Expedition Canada

Now Fred Not content with having to manage Jack's broken leg, Fred comes out in sympathy, goes A over T at tennis and fractured the radial bone (top/neck end) of her left elbow.  I always thought tennis was a rough game.   No plaster-cast or brace, just a sling for a few weeks and no driving for four weeks. More importantly, no skiing at Christmas.  Still on the positive side we now have a built-in dogsitter while I go skiing! Jack on the other hand is now walking and playing normally, no limp, which disappeared a couple of weeks after he hit the car.  If we had not seen the x-ray we would have him labelled as a complete fraud. Fred managed to arrange the 'incident' a week before we hosted Sebby for five days while Nick and Lizzie jetted off to NYC to celebrate her birthday.  The same weekend (Dec 8 & 9) that I had two concerts with the A Cappella Strait choir I belong to.  It was, to say the least, a full-on weekend.  After dropping him back ...

Cold Jack on the Dakota Ridge snow shoe trail going grey with ice and snow Tue Dec 28th  The weather predictions were pretty accurate and the snow and cold temperatures have continued through the Christmas weekend.  It has been a very 'white Christmas'. Nick and Lizzie arrived mid afternoon Christmas Eve and stayed through to Monday afternoon. Hopkins Landing Wharf just after dawn Sadly the NZ branch could not make it because of work demands, (their summer of course) covid restrictions and expensive returning quarantine requirements, nor Fred's sister from London.  We had a great few days and though we could not meet in person, Zoom kept us in touch with distant relations.   The local walks and weather made Christmas rather special and it was mainly blue skies in between the snow showers.  Day time it's been around -5c and -16c at night. The road up to Sprockids Trails Boxing day (it's called that in Canada as well) we headed down to Cliff Gilker ...

First White Canadian Christmas Fri Dec 24th It was lovely to wake up to snow on Christmas Eve morning, though we would have preferred it not to have been at 0430 when Jack heard the snow sliding off the roof. Today is the start of the snow and a prolonged period of cold weather. Temperatures are forecast to drop below zero for the next 10 days or so with it dropping down to -9C during the day and -15C at night. My new snow shovel and bag of salt came in to good use on our steep drive this morning though by the time I was back from walking Jack the snow had covered it again!  Perhaps I should have bought one of those machines after all! Actually having just seen a neighbour drive down the road on his large ride on lawn mower/tractor with a snow plough attachment on the front, I rather fancy one of those! I popped into the butchers in Gibsons this morning for our Christmas meat and having enjoyed the queues at Sumblers in Marlborough at 0600 on Christmas Eve, feared the worst....

Christmas Lights Go Up Fri Nov 19th We have rather developed a taste for these! Today we completed on the sale of Eastcourt House, the end of an era and bringing to an end 33 years of Cronk stewardship.   A period that has seen the house brought back from a state of dereliction, with water and power cut off, holes in the roof, creepers growing through the windows and brickwork and damp coming in from all directions.  Thirty three years which saw the children grow up and fly the nest, lots of dinner parties with fabulous friends, a couple of huge parties in the garden (a 21st for Nick and a joint 21st/50th for Ros and Fred) and a cottage garden restored to its former glory by the head gardener, Fred, a nd opened in the National Garden Scheme in 2010. The end of an era, but the start of a new exciting adventure. While we have been focussed on getting our house over the line, many BC residents have sadly been trying to save theirs.   The house in the picture i...