Author: Contessa Jewall

Rare opportunity to live on the lake with Panoramic view – Lake waterfront and mountains! 319, 415 Commonwealth Road Kelowna BC (Holiday Park Resort), Winner of 4 Thompson Okanagan Housing Awards. This custom built home (2012) has all possible luxury features you can dream of: 9ft vaulted ceiling, porcelain tiles, cherrywood cabinets (with soft close) and finishes throughout, lux laminate flooring, 42 inch Malm Gas Carousel Fireplace, Backsplash, Silestone Quartz counters, skylight in few locations and much much more! One level living is perfect fit for elderly owners. As per Systems in the house: Watersoft B.C. Econominder Water softener, Counter top faucet, U.V. Reverse Osmosis drinking water. One of the largest lot in the park offers Private Landscaped property with stone lakefront patio, unobstructed lake and mountain views facing south best exposure you can get. Fully fenced for your pets safety. Lawn and flower pot irrigation/sprinklers. 2 spacious parking for cars and your golf cart. Shed for your tools. Lease term to 2046. Annual maintenance fee for 2025 is $5188 including water, sewer, all park amenities with year round activities! NO Property Transfer Tax! Any Rental allowed (with park approval)! Golf courses, award winning wineries, world class ski hills (Big White and Silver Star). Resort offers 2 outdoor swimming pools, one inside pool, tennis & pickle ball, gym, hot tubs, billiards, 6 hole Par 3 Golf Course! What better lifestyle can you get? (38251752)

Today, February 15th is National Flag day in Canada. My post is about Stuart Sutton who lives in Holiday Park and had an idea to create a HUGE Canadian flag on the ice of Ellison Lake, the lake where our home is situated.

On February 13th he recruited some other residents in Holiday Park to help him lay out a one acre area to recreate the Canadian flag. They then proceeded to create it in just under 4 hours by a great deal of snow shoveling, a perfect likeness in perfect portion to our Canadian flag. The decision was made, due to environmental concerns to not paint the red into our flag. Instead the image was created with totally scraped ice along with snow on the ice to create the image.

This is Stu’s link on You Tube as to the process.

Our lake is directly on the approach to the Kelowna airport used by dozens of Westjet flights from all over Canada. We even have a flight attendant living in the park who supplied a few photos. Westjet was contacted and they replied that it would be a pleasure for them to have their pilots fly over and point out the flag created on our lake to the guests on board as they flew over.

Next thing we knew all the local media were on board and coming to take photos. Plus both CBC TV news and CTV news sent crews out to do videos today, the official flag day. Stuart took this flag day event to an entire different level by having over 100 Holiday Park residents come out onto the ice dressed in red ( if they could ) and carrying flags to wave at 1:00PM PST today. The TV cameras were rolling.

Sadly because we are directly in the flight path there is no drone photo.

So here I am on the Isla in Mexico shedding tears as I listened ( video below ) to the group sing our National anthem while on the ice as the jets flew over and the media recorded it all. What a great community Holiday Park is.

And in the middle of it all was my very special realtor being a part of it all. Her video of the event….

What a great day for the National Flag day in Canada, for Holiday Park and for my wonderful realtor Irina Mierzewski with Royal Lepage Kelowna who showed our home several times today.

 

We are so fortunate to have chocolate doxies in our lives.

Today we are celebrating by listing our home in Canada.

Finally the weather is ever so slowly warming up. I walked the beach ( second walk this week ) to Letty’s this morning and back. My back was sore with every step but I did do it. Sat for a bit at the computer doing some online research for a new project for the RV.  Trying to figure out if my back issue is the computer and chair I am using. So I added an outdoor patio cushion for height and another cushion for my back. Seems we always have something on the go. After a lovely shower I sat in a sheltered corner of my garden with my back to the sun and nursed a glass of wine. Of course I fell asleep and had the loveliest wee nap. As I recall I was composing a blog in my mind. Can’t remember the details 😎

Hmm I just downloaded some photos from my iPhone so now I have about 90 photos to share…..I guess I will get to them when I do. They all have a story attached to them.

 

Colin prefers not to use lists. Last week while in Centro he did purchase two plant pots for me. However they were 2 -3 times larger than what I needed. The very next day, Katia was offering up some papaya trees that she had grown from seeds 😀 She even delivered them but the the roots were bare and dry. We put them into water immediately and the next Colin carefully planted them in the large pots. Now we had papaya  trees that would grow for years.

