In Threes

I could become addicted to this baby knitting thing. The projects work up quickly. (Well, except for the baby blanket, which I would rather not talk about.) They don't require tons of yarn. (Well, except for the baby blanket, which I would rather not talk about.) And the finished item is always cute as a bug's ear. (Well, except for the baby blanket, which isn't close enough to being done to know if it's going to be cute.)

I actually finished this sweet little sweater in April, but it needed just the right buttons before I could count it as completely done.

Vancouver has a shop that carries nothing but buttons, which, not surprisingly, happens to be called Button Button. I sent the sweater with Rebekah, and her assignment was to go to this shop and find the perfect buttons.

I first heard about this button store from my daughter-in-law Diana. She was in Vancouver with some friends, and they decided to check the store out. After all, what knitter can resist the lure of a button store? Diana told me it was a great place, but while they were there the strangest thing happened. A guy came in, walked directly to a section of the store like he knew exactly what he was doing, immediately reached into one of the multitude of button containers, walked directly to the cashier, paid, and left the store.

A little while later when Diana and her friends commented to the cashier that the guy must have known what he wanted, she told them the strangest story. This guy comes into the store every day. And every day he walks over, gets a button, pays, then leaves the store. Note, I said gets a button. As in one. And if you think that is weird, wait until you hear this. It is always the same button. If it was chocolate I could understand. But a button?

In Threes, knit in Spud & Chloe Sweater, colourway Firefly.

Tuesday Roundup

I am in the middle of Something I Can Not Talk About. Which means two things. The first is that it's hard to write a blog post when you can't write about what you really want to write about. The second is that I don't have a lot of time, due to the attention being given to this project. So here's a quick roundup of the past few days, and hopefully there will be a longer post next time.

Today is election day in BC. In the interests of keeping this a politically neutral blog, all I will say is I really wish they would have included nose plugs when they mailed out the voter registration cards. Yes, the choices are all that bad.

One nice thing about having your kids grow up and move out of the house is finally, after years of having to shuffle people around every time visitors arrived, we now have a designated guest room. This would be even more awesome if it weren't for the fact that it is also my designated craft room. Which would explain why one of the first things out of my mouth when our guests arrived last week was a warning to not open the closet in their room. Because...

Here is a picture of David and Fergus taken a couple of days ago. Don't be fooled by those innocent looks.

David just walked into the kitchen with his nose in the air and asked, "What smells like hippies?" I had to confess it was me. My neighbour is starting a soap and lotion business and she had just asked me to try out a new formula. After all our years living in the Kootenays, I am afraid we will always associate the smell of patchouli with some of the more colourful inhabitants of that area. The Urban Dictionary defines patchouli as:

A pungent scented oil usually worn by those who live an alternative or bohemian lifestyle. ie:Artist, musicians hippies, bikers, punkrockers etc.

They obviously overlooked knitters in their definition. My friend's soaps are amazing, and once she has her website up and running I plan to give away a bar on my blog, so stay tuned. And I promise, no patchouli.

Last But Not Least

Wednesday was the last full day we had with our friends from across the pond. Since they had a long drive ahead of them the next day (they are going on to Jasper and Banff) we decided to stay a little closer to home. What we as Canadians think of as a short jaunt, the English consider an epic adventure, so I thought they might not appreciate spending another day driving for several hours to sightsee. And, after all, there are many beautiful places just minutes out our front door. (Those would be Canadian minutes, not English!)

Paul Lake is only about 45 minutes from our house. I love the drive out, although the winding, pot-hole filled road leaves a little bit to be desired.

The lake itself is small, but very picturesque. There is a great hike that takes you to the top of the rock peak you see in the distance, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you asked) we didn't have time to climb to the top.

We took the back road from Paul Lake through to a rural area called Pritchard. And by back road, I'm talking about dirt and gravel. It made the rough road out to Paul Lake look like an expressway by comparison. It is worth it though because it eventually leads to this view.

I'm sorry the picture is a bit hazy. There had been a small forest fire the day before, and some smoke was still hanging in the air.

