Canada – OldPlaidCamper

Belgian style

Style – if you haven’t got it, then there’s no need to worry about it. That’s what I tell myself. Belgian style? Not sure what it is exactly, but having investigated, I think I could get to like it?

From up on the bluff, and it really was a bit chilly

Oh, ok, this isn’t a fashion thing, you’ll be relieved to know. It’s a beer thing, you’ll be shocked to read. We set off on a quite chilly late morning last week to discover for ourselves a nearby microbrewery promising beers in a Belgian style. Given the properly seasonal weather, we were hoping for a glass (or two?) of strong, dark, monkish beer, and we were not disappointed!

A strong golden, and a strong dark, my strong recommendations

Should you be in the area, and you like a well made big beer, then Two Pillars could be for you. We liked it! If we were feeling the cold and had to move fast to keep warm on our walk over, we were well insulated (or even ever-so-slightly inebriated – those were some mighty big beers in small glasses) and taking extra care in the slippery conditions walking home. We might have dozed off for the rest of the afternoon – must have been all that exercise…

We bought a few fireside sippers home with us in preparation for a couple of winter cabin trips we’ve got coming up soon, and they’ll be just the thing after an hour or two of snowy playtime. Yum!

Imperial porter and a Christmas red ale – yum

Let’s keep it short and sweet, not unlike a shared after dinner winter porter. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Like looking in a mirror – is this Belgian style?

Dizzy new heights

As we wait, and wait, and wait some more for real winter, I’ll be up a ladder, trying not to fall and doing some redecorating around our apartment. Since this will take far longer for me than properly competent decorators, I’ll be taking a short blogging break to get things done and be back in December. By then, the paint will have washed out of my hair and be scrubbed off the floor, and there’ll be more snow than I can imagine to go play in. Dizzy new heights up a ladder, and dizzy new heights on xc skis…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend and rest of the month. Yeah, I know – what hair?

Creaking…

Creaking? Like old bones? Is this an early Hallowe’en piece? Or an excuse for a poor pun later in the post? Hmm, I wonder…

We were camping in a southern section of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park a week or two ago, having set off from Calgary on a spectacular fall day. Goodness, that day – the light was so bright the aspens were shimmering gold and it felt as if you could reach out and run your hand along the mountain top horizon, they appeared so close. Razor sharp!

We stopped in the foothills for a lunchtime picnic, in shirtsleeves and sunglasses. Clearly, the forecasters had got it wrong – snow?! What snow? What a day, bright fall in the mountains:

Oh:

Erm…

Yes, I was cold and creaking, at least until the sun cleared the treetops and most of the snow melted away. A short, sharp shock for sure, but in a good way, it being a reminder that fall is brief out this way, and the brilliance of winter is almost here!

Extra layers on (meaning I wore all the clothes I’d brought, being poorly prepared compared to Mrs. PC) we did a short loop hike, not much more than a few kilometres, up one side and back down the other of nearby Boulton Creek. Creeking, hehehe. Very quiet, with just a couple of other hikers encountered on the trail, bear tracks and scat everywhere, but no bears spotted. Perfect!

We thoroughly enjoyed our last camping trip of this season, sunshine, snow and all, and look forward to the spring – but not until we’ve enjoyed winter!

“Winter, you say? I think it is just ahead – I can almost see it from here!”

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here this coming Monday, and, once again, amongst all the ever increasing madness in the wider world, we’re very aware we’ve so much to be thankful for.

As I’ve written before, thanksgiving weekend more or less marks the anniversary of when we moved to Canada, a move we’ve never once regretted (well, maybe some regret related to my first and probably last slice of pumpkin pie all those years ago, shudder… the horrors of pumpkin pie – apologies to outraged traditionalists – but no, no, never again, I can’t, I just can’t…)

Pumpkin pie aside, each passing year we love where we live more and more. So if you choose to celebrate the coming holiday, happy thanksgiving!

