CaptainOrange

Wendy had a conference in Calgary in early March and, as is my wont, I tagged along for a mini vacation. I took the opportunity to catch up with Dave ahead of Quest New Year.  He toured me around some of his favourite trees. Dave loves trees, so that doesn't narrow it down much, but in this case it meant Douglas Fir. They were majestic in a very classical sense. Broad, straight, and tall. Calgary has number of them along the banks of the winding Bow River. We talked about trees a lot during the visit, and at one point he told me of a tree that he had seen, where the North Saskatchewan River exits the Rock Mountains, known as  The Whirlpool Point Pine. This tree is thought to be one of the oldest trees in Canada. The actual age is not known with precision (the reasons are various and I'll avoid trying to sound like an authority), but 2000 years is a modest estimate. Dave dropped a pin on my map and told me, if I had a chance, to go walk around. He let me know that the locaiton ...

 The weather has really been alternating between nearly melting and the deepest of deep freezes... So, normal end of January in Saskatchewan. We had been planning to travel to visit Brad in Newport News and Teela's family in Charlottesville. The rising Omicron variant made it so that travel felt like it was going to be more work than it's worth. We already had this weekend booked for holidays and decided that even though we were to stay at home, we should try and make it feel a bit more... vacation-y. There has been beautiful hoar frost and a lack of sun for several days. It has advanced to the near-ridiculously fluffy stage. Any hint of a breeze or brushing of a twig sends a cascade of snow floating lazily down. As luck would have it, the sun was just beginning to peek out in time that the light was a bit better for photography. I surprised myself today with the realization that neither Wendy nor I could ever remember feeding birds from our hands. I've watched many people ...

Wendy and I have been increasing our camping/canoeing frequency since our children have graduated high school. The one aspect that we have not done for a VERY long time is winter camping. It was the first way we ever camped together when we started obsessively spending time together, but it is a lot of work and our children never enjoyed camping enough that we ever felt inclined to try and do it with them as tiny dependants. Our 25-year-old 'Eureka' tent from Lee and Sandi Also, while the COVID-19 pandemic is terrible for trying to do normal things (like travel to places other people want to go), it is less terrible for going to places few people want to go. Hey, Saskatchewan, how are you doing? So, we invited David (at the cost of $5.01/night)--yes, we made him pay his own way--to meet with us at Birch Bay to share some social distanced solitude. I’m not sure exactly where Wendy, Teela, Jessie, Ali, and I were, but it was definitely on Waskesiu, so it was like a bit of a ho...

Sad news first My mother died suddenly of a stroke on August 11th of this year while battling Cancer. I just thought you should know. There is a whole story hanging in that sentence, but it's not yet ready to tell. Some Joy In the meantime, grieving is an ongoing process and so, too, is my summer. As autumn quickly approaches, we are readying the yard and garden for winter. We have had a bumper crop of tomatoes, basil, carrots, and other wonders of sustenance.  One crop that has been in short supply is Serenity. It is yield that helps prepare me for the winter. COVID-19 has changed many things. For me, summer is a time to recharge myself and, through the experience of joy, recharge the people I love. I can be hard to live with in February and I count on a carefree summer to remind me--and those who live with me--just why they would bother ;) Needless to say, that has been challenging. But, Wendy and I have made some great headway on our desire to spend more time in nature (generall...

Lee solos Searszilla We finally got a new canoe! We have been using Lee and Sandi's old 17' Sears beast since we were married. It has served us very well and has now been handed along to Liz. At my strongest, I was able to carry it down to a boat launch myself, but that is a decade behind me now. I tried to talk Wendy into an ultra-light kevlar replacement, but at $4-6K that seemed like a remote possibility. Instead we settled on a sensible 14'6"  Clipper - Escape from Eb's Adventure . Clipper - Escape While she didn't want to admit it--"A canoe is a canoe" <yawn>--Wendy is clearly in LOVE with the Escape. Even with the river at faster than average flow rate, she was able to solo (with me as dead weight) across the river and even make easy headway upstream. The ostensible reason for this needless test of her paddling prowess was a large bird nest that she spotted on the East side of the river. As it turns out, it wasn't a ...