Our Grateful Long Weekend May 23-26

It has been so long since I have blogged, I'm not sure I can remember how. Since getting a different cel phone, it has been quite a learning curve to figure out how to get the photos downloaded to my computer. But I am grateful for the new phone... and I'm grateful to finally be getting used to it.

We are always grateful to spend time with family. Shelby, Kim, Maizy and Lucy came for the long weekend... now a week ago.  We went down to the light house at Georgina Point to check out the starfish.

Shirley heard that the starfish on the west coast had some kind of plight... so we wanted to check them out.  We usually see more than a couple starfish... so maybe she was right.  Only two left!

It was fun walking around on the rocks.  Most of us kept dry... but the dogs loved getting into the water.

Beatrice and Dante also love chasing the tennis ball and bringing it back to Shelby. Beatrice usually wins the catch.

Some of the rocks on the beach reminded me of some sculptures we often see in art museums. This is sculpture evolving in nature.

I love taking photos and then looking at them to try to figure out what they might be.  Can you see a face with two eyes, a turned up nose with a moustache on one side? ...and the hair swirl back around the ear?  Isn't that fun?

There were lots of creatures clinging on for dear life to the side of the crack between two rocks.

And there was lots of driftwood randomly left on the beach. Storms have a way of leaving the logs in a hap hazard design. I was reading in the book, "The Golden Spruce," that huge waves pounding against the rocks on the coast of the Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) would send driftwood logs a top of cliffs a hundred feet high.  Pretty wild stuff!

Lucy posed for me under the edge of this storm worn rock.  She could be a model... or an actor?

I also asked Maizy to let me take her photo by the rock.  Rocks always look better with people.  This grand daughter has surpassed her grandmother by almost an inch already... and I don't think that she is done growing yet!

A candid shot of Shirley with Maizy, Lucy, Kim and Shelby.  Lucy saw me taking photos so stood up to give me a few more creative poses.

I am grateful for spring flowers. Walking to the car to leave the lighthouse park this iris bagged me to take her photo.

Lucy was having some fun with her food at supper that evening.  There is more than one way to get a golden cap on your tooth.

We are grateful to have our first guests use the loft.  The day the kids arrived I finished the carpet and helped Shirley put some beds up for the girls.  They so loved being able to finally sleep in the loft!

Shelby and Kim went to Victoria Sabbath afternoon after our visit to the lighthouse park to enjoy some time at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel... and we got to enjoy Lucy and Maizy. Shirley found some bird houses that the girls could paint. Fun, fin, fun... serious fun.

When Shelby and Kim returned on Sunday afternoon Shelb and I played some meadow golf.  We set up a golf course using rounds of firewood as the target to hit.  Shirley pointed out how similar father and son walk.  The fruit doesn't fall very far from the tree.

Our tenant Chris joined us at the fire pit for some hot dogs and potato salad... the kids always enjoy roasting marshmallows and making smokes.  (-Photo credits to Shirley for the last four photos.)

On Monday after the kids left to go home, we went to Victoria to run some errands and to celebrate Mother's Day at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. Our kids got us the most gorgeous jackets for Mother's and Father's day.  We both wore them to town.

I don't know what Shirley was taking a picture of... but let's say it was this sea gull.

An Asian girl saw Shirley and I taking a selfie so came and asked if she could take a photo of us... What could we say?

The next morning I got this early morning sunrise shot of Mt. Baker from our hotel room. This photos has not been altered... this is the colour that morning. Shirley was still sawing logs. Later after a wonderful breakfast in the dining room, Shirley had a pedicure at the Spa... and I had a massage. It was one of our best Mother/Father's Days I can remember.  Where is it written that you can only celebrate special occasions only on designated days?

"All the I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." 
-Abraham Lincoln

Shelby told us that we cannot always trust quotes on the internet... and to prove it he shared his favourite quote.

"The problem with internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" -Abraham Lincoln, 1864

Hike to Edith Point

This past weekend we had some friends visiting, so we invited them join us on a hike to Edith Point.  It is one of our favorite places to hike, but since it usually takes us over two hours round trip, we save it for special times with friends.

"Sounds of the wind and sounds of the sea
make me happy just to be."
-June Polis

We usually go out along the ocean trial, where we often see more birds and sea creatures along the shoreline.

And it is a sunny side to walk on in the early morning... with an excellent view of Mt. Baker due east in Washington.  Three men were also enjoying some time in the sunshine in their small fishing boat.

"The day, the water, the sun, the mountains, the clouds... I do not have to purchase these things with money."

It is interesting to see the erosion pattern of holes in the sandstone rock.

"Delight in the beauty that surrounds you."

There are endless opportunities of subjects to take pictures of... which makes it hard to do this hike in less than two hours when you take a camera along.

Since the tide was out, we could go down to where the starfish cling to the rocks.

"I think it annoys God if you walk by the color purple and don't notice!" Alice Walker in "The Color Purple"

A wooden starfish?

Let your imagination loose. Things are not always as we first see them.

In a couple of pockets driftwood accumulates, making an interesting pattern of large "pick-up sticks."

"The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

These moss covered rocks are not usually visible unless the tide is out. I love the fresh green color.

"Delight in the beauty that surrounds you."

The owner of the property, Don and Betty Graves, live in this really cool house, which was built primarily from materials brought to the site by barge, as there is no regular road access to the end of Edith Point.

In all the years we have hiked out to this point, we had never met the owner... but when we got back to where we parked our car, Don was on his bicycle and he stopped to visit with us.  We told him how much we appreciate him allowing us to hike on his property and enjoy this little part of paridise.

"Discovering this idylic place, we find oursleves filled with a yearning to linger here, where time stands still and beauty overwhelms."

"All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within." -Horace Friess

The colorful, stately Arbutus tree.  It is starting to lose its leaves already.  By mid-August all of its old leaves will be on the ground... and new ones will survive until next summer.

"Nature is the art of God."

We take the Middle Trail back from the point... it is wider, a little more level and we find our return takes about half the time as it takes to go out to the point.

"Be a gentle friend to the trees and they will give you back beauty, cool and fragrant shade, and many birds singing."

And if the birds are not singing, they are pecking... like this Flicker woodpecker.

Shirley and Maureen walking and visiting along the Middle Trail.

More Arbutus leaves, like confetti cover the ground.  Just like after a wedding.

 

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I... I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference." -Robet Frost