Christina Lake, BC

After a lateish start this morning Lloyd and I enjoyed a peaceful drive from Lethbridge through the mountains to Grand Forks, BC. Tomorrow we'll finish the drive to Osoyoos to visit Mary, Greg and kids.

Driving through the mountains is always an adventure. I drove for the first 4 hours and quite enjoyed the changing sights. It's really a beautiful drive, although some of the roads seem to be carved out of avalanche spillways. There are many beautiful lakes through the mountains, some with the most amazing turquoise colored water. Some of the little towns we drove through look like they'd be inhabited by hippies from the 60's - there were art shops, soap shops, bead shops, paper making shops - everything artsy and creative and very little else.

We stopped to take pictures at a viewpoint above Christina Lake. This handsome guy was standing by the sign so I had to take his picture :)


When I figured out how to set the timer on my camera I took this picture of Lloyd and me relaxing at the rest stop above the lake.


This is the lake - the warmest tree lined lake in Canada, according to the sign. It seemed like a very peaceful, restful place.

We drove another hour down the road to Grand Forks and stopped for the night. Tomorrow we'll drive for an hour and a half to get to Osoyoos.

Project Completed

The reason we came to Lethbridge this weekend was to get the patio extension built. Rob joined us here and did an amazing job of laying the patio and levelling the stones. It was a heavy, hard job but we're very pleased with the result. Now we can put the patio furniture on it instead of on the grass, and the barbeque remains on it's portion of the original patio.

After using the sod cutter to lift the grass, laying landscape fabric and dumping wheelbarrows full of gravel in place, Lloyd raked it as level as he could.

Rob very meticulously maneuvered each 18" square into place, making sure each one was level. They all fit so tightly that there is absolutely no movement on the patio. It took all day yesterday and a couple hours this morning to get it completed.

I had the most difficult job of keeping the working men hydrated. That limeade sure was delicious. They went through a lot of bottles of water too.


And this morning we were able to enjoy the results of their labor by having breakfast from Tim Hortons on our new patio. Good job guys.

Cactus Cookies

It's been several months since we've been to Arizona so I thought the kids and I could make cactus cookies as a sweet reminder of our fun times there in the colder Canadian weather.

Charlie very carefully sprinkled decorations on the freshly frosted saguaro cactus cookies.


Then she 'supervised' Max as he tried his hand at decorating.

So far, so good.



Max tries it solo.


And Charlie beams with pleasure over the finished cactus forest. The sweet treats didn't last long. By the time I left their house at 5:00 there were only three left. I'm glad they enjoyed them.

I Had A Brother

No matter how often I think of him during the year, I always think of Ken on his birthday, August 17. My parents adopted him in May 1952 when he was 9 months old. Wendy and I were so excited to have a baby brother. I was four and Wendy was five when we got him and we enjoyed being able to be little mothers to this new brother.

I remember when he was 'delivered' to us. Wendy and I were playing at a friend's place down the street when we saw the car pull up in front of our door. A woman got out carrying a baby and left without him. For quite awhile after that I thought that the social worker was actually Ken's mother and that she was going door-to-door looking for someone to take her baby because she couldn't take care of him.

Ken immediately became a dearly loved member of our family. He was a quiet, sweet little boy and we doted on him.

These pictures are from my scrapbook. I don't have a lot of pictures of Ken. Just before he died Mum made a pictorial story of his life but I don't have that here with all of his pictures. These ones will have to do. If you click on these pictures they'll show larger.

The McCarthy family - 1986 - Ken, Pat, Wendy, Dad, Mum

As an adult Ken settled in the same village that Mum and Dad lived in and was a great help to them as they got older.

Our kids loved their Uncle Ken - he had an easy way with them and was always loving and kind. Before they met their Uncle (we were living in BC at the time and he was in Nova Scotia) we had the kids convinced that Ken was a giant who would have to duck his head to come into the house - we loved telling them stories (mostly fictional) of this mysterious uncle. When he finally came to visit us the kids were really excited to see him and relieved that he wasn't really a giant - just taller than our shortish family. We had a cliff at the foot of our street, from the top of which there was a beautiful view of our neighbourhood. Ken took the older kids (the oldest was about 9) on a hike to climb the cliff. He ended carrying one of them all the way up it without complaining. He became Amy's hero for that feat of strength.

Ken was a very hard worker, working in road construction as a blaster, as a volunteer fireman, and a miner in a lead and zinc mine. Everyone in the village knew and liked Ken - he had many friends. If anyone needed a helping hand, Ken was there for them. He moved west to Alberta for a few months but soon went back to Nova Scotia where he felt most at home.

He was completing his shift in the mine one day when the guy who was supposed to relieve him called in sick. Ken didn't hesitate to volunteer to take his shift as well. It was during this shift when he was scaling the ceiling of the mine, that it collapsed on him, crushing his chest beyond repair. He remained on life support for almost two weeks before succumbing to his injuries. It was devastating to our family, especially to Mum and Dad. The community was in shock and it was heartwarming to see the positive affect he had on so many people. He was 39 years old.

Happy birthday Ken. It was great having you as a brother. 1951-1991

The Ultimate Look Alike

They say that if you live with a person long enough you'll eventually look alike. Well, Lloyd and I have been married for 38.5 years - is that long enough to qualify?



I'm thinking 'not really' but I like to think that we look like we belong together.


Lloyd got home from High Level today about half an hour before I got home from the hair salon where I had my grey wiped out and ends trimmed. He insisted on getting my camera and taking some pictures of me but I told him he'd have to take pictures of us together. So these are his first attempts at taking a self-portrait. Actually I guess I'm taking the one above, but he took the others.

I think this is the best, although my mouth is open.

I've been thinking of doing a scrapbook layout called "Us At 60" and might use one of these pictures as the focal point. Unless of course a professional photographer in the family volunteers to take an 'official' portrait of us....hint, hint. And yes, I realize that neither one of us is 60. But if you take our real ages (59 and 61) and average them, together we are 60.

Look Alikes, Part 2

OK. As I threatened yesterday, here are a few more family look-alikes.

I'll start with our first son, Rob. When the TV sitcom, Family Ties, was popular, we were struck by the resemblance between Rob and Michael J. Fox. The resemblance has diminished somewhat as they've grown older, but it's fun to remember their teen-age similarities.

Here's Rob at 30.


And here he is at 19.

Here's a young Michael J. Fox

And as he aged. I can still see the resemblance.

The next one is Lloyd's older brother Bert. We always thought he looked like Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's Restaurants.

This is Bert

and this is Dave...a definite resemblance.

This last one I've bever been able to see, but my girls used to say that Mary looks like Alicia Silverstone. Here's Alicia...

and here's our daughter Mary. I suppose at certain angles they might look similar. I think Mary is prettier though.


And that's it. I won't bother you any more with family look-alikes.

Look Alikes

For years I've liked Fred Astaire - you younger readers may not be familiar with the best dancer/actor/singer to come out of the 1930's, '40s, and '50s, but I used to love watching him do his thing in the black and white movies. One of the coolest things I liked about him was that his birthday was the same as mine (the day - May 10 - not the year :)).

We have a picture of my dad taken in the mid 1940s while he was overseas during World War 2. I've always thought he looks like Fred Astaire in this picture. What do you think?

Robert McCarthy

Fred Astaire

The resemblance isn't so noticable in these pictures, but I still think Dad looked like Fred Astaire.

One of my favorite quotes about Fred Astaire goes like this:
"Ginger Rogers could do everything Fred Astaire could but she did it backwards and in high heels."

My next blog will feature a couple more family look-alikes...if I can find the appropriate pictures.