Sunday in Vernon

Today was a grey Sunday in Vernon. It was pouring at 7:00am, so I decided not to go on the VOC hike, but the predicted day of rain did not materialize. Jay had put his quad on the truck last night in the hope of getting out on it, and so he did. I laughed as he left because he said he was going to dirt church. You can't say I didn't raise that boy righteous. I walked to the rock, one of my favourite places in Vernon.




Arrow leaf balsam root on the path up to the Black Rock today


Graffiti on a wall near the top of the Black Rock


Another


And another. I hadn't been to the rock in a while; many of the graffiti had been changed. I think these ones are very well done.


Three monkeys in The Alcazar in Seville.

Friday, April 27, 2018

On Wednesday evening May and the girls flew to Manila. They will live there for the foreseeable future, if anything about the future is ever foreseeable. As with every big change in life, this one has been preceded by a great deal of effort: trying to settle and stay in Canada, accepting the fact that it's not working for everyone, making the decision for May and the girls to return to the Philippines while Jay stays in Canada and continues working, at least for a while, and finally accomplishing the difficult tasks of paperwork and planning that will reverse all the effort that they put into emigrating to Canada. Again, Jay handled most of the planning and paperwork and May made arrangements for the girls' schooling here and in the Philippines, found a place for them in Manila and did the packing. My task was to drive the baggage to the airport while Jay drove the women in May's car. I have always bragged that a Mazda 3 has inner bigness, and it does, but this mission taxed it to the max. It was so weighted down that its usual passing pickup was severely limited. I had had a tearful farewell with the girls and May before we left the house, they had spent their last night here, so after Jay unloaded the luggage, I had a quick last hug with each and drove back to Vernon. Jay described the weighing in ceremony in the airport as a gong show. The suitcases were almost all over the 50lb. limit. May was loath to part with any of the treasures she had deftly crammed into the cases, so Jin Hee whose becoming her mom's equal in the area of taking charge started opening them, taking things out and passing them to Jay. Before they got down to acceptable weights, they had a big bag full of food items and other things deemed unwanted on the voyage by everyone but May. Jay drove back with it, once they were safely through the security check. He went to their place and worked off his complex emotions of sadness to see them go and relief that after all that he and May had been through they had actually succeeded in getting on their way. He and I are sharing our house again but this time alone. I don't know what will happen tomorrow.

Except that I will go to Saturday Tai Chi as usual in the morning and summer will come. Vernon is turning all the shades of fresh spring green. We have had two days in the high 20s.





Dinner together here on the night before May and the girls left.




The gang at the airport, looking a bit sad and stunned. The women are teary and Jay is waving at me although he's the only one who is not leaving.




A picture of a pond, a bit of town and the hills beyond that I took on a walk today.

Spring

Forsythia,
like you,
I'm brightened by
the arrival of Spring.

April 5

l'm back to life in Vernon. I've gone on the first Sunday hike of the year with the VOC and led the first Tuesday ramble to Goose Lake. Jay, May and the girls and a friend of theirs from Chicago who was visiting them with her young daughter came here for Easter dinner. They brought most of the food; I just made scalloped potatoes and speculoos cookies. Now I'm waiting for my fellow worms to arrive for the April bookclub meeting here. We will be drinking wine, eating 'appies' and talking about the book I chose, "Swing Time"by Zadie Smith. This is the Facebook, Snapchat, my-life's-perfect resumé which glosses over other elements that would flesh out the tale and make it more human but less readily digestible. So I will imagine my mother is here saying, "Spare me the details, Jan".



The Ramblers on the Anderson Ranch, one of my favourite places in the Vernon area, for the Goose Lake Ramble. It started well, but by lunch time there was a cold wind blowing so I had to find a sheltered hollow for us to huddle and eat in instead of the hilltop with the view.


A poor porcupine, windblown and threatened by the ranch owner's dog that had accompanied us on the ramble. We had to fend the dog off with hiking poles and lead him away by the collar. But the owner told me later that the dog lost most of the battles between the two so we hadn't saved the porcupine but had saved her a bit in veterinary bills.


Jay carving the end of the ham he brought to our Easter dinner


The women Jay had Easter dinner with