Ok, let’s keep it brief this week – there’s an apple pie that needs our attention! The next photograph was also taken last weekend and I think it signals the end of the brief Alberta mountain fall and our current camping season?! More to follow…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Silly

Silly? Silly?! Oh no, dull, dull, and dull… What’s going on? Have you had a vocabulary breakdown, OldPlaidCamper? Silly? Ugh… is silly the new dreary? It’s not a word I use very often – most likely because I’m distantly acquainted with one or two people I’m not overly fond of who do use it (they’d probably say I’m silly if they were being kind, although kindness isn’t really one of their strengths…) Anyway, why silly? What prompted this silliness? Why, because I couldn’t resist this beer:

We’ve certainly found the weather a bit silly throughout September, in that it was way above seasonal almost every day. Trips along the river and to nearby parks have been pleasant enough, and the planted gardens have certainly held on longer – perhaps due to the silly weather?

In just the last few days we’ve seen more of a fall arrival, and most definitely on our quick trip earlier this week to see friends in Canmore. The cool fall temperatures were a relief, and the dashes of colourful larches on the slopes were very pretty. A deciduous conifer? Is that a bit silly? Not at all!

Very sensible (taken a different day, west of Canmore)

We’re off to K country for a few days of quiet camping – no cell coverage or wifi, some beer, some short hikes, a few good books, and maybe spotting a bear or two in the distance. Not too silly…

Thanks for reading – I’ll aim for a wider vocabulary next time – and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Colour/fall

Fall-ty memory? Forget-fall? (This is bad – apologies…) Yes, quite aw-fall. I’d promised to share some more colourful and less misty images from our recent trip to the coast. The main attraction for us was the foggy atmosphere and early hint of autumn, especially as summer here in the city has held on and on, heat wise, even if leaves are finally turning and falling at last. C’mon, summer, you’ve had your go; step aside and let autumn have a turn!

Mrs.PC ordered fall in a glass when we visited the Ucluelet brewery. A lovely Berliner Weisse style pepped up with a dash of fruity colouring – it was delicious, tart and refreshing, and a can or two might have made it into the back of the truck and all the way back home for enjoying this coming weekend…

We spent many a happy hour at our harbour side campground sitting and staring at the boats and birds, the occasional light breeze prompting some early leaf fall. It was almost autumnal.

The log provided a great foot (or beer/coffee) rest, and once or twice a day a gang of feathered friends came a-pecking and strutting for tasty insect morsels hiding in the wood. Entertaining companions.

We caught up with many old friends this trip, and it was hard to tear ourselves away, but we did eventually find ourselves back on the ferry, crossing the Salish Sea and heading to and through the mountains. We stopped a couple of days in Revelstoke, just to soak up the mountain atmosphere and get wet – finally – in a rainstorm or two, rain that had eluded us the entire island trip.

Now we’re back in the hot city, we’re lining up a nearby mountain trip or two to cool off in the next couple of weeks, and perhaps catch the high fall colour there if the leaves have held on…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Boats, boats, boats

Spending so much time at the coast can get a person dreaming of owning a boat…

…but knowing a few boat owners helps prevent daydreams turning into reality. They’ll often tell you the best two days of boat ownership will be the day you buy one and the day you sell it! And then there’s the cost or costs – I bumped into my buddy R on his way to fill a few jerry cans with marine fuel, and he just about managed to avoid bursting into tears at the price…

Another friend told of how, when she was growing up, she’d “enjoy” sailing trips with her father. Today, her partner would like to buy a small sailing boat, and when I mentioned how they might enjoy sailing together, given her nautical family background, she laughed (or grimaced?) and said yes, she knows which rope to pull and where to square things away, but sailing is not necessarily fun for her. It’s task, task, task, and then task, task, task.

Oh! Maybe our (Your – Mrs. PC) boat dreams will remain on hold for now? And possibly forever?

