Cara and Shaun's Big Canadian Adventure

Coral Beach Picking Team 2010

2011-02-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

Coral Beach Farms Picking Paradise

2010-11-26T13:56:00.000-08:00

Whistler: 27th OCTOBER!

2010-11-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

We have snow!

2010-11-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to fluffy white stuff all around - not a huge amount but enough for Otter to go fruit loopy in the back garden!

However there ARE copious amounts on the ski hills - so much so that they are all opening early so we are off to Big White next weekend and might even sneak a mid powder moment on opening day....probably with half of Kelowna...but hey, it beats working!

The P's do Canada!

2010-10-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Well the western bit anyway!

M&D came out in the summer for a spot of dog sitting with Nina, so they stayed in the house of Rik and Janneke, our friends who we rented the bungalow off when we first came to Canada. They stayed there for 2 weeks and then moved to our house when Mr R started the cherry harvest in July.

Now one of the major concerns was not being eaten by bears, bitten by rattlesnakes or black widows but way more serious.....would there be coverage of the 2010 World Cup from South Africa!!!?
If that was not tramua enough, Canada being the land of hockey and football of the American kind - M&D were flying into Calgary on the day of the opening match - England vs USA!!!!

Special channels were purchased cable which showed every match 3 , yes 3 times a day!! Shaun was super pleased about this ! :)

However we needed have worried about things - plane landed from the UK at 12:05pm, match kicked off at 12:30pm- parents in bar with luggage, beer and the match on the big screen by 12:25pm!!!

They stayed in Calgary one night - just to give M her fix of cowboys as the Calgary Stampede was starting in a week or so - and then headed on the Greyhound to Banff and Jasper. Amazing scenery, great hikes, hot springs - would have been slightly better had it not been raining cats and dogs in the 'worst rain for 10 years' accordingly to a local.

But they made it safely to the Okanagan and we had a great 6 weeks (yes, 6 weeks, bros!) - now there were many things I could recap but I will give you a few of the highlights....

Evening speedboat ride down the Lake for dinner at lakeside restaurant! Thanks to our friends Brian and Bonnie, Shaun arranged for us to be picked up off the dock near the house and then they whisked us down the lake for a great meal....with some donut riding in between!

Terrified..me?

Da Man!

Yours truly, embolded by the fact than Brian's 9 year daughter was managing this, jumped on the donut and proceeded to scream myself hoarse, the fingernail marks in the palms took a couple of days to fade! But things were getting better and the screams were more 'fun', less 'terror'....that was until Shaun took over the driving....what part of 'NO CORNERS!' is difficult to understand?????

They say revenge is a dish best served cold....my thoughts....why wait!? IF your husband who has just scared the bejezzus out of you (how much of hand Dad had in this is still under investigation, Mum is believed to be innocent), does decide to get on the donut immediately afterwards...then the words 'gift horse' and 'mouth' do come to mind....and what do you know, those decks are so slippy, it was just oops and overboard.... I blame the karma monkey... :)

Thomas & James get a little too serious

Watching England Vs Germany in Canada with some Germans! World Cup...Dad....2 Friends of German extraction....time for a party! Confident of England's impending victory we decided to have a World Cup party and in the interest of making things, well, more interesting we invited Bianca (parents are German and emigrated to Canada, speaks german, off to germany in a couple of weeks), James, their children and Thomas (German, emigrated to Canada, works with me in TCM) and his lovely wife Gill.

Mum! Help! I being eaten by a giant football cake!

Naturally when they arrived Mr R welcomed them with a medley of rousing party music i.e. Jerusalem, ride of the valkyires, Dambusters, Land of Hope and Glory....etc etc. Bianca up the anti by arriving fully facepainted up, children brainwashed into supporters of Germany, complete with themed chants (hat's off to Mrs S) AND a giant football cake.....

...so lets gloss over the match....oh hum....!

Surprise Flight in a Helicopter
Shaun pulled the rabbit out of the hat on this one! M&D and me were up at Grey Monk Winery having lunch with Karen and her husband George. Karen works at Grey Monk so we were able to get a great deal on the wine (which was gorgeous - Ehrenfeltser 2008, Kerner 2009 if you can get it!) and the restaurant is on a patio overlooking the lake so all fab!

Chocks Away!

Shaun phones and asks us to get back to the farm as M&D are needed for a photoshoot as they need somebody to pretend to be a cherry buyer....yes, writing it down it does seem somewhat bizarre but guillable is my middle name....although I prefer 'trusting'! We got to the farm and drove up through the orchard to the helipad, got out, Shaun introduced us to Ryland and explained he had got us a flight round the valley! V.excited....would have been slightly less nervous if Ryland hadn't looked about 18 but quick interrogation revealed that a) he had been flying helicopters for 10 years, and b) no, they don't let you start flying at 8 years old in Canada. Yay! So in we got!

Honestly Dad - Shaun does like you as a father-in-law

You do ...don't you....!

Lake Kalmalka

Lake Kalmalka - yep its that blue...well bluey/green

Heading home towards Carrs Landing/Lake Okanagan

Ahh..you do!

Touchdown!

Fireman Shaun!

2010-10-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

Canadian Courtship Ritual

Mr R is now a fully qualified firefighter for our local area of Carr's Landing and just passed his exam to drive 2 of the fire trucks! Luckily there are not many call outs but so far this year there have a been a couple of health emergencies call outs, a chimney fire (where Mr R was first on the scene and it was his first call out - the homeowner was fine until the rest of the crew turned up and started ribbing him as the newbie...given Mr R was balanced on top of the guy's roof with a high pressure hose, this was perhaps more information than the guy needed as his chimney blazed away!).

You too can look like a giant fly!

The 'best' one so far has been a car fire up on the hill when a guy's engine suddenly exploded into flames! He managed to get out okay and called 911 so 'da boys' sprung into action, car extinguished, and a very pumped Mr R returned all smoky....in uniform....ladies, I shall leave it there......

Hiking up a mountain...in ski boots...is fun. Apparently!

2010-10-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

....whirly time machine effects end....and we are back in March (ski season 2011 is nearly here so it topical again!)

Given that Valentine's Day was spent with Shaun dog legging it back from the UK via Amsterdam, $250 extra flight fees, and our wedding anniversary was the Fish & Game Club Supper with 250 other people (yep the bobcat curry was back), we 'decided' (read what you may into those quote marks!) to take a long weekend in March up at Big White.

So we rented a townhouse with a hot tub, dropped the dog off at the gulag (aka Spotted Spa) and headed up the mountain - into the middle of the biggest snowstorm we have been in yet! There was zero visibility with the driving snow and if you turned the hi beam on the view out the windscreen turned solid white. Luckily we were the only ones heading UP the mountain, but there seemed to be a fair number of people heading down. Any temptation to speed was quickly stamped on by the unfeasibly large number of cars in the ditches!

We were crawling along at 30km and heading up a incline when the car coming towards us on the other side of the road stopped...not sure why...so Shaun inched forwarded and a good job too as the 2 cars behind the stopped one...umm..couldn't!..and came skidding down the hill on our side of the road...narrowly avoiding a collison by virtue of heading into the previously mentioned ditches!

Offers of help were made but apparently there is a tow truck which goes up and down in a big circle for most of the night pulling random cars out as needed. Yet another incentive (if one was needed after that) not to be too eager to get anywhere!

Needless to say VERY large G&Ts on arrival and possibly there was more than one!

Anyway, the Saturday morning dawning with crystal clear blue skies and 30+cm of fresh powder - life was good!!!!

In the morning we were skiing with Shaun's boss, Dave, his dad Gerald and son Alex - all top skiers so it was a morning of intense, super fast, no coffee breaks - by lunchtime we were knackered!

Dave had to leave at 1pm otherwise we would have been in bits! So time for a bit of R&R and back to the hot tub...but oh no - we meet my boss, James, on the mountain, again top skier, so not being one to turn down a challenge we spent the afternoon hurtling round the mountain at top speed - again!!!

Then straight into the apres ski with James and his wife Bianca, Thomas and Gill ...till gone midnight......oh well, Sunday will be recovery time....

...No!...Dave calls at 8am and offers to take Mr R and me back country skiing...too much of an opportunity to turn down as Dave is super experienced and we couldn't get a better guide for our first venture into the back country.

So tried limbs are ordered into position and we head up the hill. Backcountry skiing involves getting to the top of the lifts, or whereever you can get to via truck, snowmobile etc and then getting out/off and walking even further...uphill! Normally this is done in special boots which can switch between hiking and skiing (to a degree) and super light skis - we had neither so it was standard ski boots and regular skis for us!

I never realised quite how heavy those blasted things are until you are halfway up a vertical slope in a howling wind!

We got to the top of the lifts at Big White and then headed higher along this ridge (yes, ridge, correctly implying drops on either side!) and what was a mild breeze at the village had some how developed into something a bit on the stiff side!

But the views were great, honest!

I was about to give up when the slope turned from extreme incline to vertical but Dave was running up it like a mountain goat and amazing came back to get my skis and run them up to the top!

Your'e not my husband...but I love you!

Before the Hike of Pain...see the smile!

The reward for the Hike of Pain as I lovingly like to think of it was some of the best skiing we have ever done! Short but very sweet - deep powder, utter silence (except for my whooping!), and no one but us...and we managed to get some nice tracks! The ski back to the village was my favourite as we headed into the woods on these narrow trails which dodged trees, over logs, etc - there was a vague direction of 'always take the right hand fork' but soon we were coasting through the woods in perfect silence (too beautiful for the whooping) and it was quite a shock to suddenly emerge on the piste and see the crowds (crowds being a relative term at Big White, uisally implies more than 3 people in sight and an 30 sec wait for a lift!).

A very very very cool long weekend!!!

Yes we are still alive and haven't been eaten by bears!

2010-10-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well not yet anyway although this year has been heavy on the bear spotting and not just me mistaking cows for bears but proper ones with teeth, claws and picnic baskets!

Big HI to Lurve Machine, Miss T - you are our ambassadors of quwan ! and yes the blog is back!

Spud - hi little fella, you are obviously having a great time with Lesley and Derek - eep eep!

Okay, so we have no camera at the moment due to me dropping it but will do my best to bring the blog up to date with the pictures we have and lots of words! Its been fun, we have sauna's, canoes, overboards, keels falling of boats when they are not supposed to, 152 wineries....but ahhh I get ahead of myself.....whirly, psychedelic time machine effects.....

Now You're Curious!

2010-08-18T12:37:00.001-07:00

Created by Oatmeal

Olympic Update

2010-02-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

So your Canadian correspondent is sitting here with a gin and tonic and a roaring fire watching the opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.

There has been a slight problem with the concept recently, most due to the positively balmy temperatures in Vancouver which has means there is no snow on Cypress Mountain where the ski acrobatics and snowboarding is due to take place - they were shipping the snow in from a nearby mountain, then that ran out and they had to get the world second largest helicopter (a Sikorsky followed by some random numbers and letters apparently) at a cost of $10000 per hour....and its a four hour round trip!!! per bucket...okay its a big bucket but I am thinking mountain...got be a lot of buckets...then it keeps melting....so more buckets....on the upside if you are the owner of the worlds second largest helicopter it must seem like all your Christmases have come at once!!

So on the ceremony and I thought I would give you the high/lowlights so you can flick through on the TiVO/PVR...

