Blossoms, Rodeo and Rain

Spring is blossom time in orchard country. Here at 600m elevation, there are no orchards so the blossoms du jour are lilacs. This little burg is a veritable ocean of lilacs, the heavy scent laying in the valley ... or was until today's deluge which has washed everything from the air. The rain is still pounding down and there are travel warnings for snow at higher elevations.

Down closer to Okanagan Lake, the past few weeks have been a feast for the eye and nose as one variety of fruit flower follows close upon the next. Former college classmates Tamra and Tom Davison have an orchard within Vernon city limits, almost directly above the newspaper office. Tamra took this photo of pear blossoms a few weeks ago. Terrace Mountain is in the far distance, Okanagan Lake barely in view just below it.

In this community, the Victoria Day long weekend is synonymous with the Falkland Stampede. After all, this is the 95th year of the event, so a precedence has been set. I think this year had the largest attendance in some time. All I know for sure is that I snapped a lot of beer for a lot of thirsty spectators.

I worked at the Sunday dance night as well (there are dances Saturday and Sunday night), and that's always an 'interesting' evening. There was an ATM adjacent to the ticket booth, and I saw lewd acts performed upon that poor machine in a misguided attempt to speed up delivery of desired cash that may have permanently scarred my brain. Very funny, actually - such as the slightly-inebriated young woman rubbing her body up and down it, murmuring "Please give me some money ... please don't tell me my account is empty ..."

The weekend also included a 60th birthday party, mowing and gardening. Needed to get the grass cut before the rain arrived and am glad I managed to fit that in between everything else.

I need a holiday to recover from the holiday weekend. And I didn't even have a drink the entire three days!

To Bee or Not to Bee

The 6th Annual Adult Spelling Bee in support of Literacy Junction took place on May 8 ... starting at 7:30! Who, I ask you, is at the top of their game at that time of day?

Lisa Vander Velde, our news photographer, took a slew of pics which I rifled through for your enlightenment.

Team Captain Katherine Mortimer. Personality extraordinaire.

Our half of the team:
Glenn Mitchell (Managing editor), Lisa Starke (graphic design), me (graphic design)
and Katherine (Lifestyles editor). We also had Graeme Corbett (Business editor),
Roger Knox (editorial and curmudgeon), Jennifer Smith (editorial and sign maker) and
Kristen Froneman (Entertainment editor).

And on a completely unrelated note, I got my hair cut the next day
so no longer looks like that.

Many teams opt for theme costumes. Of course, yellow and black feature ...
"bee" theme people. Come on, keep up.

Everyone in the competition coveted these beanies (overtly or covertly, but all.)

However, best team name ever: "The Vowel Movements."

There's Kristin! between Glenn and Lisa.
Do you note we were put at the back of the room? Again?
Why am I always seated at the noisy table in every gathering.
You know the table - the ones that look (and sound) like they are having a lot of fun ... because they are!

Kristin wrote a great editorial for Friday's paper, and I include it to show some of the challenging words we were given. Yes, challenging. At that time of the morning and under time pressure, you'd be scrambling, too.

Just for the record, I spelled reconnaissance correctly but was over-ruled by O Captain, My Captain.

Just saying.

Short-term Absent, Not Gone, Soon to Return

Mother Nature's been a real cow when it comes to spring this year: gloriously hot Easter weekend, snow a mere 150m above elevation at the house last Monday, and projected 26C this weekend. 

It's enough to make a person turn to drink ... and this is beverage of choice these days.

If I can't get Crannog Ale's Back Hand of God stout (and it's only on tap) then this is an acceptable alternative.

Garden's doing great. Hubby's up north. I'm almost fully (finally) recovered from the bronchitis/lung infection that laid me so very low a few weeks ago. Baby quilt #1 (in a series of four - we have some very fecund co-workers!) is almost done.

Have photos of some of all of the above, to be uploaded when I can get inspired. Love you all and will be more faithful in my writing when I get my mellow back.