A Trip West

 As I told you last time, we headed west for a gathering of the clan. Lots of pictures were taken and I will share a few.

In Victoria, we stayed in a condo apartment complex. The gardening around the building was wonderful.

The tree on the left is a Dogwood, floral emblem of British Columbia. The one on the right is a California Lilac, a popular hedging plant in Victoria.

I also discovered that Dogwoods come in pink, too.

The condo had a lily pond and it was just getting ready to bloom.

Oddly, although there were lots of benches through the apartment gardens, we never saw anyone sitting on the benches (except us).

It seemed that nearly everywhere we went in the city, we had to go around Mt. Douglas.

I liked the sun shining on it at sunset.

While in Victoria, we did some geocaching. I think we found a total of 10 caches. Our biggest achievement was to climb to the top of  Observatory Hill to find caches.

This is the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. It was opened in 1918. You can read more about it here.

The walk to the top and back was about 4.5 km and the rise in elevation was 167 m. We were fooled by the cache posting that said the cache could be done in about 30 minutes. If you drive to the parking lot inside the fence, that is possible, but we were there on a Sunday when the road is closed to cars. I'm pretty sure I got my steps in that day. We didn't see very many people (mostly nobody) but we did see a couple of bunnies and this lovely.

We saw a second one on the way back down the hill. We were surprised that it looks like the deer we see here except eastern deer have white tails and western deer have black tails.

This was the view from the top, looking down.

We also spent time in Parksville, which is the home of Rathtrevor Beach.

At low tide, the tide goes out a very long way.

You can observe little sea creatures in the tide pools.

You can build sandcastles.

Or, you can enjoy the wonderful views. 

The purpose of the trip, and the gathering of 4 generations was to celebrate a very special event.

It was the 90th birthday of a mother, grandmother and great grandmother. We decided to do it up in style.

On the way home, I was reminded of how vast my country is. While flying east, overnight, I awoke at about 2AM (maybe it was 3) local time, somewhere over the middle part of Canada, to see the sun rising in the north.

How cool is that?

A Walk in the Park

 I live in a lovely suburban area with lots of trees and parks. Yesterday, my grandson and I went for a walk in a nearby wooded park.

Trilliums are the provincial emblem for Ontario. The grow in deciduous forests before the trees put on leaf.

The woods were full of them.

There were also Trout Lilies. They aren't as abundant as the trilliums.

Though it is hard to tell from the picture, but in places the path goes nearly straight up and is bare rock. Good exercise for Nana, my fellow adventurer ran straight up.

Oddly, there was a lone little lilac bush next to the path near the edge of the woods.

We walked a total of just over 3 km. I was sore and tired at the end.

But somebody was still going. Only an offer of a snack convinced him that it was time to head home.

Today it is raining. However, I have some apple blossoms to keep me company in the house.

Checking In

I seem to have fallen off the edge of the world, again. I had too many other things going on, to blog. Today, my time is my own, until yoga, this afternoon.

All of this busy-ness has allowed time for knitting, and I completed some.

These are Hermione's Everyday Socks, in Opal yarn. I started them sometime in the summer, and didn't set up a Ravelry project page. However, they are done now, and ready for someone's Christmas gift.

 I made my little boy some new mittens from the leftovers from these socks.

Last Tuesday, I had an appointment and anticipated a long wait, so I cast one some plain vanilla socks in some gorgeous Turtlepurl  Striped Turtle Toes.

Obviously, the wait was very productive. The colourway is Om and is currently sold out in her store. The yarn is a joy to knit with.

And because children who have grandmothers who can knit are doomed to a life of silly hats, this one. I made the hat before he was ever born and he loves it.

Yes, there is an elephant head where the pompom would normally go.

In case you need some knitting inspiration, we have snow!

And my Christmas Cactus is on time for a change.

It usually flowers in early October, so we refer to it as the Halloween Cactus.

My Eastern Adventure

Earlier this month, I headed off to New Brunswick to visit my elder son. I had a couple of things that I wanted to do while I was there, this time.

The sky as I boarded the plane had a promise of nice weather.

The first item on my agenda was to eat a lobster roll on the beach.

The lobster roll was so large I didn't eat another thing that day, and I didn't finish my fries. However, it was really good.

This is the beach at Aboiteau,

The picture doesn't show it, but in the distance you can see Prince Edward Island.

It was a gorgeous day, and I enjoyed my ocean visit.

The other thing I wanted to see was the monument to the RCMP officers killed in the line of duty in 2014.

They will now stand on guard forever.

The bases of the statues tell you a bit about the officers.

Around the base are maple leaves with signatures of all the other first responders who were involved in keeping Moncton safe, that awful day.

It is a very moving monument.

Much of the rest of my time was spent visiting, and enjoying family time with my far away kid and his fur babies.