Well actually I was on the road but I am back home again after a whirlwind trip to Oliver BC, the wine capital of Canada! Oliver is a lovely little town about 5 hours east of Vancouver in the Okanagan Valley and yes, they grow wine there and apples, lots and lots of apples.

It was a gorgeous drive to Oliver last Sunday afternoon a rare sunny crisp afternoon with snow on the mountain tops and colour on the trees.

This time of year evening comes early when you are in the mountains and on a sunny day there are some amazing shadows.

I had a wonderful 3 days leading 2 different workshops with a  trunk show and talk one evening. Jim and Marilyn were perfect hosts and all the  members of the Double O Quilters Guild made me feel so welcome. The students created some wonderful work over the 3 days, exploring ideas and sampling techniques. I know there are some new quilts in the works and I am really looking forward to seeing some of the finished pieces.

There was lots to talk about and demonstrate!

After Tuesdays class I got a whirlwind tour of Oliver- first fruit and then wine. The fruit packing place was amazing, I have never seen so many apples and you’ll have to take my word for it the smell of the place is glorious.

These wonderful crates are full of apples and stacked in tall towers row upon row outside the building. Once you get inside the place is humming with apples being sorted, washed and packed, it’s a most amazing process and there are apples in every direction you look.

It really was a sea of apples. On the way out I spotted these striking palettes stacked around in the yard, I love the almost patchwork look of them and the colour as well.

After the apples there was a quick wine tour,  no pictures of that! Just this image of the amazing scenery down the valley with vineyards as far as you can see.

I did pick up a few bottles of wine, they were too good to resist, I also loaded the car with squash, yup all different types of squash. There were tons of them around, it appears that wine and fruit aren’t the only major crops in the area, squash are as well.

Sorry about the image quality but the roof high stacks of squash are worth seeing. Those crates on the ground are full  of them, each crate a different variety and there are all sorts. I gathered a collection of the most interesting looking ones and headed home- it’s time to get the soup pot warmed up.

I hope I’m not being boring but I wanted to share this most unusual image, it’s Ned- again! but this is something that isn’t seen often around here- he’s sleeping!

Bye for now, Catherine