August 30-September 1 Labour Day Weekend

Truth be told, this doesn't feel like a summer update anymore, since the weather has cooled off, and we had a lot of rain during the week. And I caught another cold. The mornings and evenings are crisp, and it feels as though fall is here. Leaves are starting to turn too, though not as early as some years, when it's been dryer in the summer.

Friday night we had dinner out with Aunt Glynis, who brought us a lovely blackberry pie. The next morning, I took Anna to the dance studio in town to register her for ballet lessons starting this fall. She's been so into dancing, and has noticed other girls from her daycare get to go to dance classes... and she wants to go too. I never thought I'd have a tutu sort of girl, but she's aching for the whole outfit, and can't wait for her first class. She romped around the studio when we were there, checking herself out in the mirror. The class runs all school year, so we'll see if the interest lasts... it's a pretty long term commitment for this age I think. (Or heck, even for my age? Would I register for a yoga class that ran 10 months?) Then we got groceries and headed home, where Anna hung out with her friend from across the road, playing princesses and blackberry picking, and making sticky dough scones with blackberries, and a blackberry smoothie. We were somewhat exhausted by the end of the day.

On Sunday, we lazed at home until we had to leave for East Sooke. We went for one of our favourite walks--around Creyke point, and then to Ragley Farm for the 7 km Dinner. All the food had been grown or raised within 7 km of Ragley, and it was totally delicious, and super nourishing. It was a long dinner, and Anna met a little girl who just moved into our old neighbourhood in East Sooke. They checked out chickens and geese and cows together.

Monday we left early for the Saanichton Fair! It was a marvelous time, though I'd forgotten just how high up the Ferris Wheel is. Anna and I went on together. From the top, I could see my old Saanichton home (or at least the house that replaced the one I spent my first five years in), on the crest of the hill of Stelly's X Road. I was worried Anna would be scared, but she's such a daredevil--"I'm not scared," she said, and you know, she wasn't. Me on the other hand... Apparantly I've developed a bit of a fear of heights in my old age. I remember being not so scared on the Ferris Wheel before, but perhaps I'd been on the kiddie one. It wasn't until we were at the top of the wheel, surveying the land below us that I spotted a MUCH SHORTER ferris wheel on the other side of the midway. I'd taken Anna on the grown up one when we didn't have to. Well, turned out all right in the end. We saw Donna and Erin at the Parklands booth, where we got hot dogs. I cleverly avoided the cotton candy, thinking four fair visits worth already was enough for one season. We saw goats and bunnies and sheep and cows. Anna milked a fake cow. We saw a 12.5 pound zucchini and lots of other impressive produce and home arts, and so the day was nearly complete... just a couple of stops before home: 1, to Yarrow Point beach, just north of Cole Bay, my favourite beach in the world. I come once a year, now, and always at this time, as a sort of marker of the true new year. This year I didn't swim. The tide was out, and the day cool enough that the prospect of getting into my swimsuit wasn't appealing. The camera battery wore out before we got there, so no pictures of the ten or so seals that came to say hello... I'm totally serious. Damn camera battery. And then no pictures of Anna shucking the corn at Silver Rill farms on the way home, but she did--and we had a wonderful meal of peaches and cream corn from the Peninsula, truly the best corn on earth. Yum.

I had thought I would continue the weekend update posts until the astronomical fall, and document the next few weekends--the Sooke Fall fair next weekend (we're entering peas, photographs, felt pen art and a seashore arrangement!) or the weekend after, when we plan to take our last camping trip for the season. Or the final weekend of astronomical summer, when I'll be doing the Great Lake Walk (56 km around Lake Cowichan) with friends. Usually the last really nice day when you could stand outside in a tank top and be comfy comes the third weekend of September--at least it has for the last two years, because that's when we've had Anna's birthday party, and those were beautiful warm days--but not this year. And other years I've still been swimming in the ocean in September, but not this year. Now that it feels that fall has fallen, I feel the summer updates are done. Climatological fall is here, and with it my desire to turn inside, be cozy, and get back to work, too.

I set out in May to get the most out of summer, and I think I succeeded. There were about 50 things on my full summer to-do list. I managed all but about 12! I can enter fall and winter, the gray and the rain, with a full store of Vitamin D, and good summery memories. Time to go deflate the wading pool for another year, and pack away the bikinis.