5C's Que Pasa

The clouds were still dark and a very few raindrops were falling.

One minute later, the second rainbow appeared. Look at those colours.

And two minutes later on the other side of our home the rainbow emerged over the lake. These photos are all in the east.

Colin was able to put this panorama shot together. We were too close to the rainbow to get the double arch.

Someone else just a bit more west of us was able to capture this photo.

And even further up the hill from us to the west, someone captured this image.

From the local online news……

We were gifted tickets to the Snowbird Dance this past Saturday. We were not going to go as the main course was a prime rib. However I asked and they made us a wonderful and very tasty main course vegetarian meal.

First happy hour, then dinner followed by a dance with a DJ. As you can see it was a capacity crowd.

Yes we danced but I was very mindful of my knee, so no jives nor jump jive/swing dancing. Twice I said enough and came and sat and rested.

YMCA

Sunday afternoon began with Oliver’s 9th birthday party. His parents only live about 20 minutes away and we had replied yes to the RSVP back in April. Oliver was a rescue doxie who was overweight at 28 pounds. He looks great at 18 pounds. That puts him at the lower end of a standard doxie.

There were supposed to be 8 eight parents with their dachshunds who had RSVPed, but only three families attended. These all belong to Donna, a full house of four. I have no idea how she does it.

There were seven girls and Oliver was the only male at his party. Just how it should be!! The doxies never stayed in the same location to get a photo of them all.  Had everyone come there might have been of 6 – 8 more dachshunds 🙂

Jiwon, the hostess of the party and Oliver’s mom working on making friends with our Carlie.

Colin holding Carlie. Our girls did very well and did not bark – well not too much.

Ciela ( against her will ) trying on some high end reflective sun glasses. The sun can be difficult on our girls eyes causing them to constantly squint in the sun. The sunglasses did not work out as she kept trying to take them off.  I am going to try and find a special doxie hat next.

…and so it began. The 70 in the background was for the proper part on the 22nd.. I love how Carlie is kissing me me and I really like that expression on my face as I enter the kitchen. I look like a little kid about to enjoy their birthday.

The yellow stickies on the counter mean something special.

Colin really enjoys a treasure hunt. First I had to answer a question which then led to me to a special surprise/present but first I had to figure out the clue to the location.

I kept all the stickies, he did 21 clues. What is the answer to this one? I did get it correct got it correct and and to look in the oven. Your answer please.

In the oven was a water sprinkler for my plants on the Isla. The clue was “Garden needs watering  – where do you cook pizza?” The oven of course!  It really was fun and we laughed and laughed.

This went on for over an hour. Lotto tickets in the microwave. I won $12.00.

Somewhere in that hour I found a birthday cake hat. The riddle was “what goes up and never comes down”. My initial answer  was ‘weight’. The final answer was ‘your age’.

Love my flamingo glasses ( they actually fit ) and beads.

From Colin…

New lovely yellow orchids. Yellow seems to be my colour this year. Plus some of my birthday cards and gifts.

Plus this !!!!!!!!

We saw this a few years ago. Can you imagine staying directly on a canal in Venice?

You simply only have to click on the teal coloured words “Email Me” and you can send me anything you want to tell me.

Be sure to fill in your email in the area that says “subscribe by email. Then click ‘Subscribe’ in the black box.

This is what you will see in your inbox. Be sure to click to confirm that every post I do will be sent to your inbox.

He did a much better job than I could have.

When we decided that we had no choice but to move the party inside I got involved by adding a wine station and pulling out tablecloths and whatever else same up. Such as building a coat rack out of two tripods with a  photography background bar. We needed somewhere to put all the wet coats. Oh then we realized that we needed some umbrella stands and a place for 30 pairs of shoes. Good thing that I was a Girl Guide, our motto is “Be Prepared”.

Is that a 70 in my tiara? Thank you for this photo Karen.

Colin wanted to have a special celebration for my 70th. Of course he could not do all the preparation on his own so it was not a surprise for me.

It was supposed to be an outdoor event. However it rained and rained and the wind would not stop. We were prepared to have the event outside. But instead we were scrambling to host 30 people inside of our home. The couple on the right were surprise guests for me. Colin was full of surprises all weekend. We were surprised that we could sit 30 in this tiny house.

There were a variety of guests including new neighbours that we had not yet met.

I turned 70 on May 22nd which is a Federal Canadian pubic holiday. It is always a holiday on my special day. The girls did very well with all the people in the house. The girls did have their tails tucked under but we took turns giving them attention.

Of course I had a 70th tiara along with a “70 & Fabulous ” sash. So much fun.

Ciela found a comfortable lap.

Between Bob & Jack Is our TV which Colin programmed with over 300 photos of the two of us, mostly our travels over the years.  I still haven’t seen them all. What a wonderful surprise.

The appetizers included crab roll ups, shrimp Swedish meatballs, a spinach dip. a pepperoni and cheese plate, etc. Chilean white and red wine were available. Anyone who wanted something else to drink brought their own.

Dinner included a variety of donated salads ” potato salad, coleslaw and Caesar salad “, pork ribs, and catered lasagna and cabbage rolls. Much too much food and a great meal was had by all. A very special thank you to Dianne who not only helped Colin create even more surprises, hid the cake and helped in the kitchen. Muchas gracias amiga.

Chocolate cake with yummy icing.

