Life's a Stitch

One more post from the past, this one from California, then back to the very rainy Pac NW, where we've sought comfort in cooking….in our…wait for it…Instant Pot. Yes, I've fallen prey to the epidemic of home chefs who have bought this Canadian invention. Did you know it's Canadian? I did the patriotic thing by buying one, but on Black Friday, an American institution. More on that in a later post.

Back to the Coachella Valley. This is expanding from a knitting blog, to cooking, painting, geocaching and travel – all antidotes to life (my blog tagline). Truthfully, retirement has been quite the antidote, allowing time for all the rest (excuse the double entendre).

Cooking: 

M & KC were responsible for Christmas dinner. They have a unique foolproof way of cooking prime rib, the reverse of my standby recipe where you put it in the oven at a very high temperature for 30 minutes then turn it way down for two hours. They cook it ever-so-slowly at a low temperature then brown it up on the grill. I concede, their method works better than mine.

What was Christmas dessert in the desert? Poached pears in blackberry wine with custard sauce. We received a box of Harry & David's pears as a gift from my sister and put them to delicious use:

Painting:

Besides the acorn, I was able to finish two more watercolours during the three weeks of our stay:

Geocaching/travel:

C finally convinced me to ride up that extremely winding road to visit his favourite place: Idyllwild, CA, elevation 5000ft.

They bribed me with geocaching, the most popular one there at the squirrel statue.

I was doubly rewarded by a 70% off sale at the local art store without considering the 40lb  limit for checked luggage on Allegiant, the airline that charges for everything: $2 for water and $16 for carry ons.  We nailed it weight-wise but some had to be left behind for next year.

We flew from the sun, over the snowy mountains and back into the greeny greys of coastal Washington.

 

 

 

 

 

Sydney, Australia (as opposed to tiny Sydney, BC, population 11,600) has 4 million people in its boundaries. Although only a third larger than Melbourne, it feels like a crowded place. After docking early in the morning, and locating our hotel for our one night stay, we texted our Aussie friend back home. If you had only one day in Sydney, what would you do? Her answer: take the ferry to Manly Beach. 

The hotel was dead center in the middle of the city and was located next to a demolition site. The din of deconstruction filled all daylight hours so we were quick to take our friend's advice. It turned out that the private high speed ferry was less expensive than the public transport variety, which was slow and required a minimum purchase for a transit card. That was a smart moneymaking scheme for them.

They ferry took us past the Opera House (smaller than I was expecting) and onto quieter, more attractive-to-me parts of the area.

Upon arriving at the Manly Beach ferry terminal, I saw a small horseshoe shaped beach. This is pretty I thought, but wondered what made it so special. I looked down the next street and discovered what we were really looking for, a few blocks away – beautiful huge surfer's paradise Manly Beach.

It was a glorious last day of vacation in Australia. We stopped in the grocery store to pick up a few souvenirs and gifts. I usually go for local spices, but this time it was the failproof Pavlova mix-in-an-egg and for the chocolate lovers in my life, some "Aunt Betty's Oh So Good Chocolate Steamy Puds."

Tomorrow we'll be back on Air New Zealand for our long flight home flying back to our next chapter in the year of drifting aimlessly.

(11-21-17)

Eden, Australia is a pretty area with rolling hills and sapphire coloured bays, but was not named for the Biblical garden, but after George Eden, the first earl of Auckland. Outside of Eden we were escorted by dolphins.

We took our only shore excursion of the cruise, as I had wanted an up close and personal experience with the local fauna. People we met on the ship asked us why we wanted to spend money to see kangaroos when all you needed to do was visit a golf course when they are quite common and pesky, similar to the Canada geese and deer of our home courses.

I wanted to see more than roos. My daughter and niece both have had their pictures taken cuddling koalas and for some reason it appealed to me. Turns out that these photos are now outlawed, out of concern for the animal's welfare, in all but two Australian states. I'm OK with that.  So off we went to Potoroo Palace in Marimbula, an animal education sanctuary.

Sure enough there were Kangaroos, very gentle sweet animals when you are hand feeding them and they're not off marauding the golf courses.

And the koalas, still adorable from a couple of feet away.

The rescued three legged spiny echidna was quite entertaining with its wormlike anteater tongue.

There was a good range of birds and animals: potoroos, wallabies, emus, and others we learned about way back when in geography class. It seems like a well run place and was worth the visit. 

Only one more port of call – Sydney, and then it's back to Canada.