Okay, its staged in GM Place which is where they play the hockey games - when you see the amount of seating you realise than hockey is a pretty major thing here! It also has a 'soft roof' and apparently if all the doors open at once the roof deflates! So everyone has to go through airlocks...literally...which is quite funny when you have a guy with a 3 ft high flaming torch trying to get out to light the beacon waiting for the airlock to cycle...

...okay so the good bits....the Team GB...a little taste of home...Team Canada...mitten madness!...Nicki Yanoski belting out the Canadian National anthem...she's 16 and basically knee high to a grasshopper...whales in the middle of GM place...v. cool! (now you are going to watch!)....the fiddlers...lots of diddley-diddley...giant sparkly polar bear...not one but 4 athletes to light the torch...totally Canadian!! And if you wonder who Wayne Gretsky is...he's the Canadain equivalent of Beckham/Lineker/Bobby Charlton/GOD in one...put the whole 1966 World Cup winning squad into one person and then double it!!...police NOT freaking out when loads of over eager kids hopped the barricades and running alone side the car with Wayne+torch...poetry guy (trust me)...kd lang bringing the house down with Alleuia

and the not so good....avoid the Opera singer...and the French singer...the speech by the head of the IOC....the start...the whole team intro thing...except the UK/Canada of course!...the strange flying skiers/snowboarders.. thats just odd...French before English...its only bloody Quebec!!...Sweden...Mittens? OUR idea!

oh and the person who had the worst night possible? The hydraulic lift operator/engineer. Rehearsal after rehearsal..flawless. Every bug ironed out, every piece checked and rechecked. Like clock work through the night...giant totem poles...the Rocky Mountains..Trees...stages...everything perfect...then the Olympic torch needs to be lit....umm....err (I'm sure it was a bit stronger than that under the stage)...1 of the 4 athletes starts to look a bit uncomfortable...4 athletes...3 torchy lighty things...nope, its not going to happen....very good response from the TV guys,change the angle on the camera and bingo it looks okay!

There you go - 4 hours of TV (and no I didn;t watch it all - Shaun's not here so I can watch 4 channels at once without driving him insane!) condensed into 10 minutes.

Check this out!!! Honestly....!

2010-02-05T12:37:00.001-08:00

Bear with it......

..go mice!

Olympic Torch

2010-01-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

The Olympic Torch is in Kelowna making its rounds through BC before going to Vancouver on the 12th Feb( i think) for the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics...

...its has just gone past our office - how cool is that!? Stood outside with the guys from Tops and got a few pictures on the mobile (now have to work out how to get them off the mobile phone and on the computer).

Still trying to get hold of the Olympic mittens (v.cool) but it seems you have to be an Olympic athlete,a torchbearer, Premier of Canada or under 8 to get a pair...none of the above are very likely so may just have to knit my own pair whilst Mr R is gallivanting round Europe next week....

Votes needed!

2010-01-20T14:11:00.001-08:00

Help our designer, Scott win this ad competition! http://www.fluevog.com/code/fc_finalists.php

Top blogs of 2009

2010-01-20T09:25:00.003-08:00

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Christmas Day

2010-01-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

So Christmas dawns with the yummy smell of bacon (which is how all days should dawn if they were putting the effort it, really) and the traditional exchange of Christmas pressies takes place between yours truly and Mr R...well actually it was a bit of a one sided exchange as Mr R had left my present at home on the grounds it would be 'too obvious' if I saw it, (for which you will have to wait until I get to the 27th for the truth to be revealed, but suffice it to say, that obvious?, no, not unless you were the one who went in to the shop and bought it...I think it was an excuse to fit more beer in the car....)

My gift was rather selfless, even if I do say so myself :), gift vouchers to the gun store. Yep, they do Christmas Gift Vouchers in the gun shops - so that Christmas, Valentines, Anniversary, Easter, birthday sorted for the next 50 years....repetative yet appreciated!

Post phone calls to the UK team (happy Christmas! everyone post yummy dinners and obviously a few 'orange juices' were consumed) we headed out to the slopes....

....now abit short on the photographic evidence as dropped the camera on its head a few weeks ago and to be honest its been a bit dodgy ever since and finally packed up its camera clogs on Christmas Day...but there WAS a BRIGHT BLUE SKY, snow like icing sugar, just below 0C , no wind and NO people for every day we where there (ok might have had to wait for a minute at one lift queue on the Sunday as things turned 'hectic').

They call them 'bluebird' days as the sky looks like the wings on this guy....and we had 3 in a row!

Christmas/NewYear Merriment

2010-01-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

Well as I was faced with the rather awful task of stopping skiing, drinking and generally having fun to return to the world of work today (much as I love TCM, hi Boss!) I thought I would cheer myself up with a bit of blogging about the fun we have been having over the past week or so....

...Christmas Eve - vague thoughts of heading up to Big White early for some skiing before meeting Kelly & Rowan, Ross and Rachel (hereafter the Kiwis, or as Shaun came to know them as the buggers who can drink like fishes who are very very thirsty, just ate a packet of salt and vinegar crisps, followed by a 50km hike through the Sahara and STILL get up at 8am, cook a full on breakfast for everyone and go skiiing.....for day after day....if that isn;t giving too much away about the next few days from Mr R's point of view!)

...any way, back to Christmas Eve which turned in to a wonderful marathon session of catching up with friends, including Robby and Terry (who run the B&B we stayed in in our first week in Canada), their daughter Erin (who works for NASA aka 'space geeks', and is currently investigating the inner workings of red blood cells (I think!) how cool it that, their son Morgan (who is an electrican of the highest order - voice control panels, led strip lights which come on sticky tape (Dad, you need these!)) and his girlfriend Chrissy (who is training to be a nurse/interior designer - they are renovating their house from the basement up so we were able to trade reno tips/stories). Turned up unannouced and welcomed with coffee and the yummiest mince pies - honestly, Canadian hospitality has to be seen to be believed....3 hours later left reluctantly to drop puppy off at the Gulag...

...the Gulag aka Spotted Spa, was fabulous, they had giant paw prints on the car parking space where your wheels went...wished we taken photos as the dogs have an outside run and there are kennels for them to go into with straw if it gets too cold...and the kennels are shaped like an Wild West town ( IOW guys - think Blackgang Chine without the teepees and the fibreglass horses).

All the big dogs were lined up at the fence to watch Otter walk in with a look on their faces which seemed to imply that the new meat on the block wasn't going to be keeping his new tennis balls and doggy treats much past dinner!

Otter shook like crazy as he went in and smelt the other dogs - I think he was replaying scenes of the vet/groomers - neither of which are his favourite places and the only times he has seen this many dogs in one place!

However the girls who ran the place were fab both for cowardly cocker spaniels and guilt ridden owners and promised to take care of him, give him his Christmas presents, a hug etc etc....Shaun was rather disappointed that Otter got put in with the small/old dogs - personally I think that's why we still had a dog to pick up 3 days later, but I think Shaun wanted 'the boy' to take on a couple of Rotties and a Alastian to become Da Boss.....but honestly...Otter....???

Then we left him for Big White....it has been a green Christmas in the Valley so the roads were fairly clear and we didn't get snowy (friendly :) 4 the Smarties) trees until well on the way to Big White. Nevertheless, people still ended up in ditches and in the space of 200m we saw first a 3 car ditch extravaganza (everyone seemed okay as one girl was taking pictures of her boyfriend posing with the red flare for directing traffic!), another car in the ditch about 50m round the corner and finally the tow truck which was called to pick up from the first accident being towed out of its own ditch! Needless to say, German engineering, 4 wheel drive and snow tires notwithstanding, stuck to 50km for the rest of the way!

Arrived at about 4:30 to a super apartment, loads of space, stocked to the gills with enough beer, wine and food to last out the Apocalpse (unfortunately we drew the bunk beds - but as Ross proposed to Rachel in the hot tub that same evening it was probably a good thing they had the double bed!).

Settled in, congratulated Kelly on securing a great apartment, ski in, ski out, not to far to stagger from the village and with a hot tub, and started on the appies....

Canadian appies are an art, science and religion, we are not talking nibbles here but what can affectively (with the addition of enough alcohol) subsitute for a fair sized meal. Supermarkets are stock to the gills with all varieties, veggie/not veggies, wings, rolls, tarts and bundles of all descriptions....however the combination of being an appie novice coupled with the Kiwis drinking capacity resulted in the appies which were estimated to last 3 DAYs being demolished in 3 HOURS!

That was in between the 45 cans of beer which were drunk between the 3 lads (okay Kelly and Rachel helped a little bit before switching to the Baileys but not enough to dent the acheivement!)

AND everyone (okay I love my duvet a little more than most) was up the following morning at 7:45 ish, full breakfast cooked by Ross at 8am, and on the slopes at 8:45!

....and so we entered Christmas Day....

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2009-12-22T22:04:00.000-08:00

Check out our Christmas extravaganza below!

We are off to Big White for Christmas with our Kiwi friends so we will return pickled and skied out on the 27th and then we have the whole week off to catch up on all the adventures...including Shaun's moment of TV stardom....hah! that's going to get you loggin' back in to the bloggin'....just got to persuade the local network to release the incriminating evidence!

big hugs to all,

C & S

woof from Ots too!
He's happy...he doesn't know about the kennel over Christmas.....gulp! Although being Canadian they can't call it a "Gulag for Owners who Love their Pets but Not As Much As 150cm of the White Stuff/Hiking in Revelstoke/3 day Winery Tour', oh no, they call it a Bone and Biscuit....B&B.... cute....but its not making the guilt trip any easier!

2009-12-22T21:51:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Opening weekend at Silver Star

2009-11-29T16:50:00.000-08:00

Well the lure of the white stuff was too much to resist and we thought we would brave the crowds and head up to Silver Star on Sunday. We got there and the car park was full to bursting and over eager Aussies were trying to squeeze the last Ford 150 in to a space the size of a Smart car on a diet.

We decided to park in our favourite car park which is a little way from the village but you can ski directly from your car door....there were 4 cars in the car park...things were looking up...

...things got even better when we got on the piste and there was over a metre of snow, slightly sticky in places but it was just over 1C - so springlike without too many rocks! And then the freaky space time continuum which is Silver Star managed to take all the people which MUST have been in those cars and send them into an alternate skiing dimension because for the the first 4 runs we must have seen 10 people and 6 of those were lifties! The snow was amazing (apparently Saturday was THE day with 40cm of powder on top of the base but Mr R was fire training...grrrr!) - still, pretty fab all the same and there was powder between the trees and you had that icing sugar feel on the runs! Oh and still no people! Yay!!

Mr R did managed to break one of his bindings- 'they're not supposed to break there' was the comment from the ski technican as he merrily sold us another pair of bindings for $200! I would love to tell you it was an amazing crash involving a tree, a snowboarder and a rather surprised marmot but it was more of a 'oops...hey my bindings detached from my left ski...that's odd' kind of moment...on the plus side no injuries!

Our eagle eyed Kiwi friend, Kelly, spotted us in the village, well spotted the giant which is Mr R in ski boots and helmet, so we stopped for a hot chocolate and then skied in the afternoon with Rowan, her boyfriend who is a fab skier so the thighs were well and truly burning before ended the day at 3ish....

We are spending Christmas with Rowan and Kelly, plus 2 friends of theirs who are coming over from New Zealand. They gave us the lowdown on the plans, which seem to mainly revolve around how much alcohol they could get in their truck...umm..think we need to get the livers into training let alone the thighs!

