Saturday, July 28th, 2012

For many years their were six of us who went for lunch every Thursday.  Everybody arrived under their own steam, and had anecdotes from a busy life stored away to show and tell.

Gwen was the first to leave.  She had been our neighbour for forty years when we lived on the farm.  The first family to move into their unfinished house on the Veterans' Land project, and before that she rode the school bus with Charles, - a neighbour of his on the benchlands of Penticton all during their growing up years.

Except for Joan we had all been participants in that great adventure on the Cawston Bench;  wives of the Veterans; bringing up our children on the orchards and farms we had established after the sage brush had all been cleared from the land.

The years passed.  Not so much was happening in our lives.  Some lost husbands.  Small strokes took their toll from vibrant lives.  After awhile our lunches were not always weekly affairs, as it became more difficult to  gather when some had lost driver's licenses.

Five years ago Alzheimers stole Joan from us, leaving us with only her sweet smile, but still we lunched at least once a month, until she left us for peaceful parts and heavenly places a few months ago.

Now there are only four of us. I am the only one who drives, and nobody gets out much, so after we have lunched  (a pale echo of what past lunches were, but still blest with precious friendship) we go driving.  And that's what we did this past Thursday.

We don't have to go far.  Perhaps we visit Ginty's pond and the heritage park in Cawston, built in the days when we were young to honour B.C.'s Centenial Year.   Or we go west, traveling the riverside road that goes towards the Ashnola, as we did on Thursday.

The day started of with blue skies, sunshine and cool breezes, and so I phoned around to see who would like to lunch, - oh, yes!!  Everybody was eager.  If you are more or less confined to the distance you can walk, then an invitation to go further afield is always welcome.

We took a turn around the Upper Bench to see all the news houses, and the new subdivisions, and all the old houses, and the places where familiar people live (or lived).  Then we were off down the highway and across the red bridge........

The river was still high, and we didn't see any Inner Tubes on the water, but as we stopped to take a picture
we spotted kayakers on a far bend.   They seemed to be all tied together, - a colourful sight with yellow safety gear and a variety of coloured boats.  As they drew closer, led by a couple of guide canoes, the sounds of laughter and excitement  floated upstream, as a stretch of rapids came into view.

As we headed back towards town  thunderclouds were gathering in the west, although the sky was still blue, but down from the south we were being approached by dark clouds and the occasional rumble of thunder, the quick and distant flashes of lightning.

As I returned Margaret to her residential facility the first large drops of rain began to fall, and there was a great and mighty clap of thunder.  Home was only two blocks away, but by the time I arrived we were in the midst of a cloud burst and Callie, wide eyed and frightened,  had found a hiding place to wait out the storm.


I don't bemoan the frequent showers and storms or the lack of devastating heat - the roses have loved this cooler season, but Hazel's geraniums, which are usually spectacular, are really sad and pouting......

This and That on a So-So Wednesday
July 25th, 2012

Besides it being St. Christopher's Day, the Feast of Saint James the Greater, Thread a Needle Day and Carousal Day (that appeals to me most.... it has been a day of sun and showers, gentle breezes and stormy west winds. 

We took advantage of a beautiful morning and Charles went off on his electric cart to see who was having coffee at the Seniors' Centre, where all sorts of matter are discussed and settled, old tales repeated, and even a bit of gossip finds its way into the conversation.

I wandered out into the garden and admired the new flush of roses, the second bloom on the Canterbury Bells and looked for bees among the Bergamot.

At this point in my conversation I discovered when I posted  that Blogger was up to its old tricks, framing all my text with white and making it impossible to read.  When I tried to change the colour of the font somebody got really nasty and upset and snatched all my lovely words away......deep sigh!


What I told you about was mainly the weather, and how Callie the Cat disappeared to find safety and solace under the sofa, only coming out when the angry Sky Gods had stopped rolling thunger and flashing lightning at her.  And that in response to me scraping that delicious-cat-food into her dish.


