Aug 01, 2015
Special friends come to visit
Actually they were passing through, on their way to a wedding in Edmonton from Victoria. They could have flown but instead chose to drive two 10 hour days with an overnight stop here to visit. The beauty of where we live is that there are condos for rent and as an owner here, friends and family get a discounted price.
We met Ken and Margot when we first bought a lot here about 2001 ( maybe 2002 ). They were full timing in their 5th wheel at the time and summered here. They had a dachshund named Hilde. Our dogs were the basis of our friendship. Right now they are on their 4th doxie and they have all been called Hilde 😀 Hilde 4 did not come on this road trip so we haven’t seen her since she was a young pup. Ken and Margot moved to Victoria in the fall of 2012 after they sold their lakefront lot and this is the first time we have seen them since they left.
Over the years Ken and Margot have been entwined in our lives. We even traveled with them in Mexico one winter. They have have been a major support to us and even walked our girls along with Hilde the 3d while I was recovering from my first hip replacement the summer of 2011. They are the only people our girls would walk with or I should say will walk with ( other then Debra on the Isla ). Over the years Margot has made us many gourmet meals and we have had many wonderful discussions.
Our time was limited. So after a detailed tour of our ‘mansion’ as Ken calls it we sat down for appies. They had not eaten since breakfast on the ferry to Vancouver. I believe I got my passion for white wine from them.
My photos of the visit are not up to my usual. We had two sets of unexpected visitors just prior to their arriving as I was prepping our dinner. The first was from our builder who had sent someone out to complete our long awaited repairs. We have been waiting for over a year for this visit.. There was no way I was going to have someone start sanding & repairing drywall cracks when I had company arriving within two hours. He is supposed to return on Monday which is a holiday here in Canada. So we shall see.
The second visitor was a craftsman who we reached out to in early May to do some renovations on the RV. Colin had photographed him and some of his creations for a magazine a few years ago. It seems that no one wants to work these days. They all want us to leave our RV with them over the winter. I don’t think so 🙁 So we were happy to have Peter drop in to see what we needed done both in the RV as well as our home. He is so very talented but our guests were arriving within 15 minutes. He gave us a rough price for the RV work which is more than reasonable and will quote on the woodwork we need done in the house. So that is my excuse for not being in top form Thursday afternoon.
Ken loves to share his food and of course Caeli soon became his very best friend.
While I was getting dinner underway Colin was sharing photos and conversation.
The girls are always a part of everything. It was a very warm 36C/97F so we were confined to being inside. The main reason that Margot and Ken moved to Victoria was to get away from the heat. Plus the fact that Ken is British making Victoria a logical choice.
Everyone always loves to be a part of what is happening in the kitchen.
We did dine at our formal table. This is only the 3rd time we have used our dining room table since we moved here in October 2012. Chris and Juan were our second visitors early last summer. I do entertain more on the Isla.
The rose centre piece comes from my old yard right across the road. The owners have been gone since June and I ‘borrowed’ some of my favorite blooms. I really do miss my special rose bushes but I am allowed picking privileges on occasion. Sorry I blew a photo of cedar plank wild sockeye salmon, baked potatoes with butter and sour creme, grilled asparagus and a beet salad as well as a caesar salad. We stayed with Painted Turtle Pinot Grigio throughout including the key lime pie. Ken passed on the Drambuie even though he is a Scotch aficionado. It was time to leave. They had had a long day and the next was more of the same.
It was only as they were leaving ( 45 minutes behind Ken’s schedule ) that we realized we never got a group photo. I did not envy them their 10 hour drive to Edmonton yesterday morning.
Interestingly Colin was also up at 5AM yesterday for a 6AM photo shot. It was based on lighting hence the early hour. Sadly the keys to the display suite could not be found ( even though he had carefully arranged for them to be in a certain spot), so finally he came back home at 8AM. A waste of a morning 😐 Now he has to do it again tomorrow morning. He was also up at 5AM today for a different job so that makes for three 5AM mornings in a row. No he does not take a nap later but keeps on going till close to midnight.
I think that Colin looks way younger than 65! I love those new frames I picked out for him, my birthday gift to him.
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Yep, good memories from that table. Hope we get to do it again. Looks like you had a great time with your friends.
I hope you mange to visit again. Regardless we will see each other in Mexico.
So nice to meet up with people again that you have not seen for a while. Nice to catch up.
It was lovely, short that it was. Sadly we have no idea when we will see them again.