This morning I’m starting to clean the house while I wait for Marie to stop by for a farewell coffee.  I rarely really clean the house unless people are coming to stay, and Bill and the Pollocks will be living here in September.  It’s easy when you live alone to keep a place neat, but dirt builds up if given time, and this house has had lots of time.  Jay e-mailed me last night to say that he has his Visa for China and my bags are almost packed, so things are spinning as they should.  I will soon be in Mo’s car driving to the Kelowna airport and then flying to Vancouver and Incheon.  Who knows what hitches about which I can do nothing await, but I have no control over those.  I heard on the CBC news last night that support workers at the Vancouver airport are threatening to strike as soon as Friday morning.  Perhaps the new bird flew in China has taken a great leap forward from bird to human to human to human transmission.  I won’t think of these things.   Now that I’ve written them here, I see them in perspective.  As I worry such tiny bones, President Obama is preparing to speak at the Lincoln Memorial on the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech.  In spite of all the progress since, will the USA ever be free of the nightmares of lax gun laws and tight voting rights?  And that’s not all he’ll be doing today.  He has to deliberate with other Western leaders about whether, when and how to respond to the gas attack on Syrian civilians.  Was it the Syrian government that used the gas?  And I will merely tend my garden and clean my house.  I am happily neither rich nor famous.  I usually deal with the here and now and those I am close to.  That is a great luxury.  I will face with equanimity whatever awaits me on the trip, I hope.  I have been known to panic and be less than understanding when dealing with service workers, but I’m really trying to practice patience under pressure.  I certainly won’t get my shirt in a knot worrying about what might never happen.

Now it’s 8:20pm and already dark.  It’s almost September.  The house is clean and the basil trimmed.  All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds, for the moment.

The following are some pictures taken on Sunday’s hike to Jade Summit in Revelstoke National Park.  The gates to the park reminded me of the main statue at the entrance to Seoraksan National Park, where I went with Jay, May and the girls last March.  Seoraksan means ‘big, snowy mountain’ and Lord Revelstoke was a British banker who played a major role in the financing of the CPR, a slightly less glamorous image; although, I found his picture on a Google search and his girth is rather bearish.  

One of two identical pillars at the entrance to Revelstoke, BC

A natural Japanese garden on the hike up to Jade Summit

A view of Jade Lake from Jade Summit

The bear at the entrance to Seoraksan National Park in S. Korea

September's coming

Eleven more sleeps before I leave for Korea.  Jay phoned last night using a new app that allows him to call long distance using his regular minutes.  It was great to pick up the phone and hear his voice.  I can make an audio call to his cell using Skype, but his system is more direct.  It’s as if he were in Vernon, or Canada at least.  But he’s not, and I do look forward to giving and getting a hug.

My thighs are burning today.  After 2 Sundays without hiking, I went for a good one yesterday.  It’s called Vista Pass, and the vista is of the chain of peaks known as the Pinnacles.  I had done it in Aug. 2011, but didn’t remember how spectacular the views are from the lunch stop.  My thigh muscles seem to have forgotten a bit too.  I thought I’d been keeping in shape this summer but obviously I hadn’t.  There was nothing difficult, just a series of rises that stretch the lungs a little going up but are harder on the thighs on the way down.  I went to the film club’s movie this evening, and when I stood up at the end, I almost fell back into the seat.  I felt like a really old half miler because the movie was called ‘Storm Surfers,’ about two Australian ‘best mates’ who are practically 50 and are still looking for the ultimate big wave.  The workout my thighs got on Sunday’s hike isn’t a spark compared to the raging inferno their muscles survive riding the waves they do.  They were fun to watch and listen to, but I’ve never been a committed grinder like that.

I’ve been biking a few times with Mo and John to a couple of beaches in Kal Park where we swim and cool off.  It’s a wonderful way to spend a morning.  The long summer continues in Vernon; a warm breeze accompanied me as I walked home from the early show at 7:30pm.  Now at 8:00, the sun is already below the church across the street.  The day is fading.  September's coming.

Our bikes by the water at Juniper Beach on Lake Kalamalka

An apple orchard between us and Kal Lake on the ride home from the beach

One of the many views from the lunch stop on the Vista Pass hike

Peachy

It’s blazing hot, and I’m baking French bread.  I’m only partly crazy because this little house keeps cool if I follow my procedures, and this morning on the bike ride we stopped at a farm selling wonderful tomatoes.  I bought some and got them home safely in the new panniers.  Now I want to cut one up, put basil and oil on it and eat it with the fresh bread.  I’m not sure how great the latter will be because I haven’t made bread in about 15 years, and the recipe I’m using is one from The Joy of Cooking that mom gave me when I got married.  I don’t think I’ve ever used that recipe before.  I had a good one that Caroline Pollock gave me, but I couldn’t find it.  Oh well.  The bread’s in the oven now and looks a bit flat, but if it even comes close to the thought that got me started on the project, I’ll be content.  I think I can afford to eat bread and olive oil because Miriam, Jane and I biked again this morning on the route that Miriam refers to as the training run, training for what I don’t know.  None of us is going on the bike camp this year.  It’s a short (19km) ride, but really hilly.  Some of the hills are the kind I like, short and steep, preceded by a bit of a downhill run, but others are long, low grinders that kill me.  What you are comes out in everything you do.  I’m gung ho for short spurts and usually lead Jane, but she never quits and grinds up the long low grades without breaking a sweat.  I can usually maintain the lead but I’m always dripping wet.  We’re the hare and the tortoise while Miriam who was a better athlete than either of us before she got Parkinson’s keeps up a good pace and pops on the motor if she has to.      

