Smokey Skies and Judy Comes to Visit.

Monday, August 13th

Well the smoke from the interior finally arrived here in the Cowichan Valley Monday morning. Probably a combination of the Nanaimo Lakes fire as well. You could actually smell the woodsmoke. We have been fortunate to miss this for most of the summer unlike friends of ours living in the interior. Here's a couple pictures of the setting sun Monday night. Very spooky.

With the smoke, the temps stayed down to around 29C instead of the predicted 32C but was really muggy. I noticed the smoke was making me a little wheezy so we only stayed on the deck for the morning hours between doing chores. The afternoon we mostly stayed inside. Bummer.

Tuesday it's even smokier. Too bad as Ray's sister Judy is coming up from Tacoma WA for a couple of days for a visit. This time she will get to see Kristi as she will come down to the lake after work on Wednesday. Last time Judy was here, Kristi was on holidays back in mid-June.

Will, our landscaper was busy all day, finishing putting in the stone path and spreading topsoil. We are 9/10ths ready to put in the grass seed. Judy arrived at 4 pm and we sat down at the beach for an hour or so enjoying the cooler air down there. As Judy is gluten-free, I made a roasted beet salad and prawn fettuccine, using gluten-free noodles for her. Delicious. We hung out until 10 pm and retired for the night.

Wednesday morning we were all out the door by 9 am for a trip to Chemainus to tour the town and murals. Lots of fun. A very nice walk around town.

What a Candy Store.

Choices, choices.

Definitely a store our son-in-law Jason would love.

Beside the candy shop was a little path into a "secret garden". Beautiful sculptures. As usual we tour early to beat all the people arriving on bus tours so the shops in this area were not open yet. A great place to have an ice cream cone or coffee.

On the pathway coming out of the garden was this mural.

Continuing our walk down the street.

At the end of the main street we found an outdoor market, the public restrooms and museum.

Ray and I ended up buying a very whimsical painting of the Cowichan Bay Houseboats for our powder room. The artist and his wife were a very interesting couple. Robert says he goes to warm places like Hawaii, and Mexico to store up the sun and warm colours and then brings it back for his paintings to make himself  "feel good".

Apparently they are making a cartoon about themselves so are "living" the part in advance!

View of Chemainus Harbour

H.R. MacMillan (a Canadian "Lumber Baron")

Ray and Judy in front of the "Waterwheel"

Very Colourful

On the way back towards our car we stopped for a few more pictures of a couple of the many murals.

The tug Chemainus (painted above) would later be strand on a rock and blown apart.

Posing with my new picture.

Just before we got to our car we made a stop at the Christmas Store. Judy bought us an ornament so we will think of her every Christmas. Ahhhhh. Thanks sis.

On the way home we drove into downtown Duncan to support Pirate Pak Day at White Spot. Also needed to go to Superstore to stock Judy up with some more non-alcoholic wine as it is not available in the USA. (She drank quite a bit of Ray's stock to figure that out last time she was here! Ha Ha.)

We noticed when we got home that Will had not come today? Found out later that he unfortunately has a ruptured spline and is in the hospital.  He was hit in the stomach by a friend horsing around last Saturday and had told me Tuesday that it really hurt and he just went to bed as he was nursing his swollen ankle. I guess that blow probably caused this damage to his spleen. Poor guy.

These are the before and after pictures of the yard showing all of the work Will completed. He's been working hard for a month.

When we first moved in.

Ready for grass seed and planting the lower gardens.

Once back home it was lake time. We all went for a swim as well as Freya. Auntie Judy took her stick!

Freya, I have your stick!

What!!! Give it back!

All mine!

Two Stick Girl ... Mine! Come and get me Auntie Judy!

Back up to the house to wait for Kristi. I had lots of help making dinner. Nice to have a large kitchen.

Ray and I retired about 9 pm so Kristi and Judy could have some time by themselves to catch up. They had not seen each other for a couple of years. It was nice to have the sitting area in the loft where we could hear them giggling for an hour or so. lol

Thursday morning Kristi was off to work about 7:15 and by 7:45 am Ray and Judy headed up to Chemainus to have breakfast with their cousin Brian and his wife Sandy. We have not seen them for a few years and Judy had never met them. I unfortunately had to stay home for the contractors installing the upstair bedroom heat pumps. (As it turns out Brian and Sandy will come for dinner here next week so I will get a chance to catch up.)

After breakfast Ray and Judy were invited back to Brian and Sandy's house in Saltair for a short visit where Judy got to meet Brian's son David. So another great family reunion for Judy this trip up.

Sandy, and Judy in front and David and Brian in the back, on their sundeck in Saltair.

After their visit, Ray drove her back to her car in Chemainus where she headed down to Victoria to catch the Coho Ferry back to the USA. Head loaded with many new memories of family and a car load of non-alcoholic wine. lol