Out and About

Now that summer is over and people have ceased lazing on the beach and dashing here and there for long week-ends and longer holidays, and now that the apples and the grapes have all been picked (except for the ice grapes, but that's another story) and fall has put away most of its glory for another season,  things are gradually getting back to normal and people are seeing one another again at meetings and gatherings and for lunch and a quick bite of supper.

It's nice, and one of the ways of coping with this melancholy, funereal month before the Christmas season permeates with Advent and the preparations of soul and body for the merry month of December.

It's good to be back singing again - the choir (and I use the word loosely) will be leading in old wartime songs after the Remembrance Day service on the 11th, as the Legion serves up their annual helpings of beef stew or chili to warm up after the gathering at the Cenotaph.

Tentative plans for Christmas celebrations are on the agenda at every meeting I go to, - the Royal Purple will travel to Kaledan for a celebratory lunch, - the Museum friends have plans to dine at the Wrong Turn Tavern.  For all the workers at the outreach Bargain Centre a thank you get together, with FOOD, and the Apple Tarts will have turkey at the Branding Iron Bar and Grill.  There, that agenda will give cause for great stirrings and friendliness......

In the meantime I was cheered and stirred greatly by a lovely outing with eldest son and his dear wife.  Out for a most delicious lunch in Summerland, at The Stone House (sole and almonds and a wonderful lemon sauce, followed by Creme de Caramel for dessert)

And then on to a marvelous a cappello program of sacred music, A Moving Stillness. performed by the Chorealis Vocal Ensemble from various towns in the north Okanagan.  I was full, right up to HERE, with the wonderful sound of harmony and stillness that seemed to echo down the ages from when many of the pieces were first composed and performed.

I appreciated the outing so much, - wonderful company and body and soul fed so beautifully.

My family are extremely good to me, all of them in different and loving ways

and I feel so loved and cared for.

Their father would be proud of them!

Q is for Quesnel

ABC Wednesday
November 4th, 2015

The letter is Q for Quesnel

A picturesque town in the North Cariboo area of British Columbia, with a fascinating history.

Although today it is a beautiful playground  with a perfect

combination of rural charm and quiet city sophistication, Quesnel is rich

in history.

The First Nations people who inhabited this area called themselves 'Uda uketh',

which means 'People who travel by boat on water early in the morning'

but their neighbours, the Sekant people, called them the Carrier, and

this is the name by which they are commonly known.

They made Quesnel their summer fishing camp and eventually developed a trading culture with the Nuxalk people who provided nutrient rich Salmon and Ooligan Grease (a healing 

remedy made from fish oil).
 Eventually a trade route crisscrossed the plateau both west and south

of Quesnel.

While Alexander Mackenzie was traversing the territory in 1793

en route to the Pacific he encountered the Carrier First Nation camp and 

they convinced him to abandon the dangerous Fraser route and travel the

Nuxalk-Carrier Grease Trail along the Blackwater River .

In 1808 Simon Fraser (another explorer all Canadian children

learn about in school) camped at the junction of two rivers,

the Fraser and the Quesnel.  The Fraser River he named after himself, but

the Quesnel river he named after his lieutenant, Jules Maurice Quesnel.

In 1857 gold was discovered on the Fraser River and by 1859 the great rush

of miners had reached the Quesnel River, and due to its location Quesnel became

a major stopover and supply centre for the gold fields.

From its beginning Quesnel was a multicltural community.
 As early as 1860 Chinese miners were working the bars of the Quesnel River
and many soon turned to business.
The gold rush  attracted people from Eastern Canada,
 the US and many European countries.

And now, like many British Columbia towns, it takes advantage

of the abundant recreational opportunities the countryside offers.

Excellent fishing, reminiscent of the early summer fishing camps of the First Nations.

both rainbow and bull trout

Mountain cycling and river rafting

The countryside is beautiful and varied

Quesnel Lake

and nearby Dragon lake in the spring of the year

 Agricultural land

and hoodoos

The population celebrating Billy Barker days

and one of the main industries, besides tourism...

the West Pine Mill

how to get there.........

if you don't want to follow the gold trail, paddling up the Fraser River,
go by highway...  up past Williams Lake
and before you get to Prince George
If I remember correctly you have to take a right turn into town.

more excellent Qs here at ABC Wednesday
with thanks to Roger and Denise and any quirky helpers.

Welcome to Penticton

ABC Wednesday
October 28th, 2015

The Letter of the Week is P for Penticton

I had thought this week we might leave the southern parts of B.C. and visit Prince George, the third largest city in the province, and proudly known by its inhabitants as the Capital of the North......

However, the lovely city we reach as we traverse the Yellow Lake Pass, the land that Charles' grandfather came to in 1911 after twelve years transfixed by the Alaska Gold Rush, bequiled me into telling you a little more of Penticton, the "place to live forever"  (snpintkin) as interpreted by the First Nations Syilx Indian Band who have occupied the territory from time immemorial.

This was the theme of the 75th year celebration of the incorporation of Penticton as a City, and Charles' father, celebrating his 100th birthday at the same time, was honoured in the Peach Festival parade and banquet. (forgive the quality of the photo) Here, with his children, Charles and Nonie.

