April showers? (SNOW) and Company for Easter Dinner April 8 - 15

Friday morning woke to rain and wind outside. Fortunately it quit before I left for Nanaimo at 8:30 am. for a doctor's appointment and then a Costco run for a few things. No stopping to visit the kids as they were in Victoria for an appointment. 

Home by 1:30 pm. It was sunny with clouds in Nanaimo with a temp of 12C. Back home at the lake it was cloudy, windy and a balmy 6C only. It started to rain later on in the afternoon. Certainly not warm April weather yet. Sure glad we had nice days for our mini vacation on Salt Spring Island.

So cute hugging her bear.

Saturday the sun was out in the morning but very windy with white caps on the lake and 1C. Burrr. I picked up some herbs from Country Grocer yesterday to plant, but with this weather I will have to wait a week as overnight temps are scheduled to be below freezing and possibility of some snow!!! Very windy cool day. The clouds came in around noon and continued to thicken all day.

Sunday morning, yup a skiff of snow over everything. Yuck, winter still on April 10th! It snowed off and on right into the afternoon. Finally a brief glimpse of the sun before clouding up again. The wind died off though as the lake is flat calm. We may have only had a skiff but up island 20cm fell, which caused a huge power outage for over 40,000 people for most of the day with broken trees from the heavy snow.

Monday, another skiff of snow on the deck, but the skies are finally clear with sunshine cold though at 2C. Seeing the sun definitely cheers one up. Ray headed out with the boat in tow, up to Nanaimo this morning so that the hydraulic lift on the big motor could finally be fixed. This is a warranty issue that has been a problem since we purchased the boat 3 years ago. Hopefully it finally is resolved.

While Ray was away(and since it was nice and dry outside) it's time to open up the motorhome and get out all the bedding and towels to wash as they have been in there for 8 months. In two weeks we are going away in the MH to Pedder Bay for a week so I need to be ready. The weather is so wet so far this month that I have been putting off going in there and tracking water in and out of the house and MH. lol That's my excuse anyways. I also unscrewed the carpet runner under the table and Ray's chair that have been there for 8 years to protect the carpet. Now without the dog I am not worried about exposing the light beige carpet. 

Our daffodils are looking great in spite of the on and off again spring weather. Our lilac tree has tons of buds forming for blooms, so should look very pretty in a few weeks. 

In between loads of laundry I was able to sit outside, out of the wind in the front of the house enjoying the sunshine and waiting for Ray to come home. He arrived at around 12:30 and off we went to Jake's on the Lake for lunch ... Senior day and 25% off :)

View from Jake's patio. The lake just flowing over the top of the weir.

Once back home we both sat outside in the sun. It really got warm up next to the garage door. Ray's first time in shorts this year! Felt like 25C but in reality it was only 9C. lol

A great day. We needed to store up the sun's warmth after such a long wet winter.

Tuesday, back to showers and cloudy skies. There's another skiff of wet snow on the deck again this morning. It cleared up for a couple of hours later in the morning, so I went into the MH to start putting back all the bedding and towels I washed. Back in the bedroom, I noticed some stains on the carpet that I just noticed since I put the jacks down and deployed the slides.  I guess with us not levelling the MH after moving it for pressure washing allowed water to come in the slide even with it in. Our rubber gaskets on the bedroom slides were not replaced when we did the 2 big ones 2 years ago. We definitely tip to that side in the driveway when not levelled, evidenced by water running down that side of the coach. Fortunately the "mold" was not black so this definitely is new and not from all winter. Out came the carpet cleaner and hopefully that will take care of it. Ray did not level it after moving it for the pressure washing as we expected to move it again in 2 weeks with the wash and wax appointment. (We cancelled this until May as it's just to wet and cold for the motorhome to get waxed.) Lesson learned, now he will have to properly level it every time we move it.

Wednesday, another wet dreary day at 2C. No spring in the air yet! Today I started getting ready for our Easter dinner with the neighbours for Friday. While I played in the kitchen, Ray washed the inside of one of our garage doors (three more sides to do later as his back gets really sore doing the "wax on wax off). They are filthy and with the condensation from the wet car all winter some black mold started growing on the bottom of the door .... yuck!

Thursday the sun is finally back. Glorious morning but cold at -1C. It's still way too cold to think about planting anything yet. I guess my planters won't get done now until May since the weather is so crappy. Spent the day cooking up the last things I could do before tomorrow's dinner. Checked inside the MH and the rug was dry and looks pretty good, so Ray helped me make the bed and put all of the towels etc. back into the cupboards. One more thing off the list before our first trip of the year April 25th.

The sun is still out in the afternoon so Ray and I managed another 90 minutes or so sitting in the sunshine on the front of the house.

Friday, clear and a cool 2C. A great day for a dinner party. Ray went fishing while the sun was out but nada. He had fun though. First time out this year.

Unfortunately the clouds rolled in and we had another snow/rain shower by 2 pm.

I certainly got a chuckle out of this poster.

By noon I put the turkey in the smoker,  Here she is in all her glory before cooking, All 20 pounds of her.

Company is slated to arrive at 5 pm. I am ready! :) 3:45 and the turkey is coming up to temperature perfectly on the smoker in spite of being such a cold afternoon.

Table set and I think the Easter Bunny arrived early. lol

Company arrived at 5 pm. It's nice catching up with everyone. The turkey cooperated and was done right on time. Whew! (Of course I forgot to take a finished picture of the turkey!) It turned out to be the best turkey I've ever made after all the brining and lots of butter. Served with sausage and herbed stuffing, whipped mash potatoes, lots of homemade gravy and of course cranberry and orange sauce known as "turkey jam" (Steve's name for it). lol

Pat provided the 2 kinds of veggies and June brought over a great danish dessert. We all enjoyed great evening of conversation and sampling wine (Ray here, SAMPLING you say???). Although I was busy for 3 days pulling the dinner together, it's sure nice to entertain again after such a long time. We also delivered 2 plates of food to Ron and Donna, our other neighbours doorstep, as Donna is sick and had to cancel their Easter plans to host their family here at the lake.

Happy Easter!