Kastle's Journey: Remembrance Day in Lake Cowichan - November 1

Saturday through Tuesday, not very much happening here at the lake, besides rain. We've had tons of it, so the lake's now, pretty close to full.

We ate lunch at Jake's and you can see that the water's right over the top of the weir.

Ray finished his puzzle, so Christmas decorating can begin.

Both of us are starting to putter inside getting ready for the Christmas Villages. They take quite a while to put together with all the houses and trains. I had to move my coffee center to the island from the buffet.

Ray's decided to make a design change this year with making the buffet village taller and the one behind the couch shorter. This needs some planning, so it needs some time, whether that means more foam painting and sculpting.

I spent some time upstairs wrapping Christmas presents. Still lots to do. :) Amelia and Jason are coming on the 15th for Ray's Birthday. I want the presents wrapped so Amelia doesn't inadvertently go into the closet where I have the stuff stored. She likes playing hide and seek.

Jason will be doing the ladder work to get the lights up on the beams and the large pieces up against the walls. Amelia's job will be helping putting the people in the villages, so this is why we started early. Jason has a huge list of things to do at home, so we don't want him to have to come down another time to help us. He gives us heck if we don't let him do that stuff for us, keeping Ray off ladders as that kills his knees and back. :)

It's begun! On Monday we had a nice day, so that was when Ray used the wagon (thus avoiding stairs) to bring all the stuff from the basement up into the livingroom.

The weather's been pretty wet and cool first thing in the mornings. Lots of fog on the lake. We did get a bit of sunshine on one of the afternoons. That allowed Ray to mow the lawn, hopefully for the last time this year.

Ray's birthday is on the 15th of November so I'm cooking him several of his favourite dishes over the next ten days. He says that's the best birthday present ever. lol

Wor Wonton Soup with our prawns that I froze, noodles, veggies and pork wontons. Delicious.

Tuesday, I made him Beef Wellington, with pate, mushroom duxelle and a bourbon cream sauce with roasted maple brussels and carrots. Turned out delicious too. :)

Pretty quite in our neighbourhood. Some neighbours are in Puerto Vallarta for a month and others are in Hawaii for a couple of weeks. Here, we've been having waves of Atmospheric Rivers .....

Wednesday, Nov 5th another big storm came in, as well as another one tomorrow. Lots more rain and wind forecasted. Fortunately it'd quit before we left for Duncan for our "date night"

I booked a show at the Cowichan Performing Arts called O Christmas Tea. First though, we ate dinner at the Old Firehouse Bar and Grill. We've walked by this place multiple times and never went before. Probably as it's only open 4 to late and we are never still in Duncan at that time of day.

They make everything from scratch and it's delicious. They even have great mocktails for Ray.

Off to the show.

O Christmas Tea

A British Comedy

Fans of Monty Python, Mr. Bean, and Dr. Seuss… Grab your teacups!

Combining British propriety with an unabashed love for the unexpected, London’s 3-time Impresario Award-winning duo steep an outrageously funny and brilliantly inventive show reminiscent of classic British pantos.

Rich in wordplay, comic physicality, and cleverly crafted interactive elements, O Christmas Tea is uproarious fun, yet it is the duo’s boundless imagination and endearing chemistry that provide the real magic and heart of this play.

We found it to be quite funny. They do have a lot of audience participation, so if you don't want to be given a costume and being dragged up onto the stage .... don't sit in the first row. lol

Thuirsday, Ray had a doctor's appointment in Nanaimo and is gone for part of the day. I puttered a bit and watched some saved shows he doesn't like to watch. He ate lunch at Sushi Wara in Ladysmith before coming home. That turned out to be a bad decision days later, if you know what that means! lol

Friday, it's back to business, I prepped another "birthday dinner" for Ray and wrapped the rest of the presents. Ray spent a good part of the day figuring out his village, starting to put pieces out. He's feeding all the light cords through holes in the foam.

Saturday, my wine fridge finally arrived. Took 5 weeks instead of 1 week as I was originally told. Now product from our end of September wine tour has a place to live, instead of boxes.

Sunday more work on the Christmas Village for us. All the houses are out of their boxes and mostly placed.

Monday, I managed a dental appointment to get my crown glued, which came out over the weekend, back on. Then we met up with Warren and Deb, from across the lake, at Red Arrow Brewing for lunch. Their burgers are delicious.We usually have only eaten there in the summer on their patio. They seat about 35 people inside too, which I didn't know.

They say hi Gerry & Fran!

After lunch we dropped a few groceries off at home, then headed over to their house across the lake to visit some more.

This big guy was munching on some grass, just before the turnoff to our subdivision. Look at that rack, he's huge!

Tuesday, Remembrance Day.

Ray's Dad served. Here is a picture of him in uniform. We miss you Dad.

Last year, Ray requested his Dad's service record and got it framed. He also found a print of the plane he flew on as a Wireless Air Gunner and had that framed with his medals.

The weather cooperated with a beautiful morning here for the service, much better than the usual rain we get this day.

We headed out at 10 am to get parked, so we didn't have far to walk to the cenotaph and watch the parade. The town had just painted the crosswalk in Remembrance.

Here comes the parade.

In the video, you can hear Ray say thank you to the vets. He gives a big thank you to anyone in uniform or he knows served. They really appreciate it and het gets a smile and a your welcome back.

We even had a bit of a flyover.

After the service at the Cenotaph, we walked up to the Legion for their celebration. They provided a huge lunch for a minimum $10 donation with ham, turkey and all the fixin's. They even bought a round of drinks for the house.

Small world. This is Steve and Cheryl, who are ATV'ers and who had met up with our best friends Steve and Dianne, in Quartzsite in 2022. Steve served for many years and retired as a Petty Officer class 1. He's an avid fisher, so Ray got his contact info for next year.

We had great seats to hear the pipers.

Here is the video of the Pipers at the Legion Hall after the service (this is Ray's favourite part). Ray here... Amazing Grace is the last piece they played (not this video). There is something magical about this piece on the pipes and there were quite a few in the house (specially those who served and me) with tears in their eyes.

They also featured Dave Darling, from our local OK Tire Store, singing for an hour, mostly Frank Sinatra. Even some dancing. We'd no idea Dave is this talented!