MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY 2023

There is not much news for 2022 from our little corner of the world. You must be relieved to read that, when there is so much bad news from the remainder of the planet..

Jean and I have been very well behaved through another Covid year and associated health crises – by mostly staying close to home and avoiding crowds. However, Covid, flu and RSV have become a nuisance to the old folks who need attention or reassurance from the overloaded medical sector. Sadly, as with many at our age, we have lost friends this year but we have had a lot of fun and joy too!

The highlight of our year was a 60th Anniversary cruise tour to Vancouver Island. We stayed at the Empress Hotel in Victoria for a couple of days, courtesy of the children, and thoroughly enjoyed the ambience and handy location for walking around downtown Victoria and the harbour. We then drove up the coast at a leisurely pace with stops at places of interest. We stayed in Parksville at a hotel on the beach for a couple of days, re-visited the beautiful Cathedral Grove and travelled to Tofino on the West side of the island where we watched the surfers at Long Beach.

Other trips and daily adventures and hikes were local, with visits to Mission’s Westminster Abbey, Steveston, (an interesting and picturesque working fishing village in Richmond) and miscellaneous Vancouver wanderings. One of our favourite places and a great place for long walks and hikes is up in the mountains near Squamish via the Sea -to –Sky Gondola (a must do for visitors), By the way, the sea-to-sky highway from West Vancouver to Squamish is one of the most scenic drives to be found anywhere in the world.

The family seems generally to be doing well. All busy and working. Randy and Molly are the ones who habitually get out into the world with their jobs and both thoroughly enjoy their adventures. Randy is grounded at the moment and working from home. He fell with his bike on wet cobblestones on his way to work and damaged his knee. Lauren has joined the workforce at a restaurant at Lonsdale Quai. Jennifer attended a convention for women police in Niagara Falls, Ontario. and was enthusiastic about meeting fellow officers from around the world, e.g. New Zealand, Africa etc. Janet is still very engaged with her secondment to SFU. Jean stays very busy with keeping us semi-organized and fed. She is involved in visiting friends who can no longer get out and in helping in various ways at our church. She reads a LOT and enjoys online calligraphy and art classes, She also goes to an art “open studio” every week all year round to paint, sketch and drink cappuccinos with other artists. Myles’ golf activities have been reduced to once per week in good relatively warm weather. In 2022, summer and fall were exceptionally dry and warm. ( More rain on non golf days would have been useful). During the year, we have enjoyed many a family dinner, brunch or lunch with everyone attending, including the granddaughters’ boyfriends. Always fairly noisy joyful events.

The new excitement in the family is the arrival of Lexi, a mini-schnauzer, at the Lewis household. Lola, her much loved predecessor died earlier in the year. Lexi is a 9lb bundle of energy who will present a training challenge of epic proportions and provide an entertaining contrast to her blind sister, Inka, the Toy Fox Terrier.

A few local photos from 2022 below. Summer Fall and Winter photos. And some art added to the Art Gallery>
(NOTE from Jean: It is a long time since I used WordPress and something strange seems to happen with the mobile view of the Art Gallery. Just pinch out to the size of your screen to view.)

2023
So far, the only big plan for 2023 is a cruise at the end of April with Randy and Jennifer around some Mediterranean countries.

Wishing everyone safe and joyful holidays and a New Year filled with hope.

Myles and Jean

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Myles’ turn to write the Christmas letter! Some photos follow.

Greetings and Salutations:

First the Pandemic, then the interminable US election news and now it’s Myles’ turn to produce a Christmas letter. How bad can it get in 2020?

It is and has been a very unique year for us all. We, including the Jennifer, Randy and Lauren along with Janet and Molly, are all well and coping with our weird new world.

Randy, Jennifer and Janet  have been doing the bulk of their work from home during the year though Jennifer is now back traveling to her workplace 4 days a week. Although mostly working from home, Randy still gets to travel occasionally, which he loves. Recent destinations have included Amsterdam and the Caribbean. He has also been busy reconditioning his new toy, a 1975, anniversary edition,  MG roadster. Janet has been working at SFU for another year, virtually of course, while on loan from the Vancouver School Board.  She coordinates the placement of student teachers throughout the province. She has the beautiful Fraser River right at her door, so working from home is no hardship.

