Busy month. Trees felled last month were cut and stacked to dry as firewood and branches were chipped into mulch (and region rebated the cost of renting the chipper).

Completed the low retaining wall and lawn edging. Looks better and should make mowing easier. Retaining blocks weighed about 35kg so I only placed a couple each day. Still need to do a bit of leveling of the lawn.

Decided I did not have time to build a wood post and beam pergola so found a steel one on sale for $500. Very happy with it. Managed to work in several 9 hole golf games and a delightful bike run to/from Rock Creek near the US border. We also spent a weekend at the 34th Roots and Blues Festival in Salmon Arm – great festival and bands.

Despite a few good rains, June was warm and dry. Made progress on several projects and even completed one! Build a shed for the garbage bins beside the road so that house sitters would not need to use the ATV to take the bins down and back. Almost completed the edging and the retaining wall for the lawn – photos next month.

Lots of dinners, parties and a visit from my Saskatchewan cousin. Spent 3 days at a Christian retreat (that rents out their facilities) 2 hours from home attending a chamber music festival. About 25 advanced students (who auditioned) from around the world learned from experienced musicians (including the Gryphon Trio and Borealis Quartet) and performed a series of workshops and concerts. Meals were held in the immense dining hall. Very impressive venue and enjoyable event. M and I zip lined for the first time. Also enjoyed, with 800 others, 90 minutes of opera arias under the stars at UBCO.

Late in the month my sister and B in Law visited for several days. Another excellent dinner at O’Rourke’s Winery, lots of visiting and picking of cherries and raspberries, and we cut down about 10 trees (two over 70′ tall) and piled up all the branches. The poppies were in full bloom and then gave way to the lavender. And we had a double rainbow.

Several concerts this month -Blue Moon Marquee (excellent), OSO performing Beethoven’s 5th (fan favorite), chamber music concerts in a church and at O’Rourke’s Winery – an impressive venue with a 1,000 seat outdoor Amphitheatre overlooking the lake and a second one indoors (in case of rain) under construction, as well as an enormous cellar carved out of rock, several functions rooms and a nice restaurant. We also enjoyed four 9-hole golf games followed by breakfast or dinner in May.

Went to Vancouver, Tofino, and Victoria for a week-long celebration of my birthday. Highly recommend the Wickaninnish Inn, Long Beach and Surf Side Grill (in an RV park) in Tofino, and the Empress and Shuck Taylors (oysters) in Victoria.

On the house side, some progress on making a home for the garbage bins, on installing edgers for one side of the lawn and a short retaining wall for the other side. Should have some progress to report next month.

A very fun and productive month. Hired a great crew to wash the outside of all the upper windows while I did the lowers and the insides. Hired a professional to install a complete irrigation system – two wi-fi controllers, 11 valves and about 500′ of line. Very slick. I trenched and ran the wires but still need to cover some of the drip lines. The system should enable us to water precisely according to need without wasting any – important for those of us on a well and in a drying climate.

After painting the garage walls, I built a storage rack for some of my pipe clamps, installed another rain barrel, and finished the last planter. Mizuho worked on the garden, especially weeding. New battery for Bob (after 5 years) and extended the new road a bit and did some shaping elsewhere. Fixed (hopefully) an issue with the fridge that involved taking every thing out, dismantling an ice-encrusted cover and re-assembling. Mowed the grass three times already this month.

Enjoyed a few dinners with friends and a delightful O’Rourke’s winemaker’s dinner. Had a golf lesson and played our first game of the season. Also had time to install some more art and was finally able to utilize some candle lanterns I got in Yemen 16 years ago.

Two light snowfalls (melted the next day) and two days with historic high temperatures. Mountain snowpack is very low this year. But there is just enough snow in the mountains for skiing – managed another 5 outings this month and 12 for the season. Gave another lecture at the University and we took in 3 concerts, including the Arrogant Worms.

Completed the cabinets and countertop in the garage and painted the rear wall. Cabinets on left hold golf bags in summer, outdoor furniture cushions and ski stuff in the winter. Skis and umbrellas in the middle.

