A close paradise

Last week, we spent a few days with good friends on Saltspring Island. They have a wonderful house located near the top of a ridge, overlooking the waterways between some of the Gulf Islands.

They are great cooks, so we had some excellent meals. There were only the four of us - it was a "cozy" visit.

I took my Celestron C-8 telescope along, and, since the weather co-operated, we had a great view of the planet Saturn with its rings and moons, globular and open star clusters, and much more. The sky in the area is relatively free of light pollution, even though the "light domes" of Vancouver to the east and Victoria to the south were noticeable.

The ferry trips themselves were like "microcruises"; we tend forget how beautiful BC is - a paradise close by.

Some pictures:
Saltspring

A summer day

Today would have been Derek's 44th birthday. This is always a somewhat sad day for us. But we've also had some good experiences in the last couple of weeks.

Our older granddaughter won an award for being the top English student in her grade level. She now moves up one grade and, in three years, will be graduating from high school. Our younger granddaughter graduated from elementary school. She also won a general service award, and, in addition, a once-a year school award for exceptional volunteering and helping teachers and students. Her sister received the same special award two years ago. Starting in the fall, both will be attending the same school again.

Yesterday, we spent a lovely afternoon at my wife's sister's friend's house (how about three apostrophes in a row?), enjoying the warm, sunny afternoon on a very nice and secluded sun deck. I was the only man among five attractive and intelligent ladies; what more can a guy ask for? Clarification: the fifth lady was my imaginary mistress who looks just like my wife.

Today, we've been sitting in our back yard all afternoon, had a few glasses of wine, and raised a couple of toasts in our son's memory. It's now 8:40pm, we're still sitting here, and it's 30 degrees C (86F). A beautiful day, the rather warm temperature is rare for our area, though.

The "Fixer"

A couple of days ago, a few of these mushrooms appeared in our "lawn" (mostly clover, as you can see). Mushrooms appear every year there, and they have an important function: they are a catalyst in atmospheric nitrogen transformation for use by plant and tree roots. This is a two-way street. The mushrooms, in turn, benefit by having access to plant sugars and nutrients.

Here's the nitrogen "fixation" cycle, as taken from Google images:

As shown, there are other plants which do this kind of "work". In our case, the mushrooms shown above are located in the roots of our cherry tree - maybe we'll get some of those cherries later on in the year, before the birds rob them all.

A vacation

We went to San Diego a couple of weeks ago to visit good friends, and returned last Tuesday. There was a bit of jealousy on our part regarding the weather here. While we were going through the normal for this time of year cloudy-sunny-cloudy-and even rainy regimen for San Diego's shorelines, the weather here was summer. On top of that, we both contracted some nasty cough (I even had a bout with fever). We're still battling that now, on the long weekend. Sometimes you wonder whether our aging bodies are telling us to stay at home and deal with germs they know, rather than fight new "enemies".

Well, we'll resist that notion.

A life together

Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. Through all those years, we've never lost our love for each other, through joys, adversities, and family tragedies. Our relationship is built on trust, mutual respect, and love. 

We were in the company of our daughter-in-law and our two granddaughters, the three people in our family who are closest to us. The five of us had a very nice dinner at the Cactus Club at Metrotown. It was a "gentle" celebration.

Happy Easter

We have a nice, sunny weekend ahead of us. Since it's Easter, today (Friday) is a holiday for most people, and Monday is another semi-official one. Many provinces don't observe Monday, though.

We have plans to take the granddaughters to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC and also to have  lunch at the "Flying Beaver" -  a Harbour Air floatplane/pub combination on the banks of the Fraser River arm south of Vancouver International Airport.

The cherry blossoms are about to burst out on our street as well. It looks like spring may have finally sprung.

A Sunny Day

Today is Sunday, with a clear, blue sky, and sunny. It's beautiful, and we intend to go for a walk to soak up some of those rays.

In another way, the memories today are not so sunny: today is the second anniversary of our son Derek's living wake (http://www.penmachine.com/2011/03/my-living-wake). At that point, Derek had exactly two months to live; we didn't know this, of course. So today, we also remember that it is exactly twenty-two months since he died.

We'll raise a toast or two regarding these events in our lives, and as a thank you to our extended family and all the friends who helped us deal with those. We miss Derek, but we also have proud memories of him - he made a difference in many peoples' lives.

If you wish to do so, you can also leave comments on the memorial page at http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/vancouversun/guestbook.aspx?n=derek-miller&pid=150846264

Life goes on.