White Lake and other matters

We took a walk in our favourite hiking country yesterday but it rained. For Penticton that is unusual. Normally it sprinkles. But we were still able to see and hear some bluebirds and meadowlarks around White Lake in the Biological Reserve. My raincoat got really wet for the first time this year. The frost had broken up parts of the asphalt highway to get there, so driving was slow. We passed Twin Lakes on the way home, certainly no golf there yet. Today we treated ourselves to breakfast at The Hooded Merganser, and saw a bit more Spring in the flower pot outside the front door...
The painting just arrived by Royal Mail. It was painted by my best school friend on Boxing Day last year. He and his wife were visiting their daughter Stella in Easton-on-the-Hill U.K. Enjoy!

PS We hope you got your new i Pad 2 yesterday without too much trouble....

Around and About

View from up Carmi Road of the area affected by the 1994 forest fire.

Hanne, Elise, and a large rock near Mahoney Lake

Adam and Elise at Mahoney Lake

Enough of history for just now. We are taking you around and about Penticton today. Up on the Western hills you come across areas still showing damage from a forest fire back in1994; still snowy in late March (see above). Now South -East to a delightful ramble around Mahoney Lake, in amongst Ponderosa Pines and Mahonia bushes. A few early Sagebrush Buttercups were in bloom. Later (end of April) the woods will be full of Balsam Root's beautiful yellow flowers. We enjoyed a pleasant visit from Hanne's daughter Elise and her long-time partner Adam, who are gazing at the lake in the photo.

The Bassett House

The Kitchen

The Living Room

Yesterday we were invited by an 80-year old volunteer lady called Thelma to see inside the Bassett House, a part of the museum in Okanagan Falls. About a hundred years ago Mr. Richard Bassett had developed a successful freight and carriage company using horses, and found a wife, and needed a house. I don't know if you have catalogues where you are, but in Canada distances are so great people had to do mail-ordering of goods they needed, as the shops were often too far away. So Mr.Bassett ordered his house from the T. Eaton Company in this way, and it arrived in kit form, from somewhere like Winnipeg or Vancouver. First on a train, then on a sternwheeler on the lake, then on a horse-drawn wagon. It was put together here in Okanagan Falls in 1909, and is still livable I would say, and Hanne's daughter Elise was with us and she agreed! The Bassetts subsequently had five children and they were all brought up in this house. It was nice to go back to our grandparents' time and imagine living without electricity or cars.

Double Vision

Mahoney Lake Yesterday

Apart from the obvious medical kind, and the music group of that name, the idea of double vision can be extended. This is the subject of today's post. One can look at many things in two ways. 1. From one of the photos, you can see the black and white version. But this was derived from the colour version, ( not shown ). 2. You can look at today's colour photo up or down. Down, you see clouds reflected in Lake Skaha. Up, you see clouds in the sky. 3. This is what I saw in a dream, I think it was related to a documentary we watched on TV the night before about the coastline of the Baltic sea!

Skaha Lake Reflections?

Did you know you can have double vision in only one eye?
Well, we say hello to the Budget and good-bye to Elizabeth Taylor today. It looks like we are going to have a Spring Election in Canada. We may have to say good-bye soon to Qadaffi, but at the moment he is doing very well thank you.

Baltic Coast Dream

One final note: I hear professors in Leicester University may soon be all commenting on their students' work by means of audio-clips. How would you like to be able to comment on this blog with an audio-clip? Who knows, in the future we may all be using avatars on Second Life to comment even!

World Water Day

 Finally I've found out what "WWW" stands for. It's "World Well Water". Well, today is it. World Well Water Day, meaning not only healthy water but save the water day. I've always had a problem with saving water because it just goes round and round, up into the clouds, down as rain, out into the rivers, into the sea, and up into the clouds. It is the energy we use to clean it and pump it and pipe it that is wasted if we "waste water".

Canadians use twice as much water in a day as Europeans. There is plenty of water in most of Canada, but some areas like ours may need to pump it from elsewhere in the future. It is said that later, wars will be over water supply. So, let's be careful. No flushing of hair, cigarette-ends,dead insects, or food down toilets. There are better ways of disposing of such things. No running water to rinse dishes or clean your teeth. No cleaning of driveways by hosing them down. In Vancouver they have water police driving up and down the streets checking for lawn watering. That is why in the summer all the front lawns are brown and the back lawns are green! Of course, no-one reading this blog would even think of using water in such a wasteful way....
 Have a nice World Water Day!
 The photo is of Skaha Lake today. Usually it is windy here, but not now. There are waves and "white horses" most of the time. The night before last it was windless and cold, and the whole lake had a sheet of ice on it. Very rare. Today it was all melted....

Danes

Danes. They seem to be everywhere. If they are not playing tennis in Indian Wells, they are writing books like "We the Drowned", or washing the dishes in my kitchen, or running NATO, or measuring the Universe (Tyco Brahe), or taking photos at Pondside.
 Today, we went shopping in the Department Store next door called "The Bay" and found a dress made by "Norgård". I suppose it's like being pregnant and every other woman you meet is pregnant, or driving a new Volvo and the only cars you seem to notice on the roads are Volvos. Talking about driving: Interesting statistics: since September in BC about 8000 convictions were effected with the help of the RCMP for drunk driving. The penalty is 1. car impounded for 30 days 2. No driving for 90 days 3. Have to install a breathalyser ignition device to be used for 365 days. Now we have get the child to blow into the ignition before we can drive.....? .Not to worry, they've run out of ignition devices, and the waiting list is 42 days. They are building a new factory in Burnaby BC. Most people will have run out of money by then I expect.

Bluebells

Well it is almost April when they start blooming. Today, on the first day of Spring, I read a nice article in a local paper about bluebells in England. One can take a walk in East Sussex, visit Pashley Manor Gardens, or even take a ride on the famous Bluebell Railway. But our memories of bluebells are from the beech-woods of Derbyshire, where they are accompanied by wild onion flowers. Yesterday we just had to dream of bluebells as snow came down on the hills a quarter of an hour's drive away from our home. Then this morning we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at our favourite Kaleden restaurant, from which the saying was taken. It fits us like a glove!