We were up and out by 7.15am for our usual early morning walk but the atmosphere was very different today. There was a definite hint of smoke in the air and the mountains were hardly visible due to the smoke drifting across the sky. All this from the forest fires that are still raging in Seattle some 320 miles away. That’s some distance for the smoke to drift and can only highlight the severity of these fires.
We walked the streets with purpose, aiming to claim at least 10,000 steps and a good few miles. It always tickles us that despite walking together and covering the same distance the health app on our phones always gives different measurements. Maice always does more steps and more miles than I do, and its all due to the length of our gait. I do less because I’ve got long legs and she does more because she uses more steppage to keep up with me! We’re not sure how it calculates our mileage, but surely that should be the same? Some things are certainly meant to confuse!
We stepped into the Bean Scene cafe where we’re seen to be seen and sat outside with our cappuccino’s and Henry, the Bernese Retriever cross. He was gorgeous but not interested in us. He was more preoccupied in staring at the door to the cafe waiting for his paw-dad to appear with his coffee. We got chatting to paw-dad when he came out and found out all about Henry who loves to travel, go on long walks and sheds a lot of hair, just like Sir Winston!!!
We’re always very observant when we go out on our morning walks. We’ve walked through some lovely neighbourhoods where the houses are all individually designed with many of them affording fantastic views out over Lake Okanagen and the waterfront. The majority of houses here seem to have very large ‘yards’ large driveways or parking area which we’ve deduced is to accommodate the very large SUV’s and RV’s that everyone seems to own. A ‘yard’ by the way is a garden. Even if it’s a large expanse of lawn with flowers and trees and greenhouses it’s still called a yard whereas we back in the UK call it a garden. A ‘yard’ to us is a small piece of outside space usually attached to a terraced house. Some of the RV’s (recreational vehicles) are enormous, the equivalent to a luxury coach back in the UK so it’s just as well the roads here are wide and straight to accommodate these beasts on the roads. Whereas the smaller RV’s can live on a driveway the larger one’s have to be parked in an off road storage faciliary. We’ve also noticed on our walks a number of houses displaying ‘historic story boards’ that tell the passer-by the history of the house; who built it, what social standing they had in the community and why they were built, along with other interesting facts. So not only do we enjoy the health benefits from our early morning walks we also find them very educational!
Back home we titivated ourselves before the three of us went out for breakfast, which meant an early start for Myrna (we left at 9.30am) but hey, the reward for getting up early was a maple syrup pancake breakfast at Ricky’’s. Yum. Unfortunately according to a notice on the door Ricky didn’t have many staff that day and service would be ‘slow’ so after a disgruntled diner stormed out muttering he’d not even been served in the twenty minutes he’d been sat there we decided to find somewhere else. We ended up at Smitty’s which had two advantages a) it had a full complement of staff and b) there was angle parking, ideal for Myrna who was able to park ‘within’ the designated white lines! We ordered buttermilk pancakes, which were totally delicious and watched in fascination the ‘robotic’ waiter went about the restaurant delivering the orders. Obviously a gimmick or a sign of the future….the only thing is couldn’t do was put the plate on the table. Ha, so much for technology…….it still needed a mere mortal to do that!
We left Smitty’s and headed off to West Kelowna to pick up Carole. Us four ladies were off to Peachland, a district further up the lake, on the banks of the lake where on Sunday they have an outdoor market we fancied going to. Well, Myrna really excelled herself here. We found a parking space along the roadside and without further ado she’d whipped into the space and didn’t even need to do the usual manoeuvring forwards and backwards. And that was it, a very well executed and nifty piece of parking carried out by Myrna!
The weather had turned quite cool (24 degrees) and it was quite cloudy as we walked along the waterfront to the market. We purchased some nectarines and purchased a bag of home made cheese and onion Perogies for supper. I’d never heard of them before but they’re a firm favourite in the Canadian diet which actually hail from Eastern Europe, probably Poland. Perogie’s are filled dumplings made by wrapping unleavened dough around a savoury filling, lightly cooked in boiling water, then pan pan-fried before serving. They are delicious. I bought a ‘not the real thing’ Burberry bucket hat for autumn/winter. You can tell it’s a fake one as the pattern doesn’t match, but hey, who’s going to notice? After a well deserved coffee stop where we all had soft-drinks and smoothies we headed back to Carole’s place and spent a very captivating hour looking through one of her photo albums. It was interesting to see how everyone had changed, you certainly wouldn’t recognise a ‘young’ Maice from how she is today!
Back home we ate our Perogies, enjoyed a glass of wine after which Maice promptly fell asleep on the sofa at 7.30pm and i retired to my bed at 8pm. Jet lag had finally got the better of us.
Night all……M&Axx
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