Is it Summer Yet???? June 1-11

Wednesday, first day of June .... weather still kind of iffy. Invited our neighbours, June and Roy, over for dinner for June's birthday tonight. Barefoot Contessa Beef Bourguignon for dinner. Yum. Of course the burning of the cognac pretty spectacular.

Yikes! Notice the lid is close by on the back of the stove. This is why you have a hood fan at the correct height when cooking with gas. :)

(Picture from google as I forgot to take one, but it looked like this.)

Fresh strawberry tarts for dessert.

June and Roy

A few glasses of wine, great food and great company. 

Thursday woke to clouds/fog but the sun finally came out and it's surprisingly warm outside. Ray had an appointment in the afternoon in Nanaimo and came home with 10 pounds of fresh prawns for me to process.

Friday morning the rain let up and became a surprisingly nice afternoon, where we were able to sit outside. Ray de-headed the 10 pounds of prawns so I could freeze a bunch and have some ready for dinner. We headed into Cowichan Bay to pick up some pottery we ordered a month ago. Of course we also ate a quick lunch at the Cow Bay Pub before coming back home to relax in the sunshine.

Dinner is fresh prawns for an appetizer and then I tried out my new table top gas pizza oven. I made the dough up yesterday in preparation. It turned out delicious but I burnt one end ... I put too many toppings on so will do better tomorrow when I try again. I picked this model as the legs collapse so it's quite portable and I can bring it with me in the motorhome for quick meals while travelling. Perfect size pizza for 2, about a 10".

Kristi, Jason and Amelia went to Squamish to visit with her cousin Stella. The girls sure love each other. Kristi and Kat talk almost daily and have lots of video chats so the girls see each other frequently. Stella turned 2 on May 15 whereas Amelia turned 1 on January 2nd.  Although 8 months apart in age, Stella is a tiny little thing. :)

Saturday morning I baked my Monkey Bread by 8 am for our annual strata meeting with the neighbours. Yumm. 

Monkey bread in my new pottery piece.

Later in the afternoon I heard some hooting and hollering outside. Deb and Mike's kids and friends next door were jumping in the water! The boys anyways, the girls were smart and stayed in the hot tub watching. By this time of year, they would have had a whole month of wave surfing, but not this year with the cold wet days.

Sunday, another drizzly morning. A kitchen day for me and a workshop for Ray. lol During the strata meeting we agreed to remove a cedar hedge starting to impede on the road, when I went to the store for some ingredients and noticed were already cut down. Later in the afternoon Darryl was cutting them up to take to the dump :) A successful meeting. lol

Much better

Monday morning Ray worked on his new Haida Gwaii map in his workshop. Happy guy.

Lovin' the tunes!

Shortly after the above picture, we got a phone call that our boat was ready in Nanaimo. They would like us to pick it up as soon as we can as they are tight for space in their yard, so off we went.

Of course we stopped in for a short visit with Jason and Amelia. Such a happy little girl.

We were back home by 1 pm. It finally cleared after dinner and we had a beautiful sunset. It's supposed to be sunny finally tomorrow.

This morning I managed to get a picture of some otters playing on a dock quite a distance away from us. My new phone's camera does pretty good with the zoom. lol

In the afternoon I headed back up to Nanaimo so I could babysit for Kristi and Jason on Thursday due to an early appointment. Lots of fun with baby and me. :) She is so close to walking on her own. We practiced a lot with her holding my hand and off we would go in the direction she wanted. Of course walking with her no pictures. :)

Managed to get out for a walk with Amelia in her new wheels. She sure prefers this to the stroller where she is more confined.

Ended up staying 2 nights and came home Thursday morning before the big rain event. Quiet day watching the rain pour down with this "Atmospheric River" event again.

Friday morning the sun was finally back out. At 11 we decided to go on our bikes for a ride. This time we road from the house down the Trans Canada Trail towards Duncan. We rode for about 20 minutes and then turned around and came back Greendale Road along the river. Found a nice fishing spot.

A great little jaunt. My Clematis is finally blooming, 3 weeks behind those in Victoria. The plants are loaded with blooms so it should be pretty spectacular when it's done.

At 3:30. I received a text from June next door, they were cooking up the lobster for our neighbour feast tomorrow. The lobster arrived a day early and needed to be cooked within 24 hours of arrival so we went over to keep them company. 19 lobsters. Yumm. Dinner tomorrow will be fantastic.

Back home there was a bunch more boat traffic on the lake being Friday night. It's been so quiet on the lake this spring with the crappy weather. People are just putting their boats in for the summer this weekend. Saw these guys out of a sail.

Saturday morning I decided to dig out the dead lavender bushes in our driveway hedge after being able to purchase new plants at our little grocery store. They actually popped out pretty easy so I will replant tomorrow.

Quite the pile of dead stuff. It was a tough winter this year. One variety died and the other kind did not.

Had a fabulous time last night at our neighbours, Roy and June, for a lobster feast for our strata. All but 3 of our group were able to attend. We are so lucky to have such a great group of people. 

It showered on and off all afternoon, but fortunately the sun came out and it cleared before 5 o'clock party time. Everyone was well-fed for sure with all of those sea bugs. Thanks a bunch Roy and June. (Pictures mostly by Pat) 

Pat also embroidered napkins for June with her embroidery machine.

Lots of wine and lots of laughs.