Forgot to mention the extra bonus in that we have no snow in the valley, just piles of it on the mountains, so it was only 40 mins from our front door to putting on the skis.......we like Canada!

Going to do it all again next weekend....! More yay!

Well I might...Mr R has the Fire Department Christmas Party on Saturday...apparently it can get pretty messy....I might be typing the next blog VERY quietly....! :)

Paramedic training

2009-11-15T15:04:00.000-08:00

Mr R is off for 2 weeks paramedic training in Kelowna on Monday - the course is very difficult and the books are even thicker than the fireman's course!

On the plus side, it will be good for the farm to have someone trained to his level, and it might make the fire brigade course a bit shorter as it is of a higher level than the one they require...but the really good news that if Mr R passes then he will be able to volunteer as a ski patroller next year at Silver Star for a couple of days a week and get a free lift pass, and on his second year I get a free pass too!

It's snowing!

2009-11-15T15:01:00.000-08:00

We have snow on the mountians for the past couple of weeks, but on Friday we had the first light dusting of snow in the Valley.

Our season passes have arrived, the snow tyres are on the ML and Big White opened this weekend and Silver Star will open on 28th November.

Cue the relentless Christmas music and loads of decorations - yay! (not yay from Mr R...bah humbug!)

Halloween

2009-11-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

Yep, 31st October is big news in Canada! We have the pumpkins, the costumes, the sparkly orange lights, cobwebs for the spooky looking front garden and bus loads of trick or treaters....you think I am kidding with the bus loads? Nope! There are areas in Kelowna where parents drive their spookily clad offspring to due to the high quality of the treats!

We have a development called the Lakes in Winfield and it was lit up like Christmas with the number of cars going there. Fortunes are spent on mini-sized chocolates.

We didn't go with the pumpkin option but were prepared with the mini sized chocolates...unfortunately we only had 3 trick or treaters but they hit the jackpot and then we had to eat the rest ourselves...shame!

There was a fireworks dispay being organized in Winfield by the Fire Department with a bonfire, hot dogs and hot chocolate etc etc...and beer at the pub afterwards so we decided to join in the fun and dress up.

Shaun's outfit and ghoulish acting nearly scared the living daylights out of our trick or treaters (hint: not good to nearly give the under 7's a heart attack!) and Otter was a bit freaked out too!

Unfortunately, his stroke of genius was slightly lost on the locals and Shaun of the Dead isn't out on DVD here yet!

I braved the night ala Catwoman....not quite sure Winfield is ready for this....but did get the best costume vote in the pub!

And on the 1st November the Christmas lights were going up on the houses!

Revelstoke Boosts the Critter Count

2009-11-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

More from the summer, the weather for Simon and Tess's visit improved dramatically towards the middle of their stay and we had blue skies and 30C...so we decided that after a few good meals that more hiking was in order so took the guys off to Revelstoke which is about a 3 hours drive north east of us.

Revelstoke is on the main highway towards Alberta and Calgary and this was pretty much the last good weather hiking weekend of the summer and we were expecting the road to be busy....but we are in Canada, in the Okanagan and they just don't do busy, well by UK standards, so we had traffic like the middle of Lyndhurst at 3am....i.e. none...!

So cracking drive through the Spallumcheen valley, past Armstrong (more on this town when the CD arrives from the UK!) and through Sicamous which is the House Boat Captial (with capital letters) of the Shuswap before turning east to the Columbia Mountains and Revelstoke.

The aim was to arrive early evening, hike to the mountain lakes the following day and see how the legs were for the day after.

We booked a great little cabin about 20mins outside Revelstoke, however picturesque as it was their website did neglect to mention than Canadian National Railway ran alongside the opposite shore of lake and the freight trains were no respecter of a) weekends and b) litttle numbers followed by the letters AM!

And these trains were long - 50 freight trucks minimum!

Smarticus, you would have LOVED it!

The next day we heading up to Revelstoke National Park - very sensibly there is a road to the top on Revelstoke Mountain and from there you can hike to Eva Lake which was the aim for the day. Apparently, and this is according to the guidebook, you can hike to the top of Revelstoke Mountain instead of driving but its not worth it as it is mostly in the trees and you get no views whatsoever...honest!

We had seen Eva Lake on a documentary months ago and it looked amazing and it was on our Top 10 list to do so it was great to do it with friends - although normally there are 6 of us on these hikes, but the Smarts were not with us - however due to a flash of inspiration by Miss T we did manage to evoke their participation through the medium of sugar coated chocolate and extra vowels.... I present The Smarties...

The hike was about 5 hours in total and was an amazing mixture of Alpine meadows, rock scrambles, trails and waterfalls.

The start of the hike was slightly marred by my over eagerness to read absolutely every notice and information guide as one pointed out in rather big letters than there are over 18,000 grizzly bears in BC at the last estimate and that over 6,000 lived in Revelstoke National Park. Note: BC is FOUR times the size of the UK.... Revelstoke National Park?...ummm not so big....likelihood of meeting a grizzly: HIGH..... likelihood of wanting to meet a grizzly: LOW (unless you are Mr R!).

At this point we started moving all the tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches into Mr R's backpack!

Level of luck on this visit: extremely High - no grizzlies encountered! yay! Especially as a bear bell would be more like an invitation to lunch than a deterrant! What we did spot was a sunbathing marmot on the way back from Eva Lake.

Eva Lake was amazing, it sits right on the edge of the mountain, kind of like Mother Nature's own infinity pool, and looks incredibly inviting after a long hike, however it is FREEZING, and we didn't have our swimming togs (pity!).

You can also hike onto Jade Lake however this involves and almost vertical climb of 700 metres, then the same downhill and then you have to repeat to get out...so we decided to skip that one! And good job we did to as it gave us the time to go to Miller Lake which for some really bizarre reason is overlooked by all the guidebooks however we all thought that it was more beautiful than Eva!

We rounded the day off with amazing BBQ back at the cabin, expertly cooked by the chaps and very Canadian with wieners and salmon!

Bears!

2009-11-15T13:35:00.001-08:00

Back in the summer (you can tell its a bit chilly over here and an afternoon catching up on the blog has proved much more appealling than helping Mr R rearrange the garage!)...anyhoo.. back in the summer top chums Simon and Tess journeyed across the pond for some hiking, wine tasting, food and general all round good times!

Have spent most of the summer jabbering on about how fantastic the weather is here of course it rained for the few first few days and we had unseasonable cold temperatures - it was a bank holiday weekend so it was a very British welcome :) !

Being chilly we very logically took them up Silver Star Mountain in 8C - sorry guys! But on the plus side we did get to see our very first bears! They post any bear sightings on the board as you enter the trails but we had been there before and not seen a sausage (which was okay by me!) but this time we met a few people coming down the trail who flagged up to us that there were definately a mum and cubs in the area (very Canadian - not letting you walking to the jaws of a pissed off mummy bear without warning!).

We turned a couple of corners and eagle eyed Mr R spotted a older cub off the side of the trail and then further on we saw the mum and the younger cub - sooo cute and just far away enough to be on the non-knee trembling side of scary!

This the photo - sorry, crap camera and then battery ran out- but there is a bear in it, honest!

Yay! Bears!....and they didn't eat us...result!

Fireman Shaun!

2009-11-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

Since September Mr R has been training as a volunteer fireman for the Lake Country Fire Department and will be on-call for our local station at Carr's Landing and we thought it was about time we showed him and the chaps in action!

The training is pretty major, every other Saturday (8am to 6pm) and every Monday and Wednesday night from 6 to 9pm...or 11 if it is Wednesday Wings down the pub!

Having just lost him to the cherries of most of the summer I was slightly less than enthusaistic but am clinging to the promise of a fireman's uniform in the wardrobe by December!!!

They have a mixture of theory (lots of very heavy, very long books) and practical - the practical seems to be rating much higher on the fun scale than the written exams - what a surprise!

Over the last months they have been through a smoke room, crawled down tunnels, had to sit in full gear in temperatures which would roast a potato in seconds, put out car fires, gas fires, house fires and cats on fire (okay not the last one but only because they couldn't catch one first!) and taken cars apart with the Jaws of Life to save Rescue Randy, the 200lb 'citizen'.

As Dad pointed out this morning , perhaps I should be getting concerned about the amount of time Mr R is spending with an inflatable doll....!

This weekend it was the taking cars apart session and the chaps kindly made Mr R a convertible - LCFD style!

Extreme Shepherding!

2009-10-04T18:24:00.001-07:00

http://video.telegraph.co.uk/services/player/bcpid1137883380?bctid=17075685001

Social Media In 30 Seconds

2009-09-21T09:19:00.001-07:00

Great slide for explaining social media - some discussion on whether RSS should be in there as a social media element or a tool to enable the dissemination of information through social media sites.

Social Media In 30 Seconds

View more presentations from Omniture.

2009-09-17T22:44:00.001-07:00

Big day tomorrow.....

Mermaid

2009-09-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would throw this into the mix as you are all probably bored of seeing photos of Mr R and me...

The Vancouver house sitting in the summer - with pool and resident mermaid....see...we lulled them into a false sense of security and then hit them with the cork flooring extravaganza!

2009-09-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry G&T got waylaid by Bones (Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer as cute FBI detective with forensic anthropologist partner - now officially my third favourite job to do after astronaut and volcanologist....sorry and Operations Director at Twin Creek Media! Obviously...)

Mr R had finished the fancy new sink in the bathroom - all glass, including the taps and an funky pop up sink - I love Ebay! Unfortunately top half finished but bottom half still under construction so no running water yet...

Camera battery on recharge so photos (possibly even a vid-clip - yes it IS that fab!)

2009-09-16T20:01:00.001-07:00

Off to refill the G &T....

Second most consistent activity of the summer

2009-09-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

DIY, renovating call it what you will that was the other thing we spent the most time (and money!) on this summer...in fact most of Shaun's extra hours can been seen in the new kitchen, floor, bathroom etc etc.

Couldn't have done it without Mum and Dad, who although we lured them over here with promises of wine tours and lazy summer days by the lake, still managed to lay the ENTIRE front room and hall with cork tiles - a achievement in anyone's book but when the front room in question is 25 ft by 15ft and the hall 17ft long (yep, they build 'em big over here!), the chop saw chopped wonky and it was edging 40C at times it was stunning!

More of the adventures of M&D later (so we did let them out for a few days!) but just to give an update on the changes we have gone from:

a very pink and mint green hall

to a more open look with cork floors (thanks to hubby- labour of love that one!) and a fabulous light - am amazing gift from Rik and Janneke but was a labour of love to put up - 52C at the top of ceiling, balanced on a dodgy orchard ladder, light in one hand, screwdriver in the other and the nails at the bottom of the ladder...the language was not pretty...but the results were!

A slightly pink lounge (are we sensing a theme?) & shag pile (otter is still pining over the pile - he LOVED it!)
To (more) cork floors and what we hope is a retro 70's feel without putting Shaun back in short shorts and me as a twinkle in Dad's eye!

The kitchen is still a work in progress as the kitchen company had a bit of an oops counting the number of doors versus the number of cabinets (the missing ones are coming tomorrow) and we still have to tile around the backsplash and put in a oven hood. More cork floors again courtesy of Mr R (I did do the painting and the light fittings honest!)

