A Day Out in the Boat with Dave

Dave getting the boat ready to go

The most fabulous Uncle Dave got the boat up and ready for a day in the water. 

Alex, Nathan and Alicia headed out on the tube.

Alex trying to stand

At first, Alicia was in the middle, and the two boys were on the outside:  Alex 'bit it' with three fabulous wipe-outs, though none as impressive as the time he lost his shorts all together! :-)

Alex negotiated with the other two to rebalance the tube to place him in the centre.  

Nathaniel getting ready to walk on water

It did the trick, and dave was unable to shake the three of them loose (though his efforts were memorable!)

Then they switched to skiing.  

It has been three summers since Alex strapped his feet to the boards, but the body seems to remember:  up he went!  

Ah sweet summer!

Thank you Dave!

Alex and the garden

Ah sweet summer vacation!

Alex keeps looking for jobs, so he got one:  pull all the weeds out of the 'garden' (they were about waist high), then mix up the bags of compost, manure and peat moss to get the soil looking a bit healthier.

and then?  Plant some stuff!

Here is the 'Before' and 'After'

Waiting for the showers

wondering when the rain will come

What a hot muggy day! 

You wouldn't have been able to tell from sky, which was distinctly cloud filled.

Nonetheless, it was a hot one. 

no rain, but the beginnings of some pink in the grey

I took a walk in the evening down to Arbutus Cove (where the tide was high). 

On the way back, my pace slowed down... trying to make sure I didn't trip over my feet since i couldn't keep my eyes off the skies (hmmm...nice rhyme there!)

And then as the evening wore on, there was that brief moment when those clouds picked up a bit of colour.

It was beautiful!

Canada Day - Bike Ride

a stairway of clouds?



paths over salmon-bearing creeks

It was the Canada Day Bike Ride Torture-fest.  Alex lucked out:  he left early to hang out with his friends for the day.  Duncan was not so lucky... trapped by his parent into 'a nice little bike-ride'.  Well... we left at 11am, and got home at something like 6pm.  It was a full day! 

Duncan was a bit less than pleased to be setting out, but he held up.  The first photo was from our first rest stop after an uphill climb around Pkols (formerly "Mount Doug", now claiming back its original indigenous name).  Duncan is pointing out that the clouds in the sky look pretty much like a ladder, or staircase to the heavens.

 

bridge over not-so-troubled-waters

I gotta say... the bike trails in this town really are stellar.  Hard to believe the variety of places one can cycle through.  At times, it is the middle of the city, and then you are suddenly on a gravel path by farm fields, or passing a lake, or in the the middle of the woods, or driving along the ocean.  It was a pretty amazing trip.



Duncan wondering why anyone gave Rebecca a camera!

Cool moment in the woods on the Colquitz River Trail

Stopping for a drink (Pkols Mountain/aka Mount Doug) in the distance




Biking along the ocean

Duncan's Saxophone Recital

Duncan waiting for his turn...

Today was Duncan's first saxophone recital!  It was held at his teacher's house (Andrew Greenwood).  Andrew (who teaches sax) and one of his friends (who teaches piano) had decided to hold a joint recital for their students.  What an adventure.  To say Duncan was not looking forward to it would be an understatment. 

And yet...

Perserverance!



Duncan and Andrew playing "Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Duncan was great!   He played "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Greenday (click here, if you are of a generation that does not know the song).  He has the "play along CD version" so he had a rockin' accompaniment in the background.  His teachers Andrew played along side Duncan so we got twice the musical 'thickness.'   Sweet.....   and then we headed off to DQ for a celebatory blizzard.  I had to take a quick photo at the lights just before the DQ: it is a beautiful day, and the mountains looked great there in the background! (for those of you not from Victoria, those mountains are in the US, and there is water between us and them... nice view!) 

Mountains in the distance (with the ocean between us)

sunset moonrise.... or is that 'moonset'?

It was a beautiful moon last night (June 18).  It finally dropped below the horizon around 1 in the morning.  Here are 5 shots capturuing the last 20 minutes, as it was heading down (shots taken from the balcony in the "Q"s just above the college.

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Lemming!

Today we headed out to Sylvia Grinnell Park to look for Snow Buntings. I didn't see any, but i did see a lemming! Totally fun to watch, and i can't believe i caught it on camera: it moved really fast. It acted like a mini meercat! fun!

Lemming at Sylvia Grinnell Park