Dawson Creek continued

Thursday July 12th
It ain't half hot mum. About 34 deg today.

We do a little mooching around Dawson Creek in the morning. We see the sights, look at the Pioneer elevator (grain elevator and storage facility) and admire it for the grand old building that it is (I have a photo from our last visit) and return home for lunch. In the afternoon I attend to a few little bits of gardening for Anne while Janice rests and Anne supervises, gardens and perspires.

Friday July 13th
Dawson Creek spends most of its life under a white blanket of snow. This usually occurs in the winter, which is about seven months long. For the remaining five months mother nature contrives to make up for this enforced winter sloth and, before the snow is even gone, plants have broken the surface and some have even flowered. Other plants aren't far behind.
It helps of course, that there is no real dark time in summer and the sun stays our of bed for up to 19 hours at a stretch. Twilight adds another couple of hours of half-light at each end of the day too.
It follows that during the long, sunny days of June and July there is little time for temperatures to fall a great deal at "night". Put a few of these days together, couple it with a southerly breeze from the continental interior, and the temperature builds to a day like today. It's *%#^YGY*&^%!!! HOT!!!! All day and all night too.

That's why we all three decided to drive the two hours to Grande Prairie again, spend three hours there and return (2 hours). We were in air conditioning all the time.

This evening we are taken to dinner by Anita (Anne's best buddy and a really good friend of ours too) at the fanciest restaurant in town. Anita wanted to know "What do you want, good food ...or air conditioning?" We chose the good food. It was great - and we sat right in front of a fan the size of Lake Taupo, so we weren't too hot. We did however, on our way into town, learn that Thursday had been too hot for the Pioneer grain elevator. It burned down on Thursday afternoon and was smouldering when we drove past tonight.

Saturday July 14th
I learned a very good lesson yesterday. I have a photo of an elevator from our visit three years ago. That shot isn't there today - so this morning I drove to take a picture of a real nice red barn in the middle of a field of bright yellow flowering canola oil seed plants. Hopefully it won't burn down in the near future but if it does, I have the photo. I was speaking to Marilyn today. Her dad owned the red barn and she played in it as a young girl. She hopes it won't burn down too. No more ripples please!

Robert, who has been helping Jennifer while she reads our mail, texted to say we have more bills (greater value) than we have orders.
What should I say to that?

Lazy day.

Sunday July 15th
Gardening for a couple of hours.
Things are different here. They can be quite worrying too. Anne has a system for watering her plants around the house. She pumps water from a pond in the middle of her garden. To do this she runs an electric lead from a powerpoint on a tall garden light, to a submersible pump in the said pond. The lead ends by the pond where it is joined to the pump lead with a couple of ordinary plugs. The plugs and leads stay out in all weathers. Everyone does this. The electrical system in Canada is 110 volts. It still scares me to hell and back. So do the large, fresh, deep claw marks on the lawn, but don't worry. No-one else does. Perhaps whatever it was was chasing the deer that had eaten the tops out of Anne's sugar snap peas.

Went to Marilyn and Al's place for morning tea this morning. Marilyn has a really nice garden and an interesting fence. She is a real nice person. Should have asked Al about the claw marks. He is a real nice bloke. Al does a bit of hunting.

That's all for now.