hellos and goodbyes

It's been a whirlwind of activity since I have gotten home. I barely had time to unpack and rediscover Michael before we were packing him up to hit the road on a trip of his own. He and his brother are off to Shuswap Lake to scatter his father's ashes. Goodbye, John. Trying to get the big yellow van ready, the boater's license, pack, shop, etc. in the time between two trips was exhausting. And there are new friends and neighbours to welcome to the hood(Welcome Atom and Bez). And old friends returned from a long trip away(Welcome home, Deb and Lance). And birthday parties to attend(Happy Birthday, Jareth!). And Faxe to be drunk(Hello, Sweet Dane). I missed some people, too(Sorry, Ry). Meet and Greets(Howdy to Gwen and Sean)And? Dog walks to be walked! We must return to our routine. Miles of trails to be walked again and rediscovered. It seems two weeks away has returned me to another season. The grass is long, but browning from a heat that I missed.

The spring flowers that were just up when I was leaving are gone and summer blooms were here when I returned. I do not recognize my garden. I left with one poppy open and the straggler daffodils still hanging on. I came home to snapdragons in every colour, poppies galore, roses, foxglove, dogwood, countless others...I missed the pink flag iris. It opened and died in my absence. Sigh. No photos of that as the camera is off to the Shuswap with Michael.

Upon returning I thought I would be filled with glee on seeing Spanglish boarded up...and I cannot deny that I was...but I wonder now how long it will look like that. I don't anticipate this landlord will do anything about it. He scrapes by on the barest mimimum effort to maintain his properties, and this mess will be expensive. There are crackheads camping on street benches up the road, the Glow restaurant, now defunct, has become camp. Victoria Road/Victoria Crescent is as nasty as I have ever seen it. I don't anticipate that I will feel comfortable walking through that little piece of hell to go downtown. Nor do I believe anyone else will be comfortable with it.

There are three cars with Alberta plates dealing drugs in the street. How did they know to come here? I saw a transvestite/transgendered hooker on my corner the other day. She may get hurt. Not that she isn't already hurting. I do not know if this town is ready for that. I know that I am not ready for yet another type of predator trolling my street.

But, all in all, I am happy to be home. My raspberries are thriving. The zuchinni plant and sugar pumpkin are going gaga. I made a batch of Rude Barb's Alycksar yesterday. Rhubarb Nectar is the more common name. Yummy.

I have so many photos to go through that I feel overwhelmed. In fact, I went Pro on Flickr because my free account was full. So keep an eye on that for photos that don't make it to blogtown.

Blogger and I are arguing today about whether my post will be published. Blogger keeps saying it is. Well, I say, if it is, then it is invisble. Grrrrr. I will keep trying.

So, with that, off for dogwalks.

We'll talk more later. Until then.

(Yay, the tenth time is the charm....it finally posted...btw, the boston terrier is our new neighbour, Bez, and this walk was Cable Bay)