Day 88 Okamino and Beyond

I know that 88 is a very good number for the Chinese and that we once had an  88 Oldsmobile, but Wikipedia has a way of making me understand that I don't know very much.

"Eighty-Eight is a refactorable number, a primitive semiperfect number and an untouchable number. It is also an hexadecagonal number.Since it is possible to find sequences of 88 consecutive integers such that each inner member shares a factor with either the first or the last member, 88 is an Erdős–Woods number." 

Meet Harvey and his Lab Border Collie mix dog Cokey. Now that just begged the question, "Like Coca Cola?". Harvey responded that he and his wife purchased the dog from someone in the parking lot of a mall.  Harvey had to go get money from the cash machine as a cheque was not going to be accepted. Harvey and his wife said they felt like they'd made a drug deal and so the name stuck. Cokey. Inspired. Happy trails both of you.

Day 87 Okamino and Beyond
Knox
Blue, blue skies this morning belying that it is February 25th. I successfully made my way up Knox, with less snorting and coughing, secure in the knowledge that I don't have pneumonia. It's a little mantra I keep repeating to myself. 
This is Tammy and Tina with Baxter the dog who frequent Knox daily. 

The Moms of this group elected to call themselves the "Wild Kids". I give them credit for taking the kids up a seriously good and difficult hike. Be Wild.

Day 86 Okamino and Beyond

 "Walking pneumonia" in my case, would be "hiking pneumonia". In either case, my very good doctor informed me that the Xrays showed I don't have either. I'm grateful for our health care in Canada, which for me, has been mostly prompt and very efficient.

This is the first day since late October that I have not hiked, walked or biked. I rested.  Didn't like it one bit and so this picture of a big dark cloud.

Day 85 Okamino and Beyond

Wheezed and sneezed my way up Knox in most beautiful weather still. Met this great dog called Charlie who is a sports retriever mix. His owner says he can run alongside a bike for 20 + kilometers and still be looking for more to do, though will be calm and lovely at home. Sounds like a good combination.

Day 84 Okamino and Beyond

Something wonderful is happening and Knox is getting so crowded. Moms, dads, grandparents with little kids in tow. There were no parking spaces left!  

Sarah doesn't need a weight vest, she's got young Tessa to help her burn up the hill. Way to go. A glamorous pair indeed.

 I've appropriated the dining room for painting. Luckily this can all disappear in no time, in readiness for guests, though that won't happen any time soon with this raging cold holding me in its grip. Don has been busy making frames and canvasses of which I'm very grateful.

Day 83 Okamino and Beyond
Dragged my sorry butt up the hill, wheezing only slightly from my cold. Ah, but what a day to do that! All of us here out West reveling in unusual and beautiful weather while our brethren out East succumb to deep freezes. I remember. I lived it too.  The following article explains the why's of this "weird" weather. 

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/melting-arctic-and-weird-weather-plot-thickens

This is an excerpt:
"Rather than circling in a relatively straight path, the jet stream has meandered more in north-south waves. In the west, it’s been bulging northward, arguably since December 2013 – a pattern dubbed the “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” by meteorologists. In the east, we’ve seen its southern-dipping counterpart, which I call the “Terribly Tenacious Trough.” 



Sorry to depress some, but for smiles and giggles, you can't beat dogs which are getting cuter and cuter. This pair belonged together, the smaller one named Waldo and I'm so sorry, to have forgotten the larger one's name, but you'd take him home in a minute.

My husband took this near classic photo.

Day 82 Okamino and Beyond
Knox
You think you're doing everything right, then Bam! a nasty cold hits like prize fighter. I know where it came from but doesn't lessen the punch. Not that it stopped me from doing Knox, just doing it a bit slower.

Paula's dog Kona was wary of me and I of him. He's a big barking, lunging machine and if she hadn't been there to hold him back, I don't know. She professes he's never bitten, but he hadn't met me yet.

Day 81 Okamino and Beyond
Knox hike:
This is not my car, but it reminds me that mine needs a wash.I did not write this, but it comes to mind that friends are in Whistler skiing. 

Meg the dog came right to me to get petted and she so looked like Bob, my son's dog that we got introduced. Meet Meg and Mike.

Day 80 Okamino and Beyond

Thick fog starting to break this morning on the WRT hike; it's disappointing after the brilliant sunshine we experienced the last three days. Should have waited till this afternoon as it was nothing but blue skies then.

This hike is muddy and will probably be so for a month or so. 

Day 79 Okamino and Beyond
Drove back from Vancouver on the driest and safest roads ever. Sunny all the way until we hit the valley, where the fog was hanging in there hard. It lifted when we climbed Knox but not before we were able to get a shot of the hoarfrost on the Ponderosa pine needles.

 The border collie's name is Skye, like the isle and her owner Patsy who also walk up Knox.

Day 78 Okamino and Beyond

A warm sunny February day in Vancouver, great for an urban hike. Definitely not stressing the muscles here, but delighting the eyes. The Vancouver library, before it opens, a warm and inviting place for the homeless, nodding into tables; libraries becoming public places for the disenfranchised. 

