Tag Archives: outdoors

Hikes at Kokanee Park

Yesterday the air in Nelson was much better. The day before, thanks to nearby forest fires, Nelson and neighbouring Castlegar had the worst air quality in Canada. With better conditions we decided to take a couple hikes in Kokanee Provincial Park.

Hike 1 was along the river, among some towering old growth trees.

Hike 2 was around a beautiful lake.

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After the previous day that took our breath away with smoke, these hikes were breathtaking in more ways than one.

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This morning we climbed Pulpit Rock. It’s smokier than yesterday, but we couldn’t even see this spot from the city across the way 2 days ago. Hopefully the worst of the smoke is over.

Backyard bliss

It’s the Saturday of a long weekend. I’m sitting in our gazebo with a coffee, and my family is starting to join me, so this will be brief.

A recent Facebook memory from 6 years ago was a photo of the hot tub pad that I built with a friend, at a time when I was dealing with chronic fatigue and moving cinder blocks was an exhausting ordeal.

That means our wonderful deck has been built for 6 years. This year we added an above ground pool and it is filled and ready for the first dip (for my family, I will wait for it to be warmer after we set up the solar heater). With covid restrictions, I think we will spend a bit more time in our backyard this year, and I have to say that we’ve made it into a place I love spend time in.

And now it’s time to make a latte for my daughter, and put my phone away.

Yard work

I’ve probably written about this several times before, but I’m really not a fan of yard work. I don’t understand growing grass and making it nice and healthy, just so that it needs to be cut more often. I think weeds are prettier than a blanket of green grass. I understand watering a vegetable or herb garden, but flowers are made to be outside… if they don’t grow with the weather you have in your environment, then they are the wrong flowers to grow.

I love being outside, and I enjoy my back yard immensely. I want to spend time out in the sunshine. In fact, I’m about to assemble our above ground pool and I’m looking forward to putting a couple hours into this. So, it’s not that I don’t like doing chores outside, I just don’t like gardening, and cutting the grass, and weeding. Maybe one day, 30 years from now, if my knees and back are capable, I might fall in love with nurturing a garden. But right now, I’d rather sit in my back yard and enjoy the dandelions… if only my wife (and neighbours) agreed with me. 🙂