Spectacular weather, mostly mid 20s with very little rain. Arrived back in Kelowna and came down with Covid a few days later ( I gave it to Mizuho). Several days of fever, aches and a few weeks of coughing. Had a delightful three days in Kamloops with some friends. Played two courses, one of which was old and winded through the forest while the other was a links course (Tobiano, rated #8 in Canada) that had no trees at all! On the way back stopped for supplies in Salmon Arm – De Mille’s farm market for treats, Sedo’s deli for sausage and elk, and Shuswap Pie Company for savory pies and an incredible peach pie.

Delightful three day bike camping trip with Coop in the West Kootenays – beautiful weather and scenery. Mizuho had her first bike ride in 15 years for our anniversary lunch and then our 35th anniversary dinner the following evening at Quails Gate Winery. Took a tour of the 40 acre former Tolko mill site in downtown Kelowna on the lake that will be redeveloped in the next few years.

On the home front, we had a very successful garden year, including a fine crop of potatoes we grew for the first time.

New owners of the house next door decided to build a 2nd house higher on the hill for the wife’s parents. Scraping out a road and leveling the building site has been dusty and noisy. We won’t be able to see the house but can see the road. Dug some post holes for a fence to go beside the hot tub; expanded one garden and built a new one below the house by moving/installing rocks with Bob (and with a cable and come along); re-stained most of the cedar posts and soffits – photos next month.

Hope all is well your your world

Lots of little jobs around the property. Basement and power shack doors finally painted and the stain on the cedar gates and fence refreshed. Installed drapes in the basement guest bedroom. A delightful 350km bike ride (after getting a new battery). Major service for the ATV and finished the spa deck. Some success in an auction of the Campion Boat manufacturing plant (new investors from Alberta ran a 50 year-old successful business into the ground in 3 years and are moving the moulds to Texas). Shop vac, castors, straps, 2 pressure washers and 39 of these aluminum frames to be used in some as-yet-undefined future project.

Went to Winnipeg for 5 nights – 1st time for Mizuho (who loved it) and second time for me in 40 years – while sister and B in L took care of house and Taisho. Great weather, food, museums, zoo, parks, architecture, art, history – a city of culture with an appreciation of aesthetics and far more diverse than Kelowna. Saw only one mosquito. Drove by my old abodes – dorm, apartments, houses and the housing coop, Common Ground, I lived in during University. Highly recommend a visit to Winnipeg. Airport security in Kelowna and flight changes were irksome.

We came down with covid a few days after returning and 5 days later are slowly recovering – like having a tenacious vicious cold. And Kelowna just enjoyed its hottest August ever, 3c higher than the previous record but forest fires in the province were few and far between.

July started with visits by the Snowbirds, a former work colleague (on an epic 6 week cross-Canada RV trip with family and dog) and cousin from Victoria and some lovely rain. The rest of the month has been sunny, hot and dry with last week in the high 30s and setting new records.

Garden doing well with lettuce, manche, peas, potatoes, eggplant, shiso and raspberries in abundance and garlic, carrots, edamame, peppers and cucumbers to come. Busy making jams, coulis and pies from the raspberries and local saskatoons on the property and from the neighbor’s blueberries and cherries. Great year for poppies and lavender.

Enjoyed a few days at Sun Peaks (ski/golf village owned by Nippon Cable), outdoor Shakespeare at a winery and several dinners with friends, including some excellent Italian tripe with our neighbor.

Finished splitting enough firewood for two years, cut logs and kindling to dry for a year, and spent several days cutting and removing dead branches for eventual mulching. Deck for the hot tub is progressing and will be finished in another week or so. It runs between the tub and a raw stone wall. Discovered that the 24hr circulation/filtering pump shuts down when the water temperature rises 2 degrees above the setting , which has been happening frequently this past week. They call it a hot tub for a reason.

Busy month socially with golf games, ten dinners, a visit by sister and hubby, and two concerts. Enjoyed two pick-up parties for members at two wineries – one had jazz and ceviche in a ice cream cone, while the other had sliders and bocce. Went to a fabulous exhibit at the Art Gallery (part of a personal collection by a local resident) of Warhol, Banksy, Koons, Murakami and Lichtenstein – sort of a mini MOMA. Also hired a student part time to do some research for me for a paper on democracy.

Busy month round the house as well. After replacing the corroded electrical connector for the trailer (only available from MB) and a wheel bearing, I was able to swap a friend some firewood for some surplus miscellaneous paving stones. B in Law helped drop a tree, cut up two and used his chainsaw guide to mill a 4×6 from the tree. Firewood all cut and split and stacked for next year with some newer logs cut and drying for a year. Gutters cleaned, driveway verge mowed, and branches piled up for later mulching.

Trenched from shop to hot tub site and the pavilion site to run the tech cable; changed some of the irrigation; and reran one of the downspouts to a new rain barrel. Tub arrived as promised and was wheeled in, placed, hooked and filled up in no time. Very pleased with it. Should have gotten one years ago. Still need to do some hard scaping around it, build some stairs and mini-deck and put up some towel hooks. Not sure what I will do with the tub site prepared last fall but will likely become a deck.

Weather finally turned nice and the garden exploded. These poppies self-seed and are amazing. Enjoyed dinners under the umbrella until a big wind broke it (I hope to fix it in the days ahead). It will likely be replaced with a 12 x 14 gazebo with removable screens.

Taisho had a big month. First, he shed his undercoat (a pillow case full). He discovered a marmot inside the fence in the poppies. He cornered it, attacked and within a minute was tossing it in the air. It was over very quickly for the marmot.

