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Published: February 1st 2014
Coquihalla travel
If the weather is nice, the highway through the mountains can be beautiful.But we are not going to be moving to a new city come the fall. A fourth city in four years just isn't in the cards. On the other hand, neither is a final move to Pender! Dianne has been asked to stay on in Vernon for a second year, so that is what we will be doing.
The really good news is that we won’t have to move! With the new truck, the move would have been easier, but not as easy as not moving at all. The summer holiday will be shorter as Dianne is expected to put in more admin time than we have had to do the last couple of years as we changed cities. But she is really happy to be able to spend another year here and finish some projects that she wouldn't have had time to do if we moved in June. I, too, have some projects that I will be able to see to completion, which is a good thing.
Activities We really like the community here. The walk to and from school is a great start and end to each day. We have a couple
More Coquihalla
Fortunately, the weather was nice. My trip down hit a window of nice weather. There were storms and closures on both sides of my trip. of coffee houses we like to frequent, although not as frequently as I would like to. The parish we belong to is 100 years old, just slightly older than the average age of most of the parishioners. The other church in town is much newer and is where most of the young families attend. We go there occasionally to wave the flag for the school.
After many years of dodging membership in the Knights of Columbus, I finally joined up. For those who aren't familiar with the K of C, it’s a men’s organization associated with the Church that raises money for various charities and does other good works. One of the groups they support is St James School so it works well.
One of my first assignments was selling raffle tickets in a local mall. While waiting for customers, I noticed two couples chatting near my table. They obviously hadn't seen each other for quite a while and were having an animated discussion. After about 15 minutes, I heard one of them comment that they had to be going. I slid over and said it was a good thing they were leaving because I was going to
Lake area
This was taken on one of our walks in the area. Just one of the lakes we can almost walk to. have to charge them rent on the floor space if they stayed any longer. One of the women got quite huffy and said “Well, if you’re going to be that way about it, I’ll have to buy some tickets!” She bought four and I wasn't quite sure if she was just giving me a harder time than I was trying to give her.
Dianne has taken up knitting again. She enrolled in a class at a local yarn shop and has been needling me ever since. Christine laughed when she heard about the lessons."Mum, you taught Lise how to knit!" was her observation. Dianne felt she had lost her touch and has really enjoyed the lessons and the knitting.
We have still only managed one wine tour since we got here. Maybe with the change in plans we can now allocate some time to visit more. We have plans for a camping road trip with Big Red once the weather clears up. We have managed a few walks around town, usually terminating in a coffee shop. There has been some snow but nothing like Alberta and points east. The streets are generally clear and the sidewalks are bare
Fr. Pendosy Mission
Started in 1858. Pretty old for this area. and dry. Except for this morning, as I write this, it is snowing.
The good news about this location is the snow in the mountains. OK, they aren't the Rockies but the local ski hill, Silver Star, is just half an hour away from our apartment. The Sovereign Lake cross country ski area is even closer. We were up there for our first day of skiing last weekend. It was great to be out on skis again. The weather has been cloudy in town for the last month or so. As we meandered our way up to the top of the mountain we burst out of the clouds into the most glorious sunshine. It was like being back in Alberta on a clear, crisp winter day.
We had only been skiing twice since we moved to the coast in 1988 so it took a bit of getting used to. Watching the experienced skiers whooshing up and down the trails made us slightly green with envy. We know we used to be able to ski like that so we just need more practice. Our extended stay next year will give us lots of chances. There are also kilometres of
The first school classes
were taught in the upstairs bedroom of one of the local houses at the Mission. We've come quite a ways. show shoe trails if we want a different challenge.
Other stuff We have our regular trips to Alberta to visit Dianne’s parents to look forward to. We had a great Christmas break visiting our children and their families as well as many friends. Spring Break will be upon us soon and it will be back to Pender to check on the last few renovations we have to complete.
So, with five months left in this school year, we contemplate a longer stay than we had planned on. But we like it here, so it should be a good time. Dianne is looking forward to more time to swim in the lakes around here, especially Kalamalka Lake. We both look forward to further explorations in the Okanagan area.
To Be Continued…
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Michael Pitt
non-member comment
You\'re not going to believe this, but I do believe it.