And I wanted you to know that the Temptations ad is not to be believed, - the one where the cat leaps high fences and tall buildings to get home  to the rattle of the Temptation package.  T and L will trump that any stormy day.


The weather also played havoc with the television, losing the signal just as the weather report was to come on, - just at the end of Upstairs Downstairs (which they are replaying again) and half way through Suits, causing us to lost the thread.


And that reminded me that today was also Thread the Needle Day, which I found had two interpretations.  The literal one for sewers, of course.  But also the term denotes the ability to negotiated controversial subjects without giving offense or making peers or constituents angry.  I didn't know that, but can see it would be as good talent for any number of people to possess in any number of sticky situations.


I am also reminded that St. Christopher is the Patrom Saint of Travelers, and so I say a small prayer for all those who are out on rain swept roads, with thunder and lightning and wind combining to make travel difficult for them!


I am off to bed to see how much Emily Donahue I can read before falling asleep....and hope that this ;posting is readable.

For Texture Tuesday

July 24th, 2012

Photo July 22nd,   Cawston, B.C.
edited with Kim's Autumn Burst



Follow the Texture Tuesday link in the sidebar for a beautiful variety of photos.

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

I got blown out to tea yesterday!  Just at two o'clock I left the house and as I opened the door the first sprinkling of rain and the first gusts of wind came riding from the west on dark storm clouds.  I had thought I could gain the teahouse before the storm came down upon us, but no, - I arrived for our assignation breathless and wind-blown, the last to gain shelter.

I joined the tea table and felt moved back in time.  This Tea Shoppe is a new business in town.  The tables are laid with white linens and lace, silver and fine china, and the lady who serves tea also makes the  most incredibly light scones.  I brought two home for Charles - lovely sweet raspberry delights that practically float an eighth of an inch above the china plate beneath them, - so buoyant and crumbly, they fairly melt in your mouth.

This was a gathering of the ACW, - a group of Anglican Church Woman who have been friends for many years, but have now reached the age where they have retired the organization to having tea every once in a while and a jolly old chin-wag!

We lingered at the table, savouring the friendship as much as the tea and scones.  Outside the wind howled, bowing the boulevard trees and scattering leaves and sheets of rain perpendicularly down the main street, but inside the warmth of friendship and the lovely old-fashioned ambience of a real Tea Shoppe were enough to keep us quite happy and content and immersed in talk and laughter.

Eventually it was time to leave, - I went to get a few groceries in the wind and the rain, stuffed with raspberry scone which, unfortunately,  took its revenge on me during Happy Hour with dire heartburn, - or maybe it was the Orange Brandy.........

There is still another scone left in the refrigerator

Shall we divide it at coffee time?????

Thursday evening, more than half way through July!!!

Outside, doing the last of the watering chores, I am delighted by the coolness of the evening breeze after an exceedingly warm day.

Up early this morning, and we made a quick trip to Penticton for an 8.30 driving appointment.  With age comes driving examinations and this morning it was Charles' turn.  By the time he was finished the morning tourist traffic was crowding the streets and we came straight home to a cool house and a pleased-to-see us cat.  Close to her lunchtime - she sits on Charles's knee and cuddles, but I know with me it is strictly cupboard love!!!

It was a lovely morning for a drive, but not terribly successful in the picture taking department.  The sun reflected strange images on the photos, - dazzling lights and blurred images.  In one picture I saw my hand, holding the camera, and Charles' arm, cradling the steering wheel - imprinted on the gorgeous greens and golden sunshine around Yellow Lake.

Well, here are some I was able to salvage.

The shadowy hills and the sprinklers on the meadow

A few glittery leaves surrounding a field of green, where the creek runs through.

In the distance, as we break over the hill into the Okanagan Valley, the far hills are faded shades of blue.

Skaha Lake is bathed in gleaming sunlight 

A water skier about to plunge through those sterling silver ripples.

A nice day.

