Meditations on time, snow, kitty, family and wine

The time slips away, measurable only by the number of new snow falls, the amount of kitty food left, and the number of wine bottles that find their way into the recycling bin.

It’s been a pretty darn easy winter, although a harsh one by BC and Penticton standards. We’ve had numerous snow falls, and record-breaking low temperatures at times. All the locals seem a bit shell-shocked. Of course from a Northern Ontario perspective this has still been a very easy winter, but we’ve certainly done more shovelling than last year.

Not much has happened. Christmas and turkeys have come and gone … and speaking of turkeys, we’ve had some wonderful visits from Ann’s sisters and buddy-in-law 😉

 

First Donna came and spent a few days here. We had an amazing few days with her, enjoying some of the local restaurants, getting haircuts , and most importantly, learning about the local wine scene. Donna hooked us up with Dino Vino of GrapeEscapes who gave us a terrific tour of wines of the region. We stopped at four wineries, plus had an education session on how to taste wines. It was all great fun, and very tasty.

  

While here Donna and Ann got to playing pickle ball, which as I understand it, is a cross between table tennis, badminton and volley ball … except it is mostly for old farts. Those old farts can be pretty competitive though; second time out one of them knee-capped Ann to take her out of the competition … or so I was told. In any case, that was the end of Ann’s pro pickle ball career.

Sadly the time with Donna went all too quickly. We were all sad to see her go … especially Maxi the cat who took a real liking to her:

With Donna gone the most exciting thing that happened was ME buggering up my knee. So for a while Ann and I were like two old codgers hobbling around complaining about our old-people aches and pains … oh wait, I guess that is us 😉

Nothing much exciting happened the next few weeks. More snow, more hot tubbing, more kitty…

   

But then Peggy and Phil came to our rescue! They drove out here in Phil’s sporty little car, and spent nearly a week hanging out with us. We did some more exploring around the area, driving up to Naramata and enjoying the local pubs.

Then we put our newly developed wine expertise to work and conducted our own wine tour of a few more local wineries. So much wine, so little time (and money 😉 ):

      

We had a great time with Peggy and Phil, and I think they really enjoyed the hot tub:

But sadly we had to say goodbye all too soon. Maxi misses you…

We’re now into our final few weeks here in Penticton. Hard to believe it has almost been five months since we arrived here. Despite the snows (that disappear as quickly as they fall), Spring is coming, and that means a return to boat life. Launch is set for April 23rd, so we have to be back to Belleville by April 15th-ish at the latest. In between then and now there is curling to watch (Ann), games to play (Mike) and a bit of actual paying work to get done. And Maxi … always Maxi.