Later the limoncello came out. Here I was being told to chug a lug. I complied but prefer to sip this drink. Carlie was safe with me but couldn’t  figure out all the noise.

It was very noisy because of our glass house and high ceilings.

Yeah another surprise by Colin, a huge board of photos of who else but me:)

Carlie was fast asleep with Carlie groomed her.

This is the only time I have seen this happen.

Over a week ago we were treated to a surprise visit by the Canadian Snowbirds.

The snowbirds even did a few passes and included a few of their stunts. They simply stopped here to fuel up.

The sunset was behind me but these clouds were reflecting the sun in the east.

It was a beautiful sunset.

We have a few pots of veggies growing in our yard this year. Only 3 tomatoes but more in the garden. The two smaller pots on the left hold pepper basil and cilantro. We then have 3 pots of a variety of lettuces growing. Have caught the girls snacking off the lettuce in the pots, they love it.

We went to a one hour magician show the 20th. It was excellent, a full hour of non stop laughs.

Lovely rainbow display the other day.  I hope the double rainbow means luck and this blog will post perfectly and you all will be able to see it.

√ Colin keeps doing his exercises with Ciela’s help. His physical issues have eased somewhat with the visits to the Summerland chiropractor. Thus far I still have neck issues.

A week ago we had to endure chilly temps before Mother Nature decided to send us some heat, the girls cuddled up in front of the heater behind my desk every morning.

They are definitely twins. No matter how often we see them together we still always have a smile on our faces.

And then the heat came out.The snow pack melt is increasing the level of the lake, but that did not last more than a few days and the beach reappeared with the hot weather. I guess that the water is evaporating. Ciela was down the stairs and climbing all over the rocks.

Colin was supervising. She had no interest in going into the cold lake. Thank goodness!

I called every tree trimmer in the book. Only one returned my call and he happened to be driving home from Vernon passing our place and said he would stop in to check out the situation. He nor us had the very tall ladder needed but Kolin ( almost Colin ) said that its always best to climb the tree itself. Colin had the tools that Kolin needed to do the job.

He certainly got the job done. Timing was important as this tree needs to be trimmed in the spring before it begins to leaf out. I was a bit shocked about the price as it was $100.00 more then expected. However he did it when it needed to be done and it would be two weeks before he could get back to us. Later one other tree guy returned my call and his charge was the same price. Win for us √

The tree certainly got a trim! Kolin even bundled the branches into small clumps with twine that the park took away a few days later.

√ Colin got the garden all ready for planting. We shopped for flowers and veggie plants last May10th ( the date of my last post ). √ The next day we planted the flowers in the yard and Colin planted the tomatoes in the yard and in the garden. √ Together we planted our seeds May 12 & 13th.  √√ Colin told me this morning that every single seed appears to be coming up.

√ I think it was just before last weekend that we ( Colin ) started to pull things out for the patio, etc.

√ The pots are ready for our flowers to grow. The girls have not started to pull out my plants yet. Since they have been planted we endured high temps ( which I love ) and then so much smoke from the forest fires that we could not see across the lake and last night a huge thunder storm with lots of lightening. We have almost no smoke today.

√ A true sign of spring. However we have not seen them for several days. I did see my first family of ducks this morning.

√ Yet another sign of spring. We have had a robin in our large tree for a few weeks now but I don’t see a nest.

√ Definitely a sign that summer is on its way.

Submitted for the blog by Colin.

I saw this somewhere online. What can I say, glad that someone got the photo.

We all want to be in our special spot. For certain we will be staying at least 5 months next season.

Just this past Monday we went for yet another chiropractic appointment in Summerland. We were both still ‘out’. I wish   that we could just fly to see my wonderful chiropractor in Edmonton and spend only 2 days and 1 night but we don’t have an extra $1400.00 to do that right now. Fingers crossed that this guy will be able to help us. I had looked up off leash dog parks in the area and there happened to be just the one and it was an off leash dog beach. It was much larger than expected and very nice.

I thought that the girls would go wild like on the Isla but no, they just very politely checked the place out.

They did try to escape the fence in area – of course.

A really lovely area.

Needless to say they did not stay still for long. The water was much too cold for them to even tip toe into.

So many shades of spring blooms everywhere.

Sometimes I have problems bringing the blinds back up. I probably pull the chain too fast. Fortunately I have Colin to sort things out.

Big decision but for the first time since we moved here in 2003 Colin has decided to start taking care of our lawn as he has more time. He purchased this wonderful mower for $80.00. For the last few years we have been paying $35.00 per cut ( $140.00 per month ). We are already ahead of the game. Great deal and Colin is doing a fantastic job. The lawn looks better than ever. We made a deal with our original lawn guy to keep doing the thatching in the spring and to fertilize as need. Perfect. Also if we are away he will cut the lawn for us.

May 2nd sunrise – in the east!!

May 2nd sunrise – in the south. We certainly live in an interesting  area. Thank goodness took these. Of course I was still asleep.

Stunning photo but so sad that this is because the forest fires have already started.

Last Wednesday we had a lovely sunset. I was happy with this photo.

Then I turned around and saw the moon. The swallows were out doing a ballet in the sky.

I that thought this photo was just okay but I asked Colin to please indulge me and do a much better one.

We have shut down the fireplace for the season but they were happy enough just enjoying the heater behind where I sit at my desk.