Uncle Shaun & the Cherry Farm

2009-09-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

As this was the most consistent element of the summer I thought I would start with Shaun's job at the cherry orchard....

...so back in April he gets the job and things start to get busy with the installation of the new plant machinery and the completing the new building in May and June....then there is a slight pause at the beginning of July, well, we thought it was a pause, but really it was hell taking a deep breath before it let lose!

In the space of a week or so the standard team of 40 odd was plumped to a stunning 350 odd collection of students, Mexicans, and Quebecois! Shaun's language skills have come on immensely and he can now say eh? in 4 different languages....(come to Canada and you'll get it!)

The reason for the loosing of hell - bumper, bumper cherry season and only 8 weeks to pick, wash, inspect and pack the little buggers before its over....all in about 12 hours!

Obviously there are fringe benefits to being the wife of a cherry farm manager (as well as being able to watch Grey's Anatomy, ER and Bones back to back with no interruptions as hubby works in the plant until 11pm - but more of that later!) - the first arrived in a small basket of beautiful juicy fruit, then we had a bucket, then 3 buckets and then bin bags full of the little darlings!

Needless to say we are now well versed in the variatels of cherry and have been scouring the recipe books - still haven't got bored of them though! and the freezer (thank god for the second one in the basement - when we bought the house we though, doh! 2 freezers? - slightly revised that opinion now.

Discovered a cherry wine recipe in a book from Mum so off to buy the home brew equipment at the weekend to turn them into even more deliciousness, plus Tess came up with the scintillating idea of cherry vodka (ala sloe gin, before I get carted off for illegal hooch making!)

Anyhoo, Shaun has worked like a dog (not Otter, obviously, otherwise it would be a summer of ball, ball, nap, ball, ball eat , ball, ball, sleep, eek theres a deer in the garden, sleep, ball etc etc) all summer with one 145hr stint in 2 weeks with no time off.

But, amazingly, he smiled through it all and impressed the socks off everyone (go, hubby!). The season finished at the beginning of September and he had a week off and very well deserved gun purchase!

Back in Business!

2009-09-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

Right....DIY/cherry/visitor frenzy is over!

Absolutely fantastic fun for the last 2 months but pretty crap for leaving time for blogging...
... but we have a moment of pause, downloaded all the photos from the camera and am sitting at the computer (new, very whizzy, oodles of hamsters doing their stuff) ...with the virtually obligatory gin and tonic ready to regale you with tales of ice cream, sunbathing marmots, irratating squirrels and BBQ's - the juxtaposition of those last 2 items was a coincidence, Shaun has not, I repeat not, gone red necked and starting grilling the local bushy tailed inhabitants....well not yet anyway....

For all those reading in the UK, Toronto and Vancouver I would like to say the summer was over but it not...as we hit 32C here....mmmm toasty....

so where do I start???

On agan, off again.... holy smokes!

2009-08-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so about 10 days ago the Terrace mountain fire was growing and looking pretty spectacular and grew to about 4,400 hectares in total.

Then the fire teams moved in in earnest as the Glenrosa fires where contained and by yesterday the fire was 90% contained (yay!).

But what a difference a day makes, out in the garden with a friend this morning and we noted that the plumes of smoke seemed to be a bit more energetic and determined (i know difficult to anthropromorphise smoke but we did it!)...

4pm - call from Shaun...get to the window, smoke getting bigger and nearer

6pm - went for a swim (lake like bath water!) - smoke bigger but no fire

8pm - Holy S****! The whole side of the mountain across the lake from us is in flame - apparently there are not many houses in this area but outside the picture to the right is La Casa holiday resort which was evacuated again (the poor chaps only got back in two days ago) and I expect they will have evacuated Fintry which is the next bay to the north as well.

We are safe on this side as the lake sits between us and the fire.

The sunbirds return to roost....

2009-08-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday waved a somewhat tearful goodbye to M&D as they returned home after their mini-Canadian adventure involving DIY (lots of - leave a paint tin around and 30 secs later it would be on the wall - S&T take note..!), wine tasting (lots of as well but barely made a dent in the 160, yes that's 3 figures, no decimal point, 160 wineries in the valley) and a late addition to the programme, gourmet ice cream assessment, who knew there were so many establishments to try....well Mum did, well researched!

Will post more our findings later....

Wednesday: Terrace goes Pompeii!

2009-07-22T19:21:00.001-07:00

Wednesday: more good news on the West Kelowna fires which are now fully contained and they have let everyone go home, although they are still on evacuation alert.

However the fire across the lake as increased to 2500 hectares and they have evacuated the small number of folks who live in the hills about Fintry. Fintry (which is a lovely place - I think you can see the houses at the bottom of the lake if you enlarge the photos) is on evacuation alert and I can see why!

That glow at the top of the mountain isn't a beautiful sunset but the actual fire!

We are safe over this side but it is a bit like being in Pompeii but without the lava, pyroclastic flows and imminient death!

But the area is completely smoked up, ash has been falling and its was 39C outside - still M & D have done an absolutely cracking job on the DIY, the shag pile is fighting a losing battle and we now have a cork floor in the lounge and hall, a new kitchen wall, reset light switches and swish new silver doorknobs which match (something of a first for this place I think!) - suspect all will come rushing to a halt when they leave.....

....hmmmm need some more visitors......!

Terrace Mountain Fire: Tuesday

2009-07-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Tuesday: the fire across the lake and behind the mountain has grown to over 500 hectares.

House is a bit smoky so turning on the air con as its 25C+ a night and gentle humming is preferable to smelling like Bonfire Night.

Good news on the other two fires in West Kelowna which are nearly contained (but not out).

Scrumping....Canada style

2009-07-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

Found this little critter in the front garden munching the apples. Luckily he had a modicum of self preservation and steered clear of the peach tree!

Fire at Terrace Mt.

2009-07-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

The fire (Terrace Mountain) across the lake - no one in danger and I am pretty sure the critters got out okay....this grew to 500 hectares on Sunday but seems to be dying down (touch wood, fingers crossed) now.

Safe and sound...

2009-07-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

Many thanks for all the emails and phone calls....we are safely out of harms way in Carr's Landing, in fact we were watching the Terrace Mountain fire from the balcony

Have some great photos but will have to wait for M&D to download them from their camera when they get home as they were quicker of the David Bailey mark than we were....must be one of the first time wine boxes have been known to IMPROVE reaction speeds!

Also, thanks for the all suggestions on fire starting - from Shaun's electrical work (definately possibility as he shot across the room at the weekend whilst rewiring the kitchen lights) to my cooking (hmmm....).

Still it has been a salutory lesson in to just how dry and hot it gets here...house now insured up to its armpits and we are off to buy a fireproof safe at the weekend.

But the organization here has been amazing - the 10,000+ people affected are about 40 mins to the south of us on the other side of the lake and all seemed to have been evacuted at about 3am and still remain positive. Help is pouring in and all the businesses in town are offering support. Plus given the size and scope of the fires the fact that only 3 houses have been lost is amazing and a testament to the fire crews - most of whom are volunteers.

A small fire started nearer Kelowna during the weekend and before it got to 70m wide 5 HUGE bombers flew over and saturated the whole area in red gloopy gell - no chance of that one springing up.

The winds have died down since the weekend when they were quite ferocious so they seem to be getting it under control and they have infra-red camera flights to spot any hotspots during the night to prevent it flaring up again.

We have BBC World and it is quite surreal to see your new home town on the old home's national news!

But once again, thank you for all the best wishes and messages....S & T, G & A....don't worry the wine is safe!

hugs
Cara, Shaun, Dad, Mum & Otter

No we haven't been BBQ'ing

2009-07-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

We were sitting on the deck enjoying the first fruits of Shaun's labour in the form of a cherry clafoutis - and serious on the labour - this week was a 74hr week for him...at this rate I can afford to go part time!

Ow! Eeek! That hurts! Daddddd!

So not going part time then....

..but back to the original post...a wildfire started up across from us on the opposite side of the lake (phew) at Terrace Mountain.

Luckily that area is fairly unpopulated and hopefully it will be put out before it reaches the small village of Fintry....does make you aware of how close your fire hydrant is!!

Yay - we have internet again!

2009-07-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the news blackout but Telus (aka BT) have been a bit lackadasical about the internet connection...and then M & D arrived (more yays and some dignified (yes I can do on occasion) sniffling at the Greyhound station) and what with the wine tours, cherry tasting and diying (no free hols here, s&t take note!) its been a tad busy!

But we're back with loads of news, photos, cork floors...wildfires...oh yes....its all happening!

First swim of summer

2009-06-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

The weather here has been glorious for the last 2 weeks with temperatures around 26C and a couple of days with 30C!

At 8am its 18C and blue skies.

So we donned our plastic shoes and went swimming much to the amusement of the locals with many comments like 'you must be new!'. We managed to pick a good day as the first 12 " of the lake had been nicely warmed by the sun although it was b*****y freezing when you dived off the swimming platform.

Naively we tried the same thing a couple of days later and I got no further than my ankles as the wind had been blowing and it had whipped up all the cold water from the bottom of the lake and it was unbelievably cold....although Shaun did persevere with a full on swim and came out with a slightly blue tinge.

Apparently we really have to wait a few more weeks until it gets to 18C (yay!!)

We've bought the house!

2009-06-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 11th June - handed over the cheque for the house - we are now the 'beneficial' owners of our first canadian home!

Our lovely sellers let us move in all our stuff from storage into the basement at the weekend - no moving van necessary as Shaun's friend Ron bought his truck along to help. This truck is huge! A Ford 350 - I wish we had taken a picture as we had the 2 seater and the 3 seater sofa in the back of it and they looked dinky! (Unfortunately they didn't weigh dinky but Ron kindly lent his muscles as well as his truck! Which was v. impressive at 70+!!)

We become the legal owners and move in on the 16th....this had been the longest weekend ever!

The Russian & the Bear

2009-06-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

A few days after the purchase (see post below!) 'the boys' rang up with a plan for some shooting up at the open air range at Beaver Lake (which is east of us, above Winfield).

So Mr R hops in his new truck (oh yes, he has a pick up truck!) with the cowboy hat (oh yes, he had one of them too!) and the Russian ex-military rifle (pet name Ivana, as in Ivanashoother) [that was him, not me!] and heads out of town...okay village...

The range is in the middle of the wood, which is a good thing as there was a lot of noise going on with the chaps generally having a fab old time beating the hell out of paper targets.

But suddenly all the shooting stopped as a black bear just ambled out from the side of the range and meadered across the firing zone.

By way of comparison, back in Christchurch, it was the highlight of the morning if a squirell kamikazed it across the range.....this was a tinsy bit bigger...with teeth...and claws!

Apparently when they went to change the targets, everyone had rifles with them....just in case!

Which does make you think.....here I am, carrying a bear bell which goes 'tinkle-ink, tinkle-ink' thinking 'ooh, that'll scare the nasty bears away' when in truth a bunch of men firing god know's what automatic weaponry doesn't even phase them...might have to upgrade the bear bell/learn a trip and run technique.....!

But it was the first bear sighting we have had in Canada (dead ones on the side of the road excluded) and I am quite happy that Mr R got to see it and I got the story of seeing it nice and safe at home with a glass of white wine!

Ivana....

Ivana & Mr R in action!

Military escalation

2009-06-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

Mr R has now doubled the size of the arsenal with new purchase....

