My "almost" perfect summer

South down the valley

A whole month has passed (well, almost) since I arrived in my home country and I must say it has been an almost perfect month. The weather has been grand - a little heat, a little rain, a little thunder on the plain. Lots of wonderful cloud formations like the one shown here, a view south down the valley at sunset. However, because there has been so little rain my favorite fishing stream is low and warm; no point catching 'em if I ain't going to eat 'em, right?

So, if I'm not fishing, just what the heck have I been doing for 24 days? Well, the main reason I'm here is to be near my dear ol' Mom who will be 95 in September, so on Mondays and Thursdays I jump in the Jeep and drive for an hour, from the ranch to Claresholm and visit with her for a couple of hours at Willow Creek Continuing Care Center (a.k.a. "The Pink Palace" per my dad), do my laundry, food shopping, wifi work if the library's open, and then head back to the hills.

Shane, Peter and Myrna

A wild turkey showed up in the yard

I finished a lengthy writing project last week, something that has been on my desk and in my mind for years. That completed, I set up the sewing machine and the bags are just about making themselves. Add to that some marathon reading - The Old Curiosity Shop, McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, and Brideshead Revisited are some of the books I've gobbled up so far. I've spent several years working my way through Grandpa's and Dad's collections of fabulous old books that I inherited and I figure I have a couple hundred to go. So many books and time to read them. Sounds like heaven, doesn't it?

This is the Canada Day weekend - she is 150 years old. To celebrate, my cousins Peter, Shane and Myrna took me on a grand tour of the grandest part of the Rockies - the Kananakis Provincial Park from Longview on Highway 22, up over the Highwood Pass, to the lakes and on to the TransCanada Highway; then back onto 22 through Bragg Creek, south to Turner Valley and home to High River.

He and his brother were going our way

The thrill of the trip was seeing two large grizzlies at the side of the road; one posed for me as you can see. We also saw mountain sheep and a scruffy coyote. The scenery is magnificent. The damage from the 2013 floods is almost completely repaired although the world-class golf course is yet to reopen. We picnicked in total solitude by a lake; just the four of us and several million mosquitoes!

In between my Mom Trips, popping in to High River, and enjoying the peace and quiet of my parents' old house, there have been wonderful times with my brother and sis-in-law. Tony and Debbie own and operate Chimney Rock Bed 'n' Breakfast; they live right across the creek from me and I get to see them often, usually every day for coffee, a visit or an ATV trip somewhere on the ranch. Thanks to them I have watched a roundup and mini cattle drive; a minor bullfight

Daphne and Rick

between two of the resident bulls; looked at photos and video from a permanent "bear cam" installed up on the ridge (yes, bears and cubs, cougars and more); had evening campfire dinners and celebrated Tony's 70th birthday. Friends from B.C. stopped by for a couple of nights camped in their trailer. Rick and Daphne are two of our favorite people to share the outdoors and wilderness adventures with so it's always good to see them. I hope more people drop by in July.

So with all this visiting, socializing, R&R, reading, writing and doing pretty much what I darn well want to do - what's the "almost" in my "almost perfect" summer? Well, the love of my life isn't here with me. Jim stayed on Maui this year to finish a big remodeling project in our house and to keep his dear 97-year-old mom company. She's a trooper, lives alone in our cottage and handles things well but this year it seemed maybe she'd enjoy having her son around for the summer. I sure miss having him in his attic studio while I'm at my sewing machine. Oh well. There's always next year.