Life's a Stitch

The used to be called our walk, as in Bryant’s and mine. That is until he turned 16. No explanation necessary if you know 16 year old boys.

Gracee’s not thrilled with it either. She’s never been much of a walker. When she arrived to us, at an older than usual puppy age, her toenails had never been clipped, causing her pain and difficulty in walking. With encouragement she walked with me last weekend. I love holiday walks, going out after putting the turkey in the oven, then coming home to a house filled with roasting turkey smells.

So, this is our walk. It’s under a mile and takes around 20 minutes, longer if sniffing is involved or if she plants those four Scottie feet firmly into the ground and requires coaxing to continue. This is at the end of our driveway heading up the hill:

Up another hill, the worst part of the walk is the first part. The Grouse Mountain skyride is on the mountain directly in front of us. On sunny days you can usually see paragliders sailing off the mountain. Notice the tropical looking grasses? Lots of people here have introduced grasses, banana trees and palms to their gardens. There are purists who think we should leave well enough alone and stick to native varieties of trees. If we thought like that then the city of Regina, in Saskatchewan, would be treeless. Nearly every tree there had its roots, so to speak, from elsewhere.

Round the corner, here’s the view before we take the steps down to the trail. This is the kind of day that sells Vancouver real estate to out of towners. We were They are seduced by the glorious scenery and blue sky. Little do they know how few days are really like this without fog and mizzle. I am truly appreciative:

Here’s the trail where I think Gracee is her happiest. The ground is soft and she can be leash free. Next is the creek. I took a stone from this creek and matched the terracotta colour of one of its speckles for the paint in our entryway. Finally, there’s Grace having a drink of cold mountain water:

Back on the street here’s a view of UBC, its residence towers peeking out in front of the clouds in the distance.The second photo is the homestretch. I like this street, lined on both sides with plum trees. Grace needs encouragement to make this last bit. A right turn and we’ll be home:

Here we are. This is our yard. Remember the Great Wall project Chuck took on two Octobers ago? It’s done. A fait accompli! In the background, however, you can see the next project in progress – a garden shed.

Notice the solar garden lamps in the first picture? Now there’s a concept -solar, meaning sun powered – lights in British Columbia. It still cracks me up that I spent money on lights that only work a third of the time. They were selling them at Costco and I figured they had done their research. At least they weren’t too expensive.

Here is the before picture, shortly after the original retaining wall fell down. Enough said.