I’ve been working for a while now at the Come Command with Bowser. (With Schnauzers, it DO take a while. They are stubborn creatures. IYKYK!). He is pretty good at responding (and quickly) now that he knows there are treats involved. Usually.
We hope you are having an exciting weekend, with lots of snacks.
Rock on,
The WB
Longtime readers may remember that I took a Basic Kayak Skills course almost a year ago. You can read about that, here. Even though I gained much in knowledge and confidence from that course I knew there was still much more I needed to learn, and further training was definitely going to be on the agenda.
After all, my aim as I am aging and adventuring is to “Be an inspiration, not a cautionary tale!” 😉 🤣
To that end it was a no-brainer to go back to Caroline Ross and her company CrossCurrents Kayak to grow my sea kayaking knowledge and skills.
After Basic, the next rung on the Paddle Canada ladder for skills certification is Sea Kayak Skills – Level 1. In this weekend-long course I practiced all the rescue skills and strokes learned in the first course plus I learned the basics on how to read a marine chart and navigation, where to find weather and tide information and what it means to paddlers, and even more rescue techniques and strokes (including the all-important self-rescue).
All photos from this point forward were taken by Caroline and generously shared to our group.
By close to the end of that day, I was a shivering, teeth-chattering mess. And I was starting to think that a dry-suit might not be that fucking damn prohibitively expensive after all.
Second day – Brickyard Beach, Nanoose Bay
As you might have noticed, the weather was much more favourable on Day 2. Even though we were in the colder ocean, I stayed warmer due to all my layers and the rise in ambient temperature.
Once again, I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and confidence in such a short period of time. I also learned that I’m going to stop at Level 1 Certification. Level 2 involves building skills for activities that I don’t anticipate ever doing – such as choosing to kayak in rougher waters than I’d ever be comfortable in. Level 1 was plenty hard enough on my body and I have the bruises to prove it!
Thanks to this course, on my shopping list as if I didn’t already own enough gear is:
I can’t recommend Caroline and CrossCurrents Kayak enough. You can find her not only on her website, but also on Facebook and Instagram.
Rock on,
The WB
Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.
We hope you are keeping cool and planning adventures this weekend.
Rock on,
The WB
It’s patio season again! And as usual, it’s a race to get to my favourite seat before you know who claims it first.
All hail the Patio King! We hope you are having a royally good weekend.
Rock on,
The WB
Just because …
True confession time: the last time I can recall eating stewed rhubarb was the night before I gave birth to my son. I was 2 days over my due date, it was August in Ontario, Canada (if you know, you know), and I was completely over being a whale a walking refrigerator a weeble pregnant. I thought the rhubarb might get something started, and…my son was born at 930am the next morning. So all hail the power of rhubarb! Actually, my daughter was also born exactly 2 days past my expected date too, and no rhubarb was involved. But let’s give kudos and credit to the all-knowing, all-powerful rhubarb!
Anyhoodle! Flash forward to the present day (almost 39 years later), and I finally have gotten around to stewing my own rhubarb from my own garden again. I can’t explain the long break other than to say I had somehow convinced myself that I didn’t like rhubarb and since I had no pregnancy to push (pardon the pun 😉) to conclusion, there was no need to eat any! Gentle reader, how wrong I was…
This spring I rediscovered this amazing plant (conveniently growing in my backyard) and have been on a bit of a rhubarb tear, ever since.
I have also discovered the wonder that is a rhubarb crisp.
Rhubarb is such a tough and amazing plant – you’ll know just how tough it is if you ever try to remove it from your yard, like my son-in-law is trying with his rhubarb patch It’s not that he doesn’t like rhubarb – he just wants to put something else in that prime growing location. Good luck with that, SIL!
How do you feel about the wonderful spring tonic that is rhubarb? How do you use it, if you do?
Please tell all in the Comments! This month my lovely co-host Donna has gone walkies so you just get me and no link party either, as that is her area of expertise. Sorry, eh! 🇨🇦
Rock on,
The WB
Have I mentioned before that Bowser likes to be petted as he drifts off to sleep? Well, he also enjoys a luxurious massage as he wakes back up. I did not see doggy masseuse on my retirement bingo card, but here we are.
We hope you take the time to enjoy life’s little luxuries this weekend.
Rock on,
The WB
Our walks this month usually start like this:
Many things in bloom this month on the trail (just as lovely as the wisteria in the garden!).
No matter how the walk starts or what we see on the trail, it ends pretty much the same way:
We hope you enjoy some nature walks this weekend!
Rock on,
The WB
Last Sunday was Mother’s Day in this part of the world, and the family and house guests headed out to Jack Point for the afternoon. Bowser’s daddy and his bestie had gone out early in the morning to set some crab traps in the deeper water. They were hunting Dungeness crabs.
Now the tide was out and it was time to retrieve the traps and hopefully find some male crabs inside that were big enough to keep.
Meanwhile, the women (and Bowser) made our way up the trail to find a picnic spot.
We hope you had a fabulous weekend and Mother’s Day as well.
Rock on,
The WB
P.S. the next day Bowser treated me to an afternoon of very stinky and silent crab farts 💨 😫. Oh well, I still love his smelly ole butt!
My daughter and Bowser came over one afternoon a couple of weeks ago, and a snugglefest photo shoot ensued.
We hope you are having lots of giggly snuggles this weekend.
Rock on,
The WB
