Impromptu
With Brigitte we are climbing a trail of wild flowers and moss to reach the
top of Margaret Falls. Equally in shape, we are experiencing some kind of a
rush in front of all the beauty at every turn of the trail.
A kick of adrenaline runs through our blood knowing that down below this
quiet creek transforms itself into strong cascading water. This pure basin
of cold brew becomes a turbulent force of nature.

Right at the top, close to the rustic wooden bridge, we hear the familiar
bear bell tune of approaching hikers. Cordial salutations revealed their
tourists status. That’s how we met, in the shade of a giant cedar, swept
by its invigorating perfume and surrounded by mosquitoes buzzing around. We
exchanged stories from their foreign country, share photo picks of the day
and just like that, our casual encounter became an invitation to our cabin
later in the day.

Early evening they both showed up and our offer to initiate them to kayaking
became reality. We witness our brand new German buddies leaving the shore
aboard tiny bright yellow kayaks. Awkwardly paddling along this immense pool
we observed in the haze of an early summer evening the colorful life
jackets getting more distant. Lisa and I shared a smile, you know the
unsure feeling of ” hope they will be ok” or ” what about if…..” . It is
probably our parental instincts that just kicked in but we felt more at ease
remembering that we told them the safety feature of the whistle attached to
their vest.

To keep our mind busy we decided to prepare some food and drinks for our
adventurous visitors. Darkness was fast approaching but fortunately I
remembered that once you are on this majestic lake, the time perspective is
very different. The unique opportunities to observed nature from the water
level is mesmerizing. Have you ever seen a great blue heron with it’s
elegant hunting posture? Dozen of gulls perfectly placed in a row on a
swimming platform. So many varieties of ducks exhibiting their unique diving
styles right in front of you. We secretly know the are the type of people
to let themselves tame by this giant live diorama.

Here with enthusiastic efforts they are approaching with their plastic
embarkation, both of them smiling. That evening we chat on the balcony
until 1:00 am. With limited knowledge of a common language and good
translating apps on our intelligent phones, we exchanged so much. Of course
we shared views of world events, presents to each other our cultural
identities, compared political aspects of our respective countries but more
than that we strongly felt that universal human connection we all crave now
better than ever. Who knew than an impromptu meeting of complete strangers
on a trail somewhere in the mountains, sharing views and a few laughs can
refresh your trust in this unique bond.

Thursday April 13, 2017

It is nice to see green grass in the front yard of the cabin, the lake, the ducks, the mountains and Sidney resting on the deck.  Mimi is quick to pick that few bushes are growing across the road and might reduce our view of the lake, this calls for an evening trip with a saw and pruner.

We had a brief chat with the Stuart, our next door neighbors, nice people.  They are full time residents, and they are happy that we are quiet people, they still have unpleasant memories of party tenants in the house next door.

Prior to dinner, we went for walk on the lakeshore, quite relaxing and even Sidney had a good time catching a mole and eating it.  The osprey nest high up on the wooden power pole in front of the cabin is getting many visitors, and all seem to stay for few minutes and carry on.  The Stuart see them more as a nuisance, they start yelling away at 4:00 AM and you can find their droppings everywhere.

In the afternoon, we went shopping in Salmon Arm.  The Nurseries offer a large variety of trees and shrubs that reminded us of much warmer climates that we have visited over the years.  All this greenery bring back memories of my dad that was found of gardening.  I can still picture him growing and caring for his roses, grapevine and fruit trees in a climate way outside the recommended growing range.  It was quite a sighting to see him walking down the narrow alleys of his garden still in his 3 piece suit and tie and turning leaves over for insects and deceases.  I remember him and I burying a large dog in the garden and other animals that we had other the years.

We visited a store selling everything from trees to horse riding equipment, bird feeders, chicken coop, egg incubators and they even sell all the equipment to raise bees.  Mimi knows I have always wanted to be a farmer, including raising bees but that will be for another life.

