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.