The end of June

This week has been interesting to say the least. I was preparing myself for some major dental surgery that got canceled, which lead me to some stress. I found out my dogs have cushing’s disease potentially, which is a whole other thing. Been stuck at work with few customers. All in all a shitty week.

On the positive side, I spent Tuesday off work with Luke and had the most pleasant day. He was working as he does from home so I was able to relax for a bit and then jump into the projects we want to accomplish.

We found a dining set circa 1960’s for $125 and are now working in repurposing it. So far we’ve sanded and chosen the paint palette. Today we started painting but it’s so hot out that the paint is cracking. So we’ll have to sand the painted parts down again and start over. Most likely in the dusk or morning.

Canada day

Canada day is tomorrow. Luke and I haven’t seen fireworks together, so we are gonna find a beach somewhere tomorrow night and watch. We’ve been together for 5 years now so it is weird that we haven’t done any Canada day things together. When we lived in Calgary it would’ve been a trek to get downtown which is most likely the cause. However this year we live close to where the fireworks will be held so why not?

Summer is here

Summer is officially here and we are so excited to be able to spend so much time outside. The rain over the last few weeks will help with keeping the forest fires at bay this year, hopefully. We have a camping trip planned for next weekend and we are more prepared than the last time. We are totally glamming up our tent trailer. We’ve already bought the fabrics but most likely going to wait to start that project until the fall when we aren’t using it so often.

More wineries to visit and camping trips to be had, here’s to an amazing summer!

Happy long week-end Canadians.

Okanagan living

This past weekend just proved to myself that it was the right choice to move to British Columbia. Canada is amazing. We have so many different landscapes and I’ve been lucky to have seen so much of it.

We took a camping trip to Okanagan Falls this weekend. I had high hopes of seeing said falls, however they built a dam in the ’50s which made the Falls disappear. I obviously didn’t read up on that enough To know. The campground was nice and clean and the people running it very hospitable. My only qualm was the accessibility to the lake. We had the dogs with us and would’ve had to load up the truck and the dogs and the kayaks to make it onto the water which seemed like a make work project to us.

The Okanagan river ran through the campground and they did a good job of making pools with rocks near the coastlines. By building up the rocks in a wall like structure it diverted the water to slow in those areas making it a living pool that we could swim in. Pretty cool. The water was still fairly cold and the weather not quite warm enough but we still jumped in a couple times to help ourselves feel less grubby.

Wine tastings

Day two at the site we decided to check out some wineries that were very close to our campground. The first was “See ya later ranch”. Honestly some of the most breathtaking views I’ve ever seen. Mountains cascading from both sides, the lake in between and rows of vineyards to make up the rest.

This picture does not do this view justice. The blue of the lake doesn’t shine as much as it did in person. The story behind the vineyard was cool too. The owner Major Hugh Fraser bought the land in 1916 and started growing. He was an avid dog lover and often had anywhere from 5-10 dogs at any given time. Some of the wines are named after the dogs like “Nelly” and “Rover”. You can still see some of their gravestones in the property.

The house was made from Limestone which I love coming from living in Kingston Ontario for so many years. (The Kingston area is called the Limestone district). The people there were knowledgeable and nice and I would highly recommend.

Next vineyard

We went to Nighthawk vineyards next. Neither of us have ever heard of them before. Much smaller than See Ya Later Ranch but very hospitable and knowledgeable of their wines. Their Gerwurtraminer is fantastic. Probably the best I’ve ever had. They have limestone in their vineyard which apparently helps with the mineralization of their wines. It’s so yummy I may have to buy a case.

That was our weekend. We got home this morning and cleaned up and I went out and bought a bunch of veggies. We are starting on the plant paradox cleanse tomorrow. I will talk about that next post.

Just a thought or two

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve noticed there’s this fascination with cults or followings or whatever lately in the media. Between shows like “Imposters” and “Handmaids tale” there’s a plethora of storylines that have something to do with people being manipulated into joining a group or a cause sometimes with or without consent. Even shows like “Game of Thrones”, people are “chosen” or forced into lives they lead. I find it a strange fascination.

I was born into a world that was unlike many others. Being born into something, sometimes takes you longer to see your world as different because you don’t know what else is out there. For some characters in these shows they’ve decided to be “in” that life but then there’s the ones who have no choice.

I suppose every family has their own ways of doing things, traditions and whatnot. Some probably more than others. Maybe the fascination comes from viewers living lives they don’t enjoy and having someone else control it interests them. Who knows.

Even apocalyptic type shows have been super popular over the last decade. I’m a huge fan of “Walking Dead” (even though I’m behind a season or two). I think even “Mr.Robot” has an end of world premise. This fascinates me as well. What is our cultures interest in these things? For me this apocalyptic type scenario would be like a do over. Everything that has been done until now is erased and we have to start anew. Without the governments, or the military hovering.

Anyway…

I don’t know why I’m writing about this per se but it came to mind so why not. I haven’t been faithful writing my thoughts down, even though some of them might not be that interesting. I feel that even if the topic isn’t grand I need to make it a habit to write every week.

Luke the pups and I are heading out to camp for the next three days, so I’ll blog about that next week. Happy Friday!