3 days skiing with friends at Sun Peaks. 3 nights at the delightful Sylvia Hotel in Vancouver – dinner and lunch with former colleagues, delightful Asian food, walks in Stanley Park with Taisho, a concert at the Orpheum and the cherry blossoms were out.

Finished the month with a weekend at the Penticton Art and Music Festival. The city embraces the arts. The Ignite the Arts Festival starts with a parade “For no Reason” of hundreds of people and continues through the weekend with some 60 events at a dozen venues. Great stuff!

Busy month but warm and dry with only one snowfall since December! 3 golf courses opened Feb 5th, closed after the snow and reopened the first week of March. Made another cabinet for the garage and doors for the first one. Made and installed a large house number sign and built another planter.

Went to several concerts, saw the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (first time in 50 years) and a comedy show, dinner at a new and very impressive winery (O’Rourke’s), and a Chinese New Years Dinner at a friends place. Was on a career guidance panel at the University and will be giving a lecture on diplomacy on March 2nd. Skied 6 times this month (2-3 hours each time) and spent a few nights at Silverstar Ski Resort in a unit overlooking the village.

Started the month with a few days of skiing, after which the snow stopped and it was above zero almost every day. At the end of January, it is snowing in the mountains but +5 and no snow on the property. Had one more ski day on the 31st.

Built a cabinet in the garage to store skis/cushions in winter and golf clubs/tools in summer. Doors should be completed soon. Made a new number sign for the driveway but haven’t decided yet how to mount it. Had the 4th bonfire this winter of twigs and small branches collected over the past two years. And we finished the month by making sausages (45 pork Italian and 75 pork/moose smokies.

Spent few delightful days at Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Alberta (which hosted the G7 Leaders Meeting in June, for the 2nd time) enjoying the food, the spa and walks with Taisho.

December saw us watching the Olympic Curling Qualifications where both Japanese teams won in front of a lot of fans from Japan and NHK TV. The women’s team was from the small town of Tokoro, on the north coast of Hokkaido, where I curled in bonspiels (outdoors and indoors) many times in the 80s and 90s.

Apart from the fire on the road below us and the chaos to the south, a very enjoyable year. On the home front, we finished making screens for the porch and a trellis, completed 3 walkways and some steps, installed some yard art, finished a cabinet in the guest bedroom, and spent a lot of time on forest management – felling and limbing trees and making huge piles of branches for mulching and burning. And spent a lot of time getting our new charity project launched.

Found time to make sausages with our neighbor again and help him harvest grapes and bottle 1,000 litres of wine from previous harvests. Lots of skiing (twice this current month), social golf and dining with friends. Graced by several visits, including by Mizuho’s mother (3rd time) and sister (2nd)!

And we had some delightful trips. Paris, southern Spain and Lyon in May; several motorbike camping trips in the summer and fall; Banff/Canmore in August; NYC, crossing the Atlantic on the QM II and some time in London in October; and Mizuho had a jam-packed 3 weeks in Tokyo in November.

On the house-front menu for next year is getting some professional irrigation work done, making 3 cabinets, tarting up the wine cellar, and installing some more yard art. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Much of November was spent cleaning up the forest by felling and limbing trees, dragging out dead branches, and making huge piles to mulch in the spring or burn in the winter. Bought a used propane heater for the porch and had a very early snowfall. Mizuho had a delightful 3 weeks in Japan and brought home some treats.

During the first half of the month we were busy with garden harvesting and maintenance, and forest management, and then vacation for the 2nd half. Friends from Niagara Falls house and dog sat while we spent a few days in NYC (plays, museums and street vibe) and a week on the Queen Mary II from NYC to Southampton (nice way to get to Europe). We then stayed at the residence of the Italian Ambassador to the UK for 5 days – he was my counterpart in Paris 20 years ago – while visiting pubs, museums and a night at the Royal Opera (The Magic Flute was excellent). The highlight was spending time with our Italian friends in their opulent residence.