Cheese and Wine... and Wigs!

For our 3rd annual Cheese & Wine party, we decided it would be fun to add a little twist. Here are a few pictures.

Pearl Jam pictures

I've uploaded a few pictures from the Pearl Jam concert we went to back at the end of September. Apologies for the quality but our camera is pretty old and bulky so we don't usually take it places - these pics were taken with Steph's phone which was all we had. Still, hopefully they catch a bit of the atmosphere. It was a bit of a wish come true for Steph as she'd always wanted to see them live but never had. I'm not a fan of Pearl Jam as such, but I still enjoyed it. They played for 2 hours 15 minutes, so we certainly got our value for money. Even after the second encore when the lights came up, they still kept playing :) A top evening. We also saw Kings of Leon at the same venue a couple of weeks earlier, but sadly we took no pictures of that.

More allotment pictures

I've uploaded some more pictures to Flickr from our allotment recently, so I thought I'd post a few links:

• Photos from June
• Photos from August
• Photos from September

We haven't been down to the allotment too much recently because the weather has turned somewhat cold and wet, but there is a work day on Sunday so perhaps I will try and snap a few pics then. Everything is mostly just dying anyway at the moment :)

Steph's parents visit

Steph's parents came to visit us recently. They spent a week on a road trip through the Rockies, and then joined us for 10 days in Vancouver. They had superb weather throughout, and had a very enjoyable holiday I think. We hired a car for one long weekend and did a bunch of day trips to different places around Vancouver. We also spent plenty of time buying, cooking and eating food :) It was lovely having them to stay.

I've uploaded some pictures from their visit to Flickr. You can see them here.

Oregon Coast camping

We spent a recent weekend travelling down the Oregon Coast with some friends. Up until last week, the weather in Vancouver had been sweltering, so we were quite happy to be driving in an air-conditioned car and to go somewhere where the temperatures were a bit cooler. After crossing the border, we spent the night in a hotel in Olympia. The next day, we drove down to Waldport where we were camping. Unfortunately, our campsite was a big disappointment - too cramped and with no privacy. It felt rather like camping in someone's front drive :) The next day we moved to a much nicer campsite just up the road and were a lot happier then. The weather was mixed, and it had a tendency to drizzle gently on us every evening, but we had lots of good food and campfires, and even got in some beach time. The sand down on the Oregon Coast is fantastic; it rivalled Hawaii in quality I think, especially in the Oregon Dunes area. Other places we really liked were Astoria and Cannon Beach.

I've uploaded some pictures of our trip to Flickr. I hope to get hold of more photos at some point from our friends' camera too.

Camping at Goldstream Provincial Park

We spent last weekend camping on Vancouver Island at Goldstream Provincial Park. We went with some friends of ours and had an excellent time. Highlights included:

• A super-hot 4 hour hike around the park, with several wrong turns thanks to some bad trail maps :/
• A freak thunderstorm, that cut short one of our evenings as we had to retreat to our tents to avoid getting a bit wet.
• Ma Miller's pub just outside the park entrance - cold beer was soooo welcome after a long walk in the sun.

You know the drill - photos on Flickr.

Fireworks 2009

The annual Celebration of Light fireworks displays have been and gone again. Steph and I watched two displays this year - Canada and the UK - both from the beach on English Bay. We missed the two weekend displays (South Africa and China) as we were away on camping trips. If you are interested, you can visit the official site for more info or watch the displays on YouTube - I might do that to catch up on the ones that I missed. We took a few photos at the first event, which are now on Flickr.

My Mum and Gran visit, and other things

I've uploaded a whole heap of photos to Flickr from the recent visit from my Mum and Gran. I think they enjoyed their holiday here in Canada, though sometimes I think perhaps they sent each other a bit crazy - too alike I think :) These are just the photos from the time that we all spent doing stuff together - my Mum has loads more from their coach trip to the Rockies!

They had very good weather for their holiday, barring one day when they arrived and the last couple of days before they left, which were rainy. Since then, the weather has returned to being scorching hot again. I think this might be about the best summer I've seen here in Vancouver in 4 years, and it isn't over yet.

Last weekend was the Strathcona Gardens open day and plant sale. This is the place where we have our allotment, and Steph has been helping out a lot with the plant sale this year. On the Saturday she probably spent 7 hours there helping with the set-up, and I joined her later on for about 4 hours. It was hard work, but fun. On the Sunday, Steph helped with the actual sale itself too, for about 5 hours. I decided to take it easy that day :)

We are thinking about holidays whilst the weather is so good. There's a chance we might go away next weekend for camping on Vancouver Island with friends, but we're not yet sure if that will happen. We are also planning a camping trip down to the Oregon Coast with some other friends, which might be in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will happen, but we need to get off our bums and sort it out!

We saw Up last night at the cinema, which is a great movie. I think it might be one of my favourite Pixar films. Tonight, we are going to watch an outdoor showing of Ghostbusters with friends, and having a picnic tea. Ought to be very pleasant.

The annual Celebration of Light fireworks displays start this Wednesday too, beginning with Canada. The UK are one of the countries competing this year, which will be interesting to see. I reckon we'll be down there as usual, oo-ing and ah-ing with the rest :)

Lynn Canyon walk

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr from a walk we did at Lynn Canyon a few weeks ago, with our friends Chris and Orla. This was our second trip to Lynn Canyon, but this time we actually walked a decent distance - last time we got lost without a map and did a tiny loop that only took an hour :)

Allotment action!

Latest photos from the allotment are now on Flickr. Thanks to lots of sun recently, things are really rocketing skywards. We're already eating kale, chard, and mustard greens from the plot which make some great summer salads. Nice.