A week of artwork and visits with friends - March 9 - 18

Wednesday was sunny but definitely a very cool wind. Started out at -1C. After morning chores and a little grocery shopping, Ray and I were able to find a spot on the front driveway against the garage door which was out of the wind to enjoy the sunshine. 

Thursday, blue skies with a little cloud. Today, we drove to Victoria to meet up with our long-time friend Jayne, from Terrace. Before meeting up with her we walked a short distance along the harbour. Unfortunately, most of the walkway by our parking lot is under construction. Carrying on before our meetup we stopped in at an art gallery. They're displaying several E.J. Hughes originals for sale ... at $200,000 a piece! Now if we just won the Lotto Max 50 million. lol

The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom here in Victoria.

Love looking at the boats.

We met up with Jayne at the Irish Times Pub, downtown Victoria. After meeting 40 plus years ago and not seeing each other for 8 years, the time passed seemed meaningless. (sorry for the fuzzy picture, the only one I took.)

 A lovely day before the next week of rain.

My "dapper" looking guy. :)

Friday cloudy with showers and a balmy 2C Burrr. Mask mandate lifted today for BC and on April 8th, the Vaccine Passport will also be rescinded. It will be nice to get back to "normal living" at least for the summer before things could change again in the fall. I think a lot of people will still be hesitant to go maskless as we have done this for almost 2 years and there is another "new variant" starting up.

Popped over to Pat's for coffee first thing this morning to catch up before heading out for my hair appointment. They will be busy this next week with company from the mainland and their grandson's hanging around with spring break

Saturday another wet morning with low clouds. A quick run into town and otherwise very quiet day.

Sunday time change. "Spring Ahead"! Time changes always take me 2 weeks to acclimatize to. Fortunately with being retired it doesn't matter. :) It rained heavy at times overnight but cleared up somewhat in the morning. More rain predicted. 

It cleared up by 10:30 am. so we decided to take a drive to Cowichan Bay for lunch at the Cow Bay Pub on the water. A new place for us to try. We also wanted to go there to see Mud Works Pottery as we would like some smaller coffee mugs made to match the other things we purchased from her.

Lunch was great although a little more expensive than we thought lol. Ray and I ended up buying this original painting from a local artist that is displayed on the walls at the pub. :) A very happy, vibrant painting that both of us immediately gravitated towards. This painting depicts the Maritime Museum dock at Cowichan Bay. It definitely brightens up a dark corner by my chair and I can see it working in my kitchen.

Fits perfectly.

Monday morning, wet again although our weather guy "Mark Madryga" says that you can take your snow tires off as there is no more possibilities for snow now. Nothing exciting happening here. lol 

Tuesday woke to it finally not raining for a bit. It absolutely poured all day and overnight, even waking me up with it pounding on the roof so hard. Still seems pretty wintery around here. The days are going by fast though, already Mid-March. With the time change early Sunday morning and being very dark outside again longer in the morning, it's hard to get motivated. Ray headed off to Duncan for some errands while I puttered here.

Wednesday morning, finally the rain has stopped! At least for the morning. Ray and I headed up to Nanaimo for a baby visit and then lunch with our RV friends, Dave and Cheryl at Original Joe's. The sun came out on our drive and stayed sunny all day until time to come home. We spent 2 hours with Amelia and then headed out to OJ's.

Cookie time with Grandpa

Chewing everything ... found out she popped out 2 more teeth yesterday.

Practicing standing with the table we have lent them for now.

Dave, Cheryl, Ray and I ate the lunch special at OJ's for St Paddy's day, Guinness battered fish and chips. Spent 2 hours catching up. They will be heading back to Alberta at the end of the month. Safe Travels!

Back home by 4 pm. Another great day.

Thursday morning, very rainy again. Our RV tech is supposed to install our sunscreens on the outside of the motorhome today, we shall see if he comes as it's miserable outside. Mike came and voila. Ready for the hot sunshine to not heat us out of the coach and need A/C!

The two bathroom windows done as well for privacy and keeping the sun out. Now all the screens are in the garage drying. It was a miserable day. Next month we are having the coach washed and waxed as well as the roof deoxidized. Sure needs it after this year and hot summer.

The dock guys showed up next door at 8:30 am to make their ramp to their new swim dock. Things to watch as we stay nice and dry. lol

For St. Paddy's Day, I made an Irish Stew, using beef instead of lamb. It was delicious.

Doesn't look like much but sure was tasty.

Friday just cloudy so far. Our gardener was supposed to come and start pressure washing our concrete, the driveway, sidewalks etc., getting ready for spring. As it turned out he was not planning to come until 2 pm. I told him we would need more time than that as the driveway alone probably will take him 2 hours. He has opted to give us the whole day next Friday instead. Meanwhile we had moved the motorhome to the street and took the boat out of the garage so we could take it in to have Ray's new downriggers installed, fix gas connection on the trolling motor and the 3hp motor for his floaty boat. He tried to go fishing and the motor would not stay running.... We moved the MH back into the driveway after moving the utility trailer into the boat garage so it is out of the way for now. A lot of moving parts lol.

Ray and I managed a walk before the rain started again. Sure would be nice to have some sunny days.

Our neighbour's daughter, Tara, stopped by late afternoon to bring us a painting of Freya as a thank you for signing her documents for her daughter's passport. Certainly did not need any thanks. Freya's expression is exactly right.

Another otherwise quiet day here on the lake.