In the very early days the quickest way for fur traders to get their pelts to the world market was to head south on horseback through Penticton to the Columbia River.  Tom Ellis, a young Irish immigrant and  cattle rancher, was the first non-native to settle the area in 1865, buying land that stretched from Naramata to the Border, and the City of Penticton was built on some of the 31,000 acres he held in the South Okanagan between the Okanagan and Skaha Lakes.

Development in the early years was slow, but by 1908, with six hundred souls resident in the district, Penticton was incorporated and continued to grow at a fast pace.

Some early pictures.  The SS Sicamous on the lake in front of the CPR dock, the Kettle Valley railway Station, the school Charles attended, the B.C. Hotel with patrons on horseback - I believe this to be the hotel which later earned a rather infamous reputation as home to Slack Alice's  Strip Joint, but perhaps that was the Valley Hotel - in any case, above this picture is the Incola, the hotel the CPR built where we danced away Saturday nights to Saxie DeBlass's orchestras in those first years after the war.  Above that is the Aquatic building, which, of course, served the annual aquatics as well as the first Teen Town in British Columbia - dear to the hearts of Penticton natives of that era.

and here are some of the first orchards, and Front Street, then and now, and now it has the Dream Cafe which is a wonderful place to visit, both for dining and for entertainment.  I am waiting for Leon Redbone but he keeps cancelling...

Penticton has always charmed me, ever since a dear friend went there to recuperate (when I was a child) and it sounded like such a pleasantly mysterious place.  Of course its charm increased considerably when I met that handsome airman from Penticton, out for a stroll one Easter Sunday from the RCAF station at the University.......and thereby hangs a tale!!

Because of the difficulties of land travel due to the rugged local terrain along Okanagan Lake ( which runs for ninety miles from the southern end to Vernon, at the northern end) early transportation in and out of Penticton was primaily by water aboard steamships like the SS Sicamous and the SS Okanagan

The Sicamous is today docked just off the beach, at one end of Lakeshore Drive and is used

for banquets, wedding reception and such.  It is well preserved and still holds

a great deal of charm and appeal.

What can one do in Penticton - a picture is worth a thousand words....

Swimming, para sailing, cycling on one of the many trails, and
on the Kettle Valley Railway Trestle route which stretches from Penticton to Kelowna (or vice versa depending on which city you come from...) through the Mara Canyon.  Eight of these twelve  heart catching trestles were destroyed by fire a few years ago, but have been replaced by the government of B.C., and are still popular and adventurous.

The Skaha Bluffs are world famous both for hang gliding and for climbing

Munson Mountain, more sedate but precious in my memory as the place Charles and I

became engaged when I was home with him on his embarkation leave..

and who could resist lazing down the Okanagan river between the two lakes

on an inner tube......?

The place abounds with Festivals from May to September

The Okanagan Wine Festival, the Peach Festival,  the Meadowlark and

Okanagan Fest of Ale.

Agriculturally the land around Penticton and Naramata was traditionally orchards -

apples, peaches, pears and cherries, and the main festival was the Peach Festival,

but now vineyards and wineries predominate and it is difficult to find a 

picture of an orchard, unless you have taken it yourself.

But they still have a parade!

If you come in the winter you can ski at Apex, just a few miles away.

This southern end of the Okanagan valley is very beautiful.

How to get there?

Come and have tea with me in Keremeos, and then just take the Yellow Lake Pass

For more Ps visit here at ABC Wednesday

with thanks to Denise and Roger and their peerless helpers.

Down Country Roads

October 22nd, 2015

It was a gorgeous day.

We had made a quick trip to the doctor to get some prescriptions refilled and after we sat and mused about ' which way home".

 There are so many hills to travel up and over.  Down the Okanagan and up over the Richter Pass or  half way down the Okanagan and up the road that passes through ranching country, acres of vineyards, rolling hills, small lakes and eventually the great White Lake Observatory.

Or should we travel the east side of Skaha Lake where the cliffs lie high and steep and seduce adventurous kite flyers, down through Okanagan Falls

Or the short way, a winding, twisty road that snakes its way through a wonderful treed stretch of country until it meets up with the main highway on its way into Keremeos.  This one beloved of motorcycle riders and most familiar to my chauffeur son.....the Green Mountain Road.

We chose the last, and it was heavenly.  Near the end, close to where we would rejoin the Highway, the cottonwoods a little off to the west stood so tall, so majestic, so golden.... and beneath them the ground was damp and green, coloured in spots with fallen leaves.  If we could have stopped and made our way down to the small hollow  in which they stood  it would have been  holy and quiet and akin to being in a beautiful cathedral...

(not these trees to the left which look to me like young birches)

Can you stand a few more photos of these lovely valleys in the autumn?  These willl probably be the last, as the wind each day takes a few more leaves and scatters them around to dry.

Enough of this gadding - tomorrow I must go into the garden and put the plants to bed!!

Only a few chrysanthemums left blooming amongst all the

dried leaves and rusty blooms.

Time to put the welcome out for that melancholy month, November!