Graduation time

It's a quiet Canada Day in Vernon.  I got up early and did some things in the yard then came inside to look at the celebrations on Parliament Hill on CBC.  The hyped up sound and spectacle of it took the wind out of my sails so I turned the tv off.  Jay was out doing something and passed Polson Park where the festivities are held here.  He pronounced them to be "lame", just face painting and stuff for young kids.  I spent a lot of the day there the first year I was in Vernon and had a good time, but I think I would share his assessment this year.  It's cloudy with a light rain falling, a good day to stay inside.  Next year I will muster more enthusiasm for the 150th.  This year the family has concentrated on adapting to life in a new place and done remarkably well,  next year we will be ready to join the public party.

Last week was devoted to graduations.  Jin Hee graduated from grade 7 and will start high school next year.  Min Hee went to her boyfriend Tobie's festivities.  The getting of her dress took three days of searching in Vernon and Kelowna and one day for alterations.  The total cost was more than I have ever paid for a single piece of clothing, but I also have never looked as stunning as she did.  Clothes don't make the person but they certainly can make them look good.  The difficulty of finding a dress was compounded by the fact that Min is really tiny and her dress had to be the same colour as Tobie's suit, navy blue.  Nobody else seemed as puzzled as I was by this odd dress code, so I didn't bother to ask any questions but it seemed to me that it would limit the possibilities for variety of colour, unless some of the boys wore suits the same colour as their girlfriends' dresses.  

I'm back to hiking and biking, neither as strenuously as when I first came to Vernon, but I now have friends to go with so I don't always have to keep up with the VOC. I picked raspberries and cherries with Miriam yesterday.  It was the end of the former, so they were a bit soft but great for jam, which I turned them into.  The cherries are the best that I have ever eaten.   

Min Hee just before the grad.

Jay, Jin Hee and May ready to leave for the graduation ceremony at Harwood School

Me on a rock on the Rose Swanson hike.  Lake Okanagan is in the distance.