5C's Que Pasa

I blinked a few times this morning and used the zoom on my camera. I did not want to be mistaken, but for certain there was snow up there on top of those very tall hills 😯

Definitely snow across the lake. That white at the bottom is our lake.

Even at the front of the house, there are spots of the white stuff.

Also lots of snow on the road between here and Vancouver where Colin needs to do some aerial photography.  I really don’t feel comfortable with him driving there in these winter conditions. Fortunately the helicopter company is so busy that they could not take him up for at least three weeks 😕  So I think that it is best that the photography is postponed until the spring 🙂  I have decided  😆

We spent the better part of this long weekend working on the garden and going through the five large bins of clothing that were stored under the house.  Looks like life is repeating itself. I once was large and then was thin. Much of the stuff in the bins was too small but a good deal was just right for my current weight. I scored some winter sweaters and fleece tops. Some of the items went back into storage. But between us we are donating a good deal of winter clothing such as sweaters, hats, toques and gloves to those in need. Two less bins are not going back under the house.  I guess you could say that we are more or less ready for winter.  Probably less as I am still working on closed toe shoes.

Our Thanksgiving meal was last night.  We enjoyed a salmon fillet, Swiss chard from our garden, a baked cauliflower dish, some baked white sweet potato and cucumber and tomato from our garden. All very tasty.

Tonight we would have been enroute by air to Cairo, Egypt via Chicago and Frankfurt. Perhaps next year, one never knows.

On our special walk yesterday we sauntered down the rail trail to the creek which runs along our golf course and into our lake. We had heard that the Kokanee salmon ( land locked sockeye salmon ) were for the first time in many years ( at least 20 ) were spawning.

What a treat to witness. I have always wanted to see this and here it was happening in our own back yard.

Sadly in the circle of life, once they have laid their eggs, they die.

Have fun with this one…..

It must seem strange to my American readers and friends but this is the weekend that Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving. The official holiday is Monday but Canadians just choose any day of this three day weekend to cook their turkey.

Colin and I just treat it as another day.  Either we are late leaving for Mexico because Colin is working or we are packing the RV to head south.  Today we worked in the garden, I can’t believe how much produce we are still growing and harvesting. Right now at 7:30PM here it is now pouring and I mean pouring rain out there.   We did take a fun walk this afternoon, more on that in another post.  I am trying to cook a special meal with three new recipes.  I figure we will be eating by 9PM, about normal for us. So I am trying to make us a special Thanksgiving dinner.  Fingers crossed.

We are thankful that we have a lovely house to enjoy for the winter and we continue to do all we can to keep it warm inside. I purchased extra fuzzy warm and cosy slippers from Costco for each of us and what a treat they are.

I took some photos the other day on my walk and just wanted to share some of the colours that we are seeing.

Left in someones garden…

I was ecstatic to find this maple tree. Love the colour.

This sumac has so many colours that change every day.

Autumn is an interesting season and we are so enjoying this year – well sort of  🙄

We are keeping to ourselves at the moment. Numbers are rising. My main concern is ‘What do others consider their bubble to be? ” It was great to visit outdoors but now it is becoming too wet or too cold to do so. Who do I invite inside of my home?  There are not many that have as small of a bubble as we do. I have some wonderful friends here but they as well have special friends and when you look at this graphic it becomes clear. If everyone has different bubbles on each day of the week, I don’t think it is a good idea to invite them into my home. How are you handling this?

Colin was up early yesterday morning and took these for me.

A sunrise reflection in the west.

There are five geese in that photo but only four have been hanging around. Maybe someone had a sleepover. I suddenly realized as I am writing this, that this winter it will be dark later in the morning. I just might be lucky enough to enjoy some sunrises this winter.

And this is my sunset at the end of the day.

I really do love nature.

*****YUCK! Colin just got back from watering the garden and actually saw a rat come into our garden and walk towards the tomatoes. He gave it a big blast of water with the hose.  I am not going there again on my own 😯

Well that is what the title of tonights post would have been before Covid. Today we would have left Kelowna and crossed into the US. We would have spent tonight dry camping in Moses Lake, Washington at the Walmart. Strange to find ourselves slowly preparing to spend our first winter in a long while here at home. It will interesting to see how we keep ourselves and the house warm.

This is what we woke up to on Monday.

A little too much cloud for me but if this is as bad as it gets, I can handle it.

We had happy hour Monday afternoon with friends from St. Albert, Alberta.  Jim moved his chair closer to Colin for the photo but otherwise we were social distancing. Jim and Sharon are long time blog readers who are on their way west to Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island to spend the winter. They usually travel thru the US and once or twice have driven down to Mexico. It was a wee bit chilly but after some vino you don’t feel as cold.

