A quiet two weeks, Ray's friends come for lunch and Steve and Dianne come for a visit. August 12 - 25

This week is much cooler and cloudy. Not much happening at the lake, unless it's your summer vacation and you have no choice. lol

Saturday, some aquaintances of Ray's came to the lake for a kayak ride and lunch. Fortunately the weather cooperated and is sunny and warm at 26C.  Karen and John arrived at 10am and we served them coffee and pastries down on the dock. 

By 11:30 we had them "kitted out" for their kayak adventure towards town and back.

The lake is starting to go down and our beach is starting to appear.

While they were busy doing that, I put the finishing touches on lunch. Grilled Pork Souvlaki skewers on the BBQ, fresh tzatziki sauce, pita bread and a greek salad using my tasty home grown cherry tomatoes. For desser,t it's fresh local strawberries made into tarts. Yummm.

After a lovely short visit, they left about 1:30 as they have a puppy at home. They're concerned their beagle might have an accident in the house if left too long.

The rest of the afternoon we spent down on the dock until the predicted clouds came in and the winds came up. Fortunately, it's cool enough now to sit on our sundeck with a fan going. After dinner we went back onto the deck to see a beautiful sunset.

The sunset is definitely a precursor to what is to come. Temperatures are certainly cooler. Sunday is mostly cloudy and we did have thunder and rain overnight. Monday another spectacular sunrise before the clouds came in and it rained on and off all day. Ray took me for lunch at Jake's for Seniors Day. lol

Tuesday rinse and repeat other than a few errands in Lake Cowichan. We did have the Telus Security guy come and update our security system since Price Alarms is now Telus. This was an unexpected $900 charge as our old system is based on 3G and not compatible with Telus. We need to have coverage when we travel, so no choice.

Wednesday, another grey day with a bunch of rain to come in the afternoon. This weather certainly is not like summer weather we usually receive in August. Summer finally came around the second week of July and seems to have left the second week of August. Today, Ray headed into Duncan to pick up some rigid styrofoam for his Christmas Village project and also pick up his e-bike. We took them in to adjust the rear derailers. We seemed to miss most of the rain until dinner time, then it came down in buckets.

Tomorrow Steve and Dianne come down for a couple of nights, unfortunately the weather is going to be wet and grey. Ray's surgery is moved up to next Wednesday, August 28th, so we are scurrying around getting the last things on his to do list before being laid up.

Thursday, Steve and Dianne arrived at 1:30 or so. Ray spent the morning in Duncan at the hospital getting his ECG, XRay and bloodwork ready for next Wednesday. 

We were able to sit out on the deck as it's only sprinkling with no wind. Quite cool though, so we turned on the heaters and fireplace. In the meantime I'm busy cooking a bacon wrapped pork loin roast on my Traeger smoker.

Picture by Steve

Picture by Steve

My awesome Kitchen Cleanup Crew!

We managed to sit outside for a bit after dinner before coming in and watching a movie on Netflix.

Friday morning is wet, but we decided to go out for lunch at the Youbou Bar and Grill. It just sprinkled on the way. We took them for a drive up into the new subdivision across from us on the lake and then drove through Youbou a bit before stopping for lunch. Here is a funky fence from old water skis that I thought looked cool.

When we left, it's pouring outside so headed straight back home and were able to sit on the sundeck with the heaters on again. Ray needed to move an umbrella to protect Steve's back. lol

Picture by Dianne

Picture by Dianne

Dianne's favourite spot. Cozied up on the sundeck looking at the lake, even if it is raining!

All of us gave up about 3 pm, the rain is relentless and the wind came up. Inside we went to watch some more TV. Dinner tonight is leftovers for Ray and Dianne. Both Steve and I were still too full from lunch, we did have dessert though. lol

After watching another episode of "Wednesday", we called it a night at 9:30 pm. It sure rained hard overnight but ended in the morning. Still grey and blustery outside though. 

By 10, they were all packed up and ready to head down to Victoria. They'll be looking after their grandsons for the week, while Mom and Dad work. Great seeing them, our last time before they head to the USA for the winter.

Ray has a few more things to get done before Wednesday's surgery, so that will keep us busy for the next few days. Fortunately the weather cooperated for us to get some pruning done in the gardens and planters. The big rain event decimated my petunias and now they are all slimey. We just had a small window Sunday to get it done before the rains begin again on Monday.

These 2 weeks seem to have flown by!