Kastle's Journey: October 2013

October 9th - Message in a bottle

Ray was down on the beach with the dog and noticed a bottle sticking out of the sand between the driftwood. He wondered if it was a "message in a bottle" and lo and behold it was. Not too sure about the message but here it is! By the look of the picture I think someone sent it off from where we are (Weir's Beach) and it just floated back on the next stormy day!

We e-mailed the contact at the top of the message. It turns out an Aunt and Niece were at Tacoma, Washington when launching the bottle.

This past week also included a dinner with our good friends Malc and Kathy who are headed to the states on Saturday and a lovely visit with Monte and Llona Hallberg who came for lunch yesterday. The weather has been quite sunny with the rain coming down mostly at night.

October 12th - Autumn Colours

Kristi came for an early Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Turkey yumm. I brined it for 24 hours to ensure moistness and it was my first go at cooking it in my microwave convection oven.

This was what it was supposed to look like ... and it did!

Ray had an early appointment at our family doctor in Nanaimo, so I stayed behind and cooked all day. The fall colours here at our lagoon are beautiful this time of year and the view on a sunny afternoon shows Mount Baker "across the pond".

Weirs Beach Lagoon

Mount Baker

Most of the summer we did not see this mountain due to the low hanging cloud over it. A couple of times we even saw Mount Rainier.

October 15th - Thanksgiving Weekend

It's been a busy weekend here at Weir's Beach with the last official camping weekend. Lots of kids on the beach and the weather cooperated beautifully. Here is a "Redneck Cooler"!

Here is a picture of yesterday's sunrise...beautiful.

The last couple of days we have taken a short drive to Langford Lake and walked the Ed Nixon Trail. This is a short 2 km off-leash trail around the west side of the lake. We did half of on Sunday and went back and did the other direction yesterday. Freya thoroughly enjoyed herself meeting and greeting all of the other pups we came across.

The first time we accessed this area by going down the Sooke Highway and turned off on Humpback Road. What a windy little road to get to Goldstream. Beautiful wooded area. To our surprise we even found a rhododendron in bloom and as you can see the people's yard had Halloween decorations in it!

Maybe the reports of a cold winter are exaggerated! This area was right along Irwin Creek.

Monday found us going back to Langford Lake and taking the other direction for our walk. Several people out on the lake fishing.

Today we are leaving our oceanview site and moving to a Lagoon site. After evaluating pictures of some of the storms that they have here ... water on the road, driftwood under trailers we decided to move further into the park for the winter. We will be facing the Lagoon and there is a large area of grass directly in front so lots of room for Freya. I must admit I am a little tired of all the sand that makes its way into the coach and with Ray's imminent surgery it will be better to be settled closer in.

Lt. Governor General's House and Cook Street - 2013-10-20 12:22

Earlier this week, Wednesday I think, we had a lovely afternoon fire enjoying the sun in our new spot on the Lagoon. We moved from the ocean front as they were having sewer problems and we noticed how much colder it was. On the Lagoon we still get a peek-a-boo of downtown Victoria as well as the lagoon with all of the ducks and geese.

This spot has a large green space in front of us which gives us more space.

The rest of the week was quite foggy or cloudy and cool ... high of 10 degrees C. On Saturday we took a drive into Victoria and walked in the Lt. Governor House's gardens. It would have been spectacular in full summer bloom had we made it there earlier in the year.

Formal herb garden with sundial in the middle

Next, off to see the Cook Street area .. a little disappointing, but they did have a nice pub that we shared a hamburger at.

This old Citron was parked across the street from the pub.

Fall colours at Beacon Hill Park

Before lunch we took Freya for a short walk along the water at the Dallas Street Dog Park.

Earlier this week one of the residents that works with falcons brought her young pair for a dose of the sunshine at our park. These are approximately 6 months old and the female is larger than the male.

It was cool to see these birds of prey up so close.

October 21st - Lunch with Jayne

Met up with our old friend Jayne McKenzie at the Irish Times Pub in Victoria today to catch up after 20 years. She is down in Vic as her daughter is due today with the first grandbaby, which is supposed to be a boy. Hopefully we will get together again before she leaves back to Terrace on November 5th.

October 25th - Witty's Lagoon and Sitting Lady Falls

While the sun was shining yesterday we took a short drive to walk down to Witty's Lagoon. What a lovely little walk, with pictures of Bilston Creek and Sitting Lady Falls. It's nice to see the sun after a week of fog.

October 26th - Tower Point and Witty's Lagoon

While I was working on the laundry, Ray and Freya took a short drive to the entrance to Tower Point trail to look at Witty's Lagoon from a different angle. It certainly looked gorgeous so I will have to go soon.