{"id":2183,"date":"2017-03-10T14:05:47","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T19:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2017-03-10T14:23:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T19:23:15","slug":"meditations-on-time-snow-kitty-family-and-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/?p=2183","title":{"rendered":"Meditations on time, snow, kitty, family and wine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMGA0234\"<\/a>\"_IGP4404\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a pretty darn easy winter, although a harsh one by BC and Penticton standards. We\u2019ve 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\u2019ve certainly done more shovelling than last year.<\/p>\n

Not much has happened. Christmas and turkeys have come and gone \u2026 and speaking of turkeys, we\u2019ve had some wonderful visits from Ann\u2019s sisters and buddy-in-law \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_1643\"<\/a>\"IMG_5678\"<\/a>First Donna came and spent a few days here.\u00a0We had an amazing few days with her, enjoying some of the local restaurants, getting haircuts \"_IGP4400\"<\/a>, and most importantly, learning about the local wine scene. Donna hooked us up with Dino Vino of GrapeEscapes<\/a>\u00a0who 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.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2150\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_2143\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_2142\"<\/a> \"IMG_2140\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While here Donna and Ann got to playing pickle ball<\/a>, which as I understand it, is a cross between table tennis, badminton and volley ball \u2026 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 \u2026 or so I was told. In any case, that was the end of Ann\u2019s pro pickle ball career.<\/p>\n

Sadly the time with Donna went all too quickly. We were all sad to see her go \u2026 especially Maxi the cat who took a real liking to her:<\/p>\n

\"_IGP4397\"<\/a>
(of course, Maxi loves everyone who feeds and pets him)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Donna gone the most exciting thing that happened was ME buggering up my knee. So for a while Ann and I\u00a0were like two old codgers hobbling around complaining about\u00a0our old-people aches and pains \u2026 oh wait, I guess that is us \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Nothing much exciting happened the next few weeks. More snow, more hot tubbing, more kitty…<\/p>\n

\"_IGP4413\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMGA0197\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_2129\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_2154\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1090\"<\/a>\"IMG_1093\"<\/a>But then Peggy and Phil came to our rescue! They drove out here in Phil\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Then we put\u00a0our newly developed wine expertise to work and conducted our own wine tour of a few more local wineries.\u00a0So much wine, so little time (and money \ud83d\ude09 ):<\/p>\n

\"IMGA0225\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"IMGA0221\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We had a great time with Peggy and Phil, and I think they really enjoyed the hot tub:<\/p>\n

\"_IGP4436\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But sadly we had to say goodbye all too soon. Maxi misses you…<\/p>\n

\"_IGP4434\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1094\"<\/a>We\u2019re 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 \u2026 always Maxi.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1099\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s been a pretty darn easy winter, although a harsh one by BC and Penticton standards. We\u2019ve had numerous snow falls, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2183"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2200,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions\/2200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}