The next day Colin had to go get fuel near the airport and I asked him to go a bit further and to pick up a new bougainvillea for me from the vivero on Hwy 15. He also came back with two new papaya tree seedlings.

So on his last visit to Centro, a few days ago, despite passing the maceta store ( he said he even glanced inside as he walked past ) he neglected to actually go in the store to pick up the two smaller plant pots that I had requested – because it was not on a list! Oh well, one day I will get that project completed.

Dang, today my computer changed over to Espagnol – so everything you see on your computer is now on Spanish for me. Happens every year and impossible to change back. Just makes my mind work harder 😳

 

It was another great day in paradise.

 

 

 

Sound up por favor….

Two bands at the same time, one on the beach and the other on the boat.

Oh and a banana boat as well….

It was a great day today, despite the cooler weather.  I had a wonderful afternoon reading my book. I even forgot to go to to El Velero to listen to Los Cryps. Definitely a relaxing few hours 😎

This post was started on January 12th….

No matter how much you plan your day for tomorrow, it will change! So now I just get up when I do ( was about 9ish earlier in the week but today it was 10:30 ). Somedays we have one or two people drop by, other days more and on some days no one.  So enjoying our few but very special visits. I am learning to go with the flow. We have had the opportunity to be active but we both have chosen to live quieter.  Heck, Colin even had a nap today, I was just waking up from mine when I found him asleep on the bed. Nice to see. We have slowed the pace of our day to day. However he is finding time to play his guitar which means all the world to him and I am happy to have him playing again.  Today he played, napped and then played again. Just as it should be.

We are saddened by the fires in the LA area and as well we have a handful of close friends directly affected. I got your messages Julie, sorry we are not there to help you directly. Hopefully you will have electricity soon. Another friend’s home is only 2 miles for the encroaching fire 😥

We have had a cold front come through. Love burrowing under our duvet ( with the twins of course ) with the open window at night. woke up to 57F yesterday and today. Two nights a go we had major rain – we both slept thru it – the road still has puddles. This RV is quite sound proof. Back to sunshine but with cooler temps for the next week.

Back in January of 2020, Tom and Mandy started having Monday afternoons at our place at Tres Amigos RV Park as a fun day at the beach for the various musicians. The first one was just a few weeks after my knee surgery. Below Colin is jamming with Benito ( aka Santana ), Eugene and on the right Rick.

Click here for a link to a post I did January 23rd 2020. I totally recall how hot it was that January, we all needed to sit in the shade. In that post you will also see James Anderson who just played here last week. I blogged about each event at our RV. Here is the link to another great afternoon with photos of Mitch Woods who will be playing here in March during Carnaval. Back in those days the performances were at La Bohemia in the Plazuela Machado. Everything changed in early March of 2020 when Covid came into all of our lives. Sadly La Bohemia closed down to lack of business and now is a fast food restaurant.

So we have been busy – well actually Colin more so, immersed back in the world of music. Colin is now also filming each event for Tom. I have only been to the one event, just next door to see Eugene. I just could not miss seeing him again.

Continued today, January 19th…..

Poco a poco. I wish there were more hours in each day. Still cool at 62F today. No matter we still love being here and for certain the sun and heat will return.  The girls are dealing with the best they can with the constant feral cat appearances.  Bark and bark and bark, I guess it’s their job.

So many changes in our world on a daily basis. Not all so good. Best to live each day to the fullest. Special thanks to Cindy and Sonny who have been dealing with a constant blaring smoke alarm. The new batteries and reset did not help so they will replace the unit for us. Meanwhile we are working on find the right realtor to sell our home. Hope to get this sorted out and listed in few weeks. I don’t know if this is true but I have heard that we actually have to go back to sign the papers despite so many legal things being signed online. Maybe I will fly someone here to deliver the papers to us 😎

Lots of tuna activity. The helicopters are spotting them and flying personal back and forth constantly. The boats are leaving and returning full of tuna 24 hours per day.  So nice for the economy. Over the years we have had shortages and tuna, of dorado and of shrimp – that was the worst for us. Fortunately this season there is lots of fresh fish available. Yeah, we finally just got some fresh off the boat tuna, best ever. And we have a good source to get fresh crab. We will not starve.

…and now today, January 31st we will get the rest of this post written – I hope!

What excuse can I give this time…..tick, tock, time is passing faster and faster.