As we drove back from their RV site ( we took the golf cart, I am already a whimp re the weather ) we were treated to some wonderful colour in the sky.

I was inside and had no idea that Colin had slipped out to take this photo and the following one as well.

It was the closest I could get to an Isla sunset and it made my heart very happy. Hopefully this will happen a few times over the winter.

I definitely have some emotional baggage this year.

Within the past month I had a mammogram and that went well.  However my bone density not so much. I have “reduced bone mass” but because I have had both hips replaced it is difficult to calculate the exact loss. I had osteopenia but am now somewhere beyond that. I am already taking 1500mg of calcium so that has not changed.  My doctor has upped my Vitamin D to 2000 IU per day and suggested bone building exercises. So we shall see what happens down the road. I do know that I am shrinking. I did get my veins done yet again in my right leg last week. For the first time in eight years I felt great pain and actually cried out several times. However it was an RN doing the injections, trained by my vein doctor, so that she can be free to do more complicated procedures 😯 It is all about billing more and more. The RN has only been doing this for a few months. There is no where else that I can get my veins done. Only two doctors in our city and both are booked two years ahead. I am not doing it to look pretty but it is a medical necessity.

Last Friday we put a one day permit on my car.  The Lexus has not been driven since October 25th, 2019. We have stored it with the battery disconnected and the gas tank full. Colin had one blue sky sunshine photo to take to complete a large photo shoot he had done mid September when the smoke was here and thick. I was so happy to be sitting in my vehicle and driving to Salmon Arm.  Lovely to get out of the city. There was some colour in the foliage but we were about two weeks early for any photo shots.  I just enjoyed being driven and relaxing.

Parked at Superstore in Vernon to pick up a few essentials including some wine. I have fallen in love with my car again.  I had been talking about selling it as I drove it so little. For certain I will insure it for six months come April.

Saturday Colin got up early and moved the canoe back down to the beach. He was off onto the lake about  8AM with temps of 44F/6C.  Of course he was wearing shorts and only a light jacket.

A lovely mostly clear morning with just a bit of smoke haze.

A bit later I happened to look out the window to see where he was. Can you see the canoe mid photo, a titch to the left?

He told me later that he was heading to his friend, Ray’s place, at the far end of the lake, for coffee but no one was home or they were not up yet.

Saturday for the first time ever I made a fall curry, served over basmati rice with fresh cilantro and a dollop of sour creme. So very yummy. Of course the coleslaw and our tomatoes and cucumbers helped to cool the palate.

This past week we finally got a refund for our airfare to Egypt. Once we got that we were able to apply for a refund for our travel cancellation insurance. Most welcome news.

Yesterday I made the most wonderful tuna noodle casserole. It was so good that I forgot to take a photo. This is a link to the recipe. I always read all the reviews to a new recipe and adapt accordingly.  So I ended up adding 1/2 tsp of cayenne as well as a good shake of both onion and garlic salt. I had trouble getting the milk to thicken so added more flour which worked perfectly. Instead of cooking it under the broiler I baked it at 425 for 15 minutes.  Oh, I also mixed the 1/4 cup of parmesan with some grated cheddar and a few spoonfuls of original Panko crumbs and spread it over the casserole before baking.

I found a mid calf wool sweater coat under  the bed the other day. Perfect for the fall.  It had huge shoulder pads which I was easily able to remove. Now I just have to be sure not to collapse under the weight of the coat. Soon I need to find time to start going through all those yellow bins of clothing.

Do any of you have any suggestions for keeping rodents out of our RV over the winter? The last thing we need is to find chewed wires come spring.  We had friends who had left their RV in New Mexico over the summer and come fall discovered that most of their wires had been devoured. We recently found a product called CAB’N FRESH, made in the USA.  It is a totally natural product made with plant fibers ( corn cob) plus essential oils of cedar wood, balsam fir, lavender and rosemary fragrance. Check out their website site here.  It is good for many areas including vehicles, sheds, barns, pantries, storage units and more.

Sorry for  this long post.  I think my mind is getting back into gear which means more posts.  If you don’t want to miss a blog post by myself, I suggest that you sign up to receive all of my new posts.  On the top right hand corner of my blog page, you will see this.

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Once again, I just want to explain to other bloggers that I am unable to comment on your posts, because of some illogical problem with Google. Some of you may recall that this has happened to me within the past year and lasted months. And then suddenly one day I was able to comment again. So please know that I am reading your posts but Google has taken over my freedom to comment 😈