 (11-20-17)

If I were to return to Australia, Melbourne would be at the top of my list for go-to places. I generally find a population of over 3 million daunting, but this city had appeal. Then I realized that it has something in common with Vancouver – both are considered in the top three of most liveable cities in the world. I knew it felt familiar. And Canada and Australia are the two happiest countries according to the UN.

Melbourne has an interesting architectural vibe – spanning the range from colonial to ultra contemporary in a way that works. It's a beautiful city with lots of green space and an in-town beach.

The only hitch on our daylong visit was a sudden severe thunderstorm in the middle of a bright 82 degree day. That doesn't capture the scenario at all. Imaging being on the top outside level of a hop on hop off bus in the sunshine and minutes later being pelted with hail amidst the flashes of lightening and roaring thunder. This storm produced flash floods and a lightening strike of one of Melbourne's quaint streetcars, resulting in a couple of passengers missing the ship's departure. We decided not to take our chances and Ubered back to the port with time to spare.

And then, it cleared up as quickly as it arrived, right in time for sunset. Crazy weather that Melbourne has. 

(11-18-17)

Excuse this post, out of order travel-wise. I mentioned in the Akaroa post that the next stop was Tasmania, when in fact there was one more port of call in New Zealand. It was a rainy day so we stuck close to the ship, not making it into Dunedin, the Edinburgh of New Zealand. Dunedin was settled by the Scottish in 1848 but archeological findings show the Maori were there long before.

We were docked in the little town of Port Chalmers, which was interesting, full of thrift stores and friendly people. It was our last chance to spend our NZ money, a total of $65. An interesting challenge not so much being the matter of money, but of luggage weight. So what do you supposed we ended up with? Our first stop was the local pharmacy where I bought out their supply of Anthisan, the anti-itch bug bite cream not available in North America. 

We stopped at a second hand shop that specialized in an unusual combination: antique medical supplies and local yarn, go figure. Having bought no NZ souvenirs, I opted to spend my last $18 on yarn, 100% merino, 100gms of squishable compact memories.

We were introduced to Puka, the shop dog, who looked capable of producing quite a few skeins from his coat.

While in NZ we met two other memorable pooches. Molly was a Curly coated Retriever, the first I had ever seen.

Then there was the one called Alabama, on our water taxi to Ship's Cove at the start of the Queen Charlotte Track:

Back to Chuck's purchase, the most unlikely of all. What do you buy with your last $15 when you are halfway around the world with luggage weight limitations? A cast iron antique scale of course. With a half hour to sailing, he ran back to buy an extra set of weights at the yarn/antique medical equipment shop. Alas, they were closed. Phew. The scale travelled home in our wheeled carry on bag.

Back on the ship, we set off to Australia, this time without our onboard New Zealand Maori ambassadors. Holland America provided interesting Maori cultural experiences adding richness to the time spent there. After two weeks, it was time to say Haere Ra (goodbye). 

(11-11-17)

Had to share this moment of the two sweet grand boys:

Apparently he was surprised by the flash and not doing a Home Alone imitation.

Wishing all a Christmas filled with joy and peace.

It's frustrating to read a book that jumps back and forth in time. You begin a chapter with a feeling of disorientation until you realize what's going on. That's what's happening here, this being a brief interlude of updating prior to slipping back into the latter part of our time down under. 

I've been writing about New Zealand and Australia, which happened in November, but in reality we've been back to Canada, Washington and now California. I affectionately refer this time to our year of drifting aimlessly. It's not as romantic as it sounds. I once read about a couple who sold their house and prior to repurchasing and settling down, spent two years travelling the earth. It sounded like a dream. It sounds like what we are doing, right?

Yes, we have sold the house and planned our wonderful travels according to the requirements of our health insurance and citizenship. Those darned rules, but that's another story. The other complication has been the house "renovation," really a rebuild that's been laden with issues, costs and resultant delays. It was a lot of fun in the beginning, but like anything that drags on, feels less so now. Sometimes it hangs over our heads like a socked in Vancouver winter.  The builder referred to this, as we do, as our "forever house" and C observed that forever is getting shorter. This was taken today:

The bottom line is I wouldn't trade this time for anything. It has its moments of frustration, which need an outlet, so excuse my moment of complaining.

Now we're on an unplanned trip to California for Christmas with newlyweds M&KC, having given up the dream of having all the family home for the first one in the new house. 

The weather is mild and KC humours me by being my geocaching partner. Good son-in-law.

He was with me a few days ago when I reached my milestone 500th cache. In the middle of the desert, inside that cache there were two scallop shells, the symbol of the Camino. A coincidence, a reminder that all of life is a Camino or a sign for the future? Might have to take those shells back to Spain.

