The End of My Week

Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

Today's post is filled with photos. I am joining up with Skywatch Friday, Friday Foto Friends and Saturday's Critters. Thank you to hosts of all these memes. I know it takes commitment and reliability to keep these memes going.

My niece has been here having a short holiday and she will return home tomorrow. We managed to go and see a movie, Christopher Robin (a cute movie), do some light shopping, watch TV, colour, listen to a lot of music on YouTube, go for walks and ice cream and go for a car ride up to Squamish. On other days she went with her brother to spend time at the waterfront.

You can see Squamish on the map below (to the north of Vancouver).

We had dinner in the small town though there wasn't much selection.

We tried to get some photos but I didn't get any good ones of my niece and I. 

For some reason I am not very photogenic at all.
Top it off my niece is not very patient when it comes to posing for photos and she always has her head too high or too  low or never looking at the camera and so on.

The main thing then is to enjoy the ride and get some scenic photos.
(Click on photos for a larger and better view)

On the way to Squamish

This ferry is leaving Horseshoe Bay. Not sure where it's going but probably to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

We continue north on the Sea to Sky Highway.

I'm afraid I didn't get photos of the small town of Squamish.

 I wanted photos of the famous rock cliff where many do mountain hiking. 

It is a challenging trail on the rock called Stawamus Chief.

You can read more about it by clicking here.

The view of Stawamus Chief from the main street of Squamish.

After dinner we were in a rush to try and get some coastline photos while the sun was still up.
Access to the ocean was not possible in town so

we headed south back to Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Highway.

Not too far from Squamish you get to the Britannia Mine Museum & the Britannia Mine.

I've never been inside. In fact I've only ever been in this direction for 4 complete round trips over the many years I've lived in Vancouver.  Usually it was to Whistler Village.  Many of you may have heard about it because it is a very famous skiing village where celebs from all over the world visit for winter vacations.

The coastal scenery is spectacular.

I captured the following photos at a view point area near the Britannia Mine.

As we continue south we find a new to me park called Porteau Cove Provincial Marine Park.

It is a lovely little spot with beautiful scenery, a secluded swimming beach, clean toilets and plenty of picnic tables. 

It is definitely on my list of places to return for a lovely picnic on a hot summer day.

The sun was setting at the same time the moon was showing it's face.

Beautiful clouds

Sky gazing

I snapped this photo of  the ferry en route to Horseshoe Bay from Nanaimo. I almost missed it.

Another drive by shot. This one over the Lion's Gate Bridge from North Vancouver into Vancouver. Spectacular colour.

~~~~

From my garden

 Friday Foto Friends

Skywatch Friday

Saturday's Critters

So Hot, Trying to Keep Cool and Carry On

Hi friends,

It's been incredibly hot here. Yesterday on the news they said it was the hottest day of the summer so far. But I went out yesterday (Wednesday) and today (Thursday) and I think today may have been even hotter.

When I went out to appointments and errands, I was so concerned about a homeless man in a wheelchair and a little pup on the patio of a restaurant I had to stop and make sure they both had water.

I know the man had been drinking beer as I passed him in the morning. I asked him to please try to refrain from drinking beer otherwise  they won't let him stay at the shelter where I learned he will have a bed for the night for the next two weeks. I gave him a bottle of water and a small bit of money (not enough to buy booze) and kept encouraging him to drink water. I sat and chatted with him a bit and grew even more concerned when I realized that he is a schizophrenic and also suffers from depression but hasn't been on his medications for a few weeks. I know he just got out of hospital and I'm surprised they let him go like that since he is also old. Thankfully he told me that the shelter where he will sleep for two weeks is going to help him get into an apartment.  He also had several bags on his wheelchair which I noticed had some food in it so at least he isn't hungry.  What I was most concerned about was sitting outside all day long in the heat and not having any H20.

Completed book #41 of 42

As for the cute little puppy, her owner's friend told me the little doggie had a big bowl of water just before I dropped by. The little dog was absolutely sweet and so friendly which I find is often not the case with the small lapdogs. I wanted to pick her up and bring her home. I didn't get a photo though as my camera battery was already kaput for the day and I had to get home to charge it up.

Book #42 of 42 in progress

Waiting for book #43

When I got home I put a wet washcloth in the freezer, got on some more comfortable clothing and took a little rest with the fans going before I got up to put together a salad, sweet potato and some of the BBQ chicken I had prepared last weekend. I'm so glad I did the batch cooking because it means I don't have to put on the oven or use my pressure cooker during this heat. The heat makes me lethargic and cooking is the last thing I want to do in the intense heat.  We are supposed to get some rain on the weekend right in time for my niece's visit. I hope it does rain because we really need it.  My niece and I can use those times to get cosy and watch movies. She loves nothing better than a funny or scary movie (think the Hobbit movies) and a big bag of popcorn.


I finished the book about Denys Finch Hatton. I have to say I quite enjoyed it and am amazed at what the author was able to research and put together since there are no remaining relatives of Finch Hatton and very little exists of him in history books.  I picked up another book  I'd placed on hold about Prince by his ex-wife Mayte Garcia.  I am waiting for a book called The Bookshop.  This one came on recommendation from one of the many blogs I read though now I cannot remember which one. If you happen to be reading this post, let me know it was you (please).

 ~~~~

If you read my last post here

you will know I've been doing some batch cooking and want to continue.

Since then I've ordered some proper containers from Amazon and

they arrived today.

 

There were 20 containers in the package. I think that will be enough.

~~~~

The heat of the last few days has taken it's toll on my little garden.

I'm hoping I can keep it going another few weeks. The forecasted rain this weekend would help a lot but last weekend rain was in the forecast and it never arrived.

I was happy to see the Black-eyed Susan flowers bloom. For awhile I wasn't sure they were going to bloom this year but they did come about just over a week or two ago.  They are not quite as healthy looking or as plentiful as in previous years.

The strawberries are nice and juicy but I only have one pot so not much of a harvest but I'm enjoying them.  Seeing strawberries growing "in the yard" brings back happy childhood memories of finding the odd strawberry when playing with siblings.  Those were in the days when we were not able to buy strawberries so readily in the supermarket.

The other morning I went out to take a photo of the sunrise. 

I was a bit late as the sun was already up.

Imagine my surprise when I captured this

 drone hovering a few feet from me. 

I hope I don't appear in the "movie" as I wasn't dressed for my cameo role, lol.

A shot of the garden after watering. I hose down the patio floor to cool it off.

~~~

 Keep well everyone.

Enjoy the weekend ahead where ever you may be.

I'm joining in with

Skywatch Friday

and

Friday Foto Friends