Monday Night Picnic

It was a beautiful evening tonight and Pete had the picnic ready to go as soon as I got home from work.  So we packed up and off to the beach we went!

You'll have to imagine the happy grin on Pete's
face because it was so sunny that I failed to properly capture it in this image.

A coworker was paddling by us so I flagged him down for a visit.
He is one heck of an enthusiastic SUP'er!

Paid Vacations

July 21st - Another early morning drive from Victoria to Hornby Island.
Ah, the sun and fluffy white clouds!

... watched a remote controlled sailboat race (July 22nd)

... visited friends (July 22nd),

... amongst them Anna and Ava (July 22nd),

July 24th - went hiking up Mount Geoffrey
with the visiting Alberta Snikles,

After our hike up the mountain, it was time to cool off and have some lunch.

That evening we went down to Ford Cove to watch Alex and Paul
swim in the rather cool water.

July 28 - Peter enjoys a much needed chair
massage at the Saturday Market.

Sunday July 29 - picnic at the beach. Here
Meka enjoys a roll in the warm sand.

Some of us attempted a game of frisbee in the frigid waters
of Whaling Station Bay.

Some of us enjoyed the warm sand ...

One of us happily got buried in the sand,

 and all of us enjoyed a bite to eat, al fresco!
Check out Alex's six-pack.

The next day the Alberta Snikles started on their journey home and Judith drove back to Victoria to go to earn her next paid vacation.  Frank and Mary Jane stayed home to recover from 2 weeks of visitors and Peter stayed on Hornby for more 'healing.'  Thankfully, we are all recovering nicely and looking forward to warmer weather in August.

October 15, 2011

The weather in October was pretty nice this year.  It got quite cool on many days but I was still able to ride my bicycle to work most days.  I bought fenders knowing that the rain is going to start pretty soon and I will be needing them.  One of these days, I'll actually attach them to the bike!

On Saturday the 15th, the sun was shining and it was warm outside. We knew it would be foolish NOT to take our tea to our favourite beach for one last picnic in the sun for the year.  So we made the tea and to celebrate we stopped at our favourite bakery (okay, one of them) and picked up a sweet for each of us to enjoy with tea.  Well, it was such a magnificent day, that we were obviously not the only ones with the same idea.  Not to be scared off by this, we found a different beach just a short distance away.

Fruit tart with custard

August in a nutshell - Part 8

Found these during an after work walk in Beacon Hill Park.

Another lovely evening at the beach (Clover Point).

August 27 - Peter gets his hair cut en plein air at the James Bay Saturday Market.

After a day's walkabout, we had a light dinner and watched the clips from Jack Layton's state funeral.

Dunlins racing up and down the beach scouring the sand for bugs at Willows Beach.

August in a nutshell - Part 7 August 20

After our stop at Fol Epi, Peter suggests we go for a drive out towards Sooke.  We drove and it was a beautiful day for a drive. We ended up in Port Renfrew!

Port Renfrew

Port Renfrew

We purchased picnic items and headed down to the water at French Creek Provincial Park.

Really nice and hot at the beach.

View up the coastline at French Creek Provincial Park.

We also stopped at China Beach. This is the view from part way down the trail from the parking lot.

There were some really big trees on the trails.

Another view from the trail.

A walk along the sandy beach.  The water was quite 'refreshing'.

Another view of the beach.

We finished the day back in Victoria at The Moon Brew Pub for a brew and bite to eat.

August in a nutshell - Part 6

Back to work - Peter seemed amused by Judith riding her mountain bike with a long dress and fancy sandals!

Another lovely evening picnic at Willows Beach.

Aug 20 - it's the weekend! Is there any better way to start the weekend than a stop at Fol Epi for a latte and pain au chocolate?

Thursday July 7

 We took advantage of this sunny but windy evening to walk down to the beach through our backyard, um, I mean Beacon Hill Park.  There were 11 windsurfers and 1 kite surfer out there having a ball!

Sunday July 3 2011

We knew the Sunday Farmer's Market started at 11 am so after breakfast (and lattes) we rode our singles downtown to see what we could see. I think we did very well - Salt Spring Island Cheese (soft goat cheese and their hard Montana), lots of fresh veggies, and from Camille's we bought smoked tomato salsa and antipasto. We rode home with the saddle bags full and in anticipation of a wonderful fresh vegetable juice for lunch.

Frank and Mary Jane came over after church to go for a Sunday drive about town. First, we stopped at Jazz Fest in Centennial Square for a free concert. We parked the car, pulled out the folding chairs and enjoyed some quality people watching and to soak up the sun a bit. From there we drove out towards Oak Bay, picked up some quality Fujiya sushi and headed over to Willow's Beach for a picnic on the sand. The water can be very tempting to some people ...

"Aw, don't you wanna play?"