Much of the area surrounding Kamloops is ranch land. We stopped to get a picture of the hanging skull, and then noticed the barbed-wire sign spelling out the name Hall. That happens to be Gill's last name, so of course we had to get a picture.

Every time I drive this road I think to myself that I really must stop and get a picture of this old one lane bridge over the South Thompson River. I've finally done it!

That's the end of the journey. Thanks for coming along with us!

Wells Gray

Tuesday we headed north on the Yellowhead Highway. This took us through the small community of Barriere. That name will forever be associated in the minds of BC residents with the fire that started there on July 30, 2003.

Fires in the summer in our province are a fact of life. Those of us who reside in fire interface zones live with this threat hanging over our heads during the fire season. To be honest, other than having a rough plan of what I would load into my vehicle should we ever be evacuated, I don't give it a lot of thought. In a way it's like when I lived in the Vancouver area. Sure, an earthquake could happen, but there was little point in going around worrying about it constantly.

I'm sure this is the way the residents of Barriere and the surrounding areas felt before the nightmare unfolded for them ten years ago. I'm also quite sure they will never feel that way again. By the time the fire had stopped burning, which took almost a month, over 3800 people had been evacuated, 26,420 hectares of forest were destroyed, and the final cost to fight the fire was just over 31 million dollars.

The cause of all this devastation? Someone threw a cigarette butt on the ground.

We stopped for lunch at a provincial campground along the North Thompson River. The sound of a woodpecker could be heard in the background, along with the river flowing by just a few metres from our picnic table.

Our final destination was Wells Gray Park. Unbelievably, neither Jay or I had ever been to the park before. All I could think as we drove through it was how stupid I have been for the last seven years. All of this was just a short two hour drive north of us? Now I almost feel like I don't want to move. This is what greeted us at our first stop.

Wells Gray has 20 waterfalls, and we were able to see three of them. This is Spahat Falls.

We all agreed Dawson Falls looks like a miniature Niagara Falls.

Helmcken is the most famous falls in the park, and it also happens to be Canada's fourth highest.

Our day ended sitting out on our back deck sipping some ice wine we picked up yesterday at the winery. A great ending to a great day!

Mission Hills

Monday we headed south to Kelowna. The road is very familiar to me, as it is the start of the long drive I take when I go to visit my mom in the States. It was very nice to be able to go at a leisurely pace and take some time to stop and enjoy the beautiful scenery on the way. Kalamalka Lake, just south of Vernon, has beautiful shades of blue-green running through it.

It is hard to see from a distance, so here's a closer look.

Kelowna is known for its orchards and vineyards. In spite of the fact we have lived here for seven years, we have never taken the time to go do one of the winery tours that are offered. This is the great thing about having visitors - it forces you to get out and see the local attractions you never quite get around to on your own.

The setting for the Mission Hills Winery is stunning. I have driven through Kelowna more times than I can count, but have never been in this section of the city. Now I understand why people say Kelowna is so beautiful.

The contrast between the temperature outside, which was a toasty 30C (86F), and the temperature down in the wine cellar was dramatic.

Of course, the best part of the tour came at the end when we got to sample some of the wine.

We each had two spoons in front of our wine glasses, one with cheese and one with chocolate. I made a trade with Jay. I got his chocolate and he had three of my four wine samples.

I'm almost embarrassed to own up to the next part of our day. We also stopped by a brewery. No tours here - we went straight for the samples. I am not a beer drinker, so I tried their cider.

It was nice, but I would rather have had chocolate.

Out and About

We have guests from England staying with us this week, so we are doing lots of local day trips. I thought you might like to "join us" as we show them around. Yesterday started right in our own neighbourhood. The first Sunday of May is the Annual Juniper Ridge Garage Sale. This garage sale is so well-known that people drive from communities over an hour away to look for bargains. Our quiet neighbourhood is transformed into a tangle of cars and people and noise, and I have to admit that I am always happy when the day comes to an end.

