Steve and Dianne come to the lake! May 18 - 21

Thursday Dianne and Steve arrived just in time for lunch. Sure is nice to see them. Last time we got together was at Quartzsite Arizona. For dinner I smoked a brisket on the Traeger.

Picture by Steve

Ray took this picture of a hydrofoil passing on the lake. Wow does it go fast.

Look at that "rooster tail" !

Lots of catching up and lots of laughs. Played some bean bag in the back yard as it's too windy to sit down at the dock. 

Friday morning Ray and Steve went fishing. Off they go!

The boys tried fishing the marl near Goat Island with no luck. Then off to the mouth of the canal from Bear Lake for some fly fishing.  Steve had one on but it got off.

They gave up and came home when we told them the Monkey Bread is ready. lol

Today for lunch, Steve and Dianne took us out  to Jake's on the Lake. Thanks guys.

Friday afternoon dock time. Time to resume positions on the dock and of course Ray's margaritas! Except Ray with his non-alcoholic beer.

 

Practically snoring! lol

Everyone relaxing after eating Pork Prime Rib from the barbecue and twice baked potatoes for dinner.

Dianne's favourite place, sitting on our deck under the heaters.

Saturday morning the lads wanted to fish the mouth of Shaw Creek but wind, a heavy chop and fog prevented that plan. They trolled Honeymoon Bay and through "the pass" but another unsuccessful adventure. 

Later in the day, while I worked on dinner, Ray took them to Mountain Man's Ice Cream as Earl and Allison recommended their product. They make the ice cream in the store and it's very good. 

Ray then took them to the Trestle Bridge (below). 

Next up Second Beach on the Cowichan River, which is the end of the river tubers run. There were two guys fly fishing the great pool at this site.

Definitely cooler today but we managed to sit down at the dock again watching the world go by. Yesterday, Ray dared Dianne to go swimming lol. She said ok but only if the went in first, not thinking he would go in .... he did! She still said no. :)

Ray's first swim of the season.

For dinner tonight I invited our neighbours, Darryl and Pat over for dinner too. Smoked chicken on the Traeger .... yumm. Pat brought over some of Darryl's smoked salmon for appies. A lot of wine for drink and we had a lot of laughs again. Such fun.

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Deb, Pat, Darryl, Steve and Dianne.

Strawberry tarts and Darryl's bubbly for dessert.

While we were out on the deck we noticed this person flying in the air! Was it too much wine??? Apparently they are friends of our other neighbours, Deb and Mike and live in the next cove close to the marina.

Everyone goes to bed between 9 and 9:30 around here. lol Dianne commented she never gets to see our solar lights. :) This picture is for you Dianne, as I sat out on our deck for another hour enjoying the night after everyone went to bed.

Sunday turned out to be a cloudy, windy morning so the boys rode our pedal bikes to Beaver Lake to try fishing but were unsuccessful finding a place to cast from. Apparently the trail around the lake is steep where it exits the main trail. The main trail is popular and without bike locks they wanted to bring the bikes down the lake trail. This turned out to be quite a "slip and slide" and getting back up was a team effort on each bike. Unfortunately Steve's ankle didn't appreciate the effort it took or Ray's back.

Later on the weather turned so Steve and Dianne decided to head home a little earlier than planned. What a great weekend. Thanks guys for coming, it was a blast!

I really appreciated you guys doing all the dishes, and I made a lot of them! What a great kitchen crew with Ray of course helping them. It certainly made it so much easier for me to just cook and not worry about my mess. lol Thanks again for the chocolates and card.

EDIT:

Here is a drone video that Steve took of Ray and him fishing and us sitting down at the dock. Click on the link for the UTube Video.

Lake days at the Kyle's

Mother's Day and a Nanaimo trip. May 11 - 17

This week just flew by working around the yard. Ray picked up the replacement panels for the dock gazebo and installed them, worked on our micro irrigation systems for our planters and was in his workshop. We managed quite a bit of "dock time" in the warm afternoons. The weather has been fabulous with temperatures at 30C most of the week.

Our front garden is starting to bloom with our rhodo's.

We managed to go out on a picnic in the boat, first trip out on it this year. Off we go!

Picnic lunch:

Saturday night we were invited over to Roy and June's for some wine with Ron and Donna, more of our neighbours, for a little get together to catch up. First one this spring. Sure was nice sitting down near the water on a beautiful evening.