...the trip to the gun shop was preceded by the statement/avowal/contract, take your pick, that the reason for said visit was solely, and I stress the solely part of this sentance, the purchase of some cheap, actually going to stress that part too, cheap (!) ammunition for the recently acquired revolver.

Actually the purchase of the first member of Mr R's collection has been somewhat of an underwhelming experience with the Canadian joy of paperwork was getting severely in the way of Mr R's enjoyment of blowing holes in bits of paper. Having spent 6 months waiting for his firearms licence, he then had to get a permit to pick the gun up from the seller's house and take it to ours and ANOTHER piece of paper to take it from our house to the range.... Huh?

But back to the new arrival....went to gun shop for ammo (note that statement)...unfortunately or fortunately depending on whether you view cans of paints as more important than cans of ammo the gun shop turned out to be an Aladdin's cave of all things which go bang!

Think of small child let loose in sweet shop!

Having recovered from the initial overload of happy hysteria and cornered Mr R's and put back on his reins and hidden the credit card in the deepest recesses of my handbag we continue into to the shop.

I then spent the next 1, 2, possibly 3 hours (it gets so difficult to judge time when looking into a future which involves being surrounded by a weapons collection equivalent of the combined Allied Forces in Afganistan).

Meanwhile Mr R was persuing the store with the dedication of a woman who has just received a Christmas bonus on the day Jimmy Choo has a 75% off day! I though I have to say I can see the attraction of a jade green pair of high-heel slingbacks more than a crate load of greasy ex-Russian military SKS semi automatic rifles....but I am obviously just a girl!

Mr R was stuck to the crate of SKS like a particular tenancious limpet and there was just no way that he was going to be prised out the shop without one of them in his sweaty little mitts!

He picked out a 1955 beauty and there followed much discussion on the equivalent value in cans of paint, 'honestly, they would never be this cheap in the UK, if you could even have them', 'look you get a cleaning kit with them...isn't that a cute little brush...its bound to come in useful when we have to clean something house related!!'

And with a sneaky 'but you're the best wife ever... you're even better if you let me buy 500 rounds of ammunition to go with it' - we had a new addition to the collection.

New job!

2009-06-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

So just completed my second week at work!

And it has been a tinsy, little shock to the system ... 6:30 AM!!!! to walk the dog....loving the puppy just a little bit less....

All I can say is that its a good thing that I am working for a great company with lovely people in an extremely interesting industry - 'cos otherwise i would be looking wistfully back at the last 8 months and pondering whether I could persuade Shaun to do two jobs - so I could stay at home with the puppy, making nice dinners and pootling round the garden!!

But that's REALLY not going to happen!

I am working for Twin Creek Media (www.twincreekmedia.com) as Director of Operations (cool title, huh!). Twin Creek are a strategic and creative marketing agency based in Kelowna, specialising in internet marketing, which I am rapidly learning is way more than just creating a website!

They are great, young company and I am really enjoying learning the new industry and also applying all those skills learnt from the folks at OS and Malcolm at CDA.

Their team page gives a real insight into the style of the company - I need to get my picture up there asap.....just trying to work out what photo from my childhood would be best....see, now you all have to go and look!

Grrr!

2009-06-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Damn the strong Canadian economy...1.76 on the exchange!!!!

But the Canadian bank looks FABULOUS - even if it was for only 5 days!

Kelowna Beer Fest

2009-06-14T13:22:00.001-07:00

In the interests of scientific research and as unoffical members of the "Come to the Okanagan- its fab!" fan club we unselfishly decided to spend an whole afternoon trawlling through keg after keg of beer to ensure that our future guests recieve suitability splendid pints when coming to visit. Actually, I'm claiming the 'unselfish person award' 'cos I was the designated driver! Although Mr R's liver might be putting in a counter claim for that one...

We joined our Kiwi friends, Rowan and Kelly, at the event - Rowan being a bit of hero as he started at 12 noon and went through to 7pm and we only strolled up at 3!

Also, a big 'thank you' to Mr R's bro Keith who supplied Mr R's drinking T-shirts which were a bit of a hit with the locals.

Our bestest friends of the day were the guys at Fernie Brewery who a) had top beer (according to the boys) and b) didn't mind sharing it gratis when we ran out of tickets/cash!

Another honourable mention should go to the Admiral Nelson pint produced by a local brewhouse called Freddy, which, according to Mr R, evoked memories of a good pint of Ringwood in the Compass - I could swear there was a moistness to the eyes at that point but I am reliably informed that the air in that particular section of the hall was quite dusty...

Happy Days..

2009-06-14T13:06:00.001-07:00

As we waved goodbye to No.12 albeit from a considerable distance there was a tinge, just a tinge mind you, of sadness, especially when we looked back at all the fun times we had with friends and family both inside and out.

Luckily Spud was driving past with his new parents and manage to snap the following with a nice red 'for sale' sign on it.

btw, if anyone fancies a holiday in the new forest the new owners are renting it out as a holiday cottage!

The Deed Is Done!

2009-05-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post as its 6.22am (way too early for daylight!) but its an exciting day...yep, we are now (permanent) home-less!

Our little cottage in lovely Lyndhurst was sold today (bargain price....grrrr!) and we are cash rich (yay!)...well for about 12 days until it all flies out of the bank account again....boo!

...now waiting to see what the exchange rate is, damn that strong canadian dollar with their secure banking system, massive oil fields and commodity rich economy! We are hoping for a 24hour plunge in consumer confidence, only 24hrs mind as we both want to keep our jobs....!

...OUR jobs? Oh yes, I'm back in the world of work....will tell more soon but a cup of peppermint tea and the duvet are singing their siren song....so will leave you on that cliff hanger.....!

Hugs to all....

Yeeeha!

2009-05-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

Howdy Folks! On Monday 18th (Bank Holiday over here) we travelled just north of Vernon to the little village of Falkland (one street, that was it, honest!) where they had there 91st Annual Rodeo.

Wasn't sure what to expect but had a great time! Beer tents (Mr R), cowboys (me!) and cowgirl stunt riders (Mr R ...again!).

Very conscientious arena cleaning.....by tractor....

The bareback riding...they had to stay on for 8 secs and not many managed that! The horse gets him off and then 2 outriders quickly release the strap and he trots out of the arena...Apparently these horses can cost up to $50k and basically eat, sleep and make little horses between the weekends....Mr R thinking of reincarnating as one....

Cowboys! Real cowboys....with hats...and chaps....leather chaps....girls, who wants to come and visit....?!

And then we discovered the video function on the camera....

...This was the steer wrestling....

.....and sometimes the cow wins!....

....saddle bronc...extra help for the riders and boy do they need it!...

....intermisson...so what better way (?) to entertain the crowd than to get a bunch of small children and get them to chase some small cows with ribbons on their tails....the small cows must have been used to this as remarkably unfazed by the charge of the toddlers....oh, and the tantrums afterwards! .... from the children...not the cows....

...the best bit (for me) was the ladies barrel racing (I think Mr R enjoyed it too!) the rider we videoed was a bit on the slow side (?!) the winning time was 17.2 secs!

Now off to get Mr R a cowboy hat, chaps (leather) and some chewin' tobacco!!

Plants...some new some old...

2009-05-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

Anthea gave me a tour last week of our soon to be new garden. It was a bit rainy so hence the lack of photos but managed to get the apple blossom from the tree in the front garden, next to the peach (!) tree and some cool and groovy pinecones (thought of Auntie I!)

So...quick rundown...mostly so Mum can get her gardening plans ready for July's visit!

Front garden: Peach & apple tree, Japanese quince, rose bushes (lots) include semi-wild rugosa, honeysuckle, clematis and Virginia creeper, small rodendrons.

Back garden: irises (lots), flowering plum, more roses, ox-eye daises (yay!), small herb garden, raspberry canes, redcurrents, grape vine (with proper grapes!) strawberries, mock orange, wigelia, lilac, delphinums, aquilegia, mahonia, more roses, more clematis...

Oh and they don't have slugs here!!!

Shaun did make it back...

2009-05-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, didn't realise i left the last post on such a cliffhanger...did he return, was there beer? Well, yes and yes....

And just in case you were worried about the accommodation, there was I thinking Travelodge...no, the Fairmont Royal York....just to show how far from the travelodge that is I have included some photos...

Oh and they have bars...with Guinness....there was a lot of work done too...honest!

Apart...

2009-05-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Mr R flew to Toronto, Ontario today with his new job - fruit growers trade fair for the next 4 days. Nice hotel in the downtown area so hopefully will get out to see the sites although the agenda sounds pretty packed so might just get a few pictures on the inside of a convention centre.....

Sure he will have fun with the Torontians/Torontinnies/Torontonites - they have beer... so all should be well!

2009-05-05T17:58:00.001-07:00

Wahey! First sunburn of the summer! Soon to be a nice blotchy red all over, I feel. Achieved whilst painting a nice blue stripe down Matilda -very smart!

18C-23C over the past few days with bright blue skies, a bit of rain at the moment but still warm and sunny again for the weekend...yippee!

Critter count hits new high...

2009-05-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

After flora, some fauna (this isn't just thrown together you know!)

It is the land of the small furry things at the moment and poor Otter doesn't know which way to turn.

As well as overly aggressive tree-living squirrels to deal with, he now has ground squirrels and marmots!

One of many local ground squirrels (need to x 500+ for the local population!)

A marmot, surprising not in the majestic mountains and hills which surround us...but on a patch of grass, in the middle of town, next to the highway (uh oh!) and beside the petrol station!

The problem with the ground squirrels are a) there are loads of them and b) they look out for eachother and c) they live under ground. So poor Otter's tripping along on his afternoon walk and they are all basking in the sun on top of their little mounds (in gardens/orchards/banks etc).
Being fairly well camoflaged and faced with not the sharpest tool in the doggy toolbox Otter doesn't spot them until they see him. Then the pesky little critters all bond together like some communist utopia and warn eachother with little sharp squeaks. Now, there IS a reason for those ears and at this they prick up but hearing and direction are two different things in the brain of a cocker spainel and it takes a while for the two brain cell to collide and go 'they're over there, doofus!'.

So then we have a incredibly excited puppy bounding recklessly across the road/bushes/neighbours gardens to get to the wriggly little furry-squirrel-rabbit-I haven't seen these in the New Forest-type things, who, by now, have dived into their burrows and are splitting their sides with squirrel-giggles!

On the neighbours gardens front - no fences - very N. American but particularly confusing for a dog who has been brought up in the New Forest - again no fences but also no incessant hissing of 'Otter, come' 'Otter, you little darling, come here' 'Otter, you ******* little bugger, I can't believe we paid $1000 to get you over here, you little *******, don't you poo as well' - I say hissing, rather than yelling as would be more customary, as these are very expensive houses and sneaking away before anyone notices is the order of the day and plus they probably have a licence from the RMCP too!

Slightly bigger than a ground squirrel or a marmot, the quite fresh track of a black bear when we were hiking in the hills above Oyama....fortunately its owner is not featuring on the critter count just yet...and long may it stay that way....unless I am on the chairlift at Silver Star and he is nice and far below me....!

Pretty flowers...

2009-05-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

Now that spring is firmly underway, for the herbaceous inclined, some pictures of the local flora....

The big daisy/gerbera like flowers are Arrowleaf , also known as Okanagan sunflowers and are currently covering every hillside in the area. One of the wineries down the road is named after them and apparently they have medicinal uses...but I prefer the output of their namesake...especially a rather tasty ice-wine....!

