It looks like it’s going to take a long time to get my Japan posts completed. There’s basically a post a day for our two-week trip, we did so much. I have to fly to Taiwan for work tonight, so I am going to have to take a break from working on the web ste. Before I go, I thought I’d do a bit of a catch up post on the last week or so.
We have an incredibly busy stretch right now. We were just in Japan, I have to go to Taiwan, we’re in the middle of installing a heat pump into the townhouse, Justine has her second gum surgery coming and we’re then going to do a reno on the townhouse. It’s a bit insane.
Galiano Weekend
With the trip to Japan, we’d been away from Galiano for almost a month. We got back Sunday, MOnday was a holiday and then we were headed to Galiano on Friday afternoon. To make it more fun, Justine had two of her best friends from Ontario coming to stay with us for the weekend. They arrived Friday morning, we got ourselves organized and headed to the ferry later that day.
I got dropped off at the golf course right off the ferry. I’m volunteering on the Board of Directors and we were doing an employee and volunteer appreciation dinner for all the people that contribute to the course over the year. After dropping me off, the girls headed up to the cottage and it looked like they had a fun evening!
I missed the first fire of the season!
After getting back from the golf course event, it was pretty late. We chatted and played a game before calling it a night. It was a good first day.
Saturday morning there was a bunch of work that needed to be done. I need to take the irrigation system apart and put it away for the winter. Then I needed to harvest everything that was left and clear out the gardens. There was a lot to do, coupled with starting dinner. I did a slow roast leg of lamb which needed to in the oven around lunch time.
Later in the afternoon Tova stopped by. We hadn’t seen her in quite a while, and she suggested we go mushroom hunting. It’s the start of chanterelle season, and so we headed out into the forest for a walk. We had pretty good luck. While still early (there were still summer chanterelles around), we found a good amoount and lots of small ones. Hopefully it will be another good season.
Sadly, I butchered dinner. The lamb leg was overcooked. I’m not sure why - the temperature was lower than directed, I had it in for less time, and the leg was bigger than called for. Guess I should have been monitoring the temperatures closer. Still, we had a nice dinner, had some good wine, laughed lots and played a couple of games into the evening.
Saturday morning I left them to hang out and I headed down and played a round of golf. It was wet, but not too bad.
While I was golfing, the girls had gone for a walk and headed down to the beach. I drove back from the course and parked at the beach access point. I walked down and met them at the water. It was sadly very quiet and there wasn’t much to see.
The rest of the day was spent getting some things done and cleaning up before the trip home. We had a dinner reservation at 5:30 and had an amazing prime rib dinner at the Galiano Inn before our 7:30 ferry. It was a pretty easy trip home, then back to reality.
Time for Some Renovations
We have finally decided to have a heat pump (heating plus air conditioning) installed into our townhouse. This year was finally the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. It’s been really hot, and it seems like the right thing to do. As we have to cut into the drywall in order to do the installation, we decided we’d do it big and do a full reno of the place at the same time. More on that later, but I thought I’d share a few pics of them starting the heat pump installation. They got most of the work done on Thursday and Friday, but need to come back Monday to finish this work.
Vancouver Writers Fest - Guy Gavriel Kay
Friday night, as the Jays were beating down the Dodgers, we headed over to Granville Island for part of the Vancouver Writers Festival, as one of my favorite authors, Guy Gavriel Kay, was doing a talk. I’ve seen him many, many times, but this session was particularly good. There was a lot of baseball talk, and the person doing the interview obviously had a very good rapport with Kay. The new book came out in May, so I had read it, but that does not make the talk’s and the readings any less enjoyable. I got my book signed after the reading, so it was a good night.
I’m off to Taiwan for a week-long work trip. This will be a new location for me. It’s a busy week of meetings, so I’m not sure how much of the sights I will see. But I promise to get back to the Japan posts when I get back!