Back to town in good time for the spring gardening – April was rather cool and wet here. Had our first crop of asparagus and planted all sorts of veggies and flowers (and pulled tons of weeds from the non-garden areas). The cedar hot tub we ordered in October was delayed further and might be ready in August/September. So we decided to order a regular hot tub for delivery in June. This necessitated some modifications.

Concerts are back on (we had 5 in May) and saw a truly excellent performance of a commissioned piece, Macbeth, by the Kelowna Ballet. Lots of animals around – cougar sighted just down the road, two adult bears beside the pool next door, a bear and 3 cubs at another neighbor, coyote yips in the evening, a few marmots sniffling about and a turkey vulture has taken up temporary residence on our lower rock face.

Next month should see progress on the hot tub, irrigation, outdoor stairs and a few other projects. And I leave you with Taisho in full flight rounding a corner.

After a 2 year delay, we finally had our trip to Portugal – 18 days in Lisbon, Porto and driving around the countryside. Thoroughly enjoyed.

About 5 centuries past its peak but interesting country side, great roads winding through mountains and valleys, stone buildings, terraced vineyards and cork forests. People are very nice although apart from the bread and pastries, the food is mundane. Portugal is rather removed from the rest of the world and vice versa .

Finished with 5 days in London – theatre, opera, museums (our hotel was beside the British Museum), and pubs. Noticeable absence of Chinese and Russian tourists. Enjoyed a cigar lounge in each country (accompanied by port in one and scotch in the other). Everyone wore masks everywhere in Portugal, and hardly a soul in London.

A much better and more comprehensive coverage of our trip can be found at daihime.com for you Japanese readers (or those who enjoy google translate).

Happy to be back home with the blossoms blooming and everything turning green. This month I hope to make progress on our bedroom door (using another of the MEC doors) and the tea pavilion (although golf, kayaking, motorbiking and other diversions may slow progress).

More play than work this month. Three guitar concerts (Sue Foley – electric blues, and two classical guitar concerts), several dinners (including another 5 course with pairings at Quaaout Lodge) and lots of visiting friends and skiing (15 times this season) meant not much was accomplished on the house front.

Mizuho had a fall while skiing on March 15th and got a concussion. After a sled ride down the hill, an ambulance to the hospital and a CT scan, no serious injuries were found. And after a week of going slow, she has made a full recovery. Whew. I think my cooking may have accelerated her recovery.

Tea House design now finalized so next step is to source the posts, beams, decking and roof trusses. Finished a guitar hanger so the axes are in sight and near at hand and working on similar ideas for the skis and rifles.

Daily highs above zero for three weeks, then a few cold days followed by spring emerging at the end of the month. Driveway clear and dry but lots of snow still around. Skied 4 times this month and benefited hugely from 2 lessons. Nice to have a season pass and a great ski area so close. Enjoyed several concerts (great show by Bif Naked), dinners and ballet.

Got a few items crossed off the list and was able to refinish the teak dining table that we replaced with the repurposed door (table will be used in the to-be-built teahouse):

Finally sending my speakers for recycling. Bought these JBL-40s in Washington DC almost 45 years ago while in University but the foam and plastic components disintegrated due to their being in storage for over 10 years. Refurbished ones sell for $600 but I have enough projects.

Next month shall hopefully see more skiing and finalizing the designs for the teahouse and the equipment shelter.

The New Year brought more snow, warmer weather and new hope. 2021 was the driest year on record with precipitation about 1/2 of average (206mm vs 380mm) but we are off to a roaring start this year with a couple of good snowfalls and not warm enough to melt any. Had to fire up the Bobcat to clear away some snow in the parking area. And we both got our booster shots!

Although our concerts were cancelled/postponed, we had 4 dinners out with friends, including another spectacular 3 hour dinner at Quaaut Lodge near Salmon Arm.

We again made sausages with 600 smoked and Italians shared 4 ways. These are some of the smoked sausages drying in the downstairs shower and some of the Italians.

On the home front, the drawer fronts for the cabinet in the closet are done but am awaiting handles before I install them (explanation and photos next month).

And after some 30+ years, the long-suffering M finally has a dining table to replace the hand-me-down we used on and off all this time. I cut one of the doors I got from MEC shorter and narrower (7’5″ x 3′), routed out the edges and inserted walnut bands, and finished with 3 coats of polymerized linseed oil rubbed down with 0000 steel wool. Legs are from Rusty Design in Ontario. Although the top is scalloped rather than flat, it works fine so we decided to use it as is rather than flood coat it with epoxy or put on a glass top. It transforms the dining room.

And as all work and no play makes Dave a dull boy, I have a new hollow body guitar from Godin, luthiers in Quebec. Love it.

While green and 15 above at the start, December also had twice (45cm) the usual snowfall (light and fluffy) and was much colder, with 5 days of -20, and the daily highs were usually lower than the historical daily lows. Hopefully that cold will have killed off many of the pine bark beetles. We managed to get out skiing twice before Christmas – 50 minutes from our house.

The door-into-table is coming along with 2 sides done and 2 to go. Am now looking at getting a glass top rather than a flood coat of epoxy as the local shop wants $2,000 for the job. Will be talking to the glass people next week.

We now have another bench (an offcut from the MEC door being made into a table) in the entry and a coat rack. The bench will be seasonal (only needed in the winter) while the coat rack has 4 hooks that disappear when not needed.

Like everyone, 2021 was another strange year for us. Fires and floods caused great damage in the Province but mostly spared us in the valley. I finally completed the stair railings and made two light standards for the driveway (which now has a hard surface of recycled asphalt) Our travels were limited to exploring more of BC.

Next year should see a couple of more doors, some more cabinets, a tea house/Japanese ofuro, and hopefully some travel further afield.