June 8th, 2003:
It’s
Sunday evening, and we just got home from Humboldt, where our
granddaughter Sara (without a doubt the loveliest bride who ever walked
the aisle!) married Kevin Sawicki. It was an excellent affair, from the
service, to the supper, to the dance. Doreen and I even got up for a few
dances, though we tuckered out pretty early. Sara is the first of our
grandchildren to tie the knot.
When we got home this evening, the
roads were wet (the only wet roads we saw all weekend!) and there was a
tenth of an inch in the gauge.
The geese on the peninsula were pretty
tame last Sunday; I biked within a few feet of them. If I had stopped for
a photo, though, they would have been gone. One pair had about six
goslings with them; they are the only young I have seen this year. I was
standing on one of the Marina docks watching them; one goose led off into
the water, but he held his head right down next to the water, much as
they
do on land when someone gets too close. He kept it like that, too, but the
one that took up the rear kept its head high.
There was a big splash; I turned
around and all I could see was ripples. A bit later, a beaver surfaced.
They have killed everything on the island but the spruce, and lots on
shore too. It won’t take them long before they kill everything close to
the Marina.
The
new Tackle Box was moved into place last Monday. It is the log building
that Connie Schmidt used for a tea room a few years ago. They are going to
have the big front porch facing north; it should look pretty nice.
Lenard and Levi Teale have been at
work cleaning up the mess made when natural gas was piped in. They are
smoothing out the trenches, putting down new topsoil, and seeding it to
grass. Once the grass takes hold it will look fine again.
Our
wild roses are blooming ¾
isn’t that earlier than usual?
Coming home Monday evening, we saw a
big black dot and three smaller black dots cross the highway, a mama bear
and three cubs. Rennebergs have had bears in their yard, so there’s no
shortage of them.
George and Helen went out fishing last
Wednesday, taking their Chihuahua, Sammy, along. I thought maybe they were
going to drag Sammy behind the boat to attract fish, but they claim not.
Fishing wasn’t too bad; they caught some pickerel and jack.
While out there, they saw something
big in the water; when they got a bit closer they realized it was an elk,
out swimming in the lake. It swam around a while, then back to shore and
away. Moose and water seem to go together, but one doesn’t often hear of
elk going for a swim.
There
was a farewell party for Bernie Markus at the Park Hall on Wednesday; she
is leaving to make her home in Regina, close to family. The party took the
form of a potluck supper, and over fifty people came. As usual, it was a
great meal. Amy Shuya sang a couple of songs, there were a few gifts, and
Bernie very capably thanked the people for the party, and for being her
friends for over twenty-five years.
A coincidence: the apartment block
Bernie is moving to is one that her husband, Casey, helped to build!
Bernie’s sister, Rita, and husband
Cliff, had driven down from Abbotsford and came to the party with Bernie.
Doreen and I enjoyed a drama on the
beach last Thursday. Doreen rode her bike along the path, and saw an adult
killdeer and three tiny chicks near the path. There was another killdeer
nearby,
and not too far away was another bird that worried them. One adult spread
her wings and the babies crawled under them; the other adult put on a
display and kept between the family and that other bird, which Doreen
thought might have been a gull or tern.
I came along a bit later, and the
adult was putting on its injured act; I looked around for a nest and
spotted the three babies, carbon copies of their parents, and running in
all directions. Pretty birds; I don’t know of another breed where the
chicks look exactly like the parents.