Easter as Spirit Ridge and The Bunny Blues: Sunday, April 21st!

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. -Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

In nothing does man, with his grand notions of heaven and charity, show forth his innate, low-bred, wild animalism more clearly than in his treatment of his brother beasts. From the shepherd with his lambs to the red-handed hunter, it is the same; no recognition of rights -- only murder in one form or another. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) 

Happy Easter one and all.....I was thinking that if there is a greater interest in hiking among balsam root flowers we can easily change the destination to either Roddy Flats or Peachland Hill. So think about it and we will blunder as creatively as possible. Cheers.....Kilian Hi St Kilian! Happy Easter to you and your family. I'd love to join you as you blunder, aimlessly, yet extremely creatively, on Monday. I hope to see you as soon as my shoulder allows. Stay well. Cheers, Patrizzio! Sounds good Patrick! St Kilian!  

Dear friends, Happy Easter to you. It's beautiful spring weather in The Netherlands and during our bike ride yesterday the wandering lambs were greeting us. Hope your recovery is going well Patrick and Corinne is still going strong. Happy Greetings from Zwolle. Jos en Aar

Thanks for the nice card and I hope you and your family are all happy and well on this Easter Day! Heather and Joe Thank you for the beautiful card and happy Easter to you and yours as well! Cheerily, Patrizzia Thank you for the lovely card. The Lord is my shepherd. Happy Easter to all of you. Dianne Easter blessings to you and your family as well, Patrizzio !!!!!!! From the princess who really isn't a princess😊😏😁 As always, Patrick, thank you for the card and your thoughts! Hope all of you will enjoy your Easter celebrations. Deborah And the shepherd, leaving the 99, goes to find the one lost sheep. Enjoy your ham and scalloped spuds, no doubt washed down with the finest vintages. Hugs, Doug Hi Gran Duggacio, The Super Cynic! I trust you enjoyed the Easter Eggs made of flint, to match your heart of the blackest of black anthracite! Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: Babes, booze and ham on the Easter weekend!

Thanks for the nice card and I hope you and your family are all happy and well on this Easter Day! Heather and Joe Thank you for the beautiful card and happy Easter to you and yours as well! Cheerily, Patrizzia Thank you for the lovely card. The Lord is my shepherd. Happy Easter to all of you. Dianne Easter blessings to you and your family as well, Patrizzio !!!!!!! From the princess who really isn't a princess😊😏😁 As always, Patrick, thank you for the card and your thoughts! Hope all of you will enjoy your Easter celebrations. Deborah 

Happy Easter Patrick, and thank you for the card. Was that poor little lamb rescued only to become an Easter dinner? We are on day 17 of a trip to Portugal; in Porto for a few days. Tomorrow we are on a tour of the Douro Valley complete with wine tastings and village visits. Had a taste of some good port last night. Cheers to you and Corinne, Bruni and Tony The pic is of the Ribeira region of Porto from across the Douro River. Hello Portugal People! Thank you for such a lovely snap of your more than wonderful holiday! we are both green with envy as Portugal is a country we have long wished to visit. No lamb but a fabulous ham for Easter dinner! Fondestos to you and Tony da Lip. Travel safely. Stay well. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Thanks for the cute card & the best wishes. The landscape reminds me of New Zealand. Travis is hiking there now & has sent us some stunningly beautiful photos. I'll email you a few so you can see what I mean. All the best to you & Corinne. Son Travis has been trekking the south island of New Zealand since April 3. A few days ago he stepped out of an airplane at 17,000 feet to get a bird’s eye view of Abel Tasman National Park. I’m sure we'll hear more tales of adventure when he returns on the 24th. Here’s some photos he took at Milford Sound, Mt. Cook National Park & Wakatipu Basin. The south island of New Zealand looks like paradise to me. Hi Travels with Travis People! Phenomenal pictures indeed! Reminded us of some of the vistas we enjoyed when first in NZ in 1992, along with Chloë, Clara and Dusty. I gather he is now home, safely and soundly, I trust. Fondestos to Wild Wildwood Park People! Stay well. Cheers, Patrizzio! 

Thank-you dear friends, we are presently getting things ready for dinner before going for a hike with the dogs. See you back in Penticton Love and hugs Judy ❤️ Thank you Patrick, Chloe and Corinne! Happy Easter! Don’t eat too much chocolate! Xoxo Thank you , and Happy Easter to you and yours! Hanneke and Doug

Thanks for still including me!!! Hope you and Corinne and Chloe are all well. Looks like you have a big group of potential Bridgers every single week! Bravo! 🤗🤗😘☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️. B Thank you, and rich blessings to you. Agneta Happy Easter Corinne & Patrick, enjoy the beauty of Spring in the Okanagan and time with your families. Tom & Carol Hoenisch 🐣🐤🐥 Thank you for the lovely sentiment. Happy Easter to you all! Thank you happy Easter to all of you. JT Happy Easter Susannah Thanks very much for your card Patrick and wishing you all a very happy Easter too xx Penny Happy Easter my friend to you & your family!!! Enjoy family & friends!! 🐰🐣💐😘 Hoppy Easter to you too. Look forward to seeing you guys in July. Denise and Bill xxx

Dear Patrick Many thanks for this beautiful card. Trevor and I have been busy relocating a boundary fence, lots of walls to be removed and rebuilt and holes to be dug for new fence! Must say it is looking very neat and tidy. Love Tina :-) Kjell Cusack and I played in the BC Doubles Squash Tourney a few weeks ago. We miss seeing you there! Hi Chuckerini! Wonderful that you are playing with The Cossack! I taught him every shot he knows! Please pass along fond regards. Great to be missed but, who knows, I may well return, not only to heckle, from the gallery, but to play! Move up!!!  Stay well! Play well! Cheers, Il Conduttore/Patrizzio!Lovely Easter message, thanks! Sandee

