Thursday June 17th, Norene’s Mount Robson, BC

Well we couldn’t drag ourselves away, and Ian found many little jobs he could help Norene with. First stop was more fuel and oil from the little store for the chainsaw, he set to and sharpened the blade and then he was off sawing up the logs that had fallen around the house. Ed, you should be most impressed, he is now a “Canadian Lumberjack”! The new boots that he bought in Calgary are getting the “lived in” look….not bright and new anymore.

The temperatures rose from a 6 degree start to 26 degrees, a few puffs of clouds, just perfect. I was extremely happy mooching around with my camera and just soaking up the atmosphere. I tried to photograph all the different wildflowers I could find. At one stage as I was walking through the woods I got a huge fright as a large bird screeched and flapped and took off from just beside me, it turned out to be a grouse. Sitting on the deck for breakfast Norene pointed out the woodpecker searching in an old log for insects. I was able to get quite close with my camera, he had a bright red comb on his head, a really striking bird.

Last December Norene had bought a very large copper wind sculpture from Mexico, and it has been sitting waiting to be installed. The pipe stand that holds it needed to be set in concrete…so Ian dispatched Norene and I off to the nearest town of Valemont to buy some bags of instant concrete while he dug the 2 foot hole. There is only a little bit of soil on the top, then small rocks that needed to be dug out. It was all ready for the concrete to be added by the time we got back. Hopefully it will be set enough in the morning for the installation to be done…before we leave!

Ian found a big “cross country” mower in the shed which is used for clearing undergrowth off rough ground and Norene happened to mention that it is used for mowing either side of the long drive into the house each summer, but it had not been done last year. Right, that was enough encouragement for him, he was itching to try it out, and after a number of unsuccessful attempts to start it, after Norene found out from her son the correct technique he was off down the driveway, grinning.
It was another wonderful day.