Halloween Train at the Forest Discovery Centre. Oct 24 - 31st

Friday we went to Nanaimo early (left 7:15 am) to look after Amelia for the day. Daycare's closed for a ProD day and Jason's still working hard on Kristi's office renovation. Kristi's on call at the hospital from 8am Thursday to 8am Friday morning. She will be sleeping for a a good part of the morning into the afternoon.

I kept Amelia busy with games, cards and colouring a present, while Ray went shopping. 

At 11, Kristi just got up, couldn't sleep. She'd managed to get 4 hours sleep overnight, so wasn't too tired. We took them out for lunch at the Driftwood Chinese Buffet.

We were able to leave after that and were home by 1:30 pm.

Saturday morning Ray headed into Duncan to do some shopping. I am getting over a cold, so stayed home. This afternoon it's time to head back into Duncan to the Forest Discovery Centre. I purchased family tickets for the Halloween Train. Although sprinkling with rain, we enjoyed a great 1.5 hour adventure with Jason, Kristi and Amelia. We chose the 4 pm ride, as we didn't know how Amelia would react to the scary stuff in the dark.

The Forestry Lookout

Look at the worm gears on the wheels!

Inside you first go through a haunted house.

Cutout's for kids pictures.

Back outside for other exhibits.

Time for the train ride.

After wandering around, it's time for food. We met up across the highway at our go to Chinese food restaurant in Duncan, Amelia's choice of food for dinner. :)

Sunday and other than usual chores, laundry etc. It's a quiet day with rain most of the day. Monday, I emptied the hot tub and cleaned it Tuesday. I'd been waiting for the lake to come up, so we aren't on water restrictions before changing the water. No problem now with all the rain over the past 2 weeks. lol

Ray's now come down with my cold, poor guy.

Wednesday morning, Ray went into the tub and the filter shot out of it like "Mount Vesuvius". Turned out the ring that holds the filter down has some broken "rings" to screw down. Off I went to Duncan to order a replacement. 

Other than 1 day earlier in the week, it's done nothing but rain on and off all week. The lake is rising substantially.

Our yard all put away for winter. We actually have a clear day. Last blue sky for days lol Next storm starts Friday, Oct 31st.

Friday morning we got our Covid and Flu vaccinations at the Health Unit. Glad to get that done. In the afternoon I went to Nanaimo for Halloween. Ray's still recovering from his cold, so he will stay home.

I will be manning Jason and Kristi's door while they take Amelia and a couple of her friends trick or treating. It'll be a really wet drive there, but fortunately it quit in time for trick or treating.  

Amelia showing me her dragon costume she wore to daycare today.

They had some friends with their kids arrive for dinner at 4:30 before they all headed out. Katherine, their grandma, stayed behind to help me out.

The gang ready to go.

Katherine, Layla's mom.

Amelia's haul of candy.

They gang returned by 7, so I left for the lake while it isn't raining. Fortunately no puddles left from this afternoon. I must have hit 6 huge ones on the way to Nanaimo and didn't want to go through in the dark as you are in them before you see them. A long day, but fun. 

Wine Tasting, Fall Colours & Dianne comes to visit - October 15 - 23

 

I'll have to get some of this for my garden next year, with its gorgeous colours. Ray took this picture at Butchart.

( I put this explanation in so I can remember it next year lol)

Celosia is a genus of flowering plants that belong to the Amaranth family. There are two main types of Celosia plants: plumed and crested. Plumed Celosia plants have feathery, upright blooms resembling flames or plumes, while crested Celosia plants (Cockscomb) have dense, compact buds resembling twisted, velvety crests. These heat-loving annuals thrive in full sun, so provide them with at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight each day. 

Penny came today, to help me repot the rose bush. It got bugs in it and they're eating the leaves. We took it down to sticks and then cleaned the root ball from dirt before replanting it. She is ready for Halloween. lol 

Our neighbours Roy and June gave me this rose bush as my 65th birthday present, so I don't want to lose it. Penny found spider mites and a couple of insect worms in the bush after we cleared it from any foilage. Hopefully that will be a good start for next year. She also planted some daffodil bulbs from last spring's pots.

