a funny little beep and when I checked it, there was a voice mail from Doug.  The call also came up on call display saying Saturday 12:39.  How can that happen?
We had the motor home serviced on Tuesday so we stayed overnight in the Piccadilly Mall parking lot so we could make an early start Wednesday morning.  We were up early and on the highway heading west by 5:50 am.  We stopped at a rest area at Chase to have our breakfast.  While there were a few snowflakes floating around on the upper levels of the Coquilhalla Highway, the roads were bare and wet in only a few spots.  Of course it was enough to get the car and motor home both filthy. We pushed it fairly hard and arrived at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal at 12:14 in time to catch the 12:45 sailing to Nanaimo.
We're now set up at my brother Charlie's in Errington.  We've been busy catching up with things here.  The weather has been cool still and in fact we had some frost this morning.  The forecast is promising warmer weather is coming.  Aileen is arranging for us to visit with some of our family over the next while.  It seems the older we get, the busier we and everyone else are making it harder to get together.

I was fortunate to capture these Western Grebes performing their mating dance before I left Salmon Arm.  In another few days they will be doing this more but I've never managed to be there at the right time with the right camera before.

Tulips at the Salmon Arm Marine Park

The ferry passes this little island on the way into Duke Point, Nanaimo

Spring's new growth on a Lodgepole Pine tree

The Broom is flowering

Reflections on a mylar like feature wall on a business

Shaw is one of the major phone, internet and television providers in Western Canada

Aileen and I and friend Bev D visited Milner Gardens at Qualicum Beach yesterday.  There was a drop of dew hanging on this leaf and it picked up the sun's ray.  This was shot with my Canon SX50 with the lens racked all the way out to 1200 mm equivalent and then the digital zoom at 195 X.

The rhododendrons were lovely

We saw several Red Breasted Sapsuckers while at the Gardens

   

GEOCACHING, ROAD TRIP, BIRDING AND WORK BEE

We’ve been keeping plenty busy here in Salmon Arm.  We have done some visiting, I went geocaching a couple of part days, we went in Monday morning for fasting blood tests which had positive results and have gone down to the wharf and McGuire Lake a few times.   Mitzy loves to run and roll in the grass and walk with Aileen.   I like to try my luck with the wildlife with my little Canon SX50.   We also had our income tax returns completed and while I had to pay a large whack, luckily Aileen gets more back than I paid.

We are still enjoying our stay on the hillside at Paul and Lianne’s but not so much seeing the snow creeping way down the mountains a couple times now.  Spring is struggling with daytime temperatures barely making 10C or 50F for the past few days although on Wednesday it was up to 26C which is 78.8F.   We had to go and use the free dump station in the shopping mall downtown one day.  We will be leaving here on Tuesday as I made an appointment to get the motor home serviced.  The plan is to spend that night in the mall parking lot then head for Vancouver Island Wednesday morning.   We may or may not make the trip in one day.  

Yesterday saw us take a road trip over to Barriere to look over the area and explore some side roads we had never been on.  There were a few surprises we had no idea that were out there.  One obscure looking road that we thought probably didn’t go far had some beautiful farm land and several small holdings and it turned out to be a through road.   When we were passing through Kamloops yesterday morning, as we pulled up to a red light, I noticed a friend from our park in Arizona in the next lane.  Hito and his wife Dona live just four doors down from our park model in Caliente but live in Kamloops for the summer.

Today was a work bee at our daughter’s.   Bev had it all planned to work with us all day but her business partner’s father was killed in an accident yesterday so Bev had to take Karen’s doggy clients today instead.   She got to work with Aileen and I for the first two hours then was done in time to be in on the finish.    There are just two sheets of plywood to go but Kevin will do those as there is some fitting to do and some holes to drill.   Aileen worked through the whole day applying glue to the joists and using the drill to drive the screws.  She went to bed right after supper as she was pooped with missing her nap, crawling over floor joists, squeezing the glue applicator and wrestling with the power drills.  I’m a little pooped and sore myself.   I did hop in the hot tub for a while and that helped.

