Fall is here! - Sept 19 - 28th

Thursday night I went to bed at 7:45 pm. Totally tuckered out. With Ray only an hour behind me. We both had a great sleep. Nice to be in our own bed again. I usually pack my neck pillow when we travel, but thought that for 2 nights, try without it. I should've packed it. lol

Friday at 11 am Penny arrived to help with digging in my new plants and move some other ones to make room. 3 bunches of Black Eyed Susan's were planted in the back amoungst the heather. More Black Eyed Susan's were donated to my neighbour Pat this time. The ones I donated to June last spring are doing fabulous in her garden.

This is what my Jeruselum Sage should look like next fall. It has furry leaves so the deer should leave it alone.

3 hours later we were done. I don't know how I would handle it all without Penny coming once a week. She does all my digging and heavy lifting. :)

Saturday morning, I'm back in the garden, fertilizing my rhodo's, applying slug bait around my new plants and making little cheesecloth packages of Irish Spring soap to place around my new plants to prevent the deer from eating them, especially the stargazer hydrangeas, hopefully. This worked so far for me the past 2 years. My garden should be even more beautiful next fall. I did pick 4 bouquets of flowers for the house, and one for Pat. Might as well enjoy them inside before they all die off.

Two weeks ago I ordered a new gazebo for the dock, twice as big as our current one. This is to provide more shade and curtains to block the wind. I purchased it now, as it's 50% off and saved $2000. I also purchased a firetable and 4 new recliner chairs at a great discount. It pays to buy at summers end if you are patient enough. Now I must be patient until next spring before I see my vision come together. :)

Jason and his friend will set it up next spring. We will move the current one to the other jut out on our dock over the picnic table. We've found it very windy down at the dock for the past 2 summers, so time to fix it so we can still spend time down there where we would rather be. 

The last box of steel came the day after we left. Poor Darryl had to get it into our garage. Thanks a bunch Darryl!

Next problem is how to get it into the basement for the winter...... Mike told me Friday afternoon that, all his kids were coming tomorrow for the last "summer weekend". Bonus! For a case of beer the boys moved it all for us. They would have done it for free, but beer got them over here by 10 am!

10 minutes later they had it all moved to the basement :) All 525 pounds of the gazebo and 160 pounds of chairs. The boys left with a cold beer in hand, and a case for later. Thanks guys! So nice to have such great neighbours.

The rest of the day we just puttered. Ray doing his puzzle and I working on our blog. Very windy today, although we are supposed to get rain late this afternoon before returning to sunshine tomorrow. Summer is still hanging on.

The rain came and went. Back to emptying front planters on Sunday and Monday, ready for the fall. Managed to pick up some Fall Asters from Country Grocer. Four different colours. I'd been eyeing up an Aster bush by the town's museum every year, as it keeps blooming until November. So I bought enough plants for Penny to plant in between my lavender bushes so we have colour longer than just the month the lavender blooms. Orginally the lavender hedge had to be short so that the slide in the motorhome could go across it. Not a problem anymore. lol We will be tackling this on Thursday.

The days are sure getting shorter quickly and the temperature certainly has dropped several degrees. The wind is still up on the lake so when the sun is out full, we still can sit outside on the front patio for an hour or so.

Tonight's dinner is coconut prawns with coconut and sunflower seed coleslaw and a fresh mango salsa. Delicious. There's enough for dinner tomorrow too. Bonus!

Tuesday we moved all the planters under the sundeck for the winter. That's a back killer lol Spent the afternoon down at the dock in the sunshine as there's no wind. Might be the last time this year.

Wednesday, while I did the pressure washing to clean up all the dirt from the planters, Ray did 2 dump runs. The first one with all the dead flowers etc. with the help of Darryl. His stuff was in there too. :) Then a second run of just junk, cardboard etc. He gave up waiting for the lawn to dry out so he mowed that too, in the afternoon.

This was also my cooking day. I did a bacon wrapped pork prime rib roast on the traeger and homemade potato salad with apple pie for dessert. Yummm

Thursday, planting the last of my fall asters in my lavender bed. (Well Penny did lol ) Getting to the end of our list. The garden on the other side of the driveway won't be cut down for another month once everything dies off, including the back garden hostas. We still have a lot of flowers blooming right now.

Ray spent the morning putting some stuff away in the basement and pressure washing the dock ladders and some wood he rescued from a house construction toss pile. It needed to be cleaned before coming into the house. I used my hand shampooer and washed up the cushions from the chairs on the sundeck. Fortunately all the small pillows fit into the washing machine. 4 loads later, it's all done. By 3 pm we were both done and relaxing in our lazy boy chairs. No one wanted to move. lol Fortunately we have last night's dinner for leftovers tonight.

We are mostly set in for the year, other than the boat needs to come out.

Friday we woke up to see a little rain fell overnight, but it's just cloudy and damp out. Definitely much cooler than it's been. Definitely a weather change. The next few days it's supposed to shower off and on. Hopefully we get a substantial amount to start increasing our lake level. It's pretty low right now. Usually the low is about 3 more feet up the beach. Some peoples docks are now grounded at their ramps. Ours would have been if we hadn't moved it out another 5 feet when we put in the new dock. We still have about 4 feet of water under the edge of our dock.

