Saturday, July 1, 2017

Peaceful Days


Life is good here at the livingrichonthecheap household.  Summer is here with not too hot temperatures (we have one of the most moderate temperatures in the world here, never too hot or cold) of 22 to 27 degrees celsius with endless sunshine the past week.  My tiger lilly finally bloomed, a month later than usual due to our colder Spring.  Every one of the $1.49 day tomato plants I planted in late May have tons of flowers and fruit growing on them.  After a moderate tomato year last year I think this year will be a bumper crop.


Work is actually at an acceptable to slower level and we are ok with that as the two weeks after we got home from vacation were super busy but now things will be reasonable until fall when things pick up again.  We have lots of contracts and enough business to pay our salaries and the bills until January 2018 which is new for us, usually we have 3-4 months worth of salaries in the bank/billable at any one time.  

Last weekend we spent mostly on the ocean with a bunch of landscaping on Friday night, kayaking on Saturday afternoon and Sunday we spent a couple of hours at the beach with Buddy.



The open ocean where we went kayaking is normally much rougher so we never have kayaked in that exact spot before as we tend to like very calm water to kayak in.  The water was so calm that it was also almost crystal clear and we really had a peaceful afternoon/early evening on the water, sticking close to shore.

 When we take Buddy to the beach most time is spent walking on the sandbars.  There are tons of little sand crabs, most about the size of a quarter or slightly larger.  This guy was about two quarters big as it was a close-up shot.

The tide was very low so we got to see some starfish.  I relocated this starfish to much deeper water as was worried he would dry up in the sand like some of his unfortunate buddies who miscalculated the depth of low tide.


We don't see hermit crabs very often here, this is only the second I have seen in five years and he was almost as big as the palm of my hand.  Usually they have one large claw that they drag themselves/fend off intruders with but his were almost equal.  He was trying to use them on me when I picked him up so I quickly put him back in the water.  I happen to love hermit crabs has have had them as pets.



I am so grateful that we moved here five years ago and get to live in such a beautiful place as I truly believe it to be one of the best places in the world to live.  Today is Canada Day and I am so glad my parents chose to move to Canada when I was six months old. 

Hubby is waxing my Mom's 20 year old car today which is a huge job as hasn't been done in years and it is quite weathered.  I am cleaning the house and doing some weeding.  Tonight we drive to a friends house for a Canada Day open house and to watch the fireworks.  Tomorrow we have some friends coming over for drinks and on Monday we will invite Mom over for a BBQ.   In five years we have made a nice life for ourselves here including a cozy island pad, family and friends.

Happy Canada Day fellow Canadians and happy weekend to everyone else!

12 comments:

  1. Looks absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for sharing the pictures of life in your beautiful part of the world. Enjoy the rest of the weekend & Happy Canada Day!

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  2. Lovely post, I felt relaxed just reading it. I am happy for you that you are settled and happy on the Island.

    I seem to spend a lot of time putting starfish back in the water during the winter months.

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    1. I just hate seeing them dried up, but you can only save so many.

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  3. A little late, but Happy Canada Day! You're living the dream...and someday I hope to find my place on the island too.

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    1. Thanks! It took a couple of years to make good friends here but we finally have a social network and family nearby. We love living here, absolutely no regrets

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  4. Happy Canada 150! It was a great fun weekend here with in Toronto. A lot of celebrations going on. Love the picture of starfish. So nice to see.

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  5. Happy Canada Day!
    What a happy post, great photos of you both in your kayaks. xxx

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  6. And you have your mother close by too. I didn't know you could make a pet out of a hermit crab! I had a tiny turtle as a pet once that I found by a pond, also a couple of frogs. The frogs didn't last long though as I heard my mom scream one night!! Out they went back to the creek.
    Happy Canada Day to you both!!

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    1. Yes, love having Mom so close to us. Happy Canada Day to you too!

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  7. We just loaded our big double kayak onto our quad trailer to take over to the Island to go Sproat Lake. We could only get one night's reservation at the campground but that should be enough time to at least wet the bottom and paddle around a bit. We went to Stella Lake north of Campbell River last month for a three day quad trip. This year we are only "vacationing" in BC except for one trip to Oregon to see the total eclipse of the sun. - Margy

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