Then we have the local buttercup (although looks like a yellow snowdrop) which are on the high pastures and meadows.

There is also loads of mock orange everywhere and the cherry orchards are just starting to blossom......!

Its a bit nice here at the moment!

007 - Armed and Dangerous....

2009-05-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

....well almost...

The licence arrived this week from the RMCP (the tiny little card in the right of the picture...which has only taken 5 months!) so we have a very pleased Mr R! And thanks to the boys in the UK (you know who you are!)

At last, all the research on the internet can now be put to good use (I think the credit card is going to take a bit of a battering...lets just hope I can get a few cans of paint on it before it maxes out due to excessive purchasing of toys with lots of letters and numbers after them!).

A very very happy bunny....

Whistler

2009-04-18T12:11:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post for all you skiers out there who are thinking of 2010... (last weekend of the season here tomorrow - boo hoo!)

Whistler 5 day passes are only $309 if you book before 1st May (10 days is $564)- with the way the Euro is going Canada might be cheaper next year!
www.whistlerblackcomb.com/save

Our new home...in a while...

2009-04-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Another piece of good news this week was that we have exchanged on the house in Lyndhurst! We have a cash buyer who is looking to run it as a holiday rental and we should complete once our tenants have left at the end of May.

Also we have had our offer accepted on a house just a few doors down on Maki Road. This was about the second house we saw and we couldn't believe we could find such a great house so quickly...so we looked over the last few months at loads of others and I have to say we couldn't beat it for location, looks, layout or feel, plus it means that Shaun gets to walk to work and we don't have to buy a second car.

Its definately a house for entertaining as there is a deck around 2 sides with room for eating out, hammocks, sun loungers, we have a bar (!) downstairs which lends out into the back garden and the pation which is partially covered to you can BBQ in the unusual event of rain, or we have heard that its known to BBQ your Christmas turkey!

Upstairs is the lounge/dining room which opens onto the main deck, kitchen, bathroom, guest bedroom, master bedroom with ensuite, balcony and a jaccuzi tub in the bedroom!

Downstairs we have another bedroom, a second lounge with a fire place, another bathroom, bar (!) and office - 2500sq in all, so plenty of room for visitors!

Outside there is a double garage/workshop and even a space to put Matilda....

Moving in date is the 16th June! Fingers are going to stay permenately crossed until then!

The Other Woman!

2009-04-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

Humpf! A new floosie has arrived on the scene, personally I think she is a bit beamy and could do with a good scrubbing but Mr R loves her....!

Her name is Matilda and she is 20' 8" long/loa (apparently the extra 8" is important?!) trailer sailer (a Pippin 20 in the UK) which has been resting at the nearby yacht club for the last 2 years. However Professor Higgins saw her potential and is convinced that she will be the belle of the Embassadors Ball (or Maki Road BBQ)!

So as soon as his job was confirmed we sent a cheque of for the princly sum of £1000 and Rik and Shaun towed her back home.

The past week has seen much cleaning, sanding, paint removal, varnishing and the odd bad word. He would now make an excellent cat burglar as he has no fingerprints left and we have learnt that the instructions to wear gloves with stripping varnish aren't just a helpful hint!

Unfortunately the pictures below make her look a lot cleaner than she is at present !

Cherries...

2009-04-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

Shaun starts his new job as Operations/H&S/Sales Manager for Coral Beach Farms on Monday!

CBF is a local farm, and by local I mean 5 mins down the road, but they own cherry orchards all over the area. They were advertising for a logistics coordinator and Shaun sent in the cv. Couple of long interviews later Shaun didn't get the logistics job however they liked him so much they made a post for him!

The cherries are marketed under the brand name Jealous Fruits (www.jealousfruits.com) and these are PREMIUM cherries - they get helicopters flown over them to blow the water off them if it rains!! They export mainly to the US but have big markets in China and Japan as well as UK and Europe.

He can walk to work, shorts and t-shirt seem to be the office uniform, in non peak times starts at 7am (so not my job!) and finishes at 3pm so plenty of time for sailing in the afternoon, and we get free cherries! Whats not to like....!!!! Oh, and day 2 is tractor driving!

Although July and August sound manic with 6-day week and 12 hours in order to get the harvest in, but again, silver lining.... 3 day week in the winter....allows plenty of skiing time!

Old habits die hard...

2009-04-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

First walk in his new home and he finds a tennis ball within 30 secs!

As of today, current count is 4 vintage tennis balls so averaging one a day...not sure what is going to happen when they start playing tennis in the public court on Coral Beach....

.....still should be a replacement for Match of the Day!

Otter's Adventure Part 3 - the Reunion!

2009-04-10T12:25:00.001-07:00

The second half of the journey, back to Kelowna, was smooth and uneventual. We flew back via Westjet who take Otter in the hold as he's too big to sit in the space under the seat in front of you.

You check in as per normal baggage and then his kennel goes through security- did have a brief worry that everyone was so relaxed about him that they might forget to put him on the plane, but did hear a little whimper before they closed the door so rested easy on the way back. (NB, another great flight, you go out over downtown Calgary (skycrapers etc) and fly in over Silver Star and Vernon and south over Kalmalka Lake, Wood Lake and Duck Lake. I could see the top of the hill we live near, Predator Ridge Golf course but our house was over the other side)

Shaun met me at the airport and we were finally able to release the hound in the car park and promise no more flying for a while! Fortunately Otter was equally enthusiatic with Shaun as with his mum!

Took Otter back to the house where Nina (Rik and Janneke's dog) was soon a smitten kitten with the dashing new arrival from the old country....although still has a lot to learn about Otter's ball obssession!

Otter's Adventure Part 2 - Calgary

2009-04-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

So arrive at the hotel, somewhat flustered trying to manage crate, suitcase and a very very eager dog! Think Otter's first impressions of Canada might be somewhat muted by the unimpressive industrial estate surrounding us, lacking the wide vistas promised in the brochure but I think he was just glad to be out of the box!

He came out happy as a happy thing - no 'accidents' and surprisingly no pressing need to stand by a bush for 10 mins! Hotel was fine and we had a room on the ground floor for ease of access.

Unfortunately 30 mins later nearly lost him under a truck as the unimpressive industrial estate sprang a few surprises in the form of a couple of snowshoe hares...this is the dog that is so uninterested in bunnies that the local rabbits in the New Forest just used to stand there whilst he wandered past....well hares must have some pheramones cos he went mental at the first sniff and tried to hurtle across the road! Fortunately the collar held (tightened up afterwards!) so I didn't have to explain to Shaun how we have spent over $1,000 for about 40mins of dog!!

Deep sigh of relief when we got back to the hotel!

Otter with IoW chew bone and the infamous 'house'

Spoiled mercilessly at dinner with half a burger, chicken strips off my cesar salad, garlic bread off the salad, plus the croutons, basically I had lettuce! plus his pasta and chicken.....well, we have missed him!

Someone's had a busy day!

Otter's Adventure

2009-04-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well, um, 'later today' seems to have extended itself by several days but do have the excuse of alot of things happening...however if you are reading this blog 'top down' hopefully the number of other posts will back me up and also spring has sprung here so lots of skiing to get in before the snow vanishes.....

Anyhoo, back to the tail (sorry!) of the young Otter and it is a tale of 2 halves and i will start with the Blighty bit....

...as is the curse of an very early morning start, you get no sleep the night before as you are constantly springing awake thinking 'was that the alarm' 'OMG have I missed the alarm', 'will X stop snoring and let me get some sleep' ...perhaps the last one is just me and perhaps not restricted to early flight days...but I disgress.... the point was that the parents spent a rather restless night before arising at 4am to take the pup to the 5;30am ferry, one plus point of the time difference was able to give them a call at the perfect respectful time of 8pm Canadian! Don't think my chipper tone was the best thing at 4.10am but the thought was there!

Transport crate was in the boot and Otter on the backseat curious about the early hour but ready for an dawn run on the beach with balls....no doubt there was some confusion about boarding the ferry and the run up to Heathrow but the pup was ready for anything.

Air Canada Cargo at Heathrow were great, having been told horror stories of dogs being turned away at the gates of the plane, he was accepted with copiuous amounts of documentation to prove that a) he was a dog b) wasn't foaming at the mouth and c) wasn't going to conk out and joined the doggy choir angelical mid Atlantic!

M&D also managed to get £100 off the flight so shipping him became expensive downgraded from extortionate! He arrived at check in at about 9am but his flight wasn't until 13:30 so he was able to go for a hour's walk and get a few treats in before being shut in the crate canada-bound...

M&D then went for a WELL deserved rest in Kew Gardens although am given to understand that concern was raised with the rather short text message 'in Kew without dog' which could have been taken to mean either a) utter disaster, dog missing, but nice flowers and can nick some cuttings or b) all's well, Otter's on flight, nice daffs....

Meanwhile, across the Altantic, I was having a similar night to the earlier one in the UK, imagining a doggy popsicle if they forgot to turn on the heating, or a wonderful combination of doggy outputs if the flight was a bit bumpy....and who would be there to tell him to swallow when his ears popped (and those are some ears!).

But my flight wasn't until 10:30am on Saturday (4th) so plenty of time to pack the doggy treats, new lead and collar (with $50 dog licence! per year!), bowls,etc etc, stop for a Timmy Hortons (just hot chocolate, no donuts, v good!) and on the plane to Calgary.

Recommend the Westjet flight to Calgary as you fly below the clouds and we had a perfect day - you fly out over Big White Ski Resort and you can see all the tracks/mountain roads up to the lake on the top of the hills around Kelowna where you can go camping and kayaking in the summer. Then east towards Alberta, over the Arrow Lakes and Nakusp which is famous for its hot springs and down into Calgary - what is most amazing is the space and the total absence of people....

Landed in Calgary at 12:30 so had a bit of time to kill before Otter arrived at 15:30, checked out the customs process and as suspected it involved alot of paperwork, unfortunately matters were not helped by the fact that the Air Canada Cargo office was 10 mins from the airport and nothing could be done until Otter arrived. So had lunch, saved half a burger for Otter as a treat.....waiting, wandered up and down arrivals, bored...told it would be an hour after the plane arrive that Otter would be at ACC...more waiting...getting excited/impatient...

Finally take taxi to ACC office ($12!), nice lady called Laurie, can't see Otter (boo!), have to take papers to Customs back in the airport and then come back to collect Otter (Boo!), but Ziggy from ACC drops me off saving $12 (yay!). Forms stamped and $31 in customs fees later can go back to Otter. Note: Calgary taxis are surprising un-dog friendly! Eventually find a nice chap who will take Otter and wait for me at the ACC office. More forms stamped, told I can go to collect him next door....why are they taking so long to answer the bell...!...fortunately Laurie sees that I am about to break through the wire with my bare hands and lets me in! Otter!!!!! And he's fine, having a bit of a fit in the crate so either he remembers me or he's gone mad! Unfortunatly can't take him out of the cage for the taxi so try to explain that its nearly over (don't think I am believed!). 20 mins and $40! later arrive at the dog friendly Travelodge!

He's here!

2009-04-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know that Otter has arrived safe and sound after 2 plane trips - he bounced out of his crate/house happy and healthy and completely untramatised - M&D did a grand job in making his crate a 'happy place' with trips to the beach etc in it before he left....they also manage to charm £100 discount from Air Canada Cargo at heathrow....v. impressive!

