The Di(e) has been cast! Dianne has sent in her final retirement letter! There are three months left in the school year and we know it isn’t over until it’s over, but this time, it may be over. As I start this blog entry we are on Pender for a few days and Dianne has had a chance to get out in the yard and work on her plants. She is really looking forward to finally fixing this place up. The renos are done but the property needs quite a bit of work. A lot of overgrown brush needs attention, the low spots (which are currently lakes) need to be levelled and some raised beds need to be designed. A small greenhouse may even appear. She really wants to get at it; I think this time ... read more

When our daughter and her family came back from Cuba with glowing reports of life in an all-inclusive resort, Dianne decided we should go too. It took a bit of scheduling but we finally managed it during our recent Spring Break. I was a bit apprehensive about spending a week on a beach but, in her wisdom, Dianne decided we should split the week between Old Havana (Habana Vieja) and the all-inclusive at Veradero. We booked our flights and hotels through Transat. Old Havana Our travel agent mentioned a hotel outside of Old Havana, with a shuttle bus service into the centre. Dianne asked if there wasn't something right in the centre of the old city as we love to walk and explore older parts and, of course, there was! The Parque Central Hotel was right ... read more

This is the 5thAnnual Announcement of the Beginning of Dianne’s Last Year in the Work Force. This MAY actually be the last year as she has been planning activities in 2015, 2016 and even 2017. And they don’t include school. Detail plans will be developed for our Cross Canada trip, our (last?) European trip and a driving trip to the States to visit friends we met in China. Maybe Dianne will decide to work another year to pay for these trips? To practice her travel planning skills, Dianne just booked a week-long trip to Cuba for Spring Break, 2015. I did notice that this didn't interfere with her working so it isn't conclusive proof that the end is in sight. Marguerite Christensen This April, just after celebrating her 96th birthday, Dianne’s mother died peacefully in her ... read more

Off to Vernon Well, we are off to our third Canadian City in three years. The end of June saw us packing our bags and saying goodbye to Kamloops. The year went incredibly quickly and was full of great memories. I never thought I would like living in Kamloops because of the heat but it was a pretty good experience. Of course, it is a bit of out of the frying pan into the fire…. we’re moving to Vernon, a notorious hot spot. Big Red On the Mother’s Day weekend, Dianne and I decided to walk to McArthur Park in Kamloops for a picnic. The 6.5 km walk winds along both sides of the Thompson River and ends up at the big athletic park I wrote about in an earlier blog. When we got there we ... read more

The Christmas vacation is now a memory and we have entered the second phase of our Kamloops adventure; the run up to Spring Break. Not that we gauge everything by school holidays, but it does give me some reference points for the blog. It was pointed out to me during our Pender visit that I had not published lately. So here goes. The north side of the South Thompson River In our trips back and forth between Alberta and Victoria we had driven along the south side of the South Thompson River many times. We had seen the formations in the hills and thought they looked “nice” but we didn’t appreciate what was there until we took the road that parallels the river on the north side from Kamloops to Chase. It seemed like a different ... read more