Saturday morning, drizzly but then we had a few breaks of sunshine. The rain is scheduled to fall all afternoon.

Amelia and Kristi with Olaf arrived at 1:30. We managed a walk to the subdivision park before the showers started again. 

Kristi left at about 3:15 pm to Chemainus for her housewarming party and we played with Amelia. After dinner and dessert, I got Amelia ready for bed and mommy arrived at 7:15 pm, in time, to tuck her in. A busy but fun afternoon.

Sunday, everyone up by 6 am. Olaf walked by Kristi and Amelia, and then blueberry pancakes and sausages for breakfast. I had to up my game after my cousin, Gordie made her pancakes last weekend.

His pancake ...

My pancake not as great of an "A" but I had blueberries, chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles. lol

 After everyone fuelled up, and dressed, it's time to go to the Duck Pond park for Amelia to run off some energy.

Next up Kristi treated us to lunch at the Riverside Pub before heading home back to Nanaimo. Loaded and on their way by 1 pm. A great visit with our "girls".

The supposed Atmospheric River hitting Vancouver Island this weekend, mostly missed us here at the lake. There were some overnight showers but nothing significant. Nice to get outside, but we do need more rain.

Tomorrow off to Kelowna for another adventure!

Roadtrip to Sooke, BC Sept 16 - 18

Ray's ready for another Photo Tour. We chose Sooke, on the coast south of us. I've checked the weather patterns for 3 weeks to pick the best days with sunshine. Tuesday morning at the lake turned out gorgeous. Ray captured this as the sun rose.

For Ray's photo tour, I made reservations to stay at the Sooke Harbour House, a fabulous boutique hotel. I go on the photo tour for the food. lol This hotel has reopened after ownership change, that even went through the courts. We've seen it on the news every once in awhile. Everything's finally settled, so they could renovate, as the place remained empty for some time. With their soft opening in May out of the way, everything ramped up the end of July. Their rooms are pretty much half price, so we could afford them at $313 per night. Now that they've opened, and the European tourists will have a chance to book for next summer, I'm sure the rooms will be $600 per night. The hotel perches above the ocean next to Whiffin Spit. A fabulous location. We booked a deluxe second floor spa room with a cathedral ceiling and a wood burning fireplace if you should desire. ($25 for a fire that they start and provide the wood.) That would be cozy on a rainy day.

FYI - REMEMBER .... I SAID PHOTO TOUR, lots of pictures. lol

Tuesday morning, September 16th, we headed out at 9:30am. First stop Honeymoon Bay for a previously booked haircut. :) By 10:45 we're on our way on the Pacific Coast Highway to Port Renfrew. Wow that road is sure windy and single lane in some places. The only wildlife we came upon is this bear on the side of the road. He didn't run away until I creeped up right beside him.

We continued on to the Renfrew Pub for lunch. We were 10 minutes early before opening, so took a stroll down the government dock. The Port Renfrew Hotel have the "Wild Renfrew Cottages" on the water. For a two bedroom, ocean facing it is about $350 per night right now.

Below are the smaller cabins for 2

The bigger two bedroom cabins face this view.

Beautiful landscaping around the cabins.

Across from the Pub is this cool rock that is like a hanging garden.

Ray even took a short video to capture it as it didn't really show up in a photo.

Time for lunch. A beautiful warm day sitting on their patio.

After great burgers, we headed back down the highway. We stopped at Harris Creek Canyon Bridge for a quick picture. This is the only place we actually saw flowing water. All other creeks are dry. Ray drove for this part until my beer wore off. lol

Jordon Bay Regional Campsite.

Our final stop before the hotel is Sheringham Point Lighthouse. On the road down to the parking lot there's this cute roadside stand.

A bit of a hike down to get to the trail to the lighthouse. I opted to stay on top of the trail, (Ray here... lots of men with their spouse's waiting up top) while Ray walked down to the bottom for his pictures. :) Going down would be fine but coming back up, no thanks. 

This lighthouse was constructed after the sinking of the SS Valencia passenger ferry. The stretch from Oregon to the entrance of the Johnson Straights had the scary title "Graveyard of the Pacific". Two thousand boats sank to earn this moniker. The Valencia was the last straw.

After his $5 donation, off he went.

 

There's Ray.

He was definitely a huffing and puffing by the time he reached my location, not to mention uphill back  to the parking lot. My turn to drive again to the hotel. We arrived shortly before 3 pm which is check-in time. Perfect!

We lucked that there's an elevator near our room to take all our stuff up. Made it in one trip instead of 2.

What a room!

King Bed

Sitting area with wood fireplace

Coffee Station

Spa Bathroom

Huge clawfoot tub that would fit someone 6' or more!

View from room

The black arrow is where our room is located on the property.

After unpacking, we sat out on the deck with a beer, enjoying the warm afternoon.

View from sundeck towards Whiffin Spit.