 I’m going to have to water the cedars, etc really well this evening because I haven’t watered in about 5 days.  Thunderstorms have been predicted but never materialized.  I’ve never had to pay more than the minimum water rate but in the next bill I’m sure I’ll be well over that.  I’m experiencing the true, hot, dry Okanagan summer this year.  Yesterday just walking home from the library (5 min.) I felt the sun was going to sear my back through my blouse.  On the up side, I’ve never eaten so many and such sweet juicy peaches in my life as I have in the last few weeks.  I was even moved to freeze some.  And today after our ride when we were having coffee and muffins at Marian’s, her husband brought us a bowl of huge, sweet mulberries.  I’d never had them before; they’re delicious, much better than any black berries I’ve eaten; although, they resemble them.  He even gave Jane and me each a goji berry.  I can’t rave about them, but the fact that he even has some testifies to his determination to grow things that are not usually grown in the Okanagan. 

I volunteered, along with Bill and Miriam, at the Mile High wine tasting event at Silver Star last Saturday.  The work wasn’t onerous, even the ‘spittoons’ that we had to empty were not really disgusting.  However, Bill was disappointed because last time they had been allowed to taste as they worked but this time the liquor laws were strictly enforced and we weren’t.  We did each get a bottle of Okanagan wine and a glass at the end.  I went back to their place for a dinner and tasting.  Miriam and I had each received white wines, so we chilled them in the freezer and sipped them after the meal.  They were both very good, but mine was especially fine.  It was a blended white called Harmony White from a small organic winery, Kalala Winery, in West Kelowna.  The owners are from India and the name Kalala is from her home region and means, miracle place.  Bill had read good things about their wine, and we were all happy to try it.

I don't know what this wine is like, but it reminded me of Mara Pollock because of its presentation in a high heel.  She loves shoes.  The winery is called Dirty Laundry and this white is named Secret Affair.

This is the raunchy rock and blues band that added to the atmosphere of the Mile High wine tasting evening.

Dry

It’s been a quiet and dry BC long weekend.  I could have used a bit more action and a lot more liquid, water for the cedars and liquor for me.  I’m only joking about the liquor; although, I haven’t had much to drink in the last few weeks because I’ve had a mild case of vertigo and a few headaches, both of which seem to be less evident if I don’t drink alcohol.  But I have had the odd drink, mostly gin and tonic, and it really doesn’t seem to make much difference.  I’ve heard of a few other people with similar symptoms, one with much more serious vertigo; Mo says it might be a virus.  Viruses seem to be on the rise, or perhaps not.  I don’t follow medical trends too closely.  I did hear the other day that recent tests have shown that the strength of many antibiotics is being enhanced by the addition of minute amounts of silver, but that has nothing to do with viruses.  That’s the medical section of this blog. 

The cedars really could use more water.  Vernon has just experienced its driest July on record, and I was here for most of it.  Campfires were banned this long weekend, and people are talking a lot about the devastating fires of 2003.  I’ve been watering the cedars and some new plum and hazelnut trees that I bought this year, as well as the Ben Conan black current plants that Miriam’s husband gave me.  Some dark clouds have passed over town this weekend, but only a few drops have fallen from them, so I will water again this evening.

Jay and May are happily settled in their new apartment, not without a great deal of planning and one big, unexpected hitch.  But as long as a shock isn’t killing, it’s stimulating and being galvanized into action can make you bright, which was the case with them.  They solved the problem with some quick action and the help of friends.  My problem with the reluctant flusher was solved by Kirsten on Wednesday.

On Friday, I went to Marlin Travel with all my visa application material.  They will send it to the Chinese Embassy in Vancouver, and I should have the visa sometime next week.  I’ve almost finished Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler.  I got it in Victoria at Russell Books, a store Barbara recommended.  It’s a well-written fusion of his knowledge of Chinese history and experience as a freelance writer there between 1999 and 2005.  When I told Miriam about it, she gave me a set of dvds in the ‘Great Courses’ series that she and her husband bought.  This one is called, ‘From Yao to Mao: 5,000 Years of Chinese History.’  She told me that Professor Kenneth J. Hammond who presents the series is knowledgeable and that his changing ties provide a little visual interest.  He wears the same blue shirt and khaki pants all the time but changes ties for each lecture.  I have now watched 2 ties.  I hadn’t watched any dvds since I moved in so had to phone a Shaw service agent to help me switch the system before I could begin.  At least I will have  learned how to do that even if I remember little else. When you live alone, you have a lot of time alone, but my friends are certainly helping me fill it.  The problem is that my brain doesn’t have as much space as I have time; it can’t retain everything.  At least wonderful ideas are washing over it and that’s enjoyable to experience whether or not anything is being stored.

I don't have any photos this week, so I had to use a shot from the archives.