Main Street Farmer's Market Blues: Saturday, July 4th!

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship. -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900) 

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship. -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900) 

Busy, full day. Woke up at 5:30 am but was still sleepy so turned on my bed-side radio and fell back asleep until 8:30 am! Had a mug of Instanto, (made with 3.5% butterfat milk!), while The Goils readied themselves for the stroll to the Farmers' Market. Lovely walk along  Penticton Creek which has noticeably less water than a few weeks ago. First stop was at RBC to withdraw cash as The Shopping Sisterhood was hell bent on the stalls lining Main Street. Enjoyed chatting with many of the vendors. Talked to Jordy Bouillet of Okanagan Woodworking about special ordering a step stool for kitchen. Described what I had in mind and he will work something up and email a starting design. Top shelves of cabinets are so high that almost need a small stepladder.

Further along I bought a beefsteak tomatoe plant which I arranged to collect shortly before market closes as I'll drive back down. Relished a couple of cider tastings, one at Naramata Cider Company, affiliated with Elephant Island Orchard Wines. The flavourful Blackberry/Apple, 8%, was my favourite so I picked up a bottle. On way back up Main, we stopped at Ponderosa Weaving. Owner, jenny Paquet, specializes in gorgeous pine needle baskets and we picked up one for Lynne as a thankyou present for storing two carloads of our "muleage" in their garage before we moved in to Burns Street Stopping Place. Then on to Howling Moon, out of Oliver, another cider producer and picked up three bottles of their craft offering. Nice little buzz for the walk  home. Left The Goils to do a bit more shopping and wended my own way back along the creek.
 

Lunch of overleft saladin from last night's dinner once back and then I began "attacking" my "office" to start sorting through all of the boxes that need to be emptied, contents arranged on the new bookshelves, at least as a start, until we acquire more shelving elsewhere in house. Made fairly reasonable progress until The Sisterhood returned and then we all moved outside onto the patio. Chloë had picked up some outdoor lights at Costco earlier this week and we proceeded to strung them up along the fence, I hammering a small nail to hang each light, Chloë unrolling the string just ahead of me, Lady Mary barking out orders all the while! We'll test out the true effect this evening, when sun goes down, although they looked quite attractive when we tested the circuit.

Once that was done The Goils headed out to run some more errands and I returned to my office to continue organizing. Home by close to 5:00 pm they were both so exhausted from the heat, 34º-36º, that they needed a gin and tonic. Chloë concocted them, (with freshly squeezed lemons and limes and Schramm Gin, 44%, from Pemberton Distillery Inc., one of the Vancouver Writers Festival sponsors, and a present, this April, from the VWF for our volunteer participation and donations over the years.), and we repaired to the shade under the gazebo to relax. Life in Penticton is very stressful!

After the lovely break I went back inside to do a bit more work in the study and then started some initial preparation for tonight's dinner, boneless leg of lamb, (Cora Lee inserted slivers of garlic from Peter's garden into roast, and rubbed surface with fresh rosemary cut, from our small pot of herbs), on bbq, and fresh local potatoes and carrots, wrapped in tin-foil and also done on bbq. Will do a radish, (local), and cucumber salad, with Feta cheese. Fresh cherries for dessert. Not sure of which wines we'll open, at this point, but I'm leaning towards an Orofino, (Keremeos), 2014 Secret Vineyard Riesling, 13.3%. Hoping I can persuade Chloë to make me another gin and tonic as the first was so thirst quenching. She and her mother are opting for a Howling Moon craft cider! Again, am finding the move to Penticton quite a hardship posting!

Hello Fitness-Guru Patrizio, Being away in hot lullaby land, I find it hard to relate to any kind of physical activity, so kudos to you, for making up for the lazy folks!

Having a great time here, so great in fact that we are contemplating staying an extra day. Would it be a terrible disaster if we asked for an extension and arrived on Monday instead of tomorrow? If inconvenient, we’ll stick to the original plan and leave tomorrow as planned, let me know. And don’t be shy about being frank, not that I am overly concerned about such a trait in your case, Patrick J.