We bought organic beef sausages at a small outdoor market.  The farmer, Dave, actually has his certified organic farm near our cabin on the lakeshore.  On the way back from town, we decided to go have a peek at his farm, he has as real nice setting, and even his herd is special.  He raises woolly long horn cattle and Belted Galloway, that breed originates from Scotland and the cow looks like an oreo with its single white stripe.  We cooked (read overcooked) the sausages on the BBQ, the meat has very low fat, and we will have to buy these sausages again.

Friday April 14 2017

The opreys are coming more often, they fly away when they see us but they don’t mind the car traffic.  We went for a hike at Margaret Falls, the 5 km trail starts with a steep 1.0 hour climb that gets you high in the mountain and the view on the lake is beautiful.  The return section is easy, a wide trail that follows the river and gets you back to your car in 20 minutes.

In the afternoon, we visited the vineyard that backs into our cabin to sample their vine.  The view from their balcony on the lake and the valley is nice and we sat down to sip a glass of with cheese and crackers, and chat the afternoon away.

We packed the car past midnight to be ready to go early yesterday morning.  Mimi had worked on the curtains all night and we will install them at the cabin this weekend.  The curtains will give us more privacy from the cars driving the road in front of the cabin and from the neighbors.  It is not clear how intrusive the neighbors are, the cabin is located in the countryside where we assume very few events and situations go unnoticed. I brought with me many of the duplicate tools that I have collected over the years, I actually never noticed that I have 5 axes, 4 handsaws, 2 skill saws and many more tolls that have been purchased to prepare for Armageddon.

We did not leave as early as expected.  I walked the dog longer than usual to help her with a bout of diarrhea brought about by Mimi feeding her liver yesterday and we also deeply enjoy our morning coffees while reading the paper.

We arrived last night at the cabin around 6:00 pm after grocery shopping locally and a trip to Walmart to buy a cushion bed for our dog Sidney that Mimi treats like her own child.  Of all the dogs I have owned, I think I have had 6 so far, and she is the smartest by far.  We got her as a 3 months old puppy from the SPCA after filling out a multi page questionnaire and visits from all our family members to check on character compatibility.  They told us that the dog was captured on a native reserve along with her mother, a questionable story considering that her mom was cream in color and appeared to be a lab.  Sidney looks like a German Shepard with floppy ears and fluffy butt.  On her first day at our home, she took refuge several times under the deck when she was fed up with us.  She learned the basics commands (name, sit, come, potty training) so quick that I remember looking into her mouth to see if she still had baby teeth and that we did not adopt a 5 year old dog.

As soon as we arrived at the cabin, I went inside to see if everything was still intact and into the crawling space to check the water pump.  I had my fingers crossed on that one as I forgot to turn off the pump last week and I am sure you can imagine the damage if a water line had broken and the water pump kept flooding the cabin for days on end.  I briefly visited the backyard to see if the fruit trees we planted last week made any progress, of course they looked the same but I am an optimist person.  At a nursery run by Mennonites in Salmon Arm, we bought 2 Lapine cherry trees, 1 Bartlet pear, and one peach tree.  In few years, I will sell the fruits as “organically grown” to the high end grocery stores of the rich neighborhoods in Calgary.  Planting the fruit trees was a lot more work than anticipated, the task looks easy at first: remove the loam, dig an 18 inches hole, stick the tree in, compact the dirt well to avoid air pockets.  In reality, the soil underneath the loam was full of rocks, I had no pick axe, and I had to redig each hole 3 times as my laziness kept telling me that the holes were plenty big.

Prior to dinner, we built a folding dinning table that we purchased with the intent of using it in the main bedroom when I have office work to do.  The table looks great, is solid and can sit 6 comfortably.  Oh yeah, the table is too large to fit thru the door of the main bedroom, so much for that brilliant idea.  Dinner was great, Dr. Oeker frozen pizza with a Stella while watching 2 episodes of Outlander on Netflix.

For the purpose of the blog, I call myself Paul, I picked this name to preserve my anonymity and be unburden by issues such as writing offending or questionable facts, and timeline, and I am not too interested in negative feedbacks.  Although Paul is WASP name, I picked it because of Paul Newman in the movie “Cool Hand Luke” that I saw as a youth, and at the time I thought the egg eating contest was pretty cool and possible.