More great weather and wineries and Neighbour Party. August 25 - September 1st

Summer is sure going by fast. Can't believe this is the last week of August already! The weather has been incredibly warm, definitely swimming weather. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we went to a few more wineries on the festival list. It sure makes sense to visit during the festival, as all the tastings are included in the $50 ticket price. Usually they're $15 per person per winery.

A couple of days this week I attacked my planters, digging out overgrown flowers and anything dead ... fall is coming fast. Ray's working on attacking the spider nests all over the west side of the house. We checked with a few pest control companies and with the height of our house. He got quotes of $800 - $1000 including scaffolding. The problem is our house being 3 stories. Nope .... Ray is doing a bit at a time himself. We don't want all those moving inside this winter. His first pass netted 4 dozen spiders.

Being on the water you do get a lot of spiders regardless. We had the house sprayed several years ago and it did not seem to help. Apparently the house needs treatment once a month, like our neighbours, for it to do any good.

We spent our afternoons on the dock swiming. Beautiful weather. We'll take it when we can.

Thursday, our boat is finally ready to be picked up.  We decided to do a couple more wineries, a little grocery shopping and then pick up the boat. We first went for brunch at Brunch on Third, one of our favourite restaurants.

Today's wine festival choices are Alderlea and Emandare. We certainly prefered the wine at Alderlea, one of our favourite wineries to buy from.

Alderlea

Emendare is about 15 minutes away. Beautiful winery with views into the vineyard from the tasting room. We didn't like the taste of this wine as much as some of the others. The owners are a young couple with 2 kids and have to buy a lot of the grapes for their wine as their vines are too young.

Back home at 2:30 and we sat outside on the deck. Although today's cloudy, it's really humid at 25C. We did run into a few rain showers while we were touring the 2 wineries. Not much accumulation though.

Thursday night we appreciated a great sunset. 

Friday we decided to go back into Duncan for lunch at Unsworth Winery, picking up a couple more bottles of wine, and then see 2 more wineries. We've toured 11 of the 13 wineries. Wow.

Ray drinking the Phillips rootbeer.

Ray and his doors

They have a tasting event going on outside the tasting shop.

There are a couple of farm stands on these country roads.

Next up, Cobble Hill Winery. They also have a lavender farm, which would've been beautiful a month ago. I didn't find their wines very tasty either, but we did buy a rose.

Off to the last winery, Divino. We've driven past this place many times, just off Highway 1 at Cobble Hill. The guy that owns it, and supervises making the wine is 91. His daughter does most of the organization of picking etc. He originally owned a winery in Oliver and decided to move to the island in the early 90's, taking cuttings from the Oliver Winery. Now the vines are 30 years old here. He still has some wine from Oliver in barrels that he blends with the new crops here, making a great tasting blend.Very old school wine making. 

I ended up tasting about 8 wines, including dessert wines. She isn't "short" on pouring. We did purchase several bottles lol. Debbie has a warm glow on going home while Ray drove. :)

A great adventure.

Saturday morning we met Jason at Highway 18 junction and picked up Amelia and Olaf for the weekend. Kristi and Jason have an adult birthday party to go to.  We stopped at Tim Horton's for a donut and then on to the Duck Pond park.

Once back at the lake I got my beans going for our dinner next door. Deb and Mike are hosting the strata for a brisket dinner. Then it's time to launch our boat. Amelia got a short boat ride with Papa, while I drove the car and trailer back home. We kept busy all afternoon.

After playing magnatiles we relaxed on the deck. It's too windy at the dock.

At 4 pm it 's time to go next door for dinner. We packed up a bunch of paw patrol cars and people and headed next door. Mike and Debra had other friends come with their granddaughters, 5 years and 2 years. Amelia wasn't too sure about playing directly with them, but they enjoyed Amelia's toys.

Pat, Debra, Lolly, Brad and Brian

Mike and Debra's daughter-in-law, Sara, took the girls downstairs to pick out their freezie.

Now they hang together just in time to go home to bed. lol

A great get together with Mike's brisket, my baked beans, June's smoked macaroni and cheese, Pat's salmon and various other sides, salad, garlic bread and corn. A delicious spread. Not much left at the end. Ray said there's only 2 scoops of my beans left out of a double batch. 

We left with Amelia at 7 to get her into bed. Unfortunately, her camera signal did not reach next door. So we stayed home and the bunch continued more fun without us lol.

Ron

Donna, June, Roy, Pat and Darryl

Look who is taking up my place in my bed!

Sunday, Amelia had a really great sleep so we did too. After our morning TV and pancake breakfast, we walked to the park in the new subdivision.

Back home more playtime. Amelia went to bed her usual time and was out by 7:30 so ended up awake with Papa at 5:50 am the next morning. After breakfast we took her to the Duck Pond Park. Ray walked with her across the old bridge to Ed's Coffee Shop and I took Olaf around in the car. 

After sharing a treat with Papa, we came home to wait for Jason to come and take her home.

Jason arrived at 11 and they were all packed up and headed to Nanaimo by 11:15 am. Whew, a very busy 2 days. Ray took me to lunch for senior's day at Jakes and then we spent the rest of the day on the sundeck. It's too windy at the dock.