The water is on the side lawn, and the sprinklers that Charles

wound around the fence to satisfy the thirsty bed that grows outside the fence

are spraying most satisfactorily.

All's well, and I am about to go to bed with "The World According to Bertie" by

McCall Smith - a sweet story that compares very well with

"The World According to Garp" (which, to tell you the truth, I barely remember -

not because of it's literary qualities, I assure the author, but just

because some things get crowded out the older you get)  sigh.....

ABC Wednesday
July 18th, 2012

A is the letter of the day

A is for Applause, and this is what I plan to do this round.  Much as I have loved and enjoyed participating I this time Around I think I will sit on the sidewalk, watch the wonderful Alphabetic parade go by, shout my comments, twirl my parasol and clap my hands for all the wonderful blogs I expect to visit!

I will be back next time Around.  In the meantime, for more Adorable A's visit here, at ABC Wednesday.

July 14th, 2012

Saturday afternoon.......Monday morning....

I have been a long time away.  Completely zonked as far as blogging is concerned.  I keep coming back, hoping time and inspiration will be on my side, but no....life goes on but I don't seem to be fully participating.

and now Monday evening....

Over coffee this morning Charles and I got to discussing the wonderful yodeling a ninety-one year old friend of ours entertained us with at the Singers' Summer Potluck, - an event hosted by the group Charles sings with every Wednesday morning.

One thing led to another.  We reminisced about another old and good friend who played guitar, sang Wilf Carter songs and was an outstanding yodeller;  well known during World War 11 for entertaining his fellow soldiers, and always popular at parties and get-togethers when we all settled to grow fruit on the Fairview Height Veterans Land project.

We remembered in particular a reunion of Charles' crew members in 1997.   Charles was Seconded to the RAF so there were Scottish and English members of the crew as well, - and one Trinidadian. The overseas  crew flew into Calgary.  Charles and I met them there with a bright red Van and wetravelled leisurely through the Rockies, across central B.C., down the Okanagan Valley and home to Keremeos. 

When we reached home our children had prepared a wonderful party for our visitors and for our friends in Keremeos who were so anxious to meet these men who had kept their comradeship alive for over fifty years.  At that time Bill, our yodelling friend, sang those wonderful Wilf Carter western cowboy songs and delighted us all once again.  He is sitting beside Charles in one of the pictures below.

Brownie, the Wireless Op, had a movie camera with him and sent us pictures.

We spent the rest of this morning watching the tape on the VCR, with a great deal of poignancy.

Amazingly four of the crew are still alive, but so many of our dear friends who were

with us that day have now left us, except when they are in the room with us,

laughing and talking on the screen, and we would wish to reach out and touch their 

dear hands and hear their voices again.

Sentimental I fear, but there you are.  We are lonely for those

familiar friends who have gone on before us.

July 10th, 2012

Texture Tuesday submission

A spring morning at Ginty's Pond.  After a while a nesting

pair of Mallards and a family of Racoons  enlivened the waters

but the resident turtles stayed under their log home.

Kim's Phoebe at Multiply 41% and

Luminous Soft Light at 46%

ABC Wednesday
July 10th, 2012

Z is the letter for this week, and we are once more through the alphabet with hundreds of

 wonderful postings to this great meme.

Z is for Zillah

Ah yes, Zillah, who drank too much gin - the last of the Gashlelycrumb Tinies, created by Edward Corey

And Zillah, Dorcas's faithful servant in Lark Rise to Candleford

Zillah, in Genesis, was one of the wives of Cain's descendant, Lamech

and the mother of Tubalcain and Naamah

I have no pictures, - you will have to use your imagination!!

However, somehow this biblical Zillah has become one with 

Zillah, a second generation Vampire from White Wolf Wiki,  (as far as I can understand)

and some of you may have read or seen this fantasy character

or played the game.

