A Bear In The Yard

Well, this week has been full of social engagements. Our first was Shaun's work BBQ at the Lakeside Park here in town - it was a pot luck which meant that everyone took something with them. We took one of my favourite homemade puddings - tiramisu which didn't last very long at all - the best kind of compliment! We had lots to eat and drink (no alcohol in public places) and met all Shaun's work colleagues and their families.

Shaun's boss Seain (pronounced Shaun) arranged for the party to start at 2pm so all the staff had the afternoon off too.

On saturday we went to a wedding reception which was of my bosses daughter who I also work with and her new husband. That was such a fabulous setting at their house - a lakeside property just out of town nestled in the trees with its own beach, and boat - the competent skiers were taking turns to go water skiing.

Some of the guests were sitting in deckchairs in the shallows of the shore paddling and I guess it was to be expected that a couple of folks ended up falling into the water by the end of the evening and needed to borrow clothes.

The weather was great and I think we managed to meet about 80 people there many of whom already seemed to know who we were!? Small town. We were made to feel very welcome by everyone there and I even managed to find myself a new hairdresser who turns out to be the wife of one of Shaun's work colleagues!

Must admit that there seem to be some differences in wedding etiquette over here - in England as over here the bride throws the bouquet for all the single ladies, well then the groom has his turn where he takes the brides garter off her leg with his teeth then throws for all the single men - this was exceptionally funny especially as they had to do this in front of the whole crowd.

Glad we are married already and don't need to go through that experience!

For those of you who are snow lovers we have just received notice that the early bird passes are on sale for the ski hill - the season opens here on 1st December and runs through til 30th March so we have already worked out we have around 17 weeks to ski and board this season - let us know if you fancy booking a bed here?

Yep, as the title suggests we have had a bear sighting in town, its quite close really our next door neighbours yard - gulp! Apparently it came down from the forest behind our house to rummage the bins along the street and decided to sit and eat its dinner in the yard.

The Kitties are doing well and growing fast they still seem to be in the chewing everything phase and Phantom has started to bring us huge pieces of bark chippings in from the garden - well at least they aren't alive!

I have finished decorating the study so you are probably thinking "well what's next?" - well its an outside job that needs finishing before the weather turns - we need to jet wash then re stain the deck and railings. You can probably see from the picture here we have a lot to stain.

We have bought a jet washer which seems bigger than is probably necessary but as Shaun stated "you never know when it might come in handy" - not too sure about that one - just think boys like BIG toys!

Whilst we were at the store I contributed to the whole decorative process by buying some outdoor fairy lights for the deck when we are finished.

Well that is all our news at the moment - we don't have a bank holiday this weekend ours is next week so we hope you have had a nice long weekend and look forward to hearing all your news.

Keep in touch

Rachael, Shaun, Phantom and Harley xx

Kootenay Lake - Pilot Peninsula

Hello Readers
Welcome to another issue of Nelson Weekly News and for those of you who received our last update hopefully you will notice some improvements to the format.
We are now blogging with the dudes, well we figured it was better to send you all a link each time we post rather than clogging up your in boxes so hope you will still enjoy our news.
You may also notice that the Weekly news has now become kind of fortnightly after the Editor started her new job.
Well, what have we been doing over the last couple of weeks - there was a major revelation when we discovered Top Gear on BBC Canada. Shaun has managed to reduce his commute down to just 2 minutes and 48 seconds. I have started working at the Optometrists (Opticians) in town as an assistant which has been really interesting and has broadened our social life too - we have been out around Nelson with one of the girls I work with and her husband and we have even been invited to their wedding reception party which is coming up this next weekend.
We are still discovering there are a lot of English folk in Nelson, I was at the deli in the supermarket ordering some ham for sandwiches when a chap stood next to me said "so what part of Yorkshire are you from then?" it turns out he was from Selby and moved to Nelson in 1955.
NEWS FLASH - it rains in Canada too - after almost 7 weeks of dry weather we have had 2 days of showers although it has still been quite warm around 25 degrees. No need for water sprinklers today - its coming down like stair rods! Its good news for the forest fires and also the firefighters.
I have been decorating some of the house - the en suite bathroom was pink so that really had to go and is now a kind of stone colour and the study which we fondly call Kevin's room as it used to house a teenage boy had some really odd rag rolling going on in dark green, so that also had to go and is now an off white ready for Shaun to hang some of his photography works.
We are busy trying to learn the Canadian version of the Highway Code ready for our theory and practical driving tests - yep we really do need to do them again - we have them booked but the dates are secret until hopefully we will pass, or our car will be stuck down at City Hall with no one to drive it home ?? ooopps! Fingers crossed one of us will pass at least.
The kittens are growing quickly and are lovely - Harley the ginger is really calm and laid back whereas Phantom is gorgeous but is a challenge. We have caught his new habit is eating slugs - yuck. He still enjoys climbing up the fly screens on the doors and digging in plant pots. We have come to the conclusion that he is going through the cat version of the terrible twos.
Yesterday we decided to go out hiking in the rain and went up to Balfour and across Kootenay Lake on the ferry to Kootenay Bay - this is a car ferry which takes about 35 minutes to cross the lake and the views are very pretty. We then headed out on a hike to Pilot Peninsula which was 12km round trip mainly in forest and on beaches, we saw some huge ponderosa pines and cedar trees. Luckily no bears! It was a great hike but we both had very tired bodies this morning.
We have been to see The Bourne Ultimatum at the cinema in Castlegar which is about 40 minutes away - the sound was good and they had air conditioning too which was an improvement on our Nelson cinema experience when it sounded like Harry Potter was stuck in a biscuit tin.
Well, this week promises to bring some good social activities - along with the wedding reception we have Shaun's works BBQ at the lakeside park and we are going to do Sunday Brunch in town at one of the hotels - yum.
We hope that you are all doing well and we look forward to hearing your news and gossip.
Bye for now
Rachael, Shaun, Phantom and Harley xx

