Easter

Easter Monday began a bit flat, probably because it was a cool, grey morning and I was coming down after gorging on chocolate last night. Yesterday was warm and sunny. Mo, John and I scouted the Sugarloaf hike that I will lead on Sunday, May 12. It was a good day. Then I went to their place for a hot tub and Easter dinner. I provided the appetizer, beer and a dark chocolate bunny for each of us. Still , 'all good'. While with them, I was restrained and only ate the ears off mine, but when I got home I finished the whole thing while watching one of my shows on the PVR. 😧 I can't believe I ate the whole thing. I slept well until about 4:00am when I woke with a headache, took an aspirin and went back to bed to dream some vivid, unpleasant and now forgotten dreams. After coffee, a sensible breakfast and working in the yard for a few hours, I feel better. If Christ rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, I guess the least I can do is recover from an excess of Easter chocolate on Monday. 

No more news about the easement. My lawnmower seems to have cut its last blade of grass. I'm thinking of replacing it with a cordless whipper snipper because I have enlarged the gardens so much that I have hardly any lawn left. 

I've been thinking for ages of taking the train from Kamloops to Ottawa. A few minutes ago I made the first real moves in that direction. We'll see if I ever actually make the trip. 

Near the top of the Sugarloaf hike looking south, with Lake Okanagan below

Mo and John at the lunch spot

The dreaded chocolate bunnies

This Tuesday was sunny and warm. The Goose Lake Ramble was a success. I was nervous the night before leading it, so after deep breathing and trying all the possible adjustments of position on my narrow but usually comfortable futon, I resorted to my sleep potion, half a gravel and half an Aspirin, a short read and 😴. Once I started explaining about the Anderson Ranch to the record 45 people who turned up for the Ramble I was fine; although, I was winded by the time we climbed out of the draw. We ate lunch on a hill looking over Swan Lake and the rise where Jay and I scattered Jim's ashes last year. When all was over, four of us went to Priscilla's for a beer and a few laughs. Miriam told entertaining stories about her youth in Catholic Ireland and I went on about my easement. Just as we were drawing to a close, my cell phone rang. My initial reaction was to laugh and feel as if I'd really arrived in the 21st century. It wasn’t my stock broker calling to consult about whether to buy or sell stock, but it was the next best thing, my lawyer with news about my land deal. But what they had to say was deflating. The lawyer for the back neighbour had left them a confused message they wanted me to hear. 

So I went home, changed and walked over to the office where Trena, the legal assistant, let me listen to the message. It was in essence an unclear offer of $269.00 for one or both of the easements. Ludicrous. You could buy quite a few jars of blackberry jam with that but it wouldn't even get you a third of a Walmart shed. Ian, my lawyer, wasn't in, so we arranged that he would call me the next day at noon. I avoided another sleepless night by writing a response to the phone message that got all my ideas and scathing comments on paper before they could give me a headache. I read some of them to Ian the next day on the phone to get them further from me. We hung up after agreeing that he would compose a written response. They sent me a copy of it the next day. It was great. 🤑

A good bike ride on Thursday and working in the yard today have cleared my head.

Climbing up the draw on theGoose Lake Ramble

Hiking in Kal Park, near Rattle Snake Point

The Spartan Juniper and forsythia in the front yard welcome the spring