With our recent wine tour and Roy and June just getting back from one on the weekend, we decided to have a little wine tasting party here Wednesday night. Pat and Darryl are wine drinkers as well, so the 5 of us partook and Ray kept our glasses full. :)

I made a charcuterie board, using my Christmas present from Jason. It was almost all eaten up with a couple of refills. I must admit I googled pictures to get an idea of what to put together. :)

These were the wines we were sampling tonight. The sparkling wine, Crown and Thieves from our supply is the overall winner with the ladies. Notice it's the only empty one. lol Roy and Darryl preferred the South African Chardonnay that Darryl brought. June and I also like my red from Summerhill Pyramid Winery, Marechal Foch. The white wine Roy and June brought, Ruby Blues Gerwertztraminer is pretty good too. A great couple of hours. I'm sure more would have been drank if it hadn't been a week night instead of a weekend. Roy is still working. The group decided that the next tasting we choose a type of wine to compare, ie. Rose or Reisling etc.

Thursday morning featured a beautiful sunrise. The weather is changing again, back to showers. I think this is the last stretch of nice weather we'll have for awhile. Lots of rain in the 14 day forecast.

Hard to believe that 2 years ago, we were in Cortez, Colorado watching the solar eclipse. How things have changed for us, no motorhome and no going south anymore for the winter.

Thursday, before the rain, Ray cleaned out our BBQ and put hoses away for the freeze. I spent an hour in my front garden cutting back all the blackeyed susans and anything else with spent blooms. Rest of the day .... quiet.

Cliff's (our dock builder) employees came Friday to fix the rotten post on the ramp to the dock and install our new flag pole. They took a few hours, but it's all done. When they built the ramp 7 years ago, they didn't use a treated post and we backfilled it levelling the yard. All fixed now.

Later in the afternoon another visitor stopped by.

Ray's brother Ryan, recently lost his mother-in-law, so he drove to Parksville to attend the viewing. He would've arrived really early, so he decided to visit the Top Bridge Regional Trail. Plenty of fall colours, and with the Englishmen River so low, rock erosion.

Quite a rainy few days, but we saw this beautiful double rainbow on the lake.

Double Rainbow

Monday, Ray did a bit of a walkabout in town for fall colours. Since the weather's cooled and rain came, the colours increased substantially. Gorgeous.

Tuesday afternoon, Dianne arrives to spend a couple of nights, while Steve is hunting at McClure Lake area.

Ray took a short trip to Skutz Falls area while I was waiting for Dianne to arrive. Gorgeous fall colours and he saw the salmon jumping in the river. This year seems to be more colour. Last year, just as the trees were changing colour, we had some huge fall storms that basically blew all the leaves down.

Mayo Lake

On his way back home he stopped by the Friendship Forest Trail near Paulson School here in Lake Cowichan.

Ray also stopped for a quick picture at the Visitor Centre. These fall asters gave me the idea to plant some in my lavender bed here.

Dianne arrived right at 2 as she predicted. A quick unpack and then we spent rest of the afternoon on our sundeck with the heaters and firetable on.

Wednesday morning, a beautiful red sky. "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning!" There is a big "atmospheric river" heading our way and will be really bad Thursday night, Friday and then another one on Saturday. No problem with filling the river with water now.

We decided to go on a car tour  before the forecasted rain began. Ray wanted to show Dianne Skutz Falls and the beautiful fall colours he'd been taking pictures of. More fish jumping at Skultz.

On the way to Highway 1, we stopped at Averill Creek Vineyards for some pictures. They are at a higher elevation and you can see all the way to the ocean.

Ray's finally able to get "fall colours" in a vineyard.

Next up we took a spin to Fuller Lake and Chemainus Lake, but didn't find any colour there .... we did find a roadside stand for fresh hazelnuts though. You can see this farm while driving past on the highway, but we've never gone in behind to actually find it before.

We took a quick tour through the Antique Barn, looks like under new ownership. Cool stuff but we came away empty handed. Time to head to Crofton to walk the boardwalk before having lunch at the Osbourne Bay Pub. 

It's a bit chilly outside at 7C, but we were dressed for it.

Perfect timing as we started towards home, the rain started. Arrived back about 1:30 pm. With it dark, gloomy and rainy, I made us all hot chocolate. Of course Dianne's and mine had a bit of booze in it. We all warmed up and relaxed so well, all of us ended up having an hour's nap as the rain poured down! lol No sitting out on the deck today.

Tonight an easy cook .... leftovers from last night's dinner. We watched a really weird movie (Vanilla Sky)... kept watching expecting it to make more sense .... but at the end we all went wow that was a waste of time. :)

Another great visit with "my sister from a different mister!"

Thursday morning, Dianne was out of the house by 8:45 to meet up with a friend downtown Victoria. Hopefully the roads were not too bad for her with all the rain.