Song for Friday...just havin' fun

 Hope this makes you smile like little Charlie...he's my 3rd cousin...

Have a great weekend from a great band who come from Seattle...

Are they having fun or what?!

More thoughts on camping...

Why is it everything always tastes better when you're camping?

Is it all the fresh air? 

Maybe it's the labour intensive process to cook things in a makeshift kitchen..

Maybe it's our primitive love affair with an outdoor fire...

I'm not sure but I do know that the smell of bacon cooking, wafting through the air in the woods is enough to turn a vegetarian back to a carnivore.

From our campground, heading west you go through the small logging, fishing town of Port Alberni...

That's Mount Arrowsmith which towers above the valley...

At this time of year, on the outskirts of town, the local native band is selling fresh sockeye salmon...

We stopped at one place and talked a while with Jimmy, whilst mending his nets...

He said it's been the best sockeye season in 28 years.

So we brought back to our camp a lovely fillet.

My new favorite way to eat salmon is on top of a really good salad...

Any kind will do...in this case it was a Greek, green salad with maple balsamic vinegrette...

Pan fried and served up warm on a plastic plate...yum.

Wash it down with a tumbler of cold white wine and what could taste better!

And although the dishes are a bit of a chore when camping...

Even that can be fun with the 'Tom-o-matic'...

Busy playing...

My sister and her three lovely girls came from the mainland for 5 whole days...

We ate,

We drank, 

We watched movies,

We laughed,

We danced,

We played....

Mostly we played!

 At the birthday party...

Home made teeter totters on the beach...

Looking for fossils...

With the dogs...

On the logs...

Picknicking on the rocks...

Being watched...

But the best part was discovering that my middle niece Rachel has a gift...

For foot massages!!

...and Stephie's pretty good with the neck as well...

You know that saying "You can pick your friends but not your family"?

I wouldn't pick anyone else but them!

Friday shoot out....tastes and smells

I thought I would join in this week(you can see more herehttp://mytownmrlinky.blogspot.com/2010/08/friday-my-town-shoot-out-august-6th.html) since we have the most wonderful frangrance around our place these days...

The Linden (or Lime) tree is in full bloom.

 It has been associated with fairness and justice in Celtic lore.

 It is said to have a calming effect.

 It was believed to cure epilepsy if you sat under it.

 It has many medicinal properties.

 To me it is the perfume of summer.

 In the middle of February I will scrub myself with a bar of linden flower soap and be transported back to a hot day in August.

Song for Friday...like mindedness..

I recommended this song to someone the other day and have had it in my head ever since.

It's a really pretty song that's dreamy...

About life and love of family.

Greg Brown has always struck a chord with me...no pun intended...

So maybe it'll get stuck in your head for a little while.

Have a great weekend!

Camping 101...

It was a dark and stormy night...well, not really.

Actually it was a gorgeous summer evening but it was getting dark and after the long drive and shopping in Coombs, we had to find a place to put up our temporary home for the weekend.

Little Qualicum Falls to the rescue!

Our humble home for the weekend set up and ready for the night...

When you think about it, camping is a lot of work.

Pack everything into the van.

Make it fit.

Unpack it all.

Set up the tent.

Sounds easy...

(even though you've only set it up once two years ago.)

Making sure you've got all the right colored poles in the right order.

 Check.

This campground  is in a lovely area full of rain forests...

...and crystal clear, deep water falls...

The campground is full of some beautiful trails that skirt along all parts of the river, including some good swimming holes...of  course Griffin loved that part the most!

All in all a pretty sweet spot to spend a long weekend....

Look up...

As mentioned before, there is something else special about Coombs...

Any time it's mentioned people will say, "that's the place with the goats on the roof!"

And indeed there are...

Up there on the main roof of the market...

Living quite happily...

 King of the castle.

Like something out of Heidi...

These gals just hang out and graze and snooze and play all day...

 All of these pictures were taken from the outside patio area where people come to have lunch with the goats..

Later in the day they wander back into the shade to snooze away the evenings...

I would say it's a pretty good life for these goats...