My favourite part of visiting this area is my opportunity to take watercolour workshops with artist Diane Morgan. This is my third year with her. My most recent painting is one of my favourites. The acorn, "a symbol of patience needed to attain goals over long periods of time:"

 

 

 

Two sea days, finally my favourite part of a cruise vacation, total relaxation and relinquishment of control. The first day, though, was filled with spectacularly dramatic scenery in New Zealand's Milford Sound. At first it seemed similar to our British Columbia Howe Sound.

Then it turned into the sights of an Alaskan cruise.

But then, it was so imposing that it was impossible to capture it all in one picture. The onboard naturalist repeatedly told us that until this day, in the years she's been on this route, she had never seen a sunny day, a whale nor the penguins native to the area – all visible today. About those penguins, I really wanted to imagine that those swimming spots, slightly underneath the water were actually those little blue eyed beauties, but they looked like fish to me. I guess I can say I saw penguins in New Zealand.

Next port day: Tasmania, Australia's island, the gateway to Antarctic exploration. It was pretty much fogged in, but given our recent lightweight long distance hiking experiences, I did appreciate the many shops providing gear to outdoors people. Imagine an REI on one corner, MEC across the street and Decathlon next door. The prices were comparable to ours, so nothing was overly tempting.

(11-12-17)

Akaroa, a quaint village (population 650, 33% being seniors), 80Km from Wellington, was first settled by NZ'a indigenous Maori,who were Polynesian settlers arriving by canoe in the 1200's. Long complicated story made short: the British arrived in the 1800's, skirmishes ensued, treaties were formed, French arrived a short time later, having bought part of the same area. Very confusing, but it seems to have been worked out. Throw in some German farmers to the mix and it is a very interesting place.

It's located in a shallow port requiring our ship's lifeboats to be used for tendering passengers into the port.

We followed our personal itinerary, avoiding the feeling of being herded during the tendering process. We had our breakfast at 8:00, then took it easy in our cabin and balcony for reading and writing until noon, then an early lunch on a quiet ship. Smart plan for at that point there was no wait for a tender.

The town was beautiful with blocks of little Victorian cottages and magnificent gardens containing roses in every colour imaginable, plus some I didn't know existed. It was a feast of colour, green pastures dotted with white sheep, yellow Scotch Broom, right up to the blue blue sky.

 The town's war memorial was spectacularly beautiful. And the poppies were blooming in time for Remembrance Day

 In a public garden we found this sculpture, enjoyed by all who passed it.

Back onboard, we switched up our usual dinner plans. We usually opt for a table for two, given C's hearing difficulties coupled with the noisy dining room. Tonight we requested a table for four and were seated with an older-than-us couple from England who shared with us details of their recent trip to China on one of those super inexpensive tours that are regularly offered from Vancouver for $1499CDN for 14 days, covering most everything including a four day Yangtze River cruise. Like us, only one of them was interested in going, but both had a good time. C can consider himself forewarned.

 

 

This is a busy cruise, with port calls almost every day. Today put us in the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. It was a beautiful day, not living up to its Windy Wellington reputation, in this reasonably sized city (population 412,500) with a manageable pace of life. We rode the famous cable car, of the funicular variety, to the top of the town.

There you are released into the beautiful Botanic Gardens with the option of walking back down to the city, which we did, past giant plants of the aloe (?variety, a magnificent herb garden and of course, the formal rose garden, all pictured below.

Back onboard I took advantage of the opportunity for a bubble bath. It's only the second ship I've been on with that option.

Next port was Picton, which felt in a way like coming home, as we stayed there prior to and following our tramp on the Queen Charlotte Track. The locals are quite pleased to have cruise passengers visiting their small town and present each woman with a corsage, while the men get Picton pins. So welcoming, it reminded me of the Canadian Maritime cruise I took with my friend Lynn, where we were given long stemmed roses upon arrival at St. John, New Brunswick. It gives you a good feeling about the town and those who live there. I could imagine the volunteer contingent necessary to make corsages for 1000 women at a time. 

New Zealand's towns each have impressive war memorials. With no disrespect intended, this picture looks as though C has a tough decision to make. With Remembrance Day coming up, we'll have the opportunity to be more solemn as we visit the memorial in Akaroa.

Having been to the town before, we used this day as an opportunity to run errands: the pharmacy, grocery store and the public library for access to wifi. Looks like a hundred others had the same idea leading to library computer system overload.

Heading back to the ship I seriously considered the purchase of a NZ possum hair/merino scarf. Although soft, the little guard hairs were quite spiky and irritating. Guess I'll be bringing home memories instead of something woolen. 

(11-08-17 & 11-09-17