Donna and Ron

Ray and June, missing Roy.

Back home at 10 pm ... past our bedtime. :)

Sunday morning, Mother's Day. Ray and I had our coffee down at the dock. Beautiful morning, already 19C at 8 am.

Another one of our neighbours, Todd, was out for some waterskiing as the water was like glass.

Ray and I had been invited over to Pat and Darryl's for a Mother's Day lunch. We have such great neighbours.

Pat, Darryl and Pat's Mom, Betty

At 3 o'clock, we came back to our dock and watched the crazy kids over at June and Roy's, jumping in the really cold water. It's only 58F right now.

Had a call from Kristi and Amelia, wishing me a Happy Mother's Day and was sent this picture from our other granddaughter Stella. Tomorrow, Stella turns 3 years old.

Monday, May 15th, BC Hydro had a planned power outage at our house so when it flicked off at 9:30am we headed to Nanaimo for the day. First up was lunch with some old friends from the Charlottes, the Glovers and the Hackets.

Mary, Ray, Jim, Gary and Janice.

After a great "catch up" it was time to head to Jason's for my shopping date with Amelia. Ray had a doctor's appointment to get a cortisone shot in his right knee. Hopefully this improves his function. If it works in this knee he will get one in his left knee too. Currently he has been referred to an Ortho doc so we will see what's up when he gets his appointment.

Amelia's new dress and new sandals.

Next up, Jason and I took her for ice cream on Nanaimo's waterfront where Papa met up with us.

Play time at the new toddler park. 

We had a lovely visit and then headed back to Jason's to have pizza for dinner. Kristi was able to pop by on her call shift so we saw her too.

Back home at 6:30pm. A great day. Too hot to sit outside on our deck and the wind came up and was quite blustery outside so we hunkered down and watched some TV.

Tuesday morning woke up to it still being windy and clouds. So unusual after the week of sunny days. Ray headed into Duncan for some errands and I puttered at home, getting my big irrigation system programmed correctly.

Butchart Gardens in the Spring! May 10th

Today is the day we decided to visit Butchart Gardens to see all of the spring blooms. We still have our "Christmas Light" tickets that were unused due to the weather last Christmas and decided to use them today. A fabulous sunny and warm day.

We were out the door by 6:50 am heading to Victoria. Fortunately traffic is great, other than the beginning of the so called Colwood Crawl. Ray decided we should take a "backwoods way" avoiding the traffic. We took the exit at View Royal and followed the windy country roads behind Prospect Lake to Brentwood Bay.  A lovely drive. Don't know if it's any faster, but it's definitely prettier than stop and go traffic on Highway 1 through Victoria.

According to Google, the gardens do not open until 9am. We arrived at 8:20 am and waited 10 minutes for them to open up the gate so we could park. As well, they actually open up the gardens at 8:45 to start walking the paths. This is great, as we were the first people there and Ray got a lot of pictures before the masses of people showed up. By 11 am there were 4 busloads of people dropped off. The lighting for pictures would have been better at noon, so there were less shadows but a lot more people in your way. lol

The colours of the tulips are amazing. Lots of varieties. Half of the rhododendrons and azaleas are also blooming, not to mention the blossoms on the trees. It definitely is a sensory overload with all of the colours and scents in the air. We had a lovely 2 1/2 hour stroll around the gardens.

Pretty trippy reflections

Saw this guy hanging onto a lily pad and croaking like mad. lol

Interesting fact is that all the bulbs that are "spent" are composted with all of the other clippings and made into soil. They plant new bulbs every year mostly with only a few that can be planted for one more year only. They reuse their "grey water" for all their irrigation. Their crews were already taking out some tulips that are done for the season and started on planting early summer flowers in some of the beds.

After we finishing our walk, we stopped for tea and a treat at the coffee shop before heading out of the gardens. We'd been invited to lunch at Ivo and Sara Olivotto, parents of a friend (and Godmother) of Kristi's from med school.  They have a delightful home with a fantastic view. We haven't seen them since my 65th birthday party last summer. Nice to catch up.

This is their view from their deck.

We had a visitor on the tree right in front watching us. 

This crow kept badgering the eagle so it finally took off. Must be a crows nest close by.

Back home by 3 pm. We relaxed on our sundeck for the rest of the afternoon.