BC Cherries that is! We ate so many cherries this year and they were so good that we decided that the best way to have some on hand for the winter was to can them. Neither one of us had ever canned cherries before (this was the first time I have canned anything). A very simple process actually with the most difficult task being the pitting of the cherries. We purchased a cherry pitter for approx. $10.00 at Save On Foods however it didn’t work at all. Back to a paring knife for slicing the cherry in half around the pitt, a quick twist, half of the cherry comes clean the other half is picked out. Much quicker than a “cherry pitter”! Plop the cherries into the jars, fill with a sugar and water solution, seal and water bath in a canner. Voila! Canned BC Cherries!

Got the A ok from my brother that they are very tasty and a big OK from our friend Pierre whom I made a cherry pie for from these cherries. It’s great having time to try new things.

One of the real highlights of our summer was having our grandson Nicholas stay with us in CR. Basically Bob had a playmate! To start things off Nick’s birthday is July 6th so we bought him a new full suspension mountain bike so he could ride the trails with us. When Nick arrived on July 12th with his Mom and grandparents Brian and
Patty he was ecstatic when he saw his new bike. Actually Bob couldn’t wait for Nick to see his bike and the minute Nick walked in the front door, Bob told him to go out the back to check out his birthday present. I think Bob was just as excited as Nick!

The bike seemed to be a bit big for Nick but within a couple of hours of practice riding on the back lawn Nick had no problem at all and was ready to hit the trails. We did a lot of trail riding and street riding which wasn’t always an easy task and a few injuries happened along the way. Often Nick and Bob would go for more than one ride a day but that was too much for me. There were a few challenges riding up or down steep hills but Nick always encouraged me and congratulated me with “Way to go Baba” and I would reply “Whose your Baba!”. Baba means grandmother in Ukrainian.

Nick spent some one on one time with both of us learning new things almost every day. He baked muffins from scratch, mixed raw burger then forming patties, made cookies and was a help cleaning in the kitchen with me. He helped Bob with making beef jerky, cut the lawn, loaded and help spread manure in the garden, learned how to read a measuring tape, went fishing and tubing. He liked to get a slurpy at the end of a hot or hard day of work.

One of his most memorable fun events I believe was when he had an outdoor water fight with Bob and Melissa using water guns. There was lots of shouting and laughing going on and I was happy to be just an observer. Another fun event was going to the Saratoga Race Track and riding the go carts on a real track. A very reasonable cost $10.00 for ten rounds on the track. He went twice, once with Bob and then the next time with Aunty Melissa. The second time he was able to go a little faster as they control how fast the car can go depending on your experience. It still wasn’t as fast as he would have liked to go but hopefully next time they will speed it up a bit more for him.

Nick was always very accommodating with giving up his bedroom when more guests came for a visit. No problem moving to the den and sleeping on the sofa. Oh and he always kept his bedroom clean and made the bed every day which is something he doesn’t do at home.

Nick stayed with us for 3 weeks in July, went home for a couple of weeks then came back for another 10 days in August. It was far too quiet for us when he left and tears were shed by all. We can’t wait to have Nick come stay with us again to keep our home alive with laughter and love. Miss you Nicholas and thanks for making us so proud to have you for a grandson. :)

One of the things we spent a lot of time doing this summer was planning our front and back yard. There were a few cedars planted in the back yard along the fence when we bought the house in 2009. We decided to plant more small cedars along the fence in the summer of 2010 for privacy as we were expecting that somewhere down the road there would be houses built behind us.

While we were gone last summer a house was built on the right of us, so this year we decided to plant some cedars along the that side of the house for more privacy. Only this time we planted a type of cedars that deer do not like to eat. We purchased them late in the summer and managed to get them at a really great price. They looked a bit scraggly however with some TLC we are hoping they will come around.

In addition to trees we also planted about 10 blueberry and 6 raspberry bushes. It sounds pretty simple to just dig a hole and put the plant in the whole with some mulch and plant food. No no no...not that simple. We first planted the berry bushes along the fence where are new neighbors are and were soon alerted that this was not a good spot as the soil was far to wet. So up they came and repotted temporarily until we found a good spot for them. Out with the berry plants in with the cedars.

The blueberry and raspberry plants remained in pots until we decided where we really would like them to be. It took about a month or more before we replanted the berry bushes.

We have planted and replanted so many things in our front and back gardens that keep going back and forth. I expect that this will continue as long as we are gardening.

I have made a decision also to plant rose bushes all along the other side of our house. I bought a beautiful red climbing rose bush that we planted first and Bob built a beautiful trellis for it. Then my good friend Beverly gave me a beautiful yellow rose bush and another that I think is pink. The yellow rose bush has bloomed twice but the last one she gave me was late in the year and didn't have a chance to bloom.

Bottom line is I love flowers and gardening. Bob loves fruit/herbs/veggies and gardening.

