Dad's Visit

Dad and Dorothy are on an airplane to Calgary as I write this, heading back to temperatures that make our -8°C seem positively balmy.  Dad passed along that it was -35° in Calgary last night.  The nice thing about the cool temperatures while they were here is that we were the beneficiaries of skies as blue and unclouded as those of Alberta winters.  It was positively bright!

We had a good visit and I'm pretty sure they'll be back when the entire island isn't in off-season.  We drove out to Parksville and trod the beach for a bit while Dorothy looked for pretty rocks and beach glass.  I was going to grab a picture of them as proof positive that Dad got that close to such a large body of water (the Salish Sea), but alas .. no power to the camera.

We drove up to Qualicum beach and wandered around town for a bit, stopping at Yesterday's Child Antiques, a store that puts most shops of that sort to shame.  It was just so well laid out .. and clean.  No having to blow off dust or pick the good stuff from the bad.  It was all nice quality.

We also spent a bit of time wandering around the studios in The Old School House, talking to artists and generally oohing and ahhinng.  Its amazing how much you learn simply from talking to people about their art and techniques.  I suspect Dad and Dorothy weren't as enthalled as I, but they looked at home chatting up the artists.

I purchased a couple of artcards of geometric cats from Audrey Perry before we went back out into the chill.

On Thursday morning, I ducked out of the house for my Thursday gym session with Paul and while I was out, Dorothy turned my kitchen into an amazing facsimile of a bakery.  By the end of day, we had four dozen cinnamon buns ready for the freezer.  They are indeed as delicious as they look and Dorothy even waived her usual raisin inclusion in favor of walnuts. Now that's a woman who's won my heart.  Raisins .. ptooey!

Dad and I spent a lot of time catching up on people who I used to know or go to school with; Dorothy seemed to know more than a smattering of the family history and extended family friends as Dad brought me up to date on people in his area.

Bruce remarked to me how happy Dad looks and I have to agree. Dorothy is good for him.  I approve. I'm afraid, however, that she may have set precedent ...  any woman who bakes cinnamon buns in my kitchen is bound to get the thumbs up.  Perhaps she needs to return and do it again ... you know ... just so I can make sure that it really isn't just today's cinnamon high talking.