Another timely question: we don’t have your address. Please and thanks. We’ll google it, so should be able to find it without your instructions, unless you prefer to do so anyway. Must go now, everyone is headed to the water for some much needed cooling and more R&R in this 35 C weather. Love, Yda
Hi again, Little Yda and The Imperiales! Just had a chance to look at my messages so wanted to let you know that arriving Monday is fine with us. Having two other couples for dinner, Lynne and Peter, from Naramata, and Dawn and Gerry, from Vancouver/Terrace, en route from Dawn's high-school reunion in Salmo, so you'll miss meeting them. However, just means you will need to return at some later date to make their acquaintance! Anyway, take your time as we'll be homing unpacking/settling in. Loads to do so not to worry about arrival time. I plan to go riding reasonably early on Monday morning to beat the worst of day's heat but otherwise we'll be home in the late afternoon, for sure. We live on Burns Street, off Eckhardt, so pretty easy to find.Enjoy the rest of your visit and we'll look forward to seeing you three on Monday. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio! PS: Will you be staying a week now?

Snapolas: Tasting cider at Naramata Cider Company; Jenny, of Ponderosa Weaving, with her lovely baskets; Sharon saying goodbye to my beefsteak tomatoe plant; Mother and Child reunion in front of fire-pit. Too, too warm to use lately, as you can well imagine. Schramm's, asked for a straw but Chloë wouldn't bring me one! Fresh cherries and lavender from market, in our living room.

Hi Pat - trust this finds you well and keeping cool. We are driving down to Portland tomorrow on what is supposed to be the hottest day of this stretch of sunshine. Hope the tires don't sink into the malting asphalt.

Kjell was through on the 30th and stayed overnight before heading to Comox the next day. He doesn't know if he will be coming back for the Folk Fest or not - can't pin Jane down one way or another apparently. Assuming you are still planning on coming. Irrespective of what Kjell does, you would be welcome to stay with us. Let me know and if yes, planned arrival and departure dates.
Given what we have been going through, I'm convinced it will be raining but this will not dampen my enthusiasm for what is shaping up as a fine line-up.

Cheers....Paul PS - in case you hadn't noticed, there is an earlier start this year with the gates on Friday opening at 1:00 and 2 small stage sets starting at 2:00 (one including Richard Thompson).
Hi Paolo and Joan! Must apologize for not sending along a note earlier but we just arrived back from Manitoba on Canada Day and life on the road was hectic, as I'm sure you can appreciate.  Nevertheless, thank you so much for the invitation to stay over the course of the Folk Fest, (Thanks, as well, for reminding me about early start on Friday. Not sure if I even knew about that although I was aware that Richard Thompson was appearing. Last time we saw him was at The Cultch, back in the late 80's or early 90's, I think.) At any rate I am delighted to accept your invitation to stay but since we have other "crash pads" I can always sleep on someone's couch elsewhere if Kjell and Jane decide to cross over The Salish Sea!

We will be driving to Vancouver on July 14th, in part to connect with friend, Stefano, in town from Melbourne, as well as to deliver Lady Mary to YVR. She is flying to The Big Apple with close friend, Robyn, for ten days, on the 16th. Without trying to be too, too pushy, perhaps we could bunk with you on the nights of the 14th/15th and then I could stay elsewhere for the remainder of week/weekend, so as not to outstay my welcome. Couple of other sets of friends have offered me a place to stay so it is an opportunity to connect when in town and, inveterate travelers that you are, you know it doesn't take long and almost a week has gone Poof! Anyway, many thanks again for the most generous offer. Let me know what you think and we'll plan accordingly.



Travel safely on The Tars Sands of I-5. Portland is one of our favourite cities and we have quite a few close friends there. Wine-tasting in the Willamette is wonderful, as you probably know. Look forward to seeing you both when in Vancouver, one way or another, in little more than a week or so. Fondestos from Mme Coriandre, talking to Ayn, in Tinsel Town, on the phone, at the moment. Cheers, Patrizzio!