Greetings from Kelowna

Wine Capital of BC

Sunday June 30th

Tantalus Winery

Kelowna is the wine growing capital of BC, so as well as taking in the scenery we have been checking out some of the local wineries. Be rude not to really. As we found travelling around France (and other bits of Europe), it is so much more informative to learn about a wine region as you actually taste the wines at the winery. We have been slowly developing our knowledge of the wines over the last few years (we first visited about six years ago). Not something that can be done easily in the UK as so little BC wine leaves Canada as the volumes are relatively small compared to major wine producing countries. The Good Wine Shop in Chiswick, does stock some. Not cheap due to volumes and shipping costs.

The Okanagan wine region stretches along the 111km of Lake Okanagan. The area is classified as a desert, defined by the low rainfall, though it happens to be chucking it down as I write this. The wines tend to be the lighter Sauvignon and Pinot type grapes in the cooler north, with Chardonnay's and Syrah's etc. in the hotter South.

Some wineries, as we found yesterday, have parcels of land throughout the region which enables them to blend the same grape with different characteristics, producing more interesting wines. So far the wines tend to be similar to Loire and Burgundy and lighter Northern Rhones. We have yet to find anything that resembles a decent claret or a chewy Southern Rhone.

We're here with Nick, Lizzie, Sebby and Ros (who is over from NZ), for the Canada Day weekend. Monday July 1st is a public holiday, when we travel back to the Coast, but for Fred is also the first day of Wimbledon!

The beginning of June saw our first Humpback sightings of the summer, who thoughtfully cruised past our local beach close to shore. They are so majestic. There are almost daily sightings on the local FB Whales and Dolphins page.

Soon after the arrival of the Humpbacks we had out first UK visitors of the year. They were heading to a cousin's wedding at the top of the Coast and spent a couple of days with us on route to the wedding venue, which was the West Coast Wilderness Lodge

a fantastic location in Egmont, close to the Skookumchuck narrows and offers boat trips to see the local wildlife. We first visited them when they closed during 2021 for Covid, but were happy to show us the facilities. It was great to see the friends who have an aunt & uncle in Kitsilano (Vancouver). Their twin sons have stayed with us before when we were living in Langdale. They thoughtfully were going to bring some Stilton out, given the ridiculous prices charged in Canada. They remembered they'd left it in the fridge on their way to Heathrow!

I did find some Stilton at the cheese counter in Granville Island Public Market when I was recently in Vancouver. It was £4.90/100g compared with the current Waitrose price of £2.00/100g. I couldn't resist!

A pair of the local Bald Eagles who have a nest on a huge Douglas Fir along the beach road have produced a chick or chicks this year after failing to do so last year. I've seen at least one in the nest before fledging, there may have been more. The tree is so tall and the nest surrounded by branches in the crook of the tree it's difficult to see even with binoculars.

While on local wildlife, near neighbours had a huge Cougar walk through their yard early one morning, minutes after I'd gone past (in the car) on the morning Jack walk. There have been frequent reports of cougars in the area for a while, though neither of us have seen it in the flesh, fortunately. The direction of travel would have taken it up past us, a regular wildlife route between the creeks at either end of our road.

Saturday June 8th Team Fast Lane took part in the annual Round Bowen sailing race which is a course of 18 nautical miles.

I was rather pleased not to be helming for the start where the fleet was jostling for optimum position. The wind direction meant we sailed closer to 28km by the time we completed the 8.5 hour race. This was the first time we'd sailed the race as a team and we came 30th out of 130+ entries. Tellingly, given the variable winds only 66 boats finished. We sped between 7 kts and 0 kts at various points of the race. I was helming for the finish and enjoyed light to no wind as we got closer to the finished line. A few boat lengths out and a large yacht on the opposite tack, cut us up, even though we had right of way, requiring us to alter course. We still beat them on handicap so did not bother to protest. After the post race BBQ and overnight on a friend's much larger yacht with all the facilities (the mother ship), we sailed back to Gibsons Sunday morning.

One of the highlights of the race was the pod of Orca that swam past us as we went up the back of Bowen Island coming within 50ft of the boat.

While I have been sailing Fred has become a bit of a Mahjongg expert and recently took place in a local championship. It's far too complicated for my brain!

For my birthday in May the family gifted me a crab pot. A local friend (Brian), a crabbing expert, was away until mid June but we managed to find a high tide and calm seas a couple of weeks back when we dropped our pots, mine was baited with a salmon head from the local fish market.

To my delight two days later two 7" Dungeness crabs were lifted out for supper the following day. Enthused by my initial success the traps were re-baited. Three days later, we rowed out to the traps. Brian's trap had two undersized crabs, which were returned to the sea, but my trap was nowhere to be seen. Whether it was the exceptionally high tide and large float, or local 'entrepreneur' who needed a new crab pot, we will never know. I have now bought a new trap and are ready to get crabbing when I get back from Kelowna. This time it will have a cheap tracker fitted, just in case.

Saturday last weekend we attended an open air wedding of our realtor, who we have known for over three years. She is president of our choir and her now husband helped build our house 6 years ago. A week of fine weather gave way to the heavens opening on the afternoon of the wedding. After an initial delay of 30 minutes the ceremony took place under a canopy of umbrellas, just as it started to rain even harder. The choir who provided the music up and down the aisle were drenched, as were the guests and attendants. It also coincided with the scheduled flights from the sea-plane base, which provided a 'fly past' while vows were made. The sun re-emerged as the reception got underway and we finally dried out.

The groom was soaked and was
married shoeless as they were also soaked

The wedding was sadly marred for the couple whose dog escaped the care of their dogsitter on the Saturday and was not found until the Wednesday, in a rather sorry state. The intervention of the vet failed to save the poor creature which didn't make it through the night.

We seem to have been enjoying a lot of time with our grandson, who we had for the weekend while N&L went to a wedding, the following weekend they all stayed as Ros had just flown in, we're all in Kelowna this weekend and we're Seb-sitting next weekend. He is starting to chat away and has provided numerous funny moments with mischievous sense of humour.

He's got a good handle on 'NO' and has very clear opinions on what he is planning to do, or not. Such a bundle of fun.

So that is June, which has gone by in a flash. We're heading to Whistler for a week in July and then at the end of the month we're racing in two successive regattas. Our own Gibsons Sail Weekend at the end of the July and then the Cowichan Bay Regatta on Vancouver Island.

Some more pics from the last few weeks.

Sebby checking out a Black Tailed Deer in the garden