But,  Wikipedia has a picture of Zillah, a vampire from The Lost Souls,

written by Poppy Z. Brite

Just a few hundred miles from the Canada-USA border in Yakima County

I came upon pictures of the town of Zillah, named after

Zillah Oakes, who cried so pitifully when she was being moved to this town with her family

that her father promised to name the town after her, if she would just stop crying.

I read that in Wikipedia!!!

It is vineyard country, that probably at one time was full of apple orchards. and an old 

picture of the town looks very much like Keremeos in early days.

A remnant of those olden days in Zillah is an historical building.

The Teapot Dome Gas Station

It was built in the 1920's as a gas station, and a reminder of the Teapot Dome scandal, originally

located on the outskirts of town, but the building was moved into the center of Zillah

where it is now used as a Visitor's Information Centre. (Center) 

Zillah, a lovely, musical name that I was not familiar with before,

but find slipping off my tongue quite pleasantly.

For more Z's click here, with many thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt for originating this meme

and to all her Zany helpers who assist in keeping it fresh and fun.

July 8th, 2012

By cool Siloam's shady rill
how sweet the lily grows
How sweet the breath beneath the hill
of Sharon's dewy rose.

Richard Heber

It is the time of the lilies, and they are so beautiful here in the town garden, and in the

garden on the hill.

Mary Oliver writes endearingly of the Lily, - of all lilies

I have been thinking

about living

like the lilies

that blow in the fields.

They rise and fall

in the edge of the wind,

and have no shelter

from the tongues of the cattle,

and have no closets or cupboards,

and have no legs.

Still I would like to be

as wonderful

as the old idea.

But if I were a lily

I think I would wait all day

for the green face

of the hummingbird

to touch me.

What I mean is,

could I forget myself

even in those feathery fields?

When Van Gogh

preached to the poor

of course he wanted to save someone -

most of all himself.

He wasn't a lily,

and wandering through the bright fields

only gave him more ideas

it would take his life to solve.

I think I will always be lonely

in this world, where the cattle

graze like a black and white river -

where the vanishing lilies

melt, without protest, on their tongues -

where the hummingbird, whenever there is a fuss,

just rises and floats away.

And do you know,  it is the last two lines of this poem that touch me most, and

which I find quite sweetly enticing.

"where the hummingbird, whenever there is a fuss,

just rises and floats away.

illustration Amy Wolfe

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is Y


For Yellow, Yellow, Yellow

The Brightest and Happiest of Colours

For more interpretations of the letter Y visit here,

at ABC Wednesday

with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her helpers.

July 2nd, 2012

My Maiden Aunt

Hildred Evelyn Thompson  ca 1918

Bd. July 2nd, 1903

D.  Nov. 26th, 1994

My grandparents were both descendants of United Empire Loyalist who had settled

on land in Southern Ontario after the American Revolution.

Before they came West they lived in Chesterville, where this picture of

Hildred, their youngest daughter, was taken.

and here, the family  in a visit to say goodbye to her Grandfather, before 

the journey west to Calgary.

Before a half a dozen years had passed my father, leaning on the left side of the post

had been wounded at Cambrai in the First World War,

and Harriet and Edith,  my other two Aunts at the right had married

and then tragically died in the Influenza Epidemic of 1918.

When my Aunt Hildred had finished school she became a secretary, working for the

 United Grain Growers of Alberta.   She became engaged, but didn't marry when her fiance turned 

out to be a  rascal and a bounder, so that when I began spending childhood summers in Calgary

she was there, at my Grandparents' home, beloved of all her nieces and nephews.

The epitome of kindness, love, generosity and patience.

I loved her dearly.

The last gift of all is Remembrance and I hope I can pass that on to my family

so that her memory is cherished at least for another generation. 

July 1st, 2012
Canada Day

Raising the Flag!!!

Charles, ever resourceful when presented with a crisp new Canadian Flag
 and  part of a flagpole with halyard.........

No cleat or snaps or truck or fancy ornamental ball, but those are mere bagatelle, sure to be found  buried somewhere in a sixty-five year accumulation of treasures.  That would be Charles' treasures, his father's, and some of his grandfather's......

