So, it's Turtledove Day—a.k.a., The Second Day of Christmas, or First, depending on how you count it in your part of the world—and for no other reason than that it gets me active on Vox before Jax, I tell the story of a discovery and I pose a question:
Actually, they have been and left. But I like the sound of the title. Have you all seen the crazy movie The Russians are Coming? You should, if you haven't. Anyway, we met Kenny and Nate at the wedding this summer and they were in our area so came over for a wee visit. They are terrific company and were not here for long enough. We had sunny lovely weather and we had a picnic lunch at the beach and then I dragged them up Mt Doug. It was our Thanksgiving weekend, and C made lamb, in two ways for the meat eaters and a lovely fishy for me. We had a wee wander around town the next day when we took K to the Coho (after dodging the marathoners) and a bit of a seawall walk when I took N to the Anacortes ferry.
The next day, the weather turned. It was cold and wet for two days and then turned wet but mild for the rest of the week. I tell ya, when you work outside, weather becomes important. I am exhausted as I fit all my clients into two weeks so I can take a HOLIDAY for the rest of the month! Our friends from Scotland arrive tomorrow. My mum (and dad) came over tonight and helped me clean. How kind. How great. Anyway, there are just a few more things to do and then I can start to relax. We are going to go to Tofino for a couple of days, and then to Mt Washington and then a few days around here. It is supposed to rain for the next week. However, I will have the luxury of chosing if I wish to go out in the rain or not.
Wow. I had slightly forgotten how busy Autumn in the garden on the west coast can be. We have had spectacular weather, until just recently, and I have worked every day, 8 hours in the soil. I love the garden at this time of year. And I love cutting things back and putting beds to bed. I just love it. I think that Autumn and Spring are my fav times of the year. Although, I do love all the change of seasons, there is just something so lovely about now and the spring. As I have been busy planting bulbs, I have been already longing for spring, but I think it really is just to see if the bulbs look as good as I think they will look once they start to show. We had another lovely lovely day out at East Sooke park, not last Saturday, but the one before. Perfect weather. We took shortbreads and apples. Bliss.
Yup, you know it is Autumn when the apples are ready to harvest. This is the one time of year that I become homesick for NS - I long for those cool crisp days and warm afternoons, the colours, the smell of the orchards and fields and the full to bursting farmer's markets. In lieu of making a trip out east, we satisfied ourselves with a trip out to Sea Cider Farm to celebrate their apple days. It was a lovely, lovely afternoon and we took the scenic route through the country, which is always so much better than taking the highway, n'est pas? Anyway, they had cider tastings, pizza from our fav pizza place baked in their mobile wood fired oven, apple crisp (sold out when we got there), a wee photographic exhibit and an orchard to wander through. All in all, a good afternoon.
Carmen's garden, to be precise. She had an open garden on Sunday and I stopped by to collect one of my clients and we headed out. It was a lovely, lovely day and we took the back roads. Bliss. And she had a bit of a plant sale as well, so I bit the bullet and bought a couple of things for the garden which we may have to vacate. sigh. Never mind. When I dropped off my client, I raided her crab apple tree. It was loaded with lovely yellow-red fruit. Picking fruit on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Lovely. I took the fruit to another one of my clients who I knew would make some crab apple jelly, which she did, and I received a lovely pink grapefruit-coloured jelly today.
Give me strength. We received a free 'magazine' with our junk mail yesterday and as I appear to be hard-up for reading material, I sat down with it as I drank my morning coffee on our patio amidst the morning sounds of birds and cycle clubs. Only a couple of pages in and I quickly realized that the entire effort was advertising in the glossy guise of a beauty mag. This ad stood out. Honestly, I have so many worries right now, I am not sure if I want to add the worry of the right colour of laundry soap container.
Raven hues were all over the fall runways - a look we can all pull off, regardless of budget. Embrace the dark side! Even your detergent can get in on the act: Downy Simple Pleasures has introduced the new Orchid Allure scent in a sleek black bottle to make your laundry room as fashion-forward as your wardrobe.