I found a couple of true treasures amidst the junk. This Cowichan fit John perfectly, and was a steal at just $40 for the hat and sweater. Sadly, he was not convinced. I'm sure Gill was very relieved!

I loved these native drums. A guy just up the street from us makes them, and they were works of art. Again, John was not convinced these would make good souvenirs.

In the afternoon we drove an hour east of Kamloops to the Adams River. This river is famous for its huge sockeye salmon runs in the fall. Just before we got to the trail along the river we spotted this osprey in its nest.

The hike along the river is beautiful. There were lots of wildflowers in bloom.

The sun was warm, the sky was blue, and the soothing sound of the water accompanied us the whole time we were walking.

It was fun to see our area through John and Gill's eyes. We sometimes tend to take the beauty that surrounds us for granted.

House Gremlins

Yesterday was a very strange day. From the time I got up until well after the time I went to bed weird things kept happening. It all started in the morning when I went to plug something into the electric outlet in the bathroom and nothing happened. At first I thought the little heater I was plugging in was broken, but then I noticed the charge light on my electric toothbrush wasn't on. No big deal. Jay gets back in two days and he can fix it then.

In the afternoon I had taken the dry sheets off the clothesline and was making up the beds in the guest/stash room. Fergus came up to me and bumped me with his nose, which is a rather endearing trait he has. It means he wants immediate attention. Unfortunately this time he got more than he bargained for. As soon as his nose came into contact with me he got quite a big static shock and yelped like he had been mortally wounded. Then he spent the next fifteen minutes looking at me in a way that made me feel terribly guilty.

Later in the afternoon I was sitting at the kitchen table working on something. When I got up from the table I didn't notice Jenny, who was at my feet. I stepped directly on her tail and there was a repeat performance of the earlier yelping/guilt episode, just with a different dog.

Not long after the dog tail incident the Internet quit working. Our router can be finicky, and sometimes needs to be unplugged then plugged back in again to kick start it. I followed the usual procedure with no luck. Totally ignoring Einstein's observations about insanity, I tried this repeatedly for the rest of the evening but never did manage to get the Internet up and running. Thankfully I could still connect on my iPad through the 3G network, so wasn't totally lost. Which makes me think Einstein should have come up with a witty saying about addiction.

The top award for the House Gremlins' activity goes to the final entry for the day. I was almost asleep when a piercing sound came from the hallway just outside the bedroom. It was the smoke detector. However, there was no smoke. That didn't seem to matter. It kept up its shrill noise for a good three minutes. Worse than the noise was the reaction of the dogs. (They hate the smoke detector, and when I accidentally set it off when cooking they get so scared they end up peeing on the floor.)

It stopped on its own, which was good since I had no idea how to intervene. I was almost asleep again, and, you guessed it, the alarm sounded again. The first time it happened I was scared. This time I was mad. I headed downstairs and met David, who didn't look any too happy either, coming upstairs. You see, our alarms are hard-wired in, and if one goes off they all go off. We agreed on three things.

1. There wasn't a fire.
2. We had no idea what was wrong.
3. We had no clue how to fix it.

Having come to these rather unhelpful conclusions, we both headed back to bed. There is a corollary to Einstein's observation, which is that not doing anything and expecting a different result is also crazy. The alarm went off again. The good news here is by then I was so wide awake there was no worry about my sleep being disturbed. I decided to do what we all do now when presented with a problem we can't solve. I Googled it. On my iPad using 3G because the Internet still wasn't working. It turns out I am not the only one who has had this happen.

The culprit is most likely one of two things. Dust or spiders. Well, it's not like we live in a dust-free house. We don't. But the alarms are in the ceiling. Our dust lives down at our level. Which can only mean one thing. A spider has crawled into one of the detectors. And I think I know which spider it is. The one I wrote about in this post hasn't been spotted in my car since I returned. Which means it probably made its way into our house by hiding in one of the bags I brought in from the car.

And just for the record, here's my April Self-Imposed Sock of the Month club instalment, finished on the evening of April 30.

Biscotte & Cie Felix, colourway Princese et 7 mailes