Oh Dear

It’s been a long while since I have posted- the usual excuses; too much going on, not enough of it blog worthy!

I have been very busy at work and have been attending my Latin classes on Saturdays which eats a quarter of my weekend! The rest of my weekends have been spent doing extra work and crafting. I will try and get some photos but I am limited by the fact that I have been creating Christmas gifts!

Actually I think that work will be returning to a more reasonable pace this week and just yesterday I purchased my last Christmas present for this year (feeling a little smug- I won’t deny it!).

(Necklace and earring sets I made for my friend and SO’s sister)

There are some family birthdays in December and January that are only partially sorted giftwise, but otherwise I will be done after a couple of trips to the post office.

(A box of goodies destined for my family)

 

Actually, summer continues.

Somewhat unexpectedly we’ve had another mini heatwave!

Alleyne Lake

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend for Labour Day and we took the opportunity to rent a car and escape the city again! This was a fortuitous choice as apparently it rained in Vancouver; in Merritt, our destination, it was roasting hot.

Merritt is about 3 hours northeast of Vancouver; it’s quite a change though; looking like the back drop to an old western; it’s literally full of ranches, cowboys and country music. Sadly we arrived a little too late for the rodeo (no, really). The area is quite beautiful but very different from the usual greenness of BC.

Murray Church (1876)

We took the opportunity of being in the middle of nowhere to go for some more star-gazing; again we saw Jupiter and it’s moons and SO began to try and teach me some of the constellations. There was a full moon so it was too bright to see the milky way, but looking at the moon through the binoculars on such a clear night with so little light pollution was lovely.

This week the weather has picked up a little more each day and yesterday and today have been really quite warm; I had to pull out my cropped trousers that I had tucked away for the winter! This weekend we stayed in and relaxed; I began making my Christmas cards and SO read some physics journals (I think I have better hobbies!). This evening we pulled out the scrabble board and began a game while watching “Went the Day Well”, a British war movie from 1942; featuring a very young Thora Hird; it was so entertaining we had to give up trying to play scrabble and just watch it.

 

Last weekend of summer…

… and it was a great a one.

We took a water taxi to Bowen Island in Howe Sound, and spent two days relaxing and exploring the area. We picked a good weekend for our trip as it was the island’s annual festival, so we were entertained by a parade and games and market stalls on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and it’s obvious that the island has a great sense of community, although only 30 minutes from Vancouver it felt completely removed from city life.

We also took a short hike around a lake and past a lagoon to the second bay.

Of course we also managed to spend quite a bit of time relaxing at the gorgeous B&B with lovely Adirondack chairs in a little private garden. There were no street lights in the area and we were able to get in a bit of star-gazing. SO is a bit of an astronomy buff and was able to show me Jupiter and two of it’s moons. Possibly the best part of our little guest house was the gorgeous picnic basket dropped outside our door with warm blueberry muffins and fresh fruit each day.

The whole weekend was wonderfully relaxing and revitalising. I’m so glad we decided to try a really local “staycation” and experience this little village. None of my friends or colleagues have ever been to Bowen and I really think they have missed out, I certainly would recommend it, even if only for a day trip.

 

Oops…

…There goes July and half of August too! I’ve been pretty busy at work and we’ve had some ridiculously hot weather, which always leaves me feeling lethargic. Not that that excuses my poor posting habits- I will try and do better.

I did manage to drag myself on a few hikes recently which is quite impressive for me (I like to walk, but hiking here involves a lot of scrabbling up very steep mountain sides). The highlight for me was coming across a little snake in the path- he slithered away quite quickly so I didn’t get a photo sadly.

Other than that I have been spending money- new trainers to walk to and from work in as my old ones were falling apart, and new hiking boots; because the trainers just weren’t cutting it on the trails here.

I also managed to have some friends round for a Wii party, as per my monthly goals- I nearly postponed it as I had been so busy at work and was feeling pretty tired but I had such fun that I was glad I had gone ahead with it. Socialising reminds me of exercise in that regard; it is usually revitalising even if you feel you are too tired for it.

This week my SO and I celebrated five years together; exciting folk that we are we headed to Whole Foods (yes a supermarket) for dinner followed by a ride on the new Canada Line (a monorail type system) out to the airport and back! We are heading away for a couple of nights next weekend as out proper celebration.

This post’s picture is another from my trip home in June.

 

July’s beginnings

Canada Day was a gloriously sunny day and I begin it with a lovely walk around the bridges and downtown. After a barbeque lunch at Whole Foods we spent the afternoon reading at Queen Elizabeth park. A quick trip back to Whole Foods on the way home to pick up some delicious corn on the cobs for dinner was all we managed to achieve that day but it was lovely.

Yesterday I took another walk downtown to visit a farmers market and bought a lovely bumbleberry pie and some interesting blueberry and beef sausages; I’m not sure what they’ll be like but I’m intrigued to try them. This morning we went to the closer farmers market to get some groceries for the week.

Farmers markets are so much more expensive than the grocery store but I feel that (for the most part) it is worth it to buy local produce; today we got some peas, potatoes, raspberries and courgettes, and, most excitingly, some minced buffalo meat. I love buffalo; it has much less fat and more flavour than beef.