The fountain has been activated for the summer in McGuire Lake in Salmon Arm

This is a male Redhead Canvasback duck I spotted in McGuire Lake

A female Red-winged Blackbird

Male Red-winged Blackbird

These falls are about 75 feet tall

This cascade was above and off to the side of the previous falls

The colouring of this area near the falls reminds me of Artist Point in Yellowstone Park

The Agate Bay Rd runs between Highway 5 and Adams Lake which is at the base of the far mountain

Looking up Adams Lake from partway up the lake.  Adams Lake is about 2 miles wide and 40 miles long.  The sawmill I retired from is at the foot of the lake.

Extra wood is stored on the lake in booms which are truck loads of  logs encircled by a string of logs to keep them contained

You can see the individual loads of logs which are held together with metal banding to maximize storage capacity and minimize loss.

Last evening at the wharf I spend some time watching this critter.  I believe it to be a mink and this image is greatly enlarged as I was across the channel from him.   My shutter speed was 1/125 but I racked the lens out to 1200 mm equivalent then used the digital zoom at 200 percent.  After that, I cropped the image as well.

A Great Blue Heron also last evening but in better light.  This was also 1200 mm equivalent with 154 percent digital zoom.

Taken while geocaching near Enderby, BC the other day

A little further down the road was this old John Deere and barn

Directly across the road from the old tractor was this lovely pastoral scene

Aileen and I after our work today.  The deck is 12x40 feet and there are just two part pieces of plywood left for Kevin to install.

Covered up for the probable rain.  That's our storage shed in the background.  I was able to find some of my tools to use today.

SOME LOCAL WILDLIFE

We went for a walk on the Salmon Arm wharf after supper tonight

Ringnecked Pheasant out the  Motor home window where we are parked

Mallard Drake - I know it's back here somewhere

Great Blue Heron

Up close and personal

Having a little breakfast

Western Painted Turtle

Bev and I spent several hours working on her new deck installing many those spacer blocks

Bev cut while I nailed

A couple of beavers swam under the wharf tonight

We're still working on our list here.  We saw the doctor Friday and tomorrow morning bright and early we are to be at the lab for blood work.  Unfortunately, the doctor made it a fasting one so we hope we don't have to wait too long.  We popped out and saw Jacquie and Jim yesterday and saw their new construction site.  The cement walls are all poured and the floors will start being poured this week.

Aileen house sat for Bev and Kev last night so they could have a night out.  I went to my hiking/ photo club friend Ian's last night.  I looked through his and Wendy's beautiful coffee table photo books on their trips to Viet Nam and Australia then we poured over maps comparing routes we've taken and some of the highlights that made them memorable. 

WORKING THROUGH THE LIST

Several phone calls made to cross items off our list, income tax papers dropped off for the accountant and medical appointments made so far.  We visited our friend Donna B this morning and she gave us a tour around the facility she and Bert recently moved to.  I had planned to visit my old friend JR who I worked with for years at the mill.  He lives in the same complex but Donna informed me he had been in the hospital for a while.  I went there later and had a good chat with him.  He will be 80 in June and is quite perturbed that he can't remember details anymore.
We had a nice supper with Bev and Kevin Sunday evening and I got to soak in the hot tub for a while and Aileen got to have a nice long bath.  We miss those things with our lifestyle for the most part.  It is one of the main draws for me to keep returning to our lot in Caliente.  We're starting to think more seriously about getting another home base, all be it more simple than the last one, where we can have a spot to hang out for an extended period and have some of the facilities.

This osprey was one of three hanging around the local wharf Sunday morning

This is taken from the wharf looking up to our motor home.  We are in the trees dead center in the photo, to the right of the dominant house.

Can you see us now?  Don't forget to click on any photo to enlarge it.

A bit of a surprise to see snow creeping down the hill this morning

It looks like Mitzy got a little warm in her bed and made an effort to crawl out but didn't quite make it.  Aileen had taken her for a long walk while I was visiting at the hospital.

CHANGING WEATHER

Yesterday was cold and blustery but the evening gave us some nice effects

Our hideaway parking spot in the city

Looking down to the west end of Salmon Arm with the wharf in the foreground

This morning it is much nicer than yesterday