But I do have a very unique reason to complete  the final push to publish this post. Readers from way back (possibly from day 1 in 2010 when I started to write this blog) stopped to say hola to me just outside our open gate today. Robbin lives in Hawaii. He gives the best hugs ( next to you Alan, my Chilliwack friend ). He has a home about 3 minutes from us here on the isthmus when he is not in Maui or elsewhere in the world. Robbin reminded me how much he enjoys reading my posts so here I am.

Continued yet again today, February 1st……

Perhaps this post was never meant to be. It seems that everyday we have something that happens that interrupts plans. No complaints as most of them are interesting or fun and certainly enjoyable at the moment, yet this post never gets completed. How did it get to be February?  Still dealing with yet another cold front, down to 57F last night. During the day the sun is shining and if you can sit out of the wind the weather is perfect.

I am feeling so much stronger. No longer dizzy. No longer sleeping for hours and hours. I don’t think I have had a nap for a week now. Two days ago I even walked down to the beach on my own to meet Colin returning from his longer walk with the twins and we walked back together. I am going to now push myself ( hopefully that is more successful than blog writing ) to walk every second day. I read my first book since before Christmas so things are much better in my world. So great to have more energy and it will get better yet. Also have been working on my eyes, I can see a bit better. Trying a few different things for more improvement.

I have lots to share with you – especially in photos. So I am going to wrap this loco post up pronto.  Just have to add some photos. FYI that took just over an hour to add the photos, links and captions. 

The only complaint I have, apart from the feral cats driving the girls crazy, is my inability to see the sunset nightly. We had a great view location back at the RV park but honestly I had to keep darting in and out of our RV in order to not get bitten by the no-see-ums.  Here the berm bordering on the shipping channel blocks the view. But now that I am stronger I really only have to walk a very short distance to get a better vista. Going to start working on that now. Plus we have no bitting bugs, not a one, here on the isthmus.

 

 

 

…thank you Mother Nature. I was sitting here working on my next post when Colin went out to view the sunset….thank you mi amore, great photos!  Enjoy 🙂

 

…our twins were born, right about this time – midday.

Carlie ( 90 minutes older ) and Ciela have become the highlight of our lives.  They enjoy traveling in the RV and certainly love Mexico. Enjoy your day girls, many treats and cuddles coming your way today – well actually forever 😎

The video was taken just after dawn a few weeks before Christmas. The music was live, from an all night quinceanera!

Colin had left about 5PM with Genie to attend the first of two New Years Eve performances at Waters Edge featuring Eugene Hideaway Bridges. I simply was not up to an evening out but I will see Eugene play over the next few weeks here and there. Colin said that Joe was really rocking it 😎

 

May 2025 bring you all new adventures and special moments and most important of all good health.

***I am certain that many of you recall that back in the day we had access to the use of Coles Notes. Per Dr. Google:  What are Coles Notes? They are little books students use to help them with a variety of subjects. Coles Notes are written to help students and others to gather information quickly without having to read a whole book. Coles Notes have been written on a number of different topics. Coles Notes are student guides to literature, published in Canada. The Coles bookstore first published Coles Notes in 1948. So I have decided to publish my own version of Coles Notes as I have the energy. Bits of this and that as they come to mind.

Friday, December 27th

Poor Colin, he has had no phone since Monday as I neglected to remind him it was running out of data! Thing is he uses it so seldom that he had no idea it wasn’t working. I had 3 to 4 good normal hours today. We mostly sat outside and talked about our future a bit. We love it here and at this point plan to stay till the end of June. Had a few cat sightings resulting in barking. All good and normal. Later saw that that B&W cat had 3 kittens, not so good 😮 Have not watched TV since the 21st, will try to see if I can tonight. Still working on where the TV will be.

Lots of RV repairs/upgrades happening. Good to find out that the smoke alarms were archaic. Many thanks for the various suggestions re my fatigue, for certain carbon monoxide is not one of them, great thinking though.

Unique privately owned cruise ship called ” The World ” has been in port for 3 days. Yes it looks fabulous, costs more than any of us will ever have but would I really want to limit myself to being at sea? Not at all. But do Goggle the ship, interesting reading and glimpses of some wowser private on board homes.

Saturday, December 28th

One phone call and the plans for the day change. Had trouble sleeping last night, perhaps I am getting better.

…….forgot to finish this post……right now it is December 30th….yesterday was a good day and a good night.