The weekend!

To start this session a flower. I don't know what flower but it was beautiful. Jaimie took an even nicer picture of it, but I can't just steel her pictures!

Friday was spent at Green Lake. By the time we got there the weather wasn't that nice anymore though so I spent the afternoon reading gossip. Don't buy both Intouch and People like I did. They both contain the same pictures and the same information! I made ärtsoppa for dinner which I think was appreciated :o) It was of course served with Swedish punch. The punch really heated Jan up!

Saturday wasn't very exciting. I baked a cake in the morning for a funeral that Jan and Mike went to in the afternoon. Jaimie came home from her friends place in the afternoon and I came with her to get the horse trailer that had been repaired. By the time both we and Jan and Mike got home it started raining so we stayed in watching tennis for the late afternoon, early evening.

The weather was awful for most of Sunday. And the day didn't improve by Mike hurting his back leaning over to put on his horse boots. Somehow we decided to take a trip to the near by ski hill Mt Timothy where I spent lots of time in the winter. First we had to take the kayaks off the roof which made us very wet since we decided doing it when the rain was at its worst. So we all had to change clothes. Mike didn't come of course. I don't think his back would have liked the bumpy road to the top of the hill. Before getting up there we stopped at this field that is so beautiful in the winter time when it is snow all over. Jaimie and Jan made me climb up one of the hay bales. Except the rash I got on my legs from the hay it was a new and pretty fun experience. The ski hill really is more beautiful in the winter time. It looked kind of sad in the summer time, but the new chair lift was nice.

Getting back we all sat around doing nothing pretty much. Gordon my old high school friend and next door neighbor came by. He had been forest fire fighting in the Kootneys (Rockies) for the past two weeks.

Today has been another lazy day. Jan had to go and look at this horse in Prichard so I'm sitting around waiting for Jaimie to get off work.

To end this session a picture of me kind of kayaking. I don't really know what I'm doing with the paddle there...

Riding!

Jan made me go riding today. Well, I kind of wanted to, but since I am a control freak it kind of freaks me out not being in 100 % control. You never know when the horse will jump! Just thought I would put up some pictures...


I spent the morning trying to take pictures of the humming birds. One picture turned out okey. Their wings are so cool!
And a picture from yesterday. Going home from kayaking Jan discovered that we had a flat tire that we had to change before going home. Jan did really well!!! I just managed the camera. Kayaking was gorgeous by the way!

Tourist

I spent yesterday being a tourist in 100 Mile. I saw the water fall by the park for the first time in 7 years. It hadn't grown... I also went to the 108 Heritage site where a few old buildings from the gold rush and the time after have been put up. I haven't been there for 6 years. Not much had changed though except the newly built log church.


On the way back we were slowed down by a sheep herd that must have escaped from their owner. This event led up to me, Jan, her neighbor Val and her relative Haley trying to save a cow that was a bit lost. Even though we opened the gate for him he decided to jump through the barbed wire fence.

Planned for today is another attempt at kayaking on Ruth Lake. The rain stopped us last time, but the weather looks pretty nice today so hopefully we will make it around the whole lake this time.

More pictures...

What a beautiful weekend we've had. It is still not to warm though, the temperature is just right for not being over heated. I had my first swim in Canada on Saturday in the 108 Lake. I was supposed to have gone for a swim yesterday at Green Lake too, but the wind out there didn't really make you that up for it. The camp chairs (the wind picked them up and dropped them in the water), Jan, Mike and Paul all went in though. Only Paul didn't mind the cold water! Jaimie has finally beat me in crib. She is still about 10 wins behind me! I guess I don't have much else to tell you about this weekend. For those interested though. I talked to Darlene on Saturday and the baby hadn't arrived yet. Here are some pictures!
The Kidstons' log house and property with the arena in the foreground.

Jaimie riding in the arena.

The view from the porch. Fields, lakes and lots of forest!


For those interested in geography and that remembers Peter Haggett and "On the Beach". Jan took geography in the end of the 70s and Haggett was used already back then. The beach chapter is pretty much the same as in the newer versions.



















You all must be impressed by the lack of self portrait pictures! :o) Don't worry I will probably do a spp theme any day now!

Finally Friday!

