Merry Christmas from the West ( Wet) Coast

It has been incredibly wet and rainy here. I'm not sure if it is wetter than normal or if one wet winter blends into another wet winter.  Since I haven't left the house for three weeks I am certainly not the best judge of the weather anyway.

I am still trying to figure out the bet way to upload pictures and post to my blog from my iPad. I am still finding the most comfortable spot for me is in the bed with my foot elevated higher than my heart.  Within a few minutes of my foot being down my toes turn the same shade of purple as my cast and then the more they are down the more tingling and burning I suffer by the end of the day.

This is a picture of Jenny on a walk to Whyte lake in West Vancouver. My neighbour and walking partner took Jenny and her dog Django for a walk last week and took photos all along the way and sent me the Picasa photo album so I could enjoy the walk as they did.  That was such a wonderful thing for her to do. I go through the album often and I think every time I view it I cry.  But I know that this will end and I will be back!

A couple of pictures of Hunter and Phoenix

I am on my laptop - trying out the Picasa Blog This - which I used to use to post all the time - so I will see how it is working.  I have my laptop upstairs now and I have moved to the reclining chair in the living room - sort of -- I still get a lot of swelling in my foot and my cast is quite snug and I don't have a lot of room for swelling so my foot really needs to be elevated most of the time. 

These a couple of pictures of Hunter and Phoenix that were taken this fall at a farm close to where they live. 

Hunter is doing great.  He is so sharp - he just doesn't miss a thing!  He turned 4 years old last April.  He just had tubes put in his ears the beginning of December.  He is just a sweetie and Jessica says he is really growing up.   He wears the glasses to correct a bit of cross eye - and he used to just pull them off and throw them as far as his little arms could throw.  He has lost a pair or two.  When I was there in July we were running around a park in Jessica's neighbourhood and she said -- Where are Hunter's glasses?  I panicked and spent 20 minutes searching the ground where we were playing - and then decided to look a little higher - and there they were dangling from an inside branch on a bush - thank heavens I found them!!  But now he is keeping them on more often than not.

 

Phoenix is such a cutie - and she looks a lot like her mother!  And she is chatting up a storm!  She is a very determined little girl - much like her mother - and her brother.  She just turned 3 in November.  Her and Hunter will only be one school year apart.  I think it is so wonderful they are so close in age. 



This is a small quilt - I can't remember the exact size - 24inchs by 20 inches or so.  There was a challenge in my quilt guild - "In the Gloaming"  We were given two fat quarters of fabric - the black batik and the blue batik.  

" A Wound with a View"

 

This was a challenge for me.  I used a photo ( the photo below) that I had taken with a photo app on my phone.  The photo was taken from our deck one evening - as I had been on the deck with my broken ankle most of the summer - 2011.  Hence the name. 

I used all of the batik fabric as one piece for the to foreground and then the blue fabric plus a lighter blue fabric for the sky.  I had to make a line drawing of the photo and then enlarge it in sections and then I traced it on to fusible Steam a Seam.  I did a bit of thread painting for the moon and then used my friend Dianne's Shiva Paint sticks to blend the blue sky and add a bit of glow to the orange sunset.  I think if I did it again I would change a few things in the sky and the sunset but otherwise I was pleased with the result - and I won a ribbon for the challenge!  Yay!  

 

I am going to try to do a bit more blogging - as I don't really have much as to do! 

The Lion Finally Sleeps Tonight

So now I am testing the blogger app for my phone - which apparently doesn't work on the iPad.

Today is Jim's birthday. He is 56 today. And today is my parents 56 th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary mum and dad!!!
Poor Jim is stuck spending his birthday with me - in my state. I can't even go out and buy him a card. :((. He says its alright but...... Anyway there is nothing I can do about it. He has invited a friend over for a Ploughmans lunch and a pint of his home made English bitter. He has been saving a nice piece of Stilton just for today.

He has been working very hard at all the various household tasks. He took the first two weeks of my recovery off work as I was basically on bed rest. Although I found it didn't hurt as much as Holly had exclaimed! Thank goodness for that. Holly - the orthopedic surgeon's receptionist had scared the stuffing out of me. Although it did hurt a lot and now my big toe is numb and tingly.

I am going to try to post a couple of quilt photos. The quilt is "The Lion Finally Sleeps Tonight". It is a quilt I made for Eric. I upload the pictures from my phone but I can't see where they have gone. So I am not sure what will happen when I publish this post.