A trip to the resting place of a lot of these treasures (the garage at the house on the hill). where we found lengths of metal tubing which would extend the flagpole to its wanted heights, providing they all fit together.  We will take them all, just to make sure!

We chanced upon the grandson who now lives in our house on the hill and he very kindly offered a helping hand, much to my relief.  I am happy to be a go-fer, and even a swamper,  but sometimes the Boss gets a little terse when I fail to understand what he wants and I was not too familiar with how a flagpole gets raised, or just what he had in mind.

The fellows laid the various bits and pieces out a fitted them together so that they had quite a decent looking

pole on which to attach the Halyard, and this, I think, they poked down the support for the gate to the side garden.  I wasn't there for this part of the operation, having been sent to find snaps to attach the flag. And a metal ring which I think was meant to guide the Halyard as it raised the flag to the top of the pole.

This involved trying to find my embroidering basket where I knew I had a very small set
of metal embroidery rings.
 All in vain, but I did find a silver bangle that I felt might do the trick, and look quite elegant as well.

The bracelet, however, was dismissed disdainfully, and replaced 

with a precious dog collar that probably belonged to Charles' first Border Collie, 

a never to be surpassed sheep dog, faithful and well loved.

There was a bit of measuring and a general scurrying around, looking for snaps with which to attach the flag.

Going over to the hardware store to buy what was needed does not figure in the fun of this adventure....

Eventually the rope (Halyard) was run through the loops on the snaps and the snaps were attached to the flag. even though I had not yet sewn on the tabs which were to make this whole operation neat and tidy.

For now we did not worry about the fancy ornamental top to the flagpole, 

or the cleat to wrap the rope around.

The flag men, satisfied with the morning's work, stopped for a peanut butter sandwich and admired their handiwork.  Our grandson has the makings of a fine Redneck - when needs must the handy

rise to the occasion.....

An eagle circled the sky above us, giving final approval before it drifted off to

 the south-east and down the Valley

A breeze caught the folds of the flag and the maple leaf flew proudly over the roses and delphinium below.

Happy Canada Day and many thanks to David
 and his determined and enthusiastic grandfather....

My apologies for Bloggers random insertion of a white background in text lines.

What are those little men up to!!!!

Friday, June 29th, 2012

A drive to take the lay of the land, - and the river.

On Sunday the blue skies that had been quite gorgeous in the morning were tenuous in the afternoon, - threatened by large puffy thunderhead type clouds and a few morose fellows hanging around the tops of the mountains.

We hadn't seen what was happening with the river, but the news from the rest of British Columbia talked about lakes topping their basins and rivers escaping their banks;  creeks going mad and frothing down mountainsides and through towns, and the mighty Fraser threatening northern towns and the southern estuary.  Could we escape this great expanse of water spreading over the countryside
and into the cities and villages?   We cross the Red Bridge...

Over to the right the talus slides have a green and cream aura of growth, refreshed by spring rains.

Would you like to have that rock looming over where you live??

We turn back towards Keremeos on the far side of the river.  The water flows swiftly

but orderly, down under the Engineers Single Lane Bridge  that connects the

Rodeo Grounds and the south side ranches with town.

Charles stops at the end of the road and I step out of the SUV to catch a snapshot

of the Similkameen, with stern orders to stay well away from

the edge of the river bank..... and I do!

I point the camera up and down and across the river and note

 the island sandbars that have built up over the years, covered with poplar trees,

not completely covered by the water as they have been in other years at flood time.

We pass the big houses of the city people who have come to retire in this lovely valley,

and the working ranches.

The rock on the far left of the picture  below is Charles'  'measuring rock'

and as we cross the Engineers Bridge we remark how some years it is completely covered,

and  we wonder why this year the valley has not had a recalcitrant river

to deal with  when other parts of the province have been

so sorely tried. 

And are thankful!!