Other than that it has been a very lazy weekend and I have enjoyed it; I’m finally feeling ready to get back into my regular routine tomorrow; although with the lovely weather we’ve been having I won’t pretend that I wouldn’t rather have a few more days off to enjoy the sun.

QE Park

 

My June

It seems that having a guest for two weeks and then being out of the country for ten days means that a month will fly by with little warning. My monthly goals were only partly achieved but I don’t feel too bad about that.

Tomorrow is a holiday for Canada Day and I’m looking forward to spending the day with SO and then getting back into a routine for the rest of July. I’m making a to do list for the month and am going to work extra hard to stick to it. In the meantime here are some photos that sum up June for me.

 

Personal Goals

Krystal had a post last week about her 2009 goals, which got me thinking- I have a list of financial goals this year (chugging along nicely) but I hadn’t made any personal goals. I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions but I do like to set myself a few goals to aim for each year, somehow this year I completely forgot (immigration stresses I’d imagine!).

So I’ve come up with a couple for the rest of the year:

1. Start a new evening class (dance classes excluded)- last year I took, and loved, a silver-smithing class with Vancouver School Board, but it was pricey as we had to keep purchasing materials each week. Also it’s not the sort of class that allows you to continue to make use of the things you learn; unless you have access to a lot of tools. I was going to say that I would opt for a more “useful” class this time but since I’m leaning towards Latin…

2. Take at least one day-trip each month with SO – this doesn’t seem like a stretch given the recent weekends’ outings but quite often one or other of us ends up with some work to do on a weekend. I think it’s worth making the effort to fit these trips in as we always have loads of fun; bonus- we travel for free on the bus and we usually spend very little, unless we get a coffee or ice cream!

3. Host at least one social gathering each month – I already have semi-regular gatherings with some friends but I think I ought to make an effort to have people around more often. Extra challenge- they can’t all be games nights (my usual plan!)

4. Have at least one girls day each month – I have a couple of close girl friends here but we are very bad at getting together on a regular basis. These day trips are usually a little more pricey as they often involve the mall (candy store!) and a lot of eating- one of my friends always has a new restaurant to sample; but they are always a lot of fun and therefore are worth it.

5. Try at least one new savoury and one new sweet recipe each month – I used to be much better at this before my friend S moved to Japan; she was my baking buddy and we would get together, each armed with a recipe and our ingredients and make two things, then split our finished products to take home. I’d love to find another baking buddy, but there is really no excuse for me not to make things on my own- also I can feed them to my guinea pigs friends at my monthly social gatherings!

6. Go on holiday with SO - we haven’t managed more than a long weekend in the last three years so I’m hoping we can get our acts together and arrange time off and really get away for a proper break; currently we are hoping for a road trip to yellowstone park.

7. Improve my fitness levels – this one doesn’t have a measurable goal- I don’t have a target weight or anything; I’m just aware that since I had to stop one of my dance classes and walking or biking to work when I had hip issues last year, my fitness levels have dropped. I am supposed to arrange physio sessions for this so that’s probably the first thing on my list!

8. Spend at least 2 evenings each week on my hobbies – it seems strange that I need to schedule my hobbies but I find that they are the first thing I drop when I get busy with work and then I am slow to pick them back up again. First on my list is to finish the last sleeve and a half on my poor forgotten cardigan.

Wish me luck!

 

Sunny weekends

Last weekend was a beautiful three day weekend and we made good use of the weather with two day trips to West Vancouver and North Vancouver. We played a round of Pitch and Putt and then had a walk along the sea wall; this would have been a lovely afternoon but it was a little spoiled by a large kite (the kind that people use for kite-boarding) which smacked me in the back of my head. This wasn’t as funny as it sounds and actually really hurt, but there was no lasting damage!

The next day we headed to Lynn Creek for a walk around Rice Lake.

This weekend we brought the bikes out for the first time this year and headed for a trip along False Creek sea wall, stopping for a restorative ice cream at Granville Island! Today we headed to the ever lovely Queen Elizabeth Park, usually it is over run with wedding parties having photo sessions on a weekend but we only saw one group today.

(All photos from QE Park)

 

Winding down

This is a three day weekend and I am taking this opportunity to wind down and relax. Lately I have been extremely busy at work- extra long days, and 6 or 7 day weeks.

As well as all this work, I somehow managed to go through our clothes and fill 5 bin bags for the charity shop; as a reward we got some new drawer sets from Ikea and suddenly the bedroom is organised!

The real news of course is the fact that at the beginning of May we hired a car and made a little trip to the States- while I made use of the opportunity to visit Target and get some bargains at the outlet mall; the true purpose was to become Permanent Residents!

Finally; we are able to relax, no more immigration stresses; equally exciting it means that we are no longer restricted in our occupations and can even study. I’ve already been trawling the websites of the local universities to see what evening classes are on offer, I’ve missed this session’s enrollment but I’m thinking about signing up for Latin next session.

This post’s photo is Golden Ears park, we drove up there after the border trip.

 

Signs of Spring

At the risk of cursing myself with more snow, I think spring was out in force this weekend.

I bought myself a beautiful bunch of daffodils to celebrate and they certainly brighten my living room.

Today we walked down to Granville Island for lunch and sat in the sun and watched the kayakers go by, and I was reminded why I like Vancouver city and not just the rural parts of BC.