Bacon Butties

Another week goes by and here is our latest edition of Nelson News.

We hope you are all well and we understand from our international reporters over in Sheffield & Halifax that England has at last got some sunshine - hurray, the weather here has cooled down a touch to about 25-28 degrees. We have managed to get out and about a bit more and the kittens have even been outside too. We think we have successfully trained Pavlov's cats and they return to the back door to the sound of the food bowls and kitten biscuits.

On the subject of food we have taken advice from one of Shaun's work colleagues who is an expat of 7 years on where to find english style cut back bacon. For those of you who have been to Canada you will know that the bacon is cut streaky and just doesn't make for a great bacon butty - well we have found a local deli who prepare the correct style bacon and on saturday we enjoyed a great bacon butty lunch - yumm.

We have also experienced our first film at the cinema in Nelson, it was Harry Potter but there was no air conditioning, the sound was coming from two speakers at the front of the hall and well, the whole experience was quaint rather than the big screen cineplexes we are used to. But it only cost about £3 each and it was a great building - a bit like Cottage Road cinema used to be in Headingley. Next trip to the cinema will be to Castlegar which does have the usual comforts!

Rachael is also sorry to announce that she has managed to find a job - today Matthew I am going to be ...........an Optometrists Assistant. I start next monday so another week of being a lady of leisure. I am set to be trained in the first few weeks with the aim being to be able to assist in helping people choose glasses and also train on how to put contact lenses in etc - really need to get over my eye ball phobia pretty quickly !? Yuck.
I have heard from the ICES that my degree is comparable to a Canadian dietetics degree and have been in touch with the BC Dietitians ready to submit all my training and experience to them for assessment. Then will sit the exam or do more training whatever they decide.

Here is a funny tale which is very typically Nelson :

I was going into the bank to pay some bills when I noticed a Brinks lorry park up at the side of the road (Securicor). I did my banking and just as I was about to step out noticed that the guards were pushing a trolley up the disabled access ramp into the bank. I stepped aside to let them pass through the door just as a lady came running up to the guards shouting " Hey Sir you have dropped some of your money!" I turned to see her handing him a bundle of notes that had fallen off the trolley - which I then noticed was piled high with bundles of notes from $10 upwards ! It could only happen in Nelson !

Yesterday we drove over to a place called Creston which is heading out towards Alberta, the trip is really pretty as its heads up a pass which is 1170 m high and is very spectacular - well, there wasn't much happening at Creston but we did come across a tea shop - the owner was really friendly and invited us to try some of her teas. We were chuckling that Shaun was really going to miss his Yorkshire tea when the supply that Alison kindly sent over to us would run out, when she produced from under the counter what can only be described as the tea drinkers bible.
She flicked through a few pages then announced "is this Yorkshire tea from Harrogate?" Wow, we have found a source of Yorkshire Tea and she told us about a shop in Nelson that she could recommend would also have access to the 'bible' for her to order for us. It comes in 1 lb bags so should keep him going for a while.
She also went on to say that she had just received in a supply for another English family of LADY GREY !!!!!!

On the way back from Creston we were fortunate enough to be in the car when we had a bear encounter - a mother bear and cub were crossing the road. She was really big and showed no concern at the cars she made stop. We were just pleased to be in the car. No need for bear spray.

Today was the Nelson Triathlon and when I went on my regular jog around the Lakeside Park there were lots of very athletic looking men and women getting ready for the race. From the house we saw them swimming across the lake, then cycling around town then running around the park. Luckily I wasn't mistaken for a competitor as I had no bike, not really keen on swimming and would never be able to finish the race ........not this year anyway.

Well that is about it for this week, I am afraid there are no pictures attached as my Photo Editor is having problems with his external hard drive where the pictures are stored so I shall have to whip him into shape for the next edition.