I've already been here for a week. Tuesday was a quiet day. I'm on vacation right so I'm allowed to just relax, sun tan for a bit on the porch. They really have a wonderful porch with a beautiful view. You can see forest for miles and miles. Maybe I should add a picture of the house and view soon. In the late afternoon I went for ladies night at the tennis court. I don't enjoy doubles that much though, but in the end I got to play a single with my sister Jaimie. We tied but had quite a good game except our serves. On Wednesday Jan (my second mum) and I went to Kamloops two and a half hours south of 100 Mile. Since Jan took geography at University before marrying Mike we of course talked about how the language changes from wet and vegetation rich to very dry and vegetation poor. We only made one stop though to take pictures of this iron rich mountain/hill. In Kamloops we went to all the fun stores like Canadian Superstor, Wal-Mart, Chapters (including Starbucks), Staples and of course Costco (my favorite). You by everything in huge packages there. It's great fun. We also went to Jysk which I thought was a Swedish store, but I learned that it was Danish. Well, anyway it is Scandinavian. Jan had never been there before but is going again for sure. We saw Nancy something in the lamp store. She won some Olympic medal in alpine skiing at the 1968 Olympics (was that a winter Olympics?) She is still a huge roll model for young skiers here. I think almost every ski hill has a Nancy Green club for young skiers. Yesterday was another lazy day until it was time for this weeks kayaking. We went to Ruth Lake but only had time for 1 1/2 hours of kayaking since a thunderstorm was coming our way. We got away with just a little bit of rain in the end. I don't know what the plan is for the weekend it really depends on the weather. After a week of sunshine the weather is a bit crappy today. We might go to Sun Peak for Sunday. There is some quilting thing going on up there. I'm not so interested in that but it would be fun to see Sun Peaks though. I never got to see it in the winter time when I was here for my exchange and it sounds like it is a cool place. Jaimie is going to Vancouver Sunday to Monday since she has to take some finger print for her Visa or something like that. She is coming to Scotland and Glasgow to finish her law studies this fall. Hopefully she will come to Sweden for Christmas. Well it is time to get out there and see a little bit of 100 Mile!

Summer in 100 Mile!

I've already been here for four days! The trip here was kind of exciting. First of all I tried to bring a full water bottle through security at Heathrow. I did not succeed. But I didn't loose my nice Nalgene bottle either. The security guard was really nice and went and just pored the water out. I guess she noticed that I wasn't terrorist material.

I thought I really would like Air Canada, but I missed New Zealand Air. Air Canada didn't have a single movie I wanted to watch! And it was a touch screen instead of a remote control which meant that the 8 year old Norwegian boy behind me could both hit me in the back with his feet (which he did a lot) and pick me in the head since he wasn't a gentle pusher of the buttons. I asked him once in Swedish to quit it out...but I don't know if he understood it or not!

I got some really nice pictures of the Canadian shield and the Coastal mountains of BC. I missed the Rockies though. My favorite picture is of a glacier and downtown Vancouver.

When I arrived at the airport I went to this information desk to see the quickest and cheapest way to the Greyhound bus depot. Since the taxi would be so expensive the man suggested taking the shuttle bus to downtown Vancouver and then the Skytrain. I arrived at the airport at 3.35 PM and the Greyhound was leaving at 5.45PM so I didn't have much time. The shuttle bus left the airport at 4.30PM and I didn't get off until 5.15PM. So I was kind of stressed out trying to find the Skytrain which wasn't easy. I didn't see a single sign for it. But after asking around I catched it at 5.25PM. Luckily it was just 3 stops with the train and when I got off this Australian backpacker helped me find the place. I actually had 10 minutes to buy the tickets but the line was so long so I missed the bus with about a minute. Then I was really lucky because there was another bus that would catch up with my bus at Chilliwack (about 2 hour drive east of Vancouver)! So i made it to 100 Mile finally. Jan, Jaimie and her "boyfriend" Paul ( I don't know if the use those terms yet) picked me up at 1:30AM when I arrived after I had text messaged Rickard to phone Jan since I couldn't get the number to work when I tried to phone in Chilliwack.

I supposedly brought the nice summer weather here! :o) It hasn't been too warm yet but very sunny. On Friday I had a pick nick with Jaimie and Paul which was nice! We went to Jan's mum's cabin at Green Lake for the weekend. It was assume. I went for a few kayak rides on the lake trying to get a even browner tan (which worked perfectly)! The Sunday ended with Mike taking me out to the tennis court. I haven't played since last time I was here three years ago so I was really rusty. But it was great fun! I really have to try and play when I get back again to Sweden.

The only thing planned for this week is a trip to Kamloops on Wednesday! I'm excited especially about visiting Costco again! I will tell you how that goes later! And now I'm going to go map hunting! It is going to be interesting to compare the map selection at the BC visitor centers with the visitor centers in NZ.

Talk to you later alligators!

Time for this years next trip...this time to sweet lovely Canada!

Welcome back! Time to dust off this old blog again. It did not have time to get too dusty luckily. As some of you know I got a job for the fall and hopefully for next spring mapping (together with 69 other people) the agricultural land of Sweden. Since I do not start until the middle of August I thought it would be a good idea to spend some of that first paycheck in advance. And there is no better way of doing that than taking a trip to Canada. I will do my best updating you on my adventures over there!