Searching for Waterfalls

The day after our failed camping trip, we were looking for something fun to do.  So we decided to try and find Pinchi Falls.  2 years ago, we went out looking for these falls and came back empty handed.  But today, we felt successful (ok, the air photos on Bing Maps gave us some ideas of where to look).



Walking down the 'road', following the gps to a potential waterfall location.  The Subaru got stopped by some big ruts near the start of the road.

Still walking and searching....

White Water Found!  Yay!

 Ok, so it's only a little waterfall.....  but it's a lot bigger than what we found 2 years ago. 

 Hmmmm.....   What's around the bend?  Guess we should keep exploring.

 WATERFALL!!!!!!!!!   

We Found It! 

Now this is a real waterfall!

We made it!  Sweet!

 Rainbow in the mist.

What a great view.

We managed to scramble down to the bottom.











View from the bottom.

Let's go swimming.

 Swimming at the base of the waterfall :)  What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Mark out in the pool, testing the waters and rope.

Yes, we tied a safety rope to help prevent us from floating 300 m downstream through rapids.  

Yay!  I'm swimming at the waterfalls :)

What a great afternoon.

The camping trip that wasn't

Happy BC Day!  Happy NB Day! Happy Civic Holiday!  Happy "whatever you are celebrating today" Day!

We decided that a good way to spend the weekend was to take a mini overnight camping trip at one of the nearby rec sites.  So we packed up the canoe and tent and headed up the road.  

We arrived at Bugle Lake and put the canoe in the water.  There was only one other boat out there, on the far side. 

The boat is just itching to get in the water.

Beautiful day to be out on the water.











 Mark put his fishing line in the water and we started to paddle.  After catching one tiny fish, the wind started to pick up.  We headed back to shore and decided to check out another nearby lake - a smaller one. 

We've arrived at our campsite on Teardrop Lake.  And we're the only people around.

I guess mowing the lawn wasn't in the budget this year.  Although there is a brand new, beautiful picnic table on the other site.




We set up the tent and made a fire.  We thought it'd be nice to leave the fly off the tent and watch the stars after we'd get into bed.





























We cooked up some dinner while we waited for the wind to die down a bit.

Mark fished from shore while the hotdogs and sweet potatoe fries cooked on the fire.











 Once the stomach is full, it is time for some sunset fishing.   Water is calm now AND we can see the fish jumping.









 I decided to stay behind and read by the fire.  There were 100s of big dragonflys flying all around.  It was pretty amazing, especially against the colours of the sunset.



A wonderful, peaceful evening for both of us...... 
UNTIL.......





We heard a truck going slowly down the road (yes, Mark heard it from out on the lake).  Then the truck - pulling a boat - starts backing down the boat ramp.  Trying is a more appropriate word.  He couldn't get straight and missed it on the initial turn.  Then he got the truck a little stuck and had to gun it to get back up on the road.  I thought maybe he was just learning and didn't want to stare too much.  Finally, he got on to the ramp and backed the boat down.  (by the way, this is just a little aluminum boat, nothing big or fancy).   He put the boat in the water.  And then he pulled it out again.  Water started streaming out of it.  He had forgotten to put the bung/plug in and the boat filled up with water. Then got out of the truck.  That's when I realized that it probably wasn't his first launch.... he was just extremely drunk.  Yikes.  He cracked open another beer and started looking around.  He asked if I was the only one around.  I made sure to say that there was a man fishing on the water.  He wandered down to the other site and back and then started to get the boat ready.  He put the bung in and attached the motor.  I was very glad to see that he put a PFD on.  Then he backed the boat back into the water.  The next thing I see is him in the boat, floating out in the lake, trying to start the motor.  The truck was still on the boat ramp and was still running.  ummm....   Luckily, he had a paddle, so he paddled back to shore and turned the truck off.   Then he went out in the boat, fishing pole in his hand.  He got the motor running and headed up the lake - towards where Mark was fishing.  I watched through the binoculars because I didn't trust this guy.  He puttered around the lake.  Eventually it got darker, near the end of twillight.  Mark paddled back in, his quiet peaceful evening was spoiled.  Mark made mention of the two guys out in the boat and was surprised when I said there was only one guy.  He had been talking to himself as he was fishing.  Sure enough, I heard him as he passed in front of the campsite.  We pulled our canoe right up on our site to make sure there was lots of room for drunky-mcdrunk to leave.  We figured he would leave soon, dusk was almost gone.  Then we heard the boat motor rev up.  He was speeding around the lake.  Around and around.  I'm glad he didn't do that when Mark was out there.  After a while, it got quite dark.  The moon was only starting to come up.  He slowed down and started to head towards the ramp.  We thought we'd be nice neighbours and shine some light to help him out.  We went over to the ramp and shone the headlamps.  He turned and started racing around again.  Strange.  We went back to our fire.  Eventually he came in.  We heard a lot of banging around.  Then he got in the truck and started driving up the ramp.  Double take.... there is no boat on the trailer.   Ummmm......  But instead of driving down the road to go home, he drove to the other campsite.  Ok, that's good.  He's not going to drive drunk (again).  We figured he'd just sleep it off and get the boat in the morning.  We noticed he started a fire....  cool, though he started it pretty quickly, especially since we had already taken all the good wood from that site.  But there were still some stumps and branches.  We cleaned up our site, getting ready for bed.  Then when I was pulling out the toothbrushes, Mark said  "He's burning the picnic table."  What?!?  Sure enough, the brand-new, beautiful picnic table was on fire.  Picture a picnic table with fire across the seat, up on the table part and across the other seat.  As we brushed our teeth, we watched him pull out the jerry can and pour MORE gas on the picnic table fire.  Crazy!  We both didn't feel right.  So we threw the sleeping bags and tent back into the trunk, put the canoe on the roof and as quickly and quietly as we could left the area.  The clock read after midnight.  But we had no idea what crazy, drunk guy would do next.  So we drove the 70 km over dirt roads to get home, just in case.  Always follow your gut...

