We had a marvelous 3 weeks in Scotland – Edinburgh and Glasgow, driving around the Highlands and Isle of Skye, royal yachts and castles, distilleries and haggis, meeting up with a former colleague, and enjoying the Tattoo and several days at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Booked tickets in March for the Tattoo – it runs every night for 2 weeks each year with seating for 8,000 in a temporary grandstand and sells out every year. Stirring.
And we finished with 3 days at the Fringe Festival, managing to see 12 shows out of the 3,500 playing in 275 venues over 3 weeks. Streets are filled with festival goers, handbillers and street performers. Hope to go back to it again.
While we were away the incomparable Samina took care of the house and Taisho. They got along famously and she managed whatever arose with aplomb – power failures, potato bug infestations, irrigation issues and Taisho getting sprayed with a skunk.
Shortly after we returned a huge fire broke out on the west side of the lake, 20 years to the month after the great Kelowna fire of 2003. Over 12,000 hectares have burned and high winds carried embers to our side of the lake and started several more fires. 30,000 people were evacuated and the night sky was red with flames. 500 firefighters, planes and helicopters managed to get the blaze somewhat under control after a few days with some 200 houses destroyed. Thankfully we were far enough from the conflagration that we only had falling ashes and not embers. 7 days after it started we had a good rain, only the second in 2 months. It is still burning largely out of control 14 days after it started but is burning well into the forest and not near any houses. Several friends who had been evacuated are now back in their houses. Rain is falling as I write this.
Finished two patios with paver blocks. I will soon power wash the area in between the two to expose the granite and fill in the rest with mulch. Also built a knee wall and installed a shoji frame to provide support for the sun blind when the wind blows.
