As luck would have it, our new backyard holds hidden treasures. Eight trees are starting to bear fruit! Here’s what we have to look forward to: pears, at least two varieties of apples, plums and one that has us completely stumped! The healthier of our two pear trees is producing fruit at startling rate. Anyone have creative ideas for preserving pears?

The varieties of these apples and plum and eludes us, and I feel like a detective trying to solve the mystery of the last fruit/nut/olive(!?):

The houses Mackenzie and Foster are one again! The cats are more settled with Roddy back in their lives. They must like the mingling of old familiar smells – Roddy’s things, my things, OUR things, all under one roof… I know I do!

Tim was our first guest last weekend and we treated him to Roddy’s specialty: roasted veg in his “George’s Marvelous Medicine” marinade and hasselback roasted potatoes (think armadillo potatoes) with goats cheese, garlic and overgrown rosemary from our backyard. The local star of our meal was Tim’s contribution – Phillips Blue Buck beer from Victoria, which was delivered to us with a good story.

Apparently the beer was initially named Blue Truck to pay homage to Matt Phillips’ 1965 milk truck-looking delivery van from the brewery’s early days. Well, there happens to be another beer company called Red Truck, whose management threatened to sue Phillips if they didn’t change the new beer’s name. Phillips conceded, but not without coming out on top. The hype had gained such publicity that the renamed Blue Buck suddenly had a thriving following!

The Blue Truck tale, as told on Phillips website, lives on:
“After a dedicated few years of hard service, the Blue Truck – that juggernaut of joy bringing beer to people – was retired. Following countless trips over and around Vancouver Island and the mainland it was turned off for the last time in front of the brewery, where it still sits today as a bittersweet reminder of all the hard work needed to keep Phillips alive.”