My Left foot is --- purple

It's been a bit of a time of it!  Well mostly I haven't posted because I have been mainly working off my iPad and most of my photos are on my computer. So that's my excuse.

I am trying out posting from blogger on the iPad. This will be a bit of a test.

After returning from our latest boating adventure I had a big surgery on my left foot.

I had  -  are you ready for it-----
1. Arthroscopy and micro fracture of the ankle joint
2. Triple arthrodesis
3.  Calcaneal osteotomy
4. Bone graft
5. Gastrocnemius slide.

I was in plaster cast for two weeks and yesterday it was removed and all the various staples and sutures were removed and I got this nice purple cast - kind of matches the colour of my purple toes. I am doing quite well - all things considered. Although it has required a fair amount of medication to maintain my wellness.

I have been quilting. And if I like the way this blog post turns out I may try posting again. I am on crutches ( again) for the next 6-8 weeks. Depends on how long it takes for these poor bones to heal.

So we will see what happens when I press publish.....

Orca's

We had another fun trip up to Desolation Sound in September. Saw a small pod of Orca's around the Copeland Islands

Prideaux Haven is now a new favorite place.

I am trying out a new blog app for my phone - so thus is a test.

Jim is not an Orca!  I can't quite figure out the photo upload in this app -- Jim and I went swimming in Prideaux Haven.

A bit of a Video–taken by a bit of an amateur !!!!

Not a great video but it shows a bit of our adventure!

Up Toba Inlet and back to Prideaux Haven

 

Toba Inlet is a very pretty little inlet just north of West Redonda Island.  We had quite the grey and overcast start to the morning but it got much brighter in the afternoon. 

 

 

Jim got to  have a little break from the steering as I took the wheel for awhile. There is a LOT of water up there and it is very – VERY deep and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t hit anything – and I was right!

We didn’t travel too far up Toba Inlet before we turned around and went back down Homfray Channel – which is on the west side of West Redonda Island.  Our plan was to just go up Toba Inlet as far as we wanted – there isn’t really anywhere to anchor at the end of the Inlet.  We were off to spend another night at Prideaux Haven – we were going to try to anchor in Melanie Cove. 

We saw some pictographs on the rock walls in Homfray Channel.

 

The sun came out and the water was flat calm in Homfray Channel.   Such a beautiful day!

 

 

Approaching Prideaux Haven – a much different day than the first day we went there in the drizzling rain and fog.

 

We did not get to go into Melanie Cove – it was full of sailboats – so we ended up in the same spot as the previous day.

Once we were set up and anchored Jim decided we needed to take the little dingy out for a spin about.

 

I didn’t take the camera with me in the dingy – not sure if it was sea-worthy – and I’m still not sure!  It required frequently bailing!! It even came with a little plastic bailing jug!  But we went around the shoreline and looked at all the oyster beds. 

 

 

Back on the boat – plotting tomorrow’s route.

And the end to another day of our adventure ---as the evening sun is casting long shadows and reflections in the water. 

Prideaux Haven to Toba Inlet

Even though the weather was drizzly and grey we had a nice evening at Prideaux Haven. Here is a picture of me on the boat in the afternoon of Tuesday June 12th. I think I wore this sweater most of the time on the boat!




The next morning was much bright and we hauled up the anchor and headed north - up the Waddington Channel which is between West Redonda Island and East Redonda island. We ( Jim ) did most of the steering of the boat from the flybridge. There was a much better all around view from up there and most of the time the weather was nice enough to be up top and the binimi kept us fairly dry when it was raining.
We took a little side trip up Pendrell Sound.




This is the screen shot of the chart and the route we took on Wednesday.
After motoring up Pendrell sound we went Back to Waddington Channel and continued north towards the Wildernest Resort where we had planned to spend the night.
Walsh Cove - a little anchorage in Waddington Channel




A boat stern tied and anchored in Walsh Cove.




That was a very pretty little spot to anchor. It looked like they had been there for a while. There were some pictographs on the rocks in Walsh Cove so we went in for a closer look.
Coming out the gap between West and East Redonda islands.




Wildernest Resort is a small little spot that sits on the mainland just where Pryce Channel - Homfray Channel and Toba Inlet meet.




We were able to dock the boat - successfully!! And get off and go for a little walk. It was a lovely little spot with a beautiful waterfall that the owner had used to build his own little hydro plant.




It was almost hot and the sweater came off. The owner - Kyle and Jim and I were the only people there.




Walking up to the waterfall








Such a beautiful spot to spend the night.