Will post the full saga later today with pictures and all the other news especially re Mr R and his new floosie....

Spring is springing...

2009-03-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

It looks like we are headed out of winter and into some warmer weather (about time) although they did throw a massive hailstorm at us on Sunday just to keep everyone guessing.

The woods around us are full of the tap-tap noises of woodpeckers, you can hear them from miles away - we were expecting the cute little ones aka the New Forest but these guys are super-sized, North American whoppers and can get over a foot long! Apparently Woody the Woodpecker was based on these guys.

We keep forgetting the camera so pinched this picture from a friend.

Game Banquet

2009-03-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

We have been trying to decide how to post this one as it is quite different to what you get back in the UK. But we decided to go ahead anyway as this is very much part of the local life. Here conservation and hunting go very much hand in hand, the hunters are some of the most active campaigners to preserve the land and protect the lakes , as well as promoting wildlife by re-populating some lakes and streams. In a way it is perhaps the most 'honest' way of getting your meat if that is what you like eating as each animal has lived a free and wild life, the guy or girl has probably sat in the cold for ages or tracked it over a number of miles, its been killed quickly and efficiently and then the whole animal is used.

So with that said...on to the story....

We have been looking forward to the Fish and Game Club's Banquet for ages and at last the day arrived.

Shaun had been down at Winfield helping set up the tables for 300+ people during the morning and during the evening we were due to help out with the Moose Draw...wasn't sure what it was but game for anything.

Mr R. had done a bit of research with the blokes as to what was the dress code for the evening....banquet implied a bit of dressing up was entailed but participation in a yet to be identified Moose Draw warranted a more circumspect approach to the level of satorial elegance...so decided against the evening dress and black gloves and went for a half way option of heels and a mid length dress....

....TOTALLY overdressed, this was jeans, cowboys hats and boots kinda deal...I just screamed 'newbie'...still everyone was very kind and pretended not to notice....

....although might have helped with the Moose Draw...which turned out to be loads of tickets placed in little holes (600 of them apparently) painstakingly drilled into a giant moose antler. You pick a ticket, pay the amount on the ticket ($0-$5), write your name on it and it goes in a draw for a prize. We had a selection of rifles or bows as top prize and were very much the one to win, but there were other draws for a chainsaw, pamper hamper, a diamond ring and loads of other stuff.

All the money raised goes towards the hatchery where the baby salmon are raised to supplement the natural stocks, to the tune of 80,000 little kokanee. And everyone was amazingly generous, we had folks coming back time and again for more tickets and nearly managed to clear the lot (a local record!).

They drew the winning ticket after the dinner and a young chap won, who was so excited he couldn't speak....I then had to go and apologise to the 100+ people I promised had the lucky ticket! Still was all in a good cause...

But the main event was definately the dinner - all the food had been provided by the club members and was cooked by a local restaurant and the catering team from the local college. One of the oldest members of the club (90yrs) had given 74 smoked trout and kokanee salmon caught personally by himself on the frozen Wood Lake! And the beavers which were trapped (see earlier post) because they were blocking the salmon streams appeared on the menu...in a stroganoff!

It was so extraordinary that I had to take photos of some of the more unusual options!

Don't look any further if you are a cat lover but I figure these guys would sooner eat Spud than greet him as a fellow kitty....
In the name of research I did try a selection with the smoked kokanee and trout being absolutely amazing and a close second the roasted vension followed by the carpaccio.

Our friends depart...sob!

2009-03-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

Gary and Adella left us to go back to UK and I can only say this because a) I am sitting at home, b) they are 3000+ miles away and therefore cannot hit me....

...but there was an certain unfortunate symmetry to their departing as per their arrival....
We were all packed and ready and left Big White in a light snowfall, however the airport was reasonably clear and flights were coming and going.

On the drive down the mountain the snow thickened....but then lifted and we parked in the airport carpark to some light flakes...also Gary got propositioned at the traffic lights by a young lady in a sporty little number..apparently to ask directions but we think it was something more....that was until she spotted Adella glaring at her from the backseat!

We arrived in good time for their flight, straight to check in to drop the bags off, a bit of a queue at the ski drop off whilst the skis were searched for gunpowder residue (?!) and then to Timmy H's for further research on the huge variety of Tim Bits (cinnamon added to yummy list).

Planes still taking off...although inbound plane from Toronto was delayed...but hey, only by 10 mins....more coffee....inbound plane delayed by an hour...but obviously planning on speedy turnaround as outbound only delayed by 30 mins (go ground crew guys!)...still time to make that connection in Toronto to the Heathrow flight....tight but doable....oh look the snows getting heavier....really heavy...really, really heavy....snow goes.... still 30 mins before the flight no sign of any further delay (reassuring words from the reeds 'hey, this is canada, they're used to this kind of stuff', 'they'll clear it in a moment', 'if the plane wasn't able to land they would have sent it on to Vancouver by now', 'good deals on pizza if you do need to stay an extra night' etc etc)...

..so we left our friends (with a bit of a sniffle) and headed home, confident that all would be well...after all what was the likelihood of it happening twice....?

...quite high as it turns out....

.... plane delayed until 1:30pm then 2:30pm (apparently did go to Vancouver and come back again)...missed connecting flight at 7pm but hey, there's another plane at 11pm so they were quickly booked on that one....which would have been fine if the plane had worked....they could fix it... not they couldn't... unload bags/food from old plane...find new plane (probably a good idea!)...load baggage, food, people....leave at 2:30am....get home at 4pm UK time...oh yippee work tomorrow...

G&A big hugs and we hope the skiing and partying made up for it....somehow....

Up the limit!

2009-03-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

Note to Mr G Brown and Mr S Harper - duty free limits between UK and Canada are simply not high enough, please increase....

Evidence? This was full a week ago and the eagle eye amongst you, dear readers, will spot a thin line just by the 'litre'...yes...thats all that left and we are lucky to have that as the bottle had to be lured away from a certain individual with subsitutes of Pinot Grigio and local cider....hic...

Gifts to the UK

2009-03-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

In our humble opinion some prime Canadian exports despatched back to Blightly:

a) Canadian honey IN THE SHAPE OF A BEAR!

b) beer (okay, probably orginally intended for orange juice) for the 2010 Olympics

c) and of course ... maple syrup

Who needs expensive airport duty frees with their smoked salmon and chocolates? ..hmmm Adella might disgree with this....

Big White

2009-03-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

Skiing in Big White lived up to its name with 2 dumps of fresh snow and so much to do that we still had runs un skied at the end of 6 days.

Monday opened up with some serious weather with snow and high-ish winds which put our nerve to the test, but midday saw a lessing of the wind and we skiied for most of the day. Major event was getting Adella off blades and on to skis to cope with the onpiste powder but unfortunately we failed to get photographic evidence. However, after 9 years of blading, the skiing was impressive - despite the cursing of the planks every 30 seconds. [Editor: it was noticed that the cute ski hire chap got a much more favourable response to the question 'so did you enjoy them' when the skis were returned than we had heard over the previous 2 hours!]

Tuesday: I headed off to an interview with Interior Health (regional NHS) very kindly chauffeured by Mr R to prevent hissy fits and left the guys for a day exploring the mountain. Weather so so but no snow and no wind.

Wednesday: Oh Happy Day - blue skies and powder!

Thursday: A tad chilly and high winds shut some of the lifts whilst the snow fell through the day and into the evening. Great meal in the village with fantastic tapas and discovery that Okanagan Peach Cider is v.tasty

Friday: we though Wednesday was good but oh boy! Friday was awesome- blue skies, no winds, knee deep powder on the whole mountain especially where the lifts were shut the day before (proof that every cloud has a silver lining). Headed straight to the newly opened lifts at 8:30am and played until the lifts shut at 3:15! oh the knees!

2 ways to relax

2009-03-06T17:23:00.000-08:00

Hot tub....or..

Sofa....ah bless - it was a black run, mogul and powder day...honest!

This is the life...

2009-03-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

We are staying at a fantastic condo in Big White called the Raven and we just wanted to show you folks a few pictures.
The apartment looks over Happy Valley and you can ski back to boot room at the end of hard day on the piste. Ski out is a bit more complicated with the hardship of a 20m walk to the run to the gondola. Conveniently it also runs through the evening so you don't have to walk up the hill to the pub!

Relaxing after a gin and tonic, plus comfy bedrooms and heated floors...all for less than £50 per night!

AND we got a bottle of wine on arrival AND one on departure!

Plus excellent customer service from the lovely Wendy and Laurie.

2010 season anyone?

Sunday: Carr's Landing and Kelowna

2009-03-06T16:40:00.000-08:00

A Local Critter puts in an appearance for the UK guests as we walked around Carr's Landing (boat launch, beach, obligatory snowball fight etc)

Then we headed off into Kelowna for a walk along the marina before heading up to Big White for second half of the skiing...

Gifts from the UK

2009-03-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

Heinz tomato soup, gin, port, branston pickle....mmm yummy....just in case we get any more visitors....

Kelowna

2009-03-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

A fine shot of Kelowna in the sun and snow from Gary's plane window as they were coming into land on Thursday...

Sun at Silver Star

2009-03-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

What better way to reward 2 friends who have had a pretty horrendous journey with the best days skiing possible. We had 20cms of new snow (the silver lining to Kelowna airport being closed) and every cloud had spontaneously decided to bugger off to Edmonton and leave us with brilliant blue skies...

We booked an apartment in the Silver Creek Lodge which is ski in/out and overlooks the final run into the village and there are two hot tubs on the roof to soak those tired legs in

Day one of holiday proper Adella set about comparing the quality of cinnimon buns in various eateries on and around the mountain. We later discovered that this indepth study was not limited to Silver Star but had commenced in Vancouver airport on Wednesday with further samples on Thursday morning (just in case things had gone to pot bun-wise overnight). Thursday afternoon saw an alternative pastry brought in for comparison with Tim Bits (donut holes, as they're holes there's no calories!) at Kelowna airport.

Friday and Saturday saw some serious skiing as the legs warmed up, lunches at Paradise Camp ('best burgers EVER' our independent consultant stated, taking a well earned break from C. Bun research). We headed back down the mountain on Saturday for a overnight stop at our cottage and a tour of the neighbourhood.....to be continued.....

Frankly its quicker to swim...

2009-03-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

Our friends Gary and Adella arrived in late February from the snowy UK to the extremely snowy Okanagan Valley....so snowy that landing planes was abandoned at Kelowna airport and poor G&A had to spend a rather frustrating and dispointing night in a Travellodge outside Vancouver airport.

Air Canada's performance was pretty shabby with lots of queuing, they even lost the luggage but then phoned at 5am to let them know they had found it...which was nice!?

They were due to arrive with us on Wednesday 25th Feb but unfortunately didn't get here until Thursday 26th...and that was a close run thing as they had been given seats in row 32 on the next plane out of Vancouver to Kelowna but got to check in and the plane only had 30 rows! Rather than being strapped to the wings, some serious negotiation by Gary and a supberb hissy fit by young Adella resulting in them being put in the executive section and 18hours later they arrived!

Lessons learnt:
a) don't fly Air Canada....ever!
b) don't annoy Adella after 24 hours with no sleep and no chocolate...!

Return of the blog...

2009-03-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the lack of blogging but we basically have been having too much fun in the snow! Plus some serious job hunting.....but back in the blog frame of mind so here goes....!

