Weather continues hot and dry. We have had 2mm of rain in 10 weeks and 30+ temperature almost every day. And we have been getting smoke from forest fires in the US and a few hundred kilometers north west of us. Worst year of fires in BC ever. Last week, we had a fire only 14km from us, which grew from nothing to 350 hectacres in about 6 hours. It is still burning a week later but is largely contained. It will be very nice to have the fall rains again. This is a view of the fire from a road about 2 kms from us.
The dry hot conditions have also discouraged me from doing much work with the bobcat as it raises clouds of fine dust. Have been working on some stairs between the patio and the garage. Moved some rock and dirt and am now almost finished the timber/cedar plank stairs – photos next month, along with photos of shop cupboards and laundry room countertops.
We spent a delightful week on Vancouver Island visiting Mizuho’s friends in Port Alberni, taking the working boat out to Bamfield and visiting the delightful Joe and Heather there (he did the maintenance on the West Coast Trail and the Broken Group Islands and she is really active in community affairs), and then on to Campbell River for hiking and seafood. Highly recommend all three, especially Bamfield. The first photo is the start of the WC Trail, and the second is a memorial to the Pacific Ocean terminus of the first undersea telecom cable and the Rix Center – a resource for the Marine Research Centre and a Music facility. Stunning. Also saw a great many majestic trees, and visited a First Nations site that archeologists believe had been first occupied 5,000 years ago. The son of the Chief gave us a tour and shared some interesting stories.
And we got and installed a swinging chair for Mizuho and a hammock for Dave so work may proceed even slower in the future.
And we had a delightful visit with Aunt Dorothy, the Queen of the Prairies.
Lastly, we celebrated Mizuho’s birthday with Susan and Steve, Pat and Coop and Aunt Dorothy, together with crab, squid and scallops, and a bottle of 2004 Dom. More updates at the end of September.
