This week Rosie is back in control of the blog! No more silly lists and mystic nonsense. Just some good old fashioned updates, nature pictures and an exciting new addition to the Rollie family.
On Saturday, we visited Golden Ears provincial park, about a 30 minute drive away from Vancouver. It’s called Golden Ears after the prominent twin peaks, which may have originally been named “Golden Eyries” after the golden eagles observed near the summit.
Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the Galaxy, and it is in order that this situation should not be in any way exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed:
- Rosie’s new walking boots were not a total disaster. The waterproofing and grip was excellent and no blisters developed after 4 hours of walking. However, her left little toe did go a bit numb, so they are probably a bit narrow. She is hoping they might stretch.
- We didn’t make it up to the top, nor did we see any golden eagles… But we did spent a lovely afternoon walking to Alder flats where there is a campsite used by people on their way to the summit. We might return in the future with our tent!
The trail was relatively quiet compared to most around Vancouver and had a good mixture of up, down, flat, mud, rocks and roots to keep Ollie entertained. Rosie was entertained by the latest outdoor craze – mushroom hunting. There were several fun bridges to cross and we managed to go back on a slightly different route to the way out – which pleased the hiking gods.
In other news, we have finally got a bed! Furniture shopping has slowed now that we have the last of the essentials. We were thinking of getting a sofa, but are actually enjoying sitting in our individual arm chairs. It’s like we have skipped forward a few decades to our retirement.
Rosie is working hard during the week, Ollie is still job hunting and we have been going to the gym in our building in the evenings. This leaves very little time for cleaning, so we have decided to adopt a robot vacuum cleaner – introducing Kyle the Kyvol! Kyle likes crumbs and tangling himself up in cables. He dislikes dark objects and running out of battery so he has to go to bed.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so we are visiting another park and hopefully a fort! (A North American fort, so only 200 years old, pathetic). Then on Sunday, winter is arriving in Vancouver and we might even get some snow down here. We’ll probably just stay in and play with Kyle.
Roaming Rollie 
Remember Kyle is for life, not just for christmas.
I am sure Thom and Hannah might adopt him, or maybe you could see if the Vancouver Whitecaps are looking for new players.
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We might have to buy him a seat on the plane back
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I think Kyle is cuter than a puppy. I am sure he will have a wonderful time eating up all the bits under the new bed and that he will grow up big and strong, one day taking over the world.
Good to see you are still getting out and about and the mushrooms are very cool. I lool forward to when Kyle has had his jabs and he can come out with you.
I am quite envious of your gym! Maybe next week will see some ‘Rollie style’ exercise videos… (I am sure you can find some switches that do nothing down there too)
… I think I would be doing ok if it wasn’t for this bruise on my left arm.
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No exercise videos, that is where we draw the line!
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See, you’re just being mean to Kyle. There he is, brain the size of a Raspberry Pi and you just get him to vacuum the floor.
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Perhaps we should ask him to take guests down to the bridge. Or maybe he could park some cars?
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Aw, so great that you have a ‘pet’ to keep you company! Just what you need: a robot that follows you round while you eat your biscuits!
Very impressed with the mushrooms – I’m sure a certain nature loving uncle will be commenting and identifying those soon!
Also loved the photos of your walk – on the one with all the tall thin trees, it took me a while to see Ollie there (he was so small!), so I then had to go back to see if there was a little Ollie hidden in all of them!
Can we see more of the ‘WHERE’S OLLIE?’ series!!
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I’m having trouble identifying my own mushrooms, never mind about Canadian ones! My artistic side says just enjoy their beauty, my scientific side says IDENTIFY. The orange cap black stemmed ones might be American I do not think you get them in Europe, that lichen/ moss hanging off the branches is impressive.
The orangey brackets are probably Cinnamon bracket (hapalopilus nidulans) and the white blobs are probably emerging Phellinus type brackets which are different depending on which type of tree they are growing from.
Nana wants a picture of a Mounty in your blog (it’s probably compulsory, you might get thrown out of Canada if you don’t) and suggests you pack your walking boots with newspaper to stretch them.
I say The Shoe Event Horizon.
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