 Bouquets of all kinds of flowers providing sweet fragrance as I walked by.

 Had to give my head a shake and remember it was February and that in the rest of Canada, the main colour is no colour. This could be Newfoundland in May or June.

 A warm sunset and the building is looking in the pink.

 Along Burrard, there is proof that we've jump started spring in Vancouver!

Day 77 Okamino and Beyond
On our way to Vancouver there's time enough for a trip up Knox. Oddly sunny with a fog patch coming in and out of the trail. Spectacular though.

 

Humans of Knox:

Kerry climbs Knox every day. We've been passing each other for a long time so it was high time we introduced ourselves. 

Day 76 Okamino and Beyond

It's Saturday, and it's Valentine's Day and it's sunny, and it's very warm, getting to 14 in the afternoon. Wow. Paradise indeed.

Great day for our usual bike ride, wandering the streets and eventually getting to Kelowna's favourite cafe where people are sitting outside, getting much needed vitamin D. 

The play of shadows on this house from the tree cries out to be photographed.

This the the outside patio for a the new beer establishment. I make a prediction that this will be a very busy place in the summer.

Day 75 Okamino and Beyond
It is with joy that I get to go faster on my bike but I notice that it is not as easy to smell the roses and take pictures. 

This was taken from the new trail leading from Spall between Dilworth Mountain and Enterprise. If I didn't know any better, I'd say these trees are getting ready to bud.

Along the Greenway towards Lakeshore I meet fellow heARt Fit buddy Mary, her dog Mickey, her friend Jamie (hope I've got the spelling right) and her adolescent dog Charley (or is it Je suis Charlie).  Mary and Jamie jogged from the dog park a good long ways and were turning back. Way to go!

Day 74 Okamino and Beyond
Taking my daughter's lead, I dusted off my hybrid bike (half road/half mountain) and headed out for a ride down Glenmore to the Greenway, down to Lakeshore and back home leisurely on Abbott and along the lake. Got a bit thirsty and stopped at the downtown Starbucks. Couldn't keep my eyes off of this very dapper man wearing a very expensive new age blazer, skinny pants and pointy shoes. Only a small bum can do that.
Whatever was on his phone must have been crucially important as the guy behind him waited a long time to get around him. 

Kept an eye out for my old/new bike as I hadn't brought my lock. People are sitting out with the unseasonably warm weather.

 A cut up tube of white acrylic paint - being frugal and all.

In honour of Canada's celebrating the 50th anniversary of our present flag, this was my father's entry into a contest for the design. We flew it at our flagpole until the new one was announced, and then we flew it underneath it.

Day 73 Okamino and Beyond
Ever wonder how a restaurant gets such a high rating in Trip Advisor and all evidence seems to point to the contrary? Makes me think there are great ghost writers out there plumping up the reputation of some establishments. I'm not saying the food wasn't good, just that it didn't meet up with the hype. Email me if you want to know the name of such restaurant in Kelowna where we ate last night.

All the more reason after that meal to hike up Knox this morning and man, was there ever some activity there today:

Joggers big and little - no time to get a name.

Backpackers - huffing and puffing too much to stop.

 

Bikers - whizzing by.

Stopped and smelled the air.

 Fog drifted in and out of the high ground.

Day 72 Okamino and Beyond
Looking for a string a heArt Fit today and found a box full of wool, but in this photo, looks more like a box of magic colour.

 This is the cat that Steve drew on the side of a wooden box.

 This is one of Shelley's first attempts at watercolouring. Lovely choice of colours and tones. 

Shelley and Mary getting into the heArt Fit groove. 

 Knox hike through an unauthorized area. Won't do it again, promise. But look at this luscious moss.

 The top of Knox today, socked in again.

 Mark is the Knox Park caretaker. He belongs here by default.

Day 71 Okamino and Beyond
Knox in the rain.
Living in Kelowna, you could go weeks before you meet someone you know. When we first moved here I was so thrilled to bump into someone I knew. Should have introduced myself to more people back then.
This is Gerry. He hikes up Knox at least 5 days a week. I believe him cause we've crossed paths a lot. Finally had the occasion to talk to him. I also know that Gerry frequents the best beach in all of Kelowna and we have a lot of beaches.

It wasn't just rain this morning, but serious fog. Lovely looking North.

  These have been filled with snow and ice for the last couple of months and looking very different as reflecting pools.

Day 70 Okamino and Beyond
A beautiful sunny Sunday with temperatures that we would have considered early summer back in Newfoundland. Walked over the hills to downtown meeting happy smiling folk. Amazing what a little sun and warm weather does for people. Maybe we all yearn for a return our early African roots. 

At what point would they eventually decide this quad was too bid for the truck box?

Sage shrubs on Knox.

 Happy and sad concrete faces near the library.

 OK, nobody really wants to know what I ate for lunch, but this one felt like it had some redeeming qualities enough to share.