Old Airport Road

Our New Car

Old Airport Road, looks excellent for cycling.

First Nations Cemetery Penticton with Baby's Breath

Bran New Bilingual Stop Sign

Showy Milkweed ( Asclepias speciosa)

Yesterday we took our new car to explore Old Airport Road, and had some real difficulty with it. (See photo). We discovered that the road leads to the local Penticton First Nations settlement, where they had only the day before erected bilingual road signs. Interesting. How do you pronounce "Stop" in Cree? We found the local cemetery also interesting with its grave markers. Looks like this road is a great cycle route for future use. We could park in the local golf course parking lot and go from there. I hear it is raining in Sandwich. Nice and sunny here though....

This and That

Grey Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) singing

Flower Mixture, Linden Gardens

R. B. Bennett Bridge Kelowna from above Tim and Jayne's new house.

Today's post is about this and that. Yesterday we visited Kelowna to see Tim and Jayne's new house, but the previous owners were in the middle of packing so it wasn't possible to get any good pictures. Our son and his wife move in at the end of the month. It rained like heck, on the way home we were almost hydroplaning and had to take cruise control off. But we did have a glint of sunshine on the Bennett Bridge photo. It was very windy just like at Sandwich. In South Africa as Des writes her comment it looks like a nice day with some sun and 22 degrees, even though it is nearly winter. Here it is only 16.
The catbird photo shows him singing, but to hear him you have to click on a birdsong website. The flower photo I like, I think just because of its randomness. This week-end we have more visitors from Denmark....

Patio Lunch

Donna and Alex prepare Lunch on the Patio Deck.

Lois and Michael get stuck into Corn on the Cob

Paul brings in the Dessert

An event long looked forward to at Athens Creek took place yesterday. The weather cooperated, unlike today at the British Open Golf; the wind died down and the sun came out. Our chef Alex cooked us barbecued chicken on the deck, and the Margaritas flowed by the jugful I'm afraid. On our table we behaved ourselves, but on the next table things got a little noisy as they lost count of the jugfuls... Then came a brilliant dessert designed by Donna: cake, pineapple, and strawberry on a stick, or rather two sticks, with artfully placed chocolate sauce. I put my shorts on for the first time, and my legs weren't cold. They are a bit pale though, I must admit....

Water Use

Spring Floods in Lee Creek Naramata

With Climate Change are coming more floods and rain. Here the lakes are fuller so we seem to have plenty of water. But with increasing population we need more. The chief waste seems to be through watering gardens and through leakage from pipes.. We are only just starting water metering here in BC.
50% of our water is used in the garden in the summer, and 20% is lost to pipe leakage. Denmark seems to be the most frugal country using approximately 150 cubic meters, the US and Canada the worst at around 1700 cubic meters per person per year.
The cost of municipal water is 31 cents per cubic meter here, in UK it is $1.28, and in Germany $2.16.
In the house, 35% is used for showers or baths, 30% for flushing, 20% for laundry, 10% for kitchen and drinking, and 5% for cleaning.

Level control gates allow water from Okanagan Lake into the river at Penticton.

What a lot of water!  Makes a lot of noise too!

It may flood here, but in other parts of the world there are droughts and people are dying. Is this all due to driving more cars and burning coal? Al Gore thinks so......

A Place to Stay for Ever

A Red-Tile Roofed House, A Cone-Shaped Conifer, A Car, and a Camper, with only one Cloud in the Sky.
What more could you wish for?

A Canoe or a Kayak, Orchards and Vineyards on the hills behind.

Nice Clouds in the Sky, Old Boats to visit.

And Breakfast on Sunday at the Golf Club. Penticton has it all....?

Purple Loosestrife

 The only one thing is: we have some European/Asian Invaders polluting our Lakesides. They are called Purple Loosestrife. A very pretty flower anyway, so I shouldn't complain....
Oh by the way, don't forget to click on the photos to make them bigger!

New People

Hanne, Elise, and Adam at White Lake.

Wedding Time in the Okanagan.  A Reception in a neighbor's garden.

Cherry time in the Okanagan. "Pitting Cherries on the Deck"

There are always people coming and going in this world. We are enjoying a nice visit with Hanne's daughter Elise and her Adam this last few days, but today they are going home to Vancouver. Yesterday a whole bunch of people left us and went to the bottom of the Volga. Duke William and Duchess Catherine left LA and returned to UK. But hey! Good news! Victoria and David Beckham had a new baby, their first daughter, named Harper Seven. I think it had something to do with his Manchester United Shirt. Famous people are allowed to have excellent names for their children. Like Moon Unit, Apple, Fifi Trixibell, Peaches, Hopper, Lark Song, Shiloh Nowel, Pilot Inspektor, Sage Moonblood....I just hope when they get to school, the other children will understand and not even dream of teasing them...
Next week we are expecting new visitors from Denmark, called Leif and Birte. Leif is pronounced "Life" and Birte is pronounced "Beerter". They are second cousins to Hanne.
New people. We are really looking forward to their visit...

Down at the Beach

Girl Sunbathing, Skaha Lake Beach

Hanne enjoying the view towards Summerland on the way to Sunoka Beach

Girl Reading, Sunoka Beach

Clouds at Sunoka Beach

Yesterday was beach day, walking in the morning on Skaha beach, the children bathing from Sunoka beach in Summerland in the afternoon. I say children, but at our age they have become over fortyish.  I say bathing from, rather than bathing on, otherwise it could be just sunbathing....They are visiting this week-end from Vancouver. We took a few photos as usual...There was a surprise awaiting us at Summerland. We were attacked by mosquitos!  Of course, we don't have such animals in Penticton. In BC we are supposed to worry about catching the West Nile virus, but there are so few cases it seems inappropriate to be worrying about it. Nevertheless we were sprayed by our children with anti-mosquito chemicals. We were chasing two mosquitos around the inside of the car on the way home. Hanne managed to catch them!