Forest nymphs

Lily, Alice and Ellen had a marvellous week deep in play and exploration of all sorts. What a nice trio they make! Here they are at there most bucolic!

Doco's meditation

Eric made Doco a meditation bench for his birthday and here is Doco diligently putting it to use.

Wood fired kiln

After the clay house and the clay oven this summer it was time for the wood fired kiln. This was the first firing of the oven made by Anna (in the red sweater). There were some adjustments made after this fireing as the chimney appeared not to be high enough and the flames were jumping out of the front of the fire box instead of up the chimney during the very hot 6 hours of fuelling.

Girls to the power of eight

 This is our two with Douglas and Candy's two girls along with Cynthia's (the grand-daughter of my step grand-mother) four girls. They are - from left to right: Sarah 1, Morgan 3, Jesse 6, Ellen 5, Alice 6, Michaela 8, Lily 8, Molly 9.

Just five on the raft.

Tee-Pee construction

After walking over to the William's place and seeing their Tee-Pee the girls managed to convince Eric to help them make a tee-pee of their own which they did in the pouring rain. The rain let up just in time for them all to climb inside and,  from the sound of the squeals coming from inside there was great fun had for the next several hours. In fact, the girls have had their supper in there for the last three nights, which makes for quiet grown-up dinners inside!!!

Serious swimmers

 Lily all ready for Lock Colin.

Alice and favourite cousin Ellen getting ready for their synchronized swimming show.

Wilson Creek Falls

 Four forest nymphs.

 Pick-nickers in the Wilson Creek mist.

 Serious meditator with paparazzi.

 You can't see the falls quite but they arrive just behind this rock. You can probably almost hear the roar!

This was a percussion concert that Molly, Lily and Alice performed right beside the falls... We could almost hear them!

Eric in Lemon Creek

Eric and I had a marvellous day out to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We canoed down the Slocan river from Slocan to Lemon Creek (about 8km) and then ran back to get the car along the old railway grade. So nice! It was very tempting here at the mouth of Lemon Creek to carry on down the river but we had been warned against it as there are rapids and log jams along the way. So we contented ourselves with wading across Lemon Creek. The Slocan river is very impressive right here, there is a huge amount of water moving quickly through a tight passage.

A fish called Alice

The lake was exceptionally high when we first arrived but strangely it was also warm - it would normally be frigid at this time of year especially with the water so high. A bit spooky but very nice for little and big swimmers. Both Alice and Lily can swim this year which makes the water all the more fun to be in. Now this is summertime!

Sister Power

Lily and Alice spent their first weeks at the ranch practically joined at the hip in sleep and play. Here, with the help of Mama's rain coat they are being real pretend siamese twins.

Walk to Evans Creek

This is hardly representative of our lovely walk along the west shore of Slocan lake but you can see some of the lovely moss and the most interesting of the many mushrooms that we saw along the way. Lily and I were counting varieties of mushroom but we gave up counting at 17. The trail winds up and down along the lake shore between the tress and flanked by luxurious moss.