2009-02-11T16:17:00.000-08:00

A snapshot of fun on the fluffy stuff at Big White...the last bump was a bit of a surprise !

Snow Sculptures

2009-02-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

As part of the Carnival there is a snow scuplting competion at Silver Star and the winner goes to compete in a national competition in Quebec. All the entries are carved from the same size block of snow and I think they have about a day and a half to do it.

The winning entry was the guys in the igloo, with the whirling dervishes a close second...and we just liked the dancing bear..

Winter Carnival

2009-02-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went up to see the Vernon Winter Carnival which runs for a week with a parade at the weekend, snow + ice scuplting, balloon races etc etc.

I persuaded Mr R to cart me up to Vernon to watch the parade...um, its enthusiastic but not a patch on Ryde Carnival, especially that year there was a red Daihatsu jeep with paw prints and 3 girls in thigh high boots in the back.....

...Shaun might join the riding display team next year...!

And its good to see that children are properly controlled in Canada! I think these were the free-range, organic variety...

And what parade would be complete without our very own 'nessie' - the Ogopogo - who is supposed to live in the bottom of Lake Okanagan but is not adverse to sautering down Vernon High Street when the occassion demands it...!

Fuel for the Love Machine....

2009-02-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

The source of Mr Reed's increased energy on the ski slopes post a Hobbit-esque 'second breakfast' aka elevensies is now revealed.......cinnamon buns....

...these are served hot out of the oven at various on mountain eateries and are topped with either a cream cheese like icing or sugar syrup....quality 'sampling' is also provided by a independent consultant to ensure that Mr R's repast is up to scratch!

No Skype

2009-01-29T18:37:00.001-08:00

We have no WiFi connection in Winfield so will be off the Skype connection until 8th February.
Emails still cool though as Ron and Lois have kindly let us use their computer...hence the blogability too!

Big White

2009-01-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

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Staying in Winfield for the next couple of weeks puts us about 15 minutes closer to each of the ski resorts so we decided to give Big White a try this week and went up last Friday and yesterday (Wednesday).

We didn't think we could like it better than Silver Star but it was really good - in fact the 2 resorts make a killer combination - Silver Star is very quaint and quieter, with runs in amongst the trees and nestled in valleys...Big White is just that...bigger and whiter! Although you are still in the treeline the resort is higher so tree cover at the peaks is much sparser and you have big open runs with lots of powder in between. Big long runs run down off speedy traverses and there are 'warming huts' at the bottom of all the main lifts serving hot cinnamon buns ...must take a photo of these things as they are seriously huge!

On the subject of photos, none yet of BW as the first day we forgot the camera and day 2 it was a might cloudy and we have decided to only post pictures of ski resorts in bright sunshine for maximum smug factor!

Apres ski Big White looks a bit on the European side, with the boatloads of Aussies taking the traditional place of the Dutch in the getting the party started stakes..unfortunately we missed Australia Day on the mountain on Tuesday as Mr Reed was taking an exam for the sheriffs job, but there was cricket, girls in thongs (whoa, boys...thongs=sandals, Mr Reed v. disappointed too) and lots of beer drinking...bliss!

Actually both resorts could do with some snow as we are skiing on hard packed piste but we would like to get back to some powder (yes I know, fussy fussy - I never thought I would be asking for more snow on a 1.50m base!). There was some on Tuesday to freshen things up but it was more like a moist towellette than a proper bath.

We are going to try snow dances in the back garden tomorrow!

House sitting...again..

2009-01-29T17:57:00.000-08:00

We have picked up another house sitting job with friends from the Game Club so have relocated down the road to Winfield to look after their house. Lovely though the house is I have to say the main draw is their unbeliveable cute dog called Rupert.

He's a 2 year terrier cross, full of beans and amazingly attractive to young and old! We have had children rush out of supermarkets, spend 10 mins fussing him and then all you can hear as they cross the carpark is 'Mummy, can we have a puppy? Can we have one like that? When can we get a pupppyy, plu-eeaassee!'. We are expecting a petition from the harrassed parents of Winfield banning us from Coopers (local Bugdens/Morrisons)!

Also very positive effect on the older members of the community as we take him for walks along OK Centre beach in his little red sweater (well it is minus -12C at the moment!)...thinking he would be very useful for bank jobs, kidnappings etc ...everyone's too busy noticing extremely cute dog to fuss with the major criminal heist...

...but lovely though he is....Otter's still the best...we did take a photo of me cuddled with the dog on the sofa but in case Otter does see this on the parents computer decided not to post it in case it causes major psychological damage!

On the Otter subject, guilt over dog sitting, has occassioned a rash of phone calls to Air Canada, and BA to get the little horror over here!

Success!

2009-01-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

We now have 2 full legal drivers in the Reed household as Mr R passed his test today with flying colours...'very serene' (!?) was on the driving inspectors notes....

PS thanks for the extra candlepower M&D x

Dad's gone to Iceland....

2009-01-20T14:37:00.000-08:00

As an alternative to the freezer section of the local supermarkets we have ice fishing....

This apparently involves drilling a hole through the ice with a giant corkscrew, dropping a line in and then sitting on a bucket in the middle of the lake for about 5 hours jiggling the line about until the temptation of a nice juicy maggot gets too much for some unfortunate and very chilly kokanee salmon.

Been told its great fun and the salmon taste extra yummy at this time of year but I think we'll stick to fish fingers!

Incidentially we have been advised that the minimum depth for safe ice fishing is 6 inches and that the lakes just north of us have ice 16 inches, thick...the ice these guys are on is only 4inches and they were still out there when the temperature was above freezing and there were pools of water on the top of the ice! We are not sure if the culstering of ice fisherfolk is a good idea (extra hands if someone takes a dip) or whether the solitary ice fisherperson is erring on the side of caution and avoiding the extra weight....

Oh deer (sorry)

2009-01-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

The deer came in last night and ate the poor snowman's horns/nose/etc...

...so we now have Kojak the Snowman...

... its a slow day for blog news today.....

No more soggy seats..

2009-01-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

The ML is now fully ski enabled with a ski rack on the roof so we don't have to carry the skis in the car. Put together with minimal shouting and cursing although did get it all positioned and tightened the last bolt when Mr Reed had a brainstorm and opened the boot....curses! 10mins of fiddling later all is perfect and we can now carry 8 (!) sets of skis or 4 snowboards (like thats ever going to happen!).

Tomorrow we try it out with a test run to Silver Star...

By request

2009-01-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

As requested by Ellie, some Okanagan snowmen (possibly excluding the last one which was Shaun's artistic effort!)

THE GOOD.....

THE BAD....

AND THE UGLY!!

Update on jobs

2009-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

Shaun is still doing all the exams which are needed before he can apply for the sheriff's post, next on the list is the driving test (fingers crossed)! Then he has a Language Test and another driving test, this time for passenger vehicles so hopefully the application will go in at the end of January.

We are busy getting all the police action movies out of the DVD shop so he can get the lingo right!

I've applied for a dispute resolution post with the BC Govt; we called them today and they are still going through the paper sift so going to be another 1-2 weeks before I hear about the next stage (more fingers crossed!)

Ski, ski, ski

2009-01-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

This week, with our season lift passes clasped in our hot sweaty little paws we have been hitting the slopes of Silver Star with a vengenance as can now ski for 'free'!

We have settled into a routine of ski a day, have an admin/job hunt/shop day, ski the next and so on which has been in part been caused by only wanting to ski on the best days (although at the moment we are basking in -2 temperatures so pretty much every day is a good ski day and someone up there definately loves skiers as we have had snow on every other day so there is a nice fresh layer when we get there the following morning.)...the other reason is recovery time...obviously because we are skiing so hard and fast.....not any other reason....!

There is a great little restaurant on the far side of the ski hill (will remember to take picture next time!) which does top soups and we are steadily working our way through their repetoire (Spicy Thai Chicken top so far although wild mushroom a close second). Shaun is also official taster of cinnamon buns on the 11 o'clock rest stop to ensure quality doesn't deteriotate in 48hrs!

Christmas Bowl at Silver Star

We are getting to know the mountain a bit and there is definately something for everyone - cruisy pisted runs, moguls (with and without powder depending on how much you want to earn that cinnamon bun!), pure powder and runs through snow clad trees. The Canadian coding system is a bit different to Europe with green being the easier (green/blue in Euroland), blue (blue/red), Black 1 diamond (black) and Black 2/3 diamond (really, really black as in OMG are you sure that you can ski that?!). We've tried a 2 diamond and are going to improve/get new legs before going back!

There are some seriously good skiers/boarders local boarders here and you see virtually no crashes as a) the runs are so uncrowded and b) everyone has basically been skiing since they were in nappies! Friday was 'schools' day as all the local kids get a morning's skiiing every week as part of their games cirriculum and those guys can really zip down a slope! We did see one really good crash, right under the chair lift as well for maximum exposure....guy comes down the hill towards a natural ramp with about a 1.5 m drop into some powder...a little pause...perhaps to make sure the audience on the chairlift is fully engaged (?) and then swoops down...a quick 360 and then a full on face plant into the powder - body completely horizontal and then just drops! Round of applause from the whole lift as he emerges from the powder safe and sound....

Driving conditions have improved since earlier in the week and I am now learning to appreciate the beauty of snow free roads as the temperatures have risen in the Valley we have snow on the hills and lovely dry, non icy roads (or at least they are by the time we get moving!).

We are hoping to hook up with one of our neighbours who was a ski instructor, from a long line of ski instructors and get some tips to be able to really hit those higher black with some style in return for a beer or two!

It's being snowing...a bit..

2009-01-12T19:06:00.001-08:00

Whilst we were in Vancouver the Okanagan has been receiving just a bit of the white stuff! The pictures were taken last Monday and we are in a winter wonderland at the moment!

Assimilation!

2009-01-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

From the words of wisdom in our 'How to be a Canadian' handbook a critical aspect of being a true Canadian is the unthinking ability to add 'eh' (pron. a as in tray)at the end of every sentance i.e 'how about a drink, eh?'.

Lying in bed with Mr R this morning the question came over the pillow

'Shall we go skiing tomorrow, eh?'

We paused a moment to reflect on the acheivement....

Ice Road Truckers...The Return

2009-01-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

Only 5.5hours saw us back from Vancouver to home in Lake Country, thanks to the expert driving of Mr R, the able support of a cinnamon bun and coffee stop in Hope and some very clear roads on the Coquihalla, despite the dire weather forecast.

Critter count was surprisingly good, especially on the bird front with bald eagles, a red tailed hawk, a touch of home with a pheasant, and Shaun spotted what we originally thought was a large black bin bag by the side of the road but as we got closer it turned out to be what we think was a golden eagle - it was HUGE!

A critical aspect of the journey was the vocal musings of ABBA (we only have 3 CDs to choose from at the moment, White Stripes was abit lively for ice driving and if we hear Duffy again there will be crimes committed!) and we topped the Coq (pronounce 'coke') to the dulcet tune of Waterloo and there was some serious in-car dancing...

The worst bit was driving into Kelowna with high winds, driving snow and really icy roads...very glad to see our little cottage which is now surrounded by 4ft of snow!!

A huge thank you to everyone for the Christmas cards which are strung up around the house - we opened them with a bottle of Gru-Vee and wrapped in a blanket as its a bit parky at the moment and we have obviously softened up with the -3C in Vancouver...all the cards and email messages really really appreciated!