After settling in and relaxing a bit, it's time for supper in their dining room. They have beautiful artwork everywhere. The meals we ordered are fabulous ... chef approved. :)

Great mocktails for Ray, though he never thought he'd be drinking a shrub!.

Cheers, what a view out our window.

Fabulous food. This is homemade potato chips with beef carpaccio.

Crab Cake for Ray

For my main, I ordered their charcuterie board as I knew I wasn't that hungry and could take the rest to the room. lol It was also delicious.

Ray had his favourite, Sable Fish.

We shared an apple tartan for dessert.

After dinner, Ray wandered around a bit taking pictures of the artwork in the hallways. This Edsil is parked outside near our car. Now we know why there were cones up so you couldn't park there.

In our lobby in front of the elevator.

We saw these cool flowers outside our wing of the hotel. They look like giant flowering artichokes. After checking with Google, that is exactly what it is. If you don't pick the fruit and it goes to seed, this is what it looks like.

Back to the room to relax for the rest of the night. Today's the warmest in the forecast. The room stayed too warm for me, even with the door open all night. They have no A/C yet .... upgrade to happen next year. 

Wednesday morning, we relaxed for a time. Downstairs there's an onsite bakery that opens at 8 am. So of course, Ray's out the door at 8:01 to get some pastries and coffee. They have the best fresh, warm croissants. After that, Ray headed out for his adventure to the Sooke Potholes, in search of "that photo" he's had in his head for several years. Unfortunately the twin waterfalls alluded him again. He was way too sore after rock scrambling to get the shots below to go any further.

When he got back at 11:30 and after a rest, we headed out for lunch. We 'd planned to pick up some fresh cooked crab at the Crab Shack, but they're closed even though I'd messaged them and they said they were open .... so our next choice is the Sooke Brewing Company. There's a food truck (Burgers on Point) behind them. Their burgers are great and washed down by a great beer.

Back in the car to the Whiffin Spit parking lot. A beautiful walk along Sooke Harbour. It's breezy, but warm enough not to wear a jacket, you just have to worry about losing your hat. lol

Oh oh... caught checking on my phone instead of looking at the view.

This house below, have to put in 2 docks, one for his boat at the end of the ramp and one for the sea lions apparently.

After our stroll, it's back to the room and onto our sundeck until 4:30. We decided to go to Happy Hour from 3 - 5 and eat then, as it's far cheaper and we're not really that hungry after our delicious burgers in Sooke. We ordered a couple appetizers instead. I ordered some kind of gin cocktail and Ray another great mocktail.

We sat in their covered patio. After a half an hour or so they needed to put the outdoor curtains all the way down as the fog came in and it's a really cool breeze.

Back at the room by 6 to relax for the rest of the evening. Another fabulous day. Ray downloading all his pictures and I watched a bit of TV.

Thursday morning we got more pastries from the bakery and slowly packed up. I checked out at 9:30 as Ray packed our stuff to the car. Unfortunately I didn't go back to the room for a swing through, he left his backrest on the patio chair outside, as that is where he sat before we left .... they will be sending it back to us. :)

Our first stop today is at the Crab Shack, where they were supposed to open at 10. We were there and they were not! Again! No Crab for You!

We carried on to the HCP, Horticultural Centre of the Pacific. Wow this place is 10 times bigger than we thought. First up, checking out their plant sale. I bought some more beauties for my garden.

Yup, that is me in the striped shirt.

I could have bought tons of them but chose these six only. Here are the google picturestthat show what they will look like next summer.

Lobelia Tupa - Devil's tobacco - will grow 3 - 6' tall

Phlomis Russelianna - Jerusalem Sage - 2 - 4' tall

Knautia Macedonica - grows 18 to 24" tall

Lathyrus Vernus "Spring Vetch" or Sweet Pea. Grows 6 - 12"

The next plant (I bought 2 of) were tagged and sold as a ground cover geranium. Turned out to be the Stargazer Hydrangea ....

Stargazer Hydrangea

Fun fact .... my garden angel Penny, took her gardening course here last winter.

We put the plants in the car and off to explore the gardens. https://hcp.ca/visit/gardens They have 26 different areas of gardens. I am sure in the spring and earlier in the summer would've been spectacular. They were pretty good now snyways. Gave me a good idea what my fall garden could look like.

This picture shows the Sahara Rudbeckia, what I had been looking for until I found out it's an annual.

Heather Garden, we have alot of these varieties in our lakefront garden.

Ray gravitated towards the Japanese Garden with all the different shapes and water features.

After a couple hours of wandering around, we decided to support them and eat lunch at the cafe. The food looked spectacular, however, too healthy for us, not enough flavour. Lovely patio seating though, overlooking the garden.

Crustless Vegetable Quiche with sauteed mushrooms and bacon with mushroom soup.

Some kind of chicken on seedy bread ..... with the soup.

We are now pooped. No way we were going to Butchart and decided to get to the Brentwood Ferry and head home. We lucked out with only about a 50 minute wait for the 2:25 PM sailing. Ray popped out of the car and took a few shots.

We have eaten at this little restaurant waiting for the ferry before.

Once on the other side we headed to Duncan and London Drugs to pick up our prescriptions and then home. What a great little vacation.