Beautiful Day in Victoria

I have to admit that the weather hasn't been stellar until today... pure blue skies and warm sunny weather...very nice for coffee on the deck and a little "Be a tourist in the town" afternoon. Kaleigh volunteered for duty at the Highland Tattoo and games being held in Victoria this weekend. We picked her up this afternoon to the bleating of bagpipes in Topaz park... loads of people attending and from Kaleigh's retelling...there was everything from sheep herding with border collies to Hagus tossing. We didn't partake ...just picked up Kaleigh and headed into the city to eventually go to the Imax theater. We parked down in ther harbour and walked back along the harbour front, checking out vendors and hawkers of every sort.(I will post pics when I get home!) We picked up our tickets, then wondered back up to the mall and the food court for a sushi lunch that wasn't looking like it came from a stall screaming"Ptomaine Poisoning!"I have to say that the waffles smelled great and Kaleigh had to go to the giant Lemon pod for a drink of Lemonade!
We returned to the theatre, loaded up on a giant pop and popcorn that did us all and settled into our seats for a three-D showing of "Hubble" This was amazing ! It first showed how the astronauts trained in a 16million gallon tank of water four stories deep on how to make repairs to the huge Hubble telescope once they were in outerspace. Then it showed the launch of the Spaceshuttle Discovery and the tedious job of repairing the lens of the Hubble telescope while they were in orbit The images were real and the view of our planet earth was spectacular! The astronauts experienced a new day every 90 minutes, so they often worked through darkness before getting back to daylight within the next 90 minutes. Then the show explained through actual images taken by the Hubble, how vast our universe is... how galaxies abound, and how they are being formed and how they are dying...The mesmerizing thing about the whole show were the real images of stars and nebulas and galaxies and how the telescope Hubble has sent us those profound images. It could have never been possible if the space program hadn't of continued after the deaths of the whole crew from the Columbia shuttle.
All in all, we are such a small entity in a sea of stars in our own galaxy, the "Milky way", but that is only one galaxie of billions out there... Makes you think that more planet earths are not only possible , but totally probable...but how do we find them? ( Of course if you are a regular subscriber to Spaceweather.com, you will know that scientists are working hard to track the shadows of planets fourth from the aclose by star and - being reflected onto that Star(sun)...to check the revolution times...are they similar to earth's 365 days around the sun? If they are, then they could be another planet earth? Their job has only just begun,and it is a theory, but a good one....lots of stars out here to track..
"The Creator"

Flying beats driving! Happy New House Annette and Shawn!

Yes, I have seen the light...Flying to Victoria certainly beats the long drive down! I arrived feeling fresh and happy and it was sunny and my daughter was at the airport to pick me up... all very good indeed. I had a deja vu kind of moment whe I entered the airport and looked up to the second level to see a couple of little girls waving down at the people coming in fromt he plane. In a flash I had a vision that it was Kaleigh and Maddie there all excited about my arrival... then I woke up... those girls couldn't have been more than seven or eight years old!! Instead, my beautiful Sonia was there to give me big hugs... so nice to see her and to be in Victoria within a few hours of leaving Castlegar... all good, and definately worth pursuing the next time I wish to come down for a visit.
Both Kaleigh and Madeline were home sick from school that day... more colds and sore throats... some strep throat going around their schools. Maddie's face was all flushed from a bit of a fever... She took another day off school today...poor kiddo! Sonia made that delicious
When we left Castlegar, it was pouring rain and again in Vancouver it was coming down by the bucketful- however fifteen minutes by air and we were in the sunshine in Victoria. sonia cooked up that delicious Phyllo roasted fresh salmon and we enjoyed a delicious dinner.
Today is another story...grey with showers. We ventured out to LA Vie en Rose... a lingerie store that I usually buy my bras at on-line...so it was fun to go to the real store and see all of the bargains! I had to get a couple of new nighties and found a special blue bra that I have been looking for, for three years now so it was a succesful shopping trip!
We hit up Super store and I nearly cried when I saw all the bedding plants... Multiply everything we have in Nelson by 10 and there it all was , right before my eyes.I guess that is when I thought that having a car here would have been beneficial! Sonia found wave petunias for her flowerpots.
I made a batch of Chocolate chip cookies ( see sidebar under chocolate chip cookies ( Sues) .


"The Creator"