The blackberries are coming out and we have been busy picking blackberries and making jam to go on our stall with the plum jam. Our jam is becoming quite popular and we are establishing a few regulars at our stall.
August has been a traveling month. I went back to England with Daniel, Anja and one of Daniels friends. It was the first time I had been back since emigrating 3 ½ years ago. Daniel was already booked to go and Anja had said she didn’t want to go but with a week to go she suddenly changed her mind and said she would go if a parent went and guess who got the short straw! Daniel’s friend Cody also booked his ticket at this time. It was an unusual feeling stepping of the plane in Gatwick – a bit unsure how I felt, not over excited, not over despondent. Met my parents in the airport and then went on those fast, busy roads that seemed a distant memory away. The roads felt small and after driving on the other side of the road in Canada it felt strange sitting in the passenger seat with no steering wheel. We were back for two weeks altogether and it was nice to meet up with family and friends. The kids also enjoyed meeting up with some of their old friends and seeing how much they have all changed (Daniel was 11 when we left and is now 15, Anja was 9 and is now nearly 13). One difference this time was that I took photo’s of touristy places like Beachy Head as, although I have been there many times while living In England, now it would be nice to have a photo keepsake as I don’t know when I will next be back to enjoy it. I must admit that it didn’t take long for me to miss my sanctuary of Vancouver Island (I think it was when I boarded the plane in Vancouver) and as time went on I was longing more and more for the return date to come around and I found out that a lot of the reasons for us emigrating was still evident. If nothing else it had reinforced why we emigrated in the first place! Overall it was good meeting people and revisiting some old haunts but in all honesty I hadn’t wanted to go back to England and after this visit nothing had changed my mind to the contrary. When will the next visit be, I don’t know, probably not for a while.
On our return to Canada Daniel went of to a Summer camp for a week and at the end of August we went on our family holiday. We went to Whistler for 2 nights and during this time we saw 14 bears! Mette and Anja tried out the Zipline which goes through the air at a height of up to 200 feet and for distances up to 2,000 feet. Daniel and me decided that a nice leisurely ride up the top of Whistler in a Gondola was a better idea and we went up and enjoyed the views and a little bit of snow. From Whistler we went to Salmon Arm for one night. We then went onto Ainsworth Hot Springs visiting a few small towns on the way including New Denver and Kaslo, both very pretty, and enjoying our drive through the mountains. We spent 2 nights in Ainsworth and can thoroughly recommend the Hot Springs, a very enjoyable time. We also visited some caves called Cody Caves which was fun. We moved on from Ainsworth and stayed one night in Hope. On the way we went through some more nice towns including Osoyoos which is in a valley between the mountains and is hot. There is a big lake there and we all agreed that we would like to come back and stay here another time. From Hope we went to Hells Gate which is a Gondola over the Fraser River. A nice place to visit and have lunch followed by an ice- cream the size of a puppy! We carried on from here to North Vancouver, to my sisters house, where we stayed the night before returning home to Vancouver Island the following day. As with all holidays reality is always waiting and so it’s back to work, back to school, back to all the sports and clubs and back to being a chauffeur again. Be back next month!