In the meantime, we can always stroll around the inner and outer harbours in Ucluelet and admire boats we’ll never own – sailing boats of all sizes, aluminum fishing boats, fibreglass fishing boats, wooden boats, rigid inflatables with enormous outboard motors, small paddling boats for pottering around the inlet, and those vessels that are rusting and flaking away – RIP Tromso!

Old photo – she wasn’t there this visit, sob…

I can, and have, wasted hours hanging around marinas and harbours admiring boats. I love the busyness of it all, the screeching gulls, clanging masts, creaking ropes and splash of water. The aromas aren’t always pleasant, but they’re certainly distinctive; seaweed and salt, fish guts and cigarette smoke, bird shit and marine fuel. Lovely!

Boats, boats, boats! I do have my Small Vessel Operator Proficiency certificate, and the boats I admire are all less than 12 metres long and under 15 tonnes and— (Nope, not happening! – Mrs. PC)

I mean, is it *that* expensive, really? (*Yes!* – Mrs. PC)

We’re away from the coast now, and with each passing kilometre the allure of boat ownership diminishes (You’ve got that right, mister! – Mrs. PC) and common sense returns. Time for something more manageable – now, where are those canoe brochures?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Going coastal

We’re away for the next little while, living on the edge, getting our feet wet and going coastal.

It looks and feels a lot like fall here, with mists billowing in, shrouding the boats and trees and making for moody beach scenes.

It’s nowhere near as cold as the photos appear – shirtsleeves by lunchtime, and feeling pleasantly mild and humid in between the chillier bouts of fog.

What a blast to log time in the fog – hazy delights!

I’ll share some different scenes another time, with less mist and fog and more sunshine – but we came hoping for that particular PNW atmosphere, and we’re thoroughly enjoying it, as well as the time spent catching up with old friends in one of our favourite places.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Ol’ Beautiful

It took a week or two, but I eventually remembered we meant to try a beer or two from Ol’ Beautiful Brewing, having seen their delivery van at a nearby beer store. As we were making our choices, we learned that the taproom at Ol’ Beautiful was closed after a fire, but they were still brewing. OK, we’d best do our bit to keep ‘em up and running…

The Japanese-style lager came highly recommended, at least by the enthusiastic vendor, who told us it was the brewery’s biggest seller – well, chalk up another sale! It was pretty good, smooth due to the rice added from left over sake production (it doesn’t taste like a Bud) and fine if you’re after a lightish taste on a sunny day. Decent, but I prefer a beer with a bit more edge – and this leads us to beer number two!

The second beer we tried was their American Pale Ale, and, if you’re a fan of hop-forward flavour, then this beer is a winner. Perfect for a hot summer day, or a mild fall day, or a crisp winter day. Oh, I’d probably (definitely) drink it in the spring, too. Yes, I liked this one!

So, where did you sample these ol’ beautifuls, OldPlaidCamper? Glad you asked – we took them with us on our recent trip to Kananaskis, camping near the Sheep River. The beers were just the refreshing thing after lazy days of reading, short hikes along or above the river and deciding if we needed a campfire or not. (Not, too hot!)

Definitely no campfire needed today – too hot

As for Sheep River Provincial Park, a new to us spot in K-country, how could we describe it in a word or two? Oh, beautiful. Perhaps I’ll share more about it another time.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful (long) weekend!

PS As I finish up here, writing on an unseasonably warm late August Wednesday morning, a long V of honking geese has just flown over. It might feel like high summer, but those geese and the occasional rust tinged leaf suggest otherwise… Is this farewell pale linens and hello plaid flannels? Soon, OPC, soon!

South, then west!

But not too far from home – we’re trusting the medium term forecast is accurate, and by the time this is posted we’ll be somewhere down the cowboy trail SW of Calgary and camping in the foothills.

We have a new camera – nothing fancy, a replacement for our old not so fancy one that seems to have disappeared – so expect a few out of focus and wonky photographs with odd framing next time we post here…

I keep saying it, but summer is speeding by – so we’d best get out there and make the most of it? Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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