I want to share with everyone the wonderful story of finding a friend of mine from Winnipeg. I grew up in a rough part of Winnipeg called Point Douglas. It wasn’t a large community however there were plenty of families who my older and younger siblings had grown up with. There weren’t too many kids my age that went to Argyle School that lived close by that I could play with or that my parents would allow me to play with. Except one girl named Beverly Michaluk who I met when I was 7 years old. Bev lived on one side of the school grounds and I lived on the other side. We shared so many things in common and I often remember the silly things we did to amuse ourselves and laugh at how we had so little yet had so much fun. We both came from the same type of family, working fathers, stay at home Mom and living day to day just wanting to play after school with each other. Later we hung out at The Hill with other girls and boys. As years passed we started to go our own way in high school, making new friends and hanging out with different crowds, yet we kept in touch. When I moved to BC when I was 25 years old Bev and I were still corresponding by letter (which I still have a few after 32 years) and when I went to Winnipeg for visits I would get in touch with her and we would arrange to see each other. Once we even took our daughter to Argyle School to show them where we hung out together, where we played “jump the ball, red rover, hop scotch, skipping or tag “ with our school friends.

There was a gap of I am guessing 15 years at least that we had not been in touch so one day when I was thinking of Bev and thought I would search for her on the internet. Yes I was so excited to find a web site with her name and a picture. I quickly sent her an email asking if she was Beverly Michaluk that grew up in Wpg and went to Argyle School. Yes she looked different from when we were younger and I wasn’t sure if I was just wishing it was her or if it was someone that resembled her. Within a few days I heard back from her and we hooked up on Skype where we could talk and see each other. Believe it or not she lives in Comox, BC and we had just purchased our house in Campbell River a year ago. Now 2 years later we are living in Campbell River and Bev is still in Comox. I was worried that we wouldn’t have much in common seeings how people change and interests change. No way, we have many of the same interests and we still laugh at ourselves at the things we did when we were kids. Some things never change about a person and we still enjoy spending time with one another.

Final thought about all this, “ We started our lives together and it looks like there’s a good possibility that we will end our years together” We are so lucky to have found each other.

Wow, Fall is officially here and I don't know where the heck the summer went. It flew by with so much to do and so little time to do it in. Our days are never long enough to accomplish what we would like to do. However we do like to keep busy.

First of all we had lots of guests come by once or twice during the summer which kept us both busy with entertaining. Bob took my brother Bert out a couple of times fishing for salmon which was a first for Bert catching a nice 18 lb Spring. Our daughter Melissa, her boyfriend Tyler and our grandson Nicholas experienced a fantastic show from a pod of dolphins swimming around our boat that kept us all screaming with excitement as they swam so close to the boat. Tyler took a great video which is a wonderful keep sake. We had a great visit with some friends also. Ellen and Ian from s/v Kasasa came by for a few days and we did some cycling in the Beaver Lodge forest lands and played some Sequence. Plus we managed to get away for a few days and visit with friends Wayne and Sheila s/v Way She Goes on Protection Island. We also met up with two additional friends from BCA , Grace & Robert Dodge and David & Bev Carter who we had a pot luck dinner with. Always a good time with cruising friends. Our son John and daughter in law Valerie managed to come to CR for a few days of camping before they made their move to Toronto, Ontario. We all went out one night to Saratoga Speed Way in Black Creek for a very entertaining night of stock car racing. Last but not least friends Butch and Pat from Mara, BC made an unexpected visit and we were very happy to see them. Those of you who didn't make it out but would like to come visit, the door is always open, just let us know when.

Bob continues to suffer with sciatica that doesn't seem to want to heal up. It's been 3 long months since he has been in pain however he hasn't exactly been resting. It's hard to keep Bob still when things need to be done or when he wants to do things.

Well if you haven’t ever been to Campbell River and don’t know what to expect, come on over for a visit as you may be pleasantly surprised as were my brother Bert and sister in law Josie were, when they came for a visit a week ago. They are not the first ones to be surprised by the size of Campbell River and the beauty throughout this area.
We had other friends come for a visit and then decided to sell their house and move here.

We took Bert and Josie for a few tours of CR while they were here. Their first day here of course it rained in the evening however a drive around town in the rain was not all that bad. We had lots to show them so it would take more than one outing. Later that evening out came the Sequence board,(you may recall from an earlier blog that there would be an challenge when they arrived) and so the game began, “boys vs girls”. Tie game as the girls pulled up from behind the boys suddenly were too tired to play on.

Next morning we got up early, (sham on us, our guests were up before us) and headed out to our weekly Saturday morning “garage sales”. We love finding little treasures that we don’t really need but hey it’s cute or maybe Bob needed that tool and yes we also find things that are useful and we do need like an extension ladder, work bench, etc. We had a great morning on the hunt with Bert and Josie and they too found a few treasures to haul back to New Westminster.The most fun was having some good laughs while we went from one sale to another. The people you meet are also a high light and there are so many friendly people here in CR. Later on after lunch we toured downtown and saw all the high school graduates gathered to have their pictures taken with family and friends at the park. Then it was dinner and game #2 of sequence. Girls killed the boys so bad, the boys quit as there was really no way for them to redeem themselves. Girls are the champions once again. Yeah Camelia and Josie!

Sunday morning after breakfast we headed out to the weekly market down at the pier. I have to mention that our guests were once again up before us. I think it’s because they are still working and are used to getting up early and since we are retired we tend to sleep in a little longer. The market is a fun place with many great vendors selling their ware of food, crafts, fresh produce, etc. It was a wonderful sunny day so we took a walk along the pier where Josie took pictures of a young boy who caught a cabezon. He was on his own so Josie offered to email him his picture with the fish. There were so many more things we would have liked to do while Bert and Josie were here but it was time for them to head home and hopefully next time we can do more.

Get that week for fishing booked Bert!