And we had a visitor as we were cooking prawns for dinner on the boat.



We think it is a River Otter.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Desolation Sound

It has been a very busy and eventful spring. I am still having a problem with my ankle - but that is a long story.

Jim and I have been taking some boating courses. We took the Canadian Power Squadron course in the fall and then in May we went to Boating University at Trawlerfest in Anacortes in Washington. I took a two day "Women and Boating" course from Captain Carol Cuddyer. Great course!! Carol was very encouraging and knowledgeable.

So ---- on June 10th we dipped our toes in the ocean ( so to speak ) and we rented a boat out of Comox B.C. and headed off to Desolation Sound.







The boat was a 40 foot boat called a Grand Mariner. We spent a few hours on Sunday getting orientated to the boat. I was lucky enough to snag the anchor on a cable on my very first time dropping the anchor. Luckily we were still in the harbour and help was close by. That was a bit of a concern but after that I figured it would only go up from there.



The first day - Monday - we motored off across the Straight of Georgia. It was a little scary at first but we were able to put all of our new found knowledge to use and realized we really could do this. Even though I had never EVER done anything like this in my life! Jim has spent a lot of time on fishing boat - although not in the captain's chair.

After we made it safely across the Comox Bar and the Straight of Georgia we spent our first night in Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island.





We anchored in the very calm and pretty little cove. The day was overcast and grey but not raining. We were able to drop the anchor and pull the anchor for the rest of the trip without incident. It is amazing to me that the anchor can hold the boat in a very confined area without having the boat float away. I would frequent check that we didn't move. Even during the night I would wake up and try to check our position. The first night after we got back home I would wake up and look out the sliding glass door and see the flashing light that marks a rock on Bowen Island and think " okay - good - the boat hasn't moved".

The following day - Tuesday - was a drizzly, wet and grey day. We decided to not do a long day of site seeing and motoring as the clouds were so low the visibility was very poor. We headed out late morning and went directly from Squirrel Cove to Prideaux Haven. A very popular and pretty anchorage.





This is a picture from the boat anchored in Prideaux Haven - looking out towards Melanie Cove. We were hoping to anchor in Melanie Cove but there were about 8 boats - mostly sailboats - already anchored there. We did about four loops around Prideaux Haven before we settled on a spot. I'm sure we provide a little afternoon entertainment for the rest of the inhabitants!

We had a very nice evening on the boat. We were beginning to get more comfortable. We used the little deck BBQ in the rain to cook up some Lamb sausage ( won't take lamb sausage again - very hard on the BBQ and Jim had to work hard to get all the lamb grease off it.).

I am going to end here and pick up on day three from the computer where I have most of the pictures. I needed a few pictures that I took with the IPhone.

Pam.


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Snowy Owl

I was a Guide leader when Jessica was in Girl Guildes and my name was Snowy Owl!


There has been a large number of Snowy Owls spending the winter in the Ladner B.C area so today we took a drive out there to see them. It was wonderful to see them! We saw about 12-15. We heard that last weekend there were 30-40 out there.



We got a few great pictures.  They were just sitting along the drift wood along the beach.  We think this is a female as she has a bit more grey/brown on her and the males are mostly white.  Isn't she beautiful - and they are quite large birds.  We also saw a couple of other brown owls - I think they were called Short eared owls.




This eagle was sitting on this pole when we got there - and was still on the pole when we were leaving.  I think she was finding all the activity quite entertaining!


There were hundreds of people out there!  It was amazing.  When Jim suggested we go out there - I thought it would be a lovely little walk along the dyke to see the owls - just the two of us!  Oh the people - and their cameras!  Oh my goodness.  Most of the people there had cameras with lenses the size of a small car!!  Good heavens.  Look at all the cars!!



Jim brought the spotting scope - which was nice to have.  The binoculars were good but you could get an even better look through the spotting scope.  Quite a few people stopped as we were looking and we let them look through the spotting scope as well. 




And here is a quick quilt picture.  I have finished it completely now and it is for the neighbours who had a baby girl (Charlie) in November.  Jim keeps telling them -- Pam has something for you!!  I had decided to do a little stitchery of a bird for the label - so typical me - I am slow!  I hope to get the label finished and sewn on this weekend.  I have never really done any embroidery - maybe one item as a young child.  So I decided to jump on the bandwagon - because I need another "something" to shop for!!

Last weekend we were at the boat show in Seattle.  That is a blog post in itself!  But those photos are on another camera.