Flowers, flowers and vegetables.

I love my gardens.  They are colourful, tasty and make me happy.  Despite the flooding, they are growing pretty well (at least when I remember to water them, or when Mark is home to water them).  

 Inside the greenhouse.  Lots of veggies growing.  There are peas and beans, tomatoes and peppers, cauliflower and broccoli, lettuce and basil.  Lots of yum!

 Our purple cauliflower.  Yes, that's right, purple.  No we didn't add food colouring, that's natural. And delicious.  Cauliflower is the perfect marine biologist vegetable because it looks like coral.  :)

 Our veggie plate at lunch time.  Ok,  so not everything is from our garden, but the cauliflower and cucumber are.  The broccoli came from the farmer's market.  (the mushrooms, pepper and carrots are from the grocery store, but they add to the colour of the plate).

Ok, also not from our garden, but I wanted to show the red.  The plums, apricots, and cherries are from the fruit truck - he comes to the market and is from the Okanagan.  The strawberries are also from the farmer's market and were grown just a few km from our house.

 Now on to flowers.   My hanging baskets.  I'm pretty proud of how they look.  They are growing well.

 The petunias are the best flowers for the sides.  The pansies are ok, but should be used in moderation.  And the colours are just fun.

They are growing, up, down and all around.

Each hanging basket is different.  But the hummingbird likes all of them.

 As well as hanging baskets, we have hanging bags on the fence posts.  They are growing great this year as well. 

The colours in these bags is great too.   One day I'd love to have every fence post hosting a bag, but that's a lot of rice.

 The long flower box is also doing well this year.  The flood helped keep these guys well watered over the past month. 

Again with colour, but I love the way these colours go together.  I remember planting the snapdragons and the marigolds, but where the little blue flowers came from is a mystery.

 My perennial garden is doing well also.  Which is great because it was underwater for a while.  The lillies are now starting to open.

So many beautiful colours :) 

 And finally, the plants on the deck.  The gerbers have made a great comeback (they always have a hard time when we go away for Christmas.  We lost the orange one this year).  With another 5 heads coming up, we should have 8 flower on this plant in the next week or so.  Amazing.

  
This one is also making a great comeback after a hard Christmas season.

 Petunias are growing overtime.  We have a log full of petunias on either side of our steps.  (note that there is no water at the bottom of the stairs now....  it is muddy and goopy, but not under water).

And that concludes this week's garden tour.  Have a great day!

a couple of relaxing evenings in paradise

Life is good.  The days are sunny.  Things are progressing. The evenings are beautiful. and I'm having fun. One evening I canoed into the sunset.  And another I relaxed by the fire.