I aborted my September installation, which means less money, but also more time off. And in fact, here I sit at the desk today having had my work curtailed by the rain. Nonetheless, Monday was actually a planned day off. We reached into the vase of things to do and decided on East Sooke Park. It looked dodgy weather-wise as we left and, in fact, we drove through the most amazing rain storm, but just as we got there things started to brighten. We took our lunch with us, pea soup/bread and hot chocolate and shortbreads biscuits and set off. bliss. It got sunnier and sunnier as the day wore on. We did a short coast walk to Beechey Head and then back through the woods to the beach. It was a much needed break. We are both a little stressed right no
Warning: Photos are a repeat of what I posted on Facebook. These are for the benefit of my Voxers.
We had a superb time in Truckee, California at our Joe's wedding. It was a 4 day holiday, but it honestly felt like 3 weeks. Our good friends, Ali and Wendy picked us up from the Reno airport and it took about 10 seconds before it felt like we hadn't been apart. The last time we saw everyone was three years ago, before we moved to Victoria. That, surely, is the sign of a good friendship. I was busting out with excitement to see Charlie and Joe and to meet Emily.
I knew we had a B&B to stay in, but I hadn't realized that the owner's had actually turned over the entire place for the wedding. So we had somewhere as home base and cooked all our meals together. Most of the younger people, including the bride and groom, camped at the Lake. I thought that since I spend my entire days on the soil, I would like a bed for my holiday, and there was definitely room in the Inn. Emily asked me, the Canadian, to make chilli for everyone, which I thought was crazy since most of them were American, but there you have it. Anyway, she served it in enormous sourdough bread buns. It was a hit. The only snag at the place was that neither I, nor the Brits, could find a teapot anywhere. Tragedy. There were coffee pots. There were about 40 mugs. There was no teapot. Then I discovered that the Americans thought that a kettle and a teapot were the same thing. What? So we had to have a lesson in how to brew a decent cup of tea. Turns out, that most of the Americans just put a teabag in a cup and stick it in the mircowave. Yikes.
We had two full days before the wedding and there were only 40 people for the wedding so it really felt like a community. Joe and Emily had wanted their wedding to be about bringing family and friends together for the weekend and in that they succeeded. It was one of those weddings that was not all about 'the show' or even all about the bride and groom, it was about friendship. We totally enjoyed meeting the people from different parts of their worlds. And of course, it was great to just hang out with the Agers and grandparents.
The wedding was beautiful. Sweet. Perfect. The setting looked a bit Scottish. The flowers for the men didn't arrive, so Emily asked if I could whip something up, so I gathered Thistles, Asters, Grass and Sedges and some funky chartreuse lichen and tied it all together with some Black Watch ribbon and it was perfect. Joe and Em wanted everyone to enjoy the day of the wedding, so we all met up at the Lake and had a picnic and lazed about until mid afternoon. Then people filtered away to get ready.
Graham, Joe's pal from Oxford, performed the ceremony. They each had their sister stand in for them. And the rest of the family and friends stood around the couple in a semi-circle. They had a lovely moment when they washed each other's feet in the river to symbolize servanthood to each other. And another lovely moment when they each took a balloon and went to the river's edge and spoke privately to each other about what part of their life they did not want to bring into the marriage and then they let the balloons go. Simple and effective ceremony.
The reception was at the B&B and it was a lovley meal eaten outside under the stars. For the tables, I had gathered Pine boughs, more thistle, yarrow and grasses and laid it out simply on the white tablecloths. It looked great with the hurricane lamps.
The next day was a huge brunch. Ali had written a song for Joe and Emily and he and C worked it up and then we all sang to them. Granddad taught himself the uke and sang a song and Grandma told a hilarious joke. And then people just melted away. We were the last to leave in the afternoon, so we all went into Truckee to poke about the shops and have a coffee out, courtesy of Granddad. It was a great family time and there were many many tears when we left. You would even say, there was sobbing.
So the 'For Sale' sign went up on our rental house this morning. Saturday the landlady was here with a photographer and someone to measure up the joint. So I guess it really is true; we really do need to look for alternate housing. I am thinking of putting our own sign up beside her's that says 'Two good tenants looking for a house'. C thought we should stick posters up all over the house saying something similar to that when people are here viewing. Because the viewers could be potential landlords, I feel that I have to keep the house clean, tidy and presentable. It is such a drag that we have fixed up the place. It is an even bigger drag that we were actually beginning to feel happy and that we belonged here. However, we have until March before we have to vacate so that gives us some time. Anyway, here are some photos of the garden when we first moved in and some C took in mid-July.