Molly did get to go Prague as a scholarship exchange student and did get to travel around a bit in Europe including trips to Denmark, Hungary, and Germany. She enjoyed her stay but it was cut short by the Pandemic and she returned home where she had to finish her semester classes online in the middle of the night on Pacific time. She has continued online with her studies and most of her other SFU activities. She has also been organizing competitions for JDC West.  Jeux du Commerce West – JDC West Business Competition or informally,  JDC West is an annual business competition featuring top business schools and students from across Western Canada, as well as the largest undergraduate business competition in Western Canada.  She has accepted a job offer which starts after she graduates next Spring, with McKinsey Global Management Consulting Company.  From the description, it sounds like a dream job from which to  develop a very successful career. Lauren, now in Grade 12, has her first job which is working out well. Her driving lessons are on hold and she has decided to leave the competitive skating world – well not much happening with skating competitions now anyway – but is doing some coaching of little ones. She did much of her classwork online from home in the earlier months of the pandemic but has been attending school in person for a couple of months now. And she is glad to be back with her friends.

During the year, we two have challenged the medical system with old age type complaints and, like many other elderly folks, are routinely investigated, tested and probed. We are very fortunate to live where there is great availability of services and a system that doesn’t break the bank to use. We are apparently in pretty good condition and could resume our travels if we could go somewhere and be allowed to come back.

We are trying to be responsible and moderately healthy by doing a lot of local touring on foot in neighbourhoods, trails and along the shore. We are very fortunate to live in such a scenic location with many accessible different venues. We are missing our regular dog walks with Lola, the Mini-schnauzer and Inka, the Toy Fox Terrier. Since someone in their family is at home most days, the dogs are well looked after.

Jean is taking full advantage of online Calligraphy and painting classes from all over the world during the pandemic. My only outside activity of note is golf and I am certainly not getting better. It is also getting more difficult to arrange games because the other folks are becoming increasingly incapacitated. Golf has benefits other than exercise and good company such as encounters with wildlife. We have seen thousands of geese and ducks along with squirrels,  sandhill cranes, herons, deer and even an few otters. No bears this year.

Otherwise, we are becoming more aware of our local creatures. We provide seeds for some Towhees, Juncos and Steller’s Jay beauties, plus some gray and black squirrels who are the back patio cleanup squad. The front patio is the location of a well used hummingbird feeder that attracts various gray, green and  Ruby throated birds year round. We often have raccoons in the area and one of our Strata neighbours encountered a bear on a complex path last week. (the bear was not only lost but should have been hibernating by now.

The Advent and Christmas season usually bring us carol concerts and all sorts of other festive events. Most are cancelled this year of course but on December 9th, unexpectedly, we did enjoy a magical adventure at the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Cliff Walk.  The Suspension bridge is one of the main tourist attractions in the Vancouver area and normally attracts thousands of visitors on a year round basis.  It was a moderate day with clouds, showers, some vestigial fog and clear breaks. We thought we would take a walk among the trees. The annual Christmas light show was already installed before special events were declared cancelled and all the lights were switched on. We found it magnificent, even in late afternoon. There was almost no-one there except us and the staff so it was very safe. Entry to the “event” is not allowed in the evening because of Covid. Yes, you might well ask why.

We do look forward to a resumption of more extensive travel in 2021, more dog-walking and the end of pandemic and US election news. We especially look forward to watching the granddaughters progress on their journey. One from University and the other from High School.

We hope that everyone everywhere will appreciate the joys and hopeful message of the Christmas season and the journey through  2021 in good health and happiness.

MYLES AND JEAN

I have changed my site to be easier to navigate. Some smaller card-style art will still appear in POSTS but more in ARTWORK. I will try to add more to that particular page, including some calligraphy before September.