After a hot, dry summer, we are returning to regularly scheduled programming. Days are shortening and getting cooler. Some colours are showing in the trees. It’s earlier than normal, probably because of the dry conditions we had our the summer.

The best thing (never thought i would say this) is that we finally received significant rainfall over the weekend. Even though views were obscured for a while and we need to do indoor exercise, the greener grass and the hope that trees and shrubs will recover a bit for next year makes it worth it.

It’s not all bad though. The sun shone yesterday and I got to do another great paddle – a grand tour of Maple Bay including Samsun Narrows. Unfortunately Bill had to stay home with a hamstring injury from playing Pickleball (our newest sporting endeavour) a couple weeks ago. It is slowly healing, but it will be some time before he is back in the boat and on the bike.

But it didn’t hold me back! The perfect conditions of blue skies, very little wind, interesting clouds, 7 fellow paddlers and some currents made for a great day. We saw lots of seals, many of whom were quite content to stay sunning on their rocks, lots of jellyfish, many sea stars, and a few urchins. The sea stars we saw were small and almost all orange. When we did this paddle almost 2 months ago, they were bigger and lots more purple ones. It shows how the marine environment is always changing.

Life is good!