Happy Easter Patrick and Corinne! We hope that you are both doing well and enjoying the wonderful weather. For our part, we have been on two hikes last week, we have been doing lots of gardening, and we have managed to fit in a little tennis. Cheers, Tim and Marian Thank you so much for the cute Easter card! Have a great day! Thank you so much for the lovely card. Quite intriguing and ended happily. Hope you are enjoying a great Easter day. We are off to Dhaka! Lots of love Jo-Anne and Colin

Very touching card. That you. Is there someone close to you who has had some misfortune? Hope all is well with you all Brenda Louise Hi Brenda Louise! Trust you are well. Pleased you enjoyed the card. Yes, seems a great deal of health misfortune with friends, here in Penticton, and members of Corinne's family, back in Manitoba. Otherwise, we, ourselves, seem blessed with nothing but too, too little time to do all the things we'd like to do. Stay well! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Wonderful card and Easter Wishes! And the same from us to you and all..Gregg & Francesca (& Cimcky...) Lovely Greeting. Wishing all our Canadian friends a joyful Eastertide. Tonight we join a Seder dinner at our neighbor's house, so our longing for ritual shall be provided for! Hugs, Nancy & David

THANK YOU! Spring greetings from LALA land! I owe you a reply to your lovely email - been a bit busy! Hope all is well and that the shoulder is feeling great! Lots of love to the entire family, Naramata Jane :) Hi Never Never! Trust you are well. My shoulder is doing very well, thanks. For our part, we drove down to Spirit Ridge on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend in our fractional condo.

Enjoyed a delicious Easter breakfast, scrambled eggs, fried mushrooms and reheated potatoes, done to a crunchy finish in frying pan. After such a glorious repast I headed back to the Elliptical and Rosemary and Andre into Osoyoos to explore, Lady Dar and Chloë for a long walk. Back after more steam room and arm/hand exercises to find the gang busy working on dinner, Cora Lee preparing ham and Andre making a wonderful salsa. Chloë had to head back to Penticton as her best friend, Katie, from Vernon, was staying overnight, at our place, [Chloë will stay there for next two nights to take care of Etta and Duke, until we return on Tuesday.], as Emma, her daughter, is in a dance competition, in Penticton.

Just back from a full afternoon of tastings. Started off at Culmina, as mentioned. Marvelous flight of wines and we meet a most interesting couple, up from Vancouver, Anna, originally from Moscow, and Juan, originally from Columbia, waiting for tasting themselves. Since they are staying at Spirit Ridge we invited them for appetizers and drinks later this afternoon/evening.

On to CC Jentsch for more tasting, finishing up at Maverick, owned by winemaker, [originally from Stellenbosch], who made some fabulous vintages at Burrowing Owl before starting his own estate winery, 5,000 cases, in 2006 or so. Now back in our unit at SR. Lady Dar is putting finishing touches to a cabbage and bacon dish to go with a ham burbling away in a large electric roaster we use for turkey as well. Gang will join Flamin' and Sarge on the balcony of Nk'Mip, winery of resort, for cheese and charcuterie platters, while I remain, holding the fort, and doing dishes, to be ready for dinner, here in our own suite this evening as most of the Sutherland's grandchildren, (4 of 6!), have left with their parent in tow! Only two hellions to wreak havoc so we felt we could withstand the assault!

Rosemary and Andre, along with Flamin' and Sarge, will all head back to Vancouver, in separate vehicles, on Monday, so Lady Dar and I plan to have lunch at Burrowing Owl and do more wine-tasting along Black Sage Road and then spend a quiet evening after all the busy nights of last few days. Must away as kitchen is now free and I've been instructed to do dishes! Stay well, Never-Never. Fondestos from Lady Darjeeling to you, Jane. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Patrick and Corinne, As always we enjoyed your email catching us up on your doings. Sounds like you are living a pretty good life and staying young by keeping busy. We have been busy lately too with some groups we belong to and the challenges of meeting everyone’s wishes, visiting good friends in the hospital (depressing) and hearing about someone’s ailments or death. 

I sit on the Employment And Assistance Appeal Tribunal and had to have a competency review which they do after two years. I worked myself into quite a state as I felt like I was back in school taking a final exam again. In the end the lady was very easy to have the review with and I passed. In addition I sit on our Strata Council in Terrace and we have been challenged by one of the owners to the point that it has now gone to a tribunal. It has caused a great deal of consternation, anger and upset in our small development. Gerry has been busy playing pickle ball and now golf and wondering why I get myself in such a knot. He has been busy with Knowledge Network which he is thoroughly enjoying. They sure have some good shows. We are down in Vancouver for a couple of weeks enjoying the city, celebrating Stacee’s birthday (46) and walking which is so enjoyable here. The cheery blossoms are still in bloom and look so beautiful. We finally made it to Vaisakhi in Surrey along with 500,000 South Asians. We were mesmerized by all the people dressed in all their splendour, the astounding amount and quality of the free food and the entertainment. We were there for 4 hours and only covered about a third of the route and never did get to the actual parade. Very, very few non South Asian’s there. 

Art: Benjamin West (1738-1820)

A little fact - we stayed in Vancouver 102 days last year. When we get home we hope to get our trailer out of storage and take a trip down to Antelope Canyon in Arizona. We have been to Bryce and Zion and the Grand Canyon so thought we best see the rest. We are still debating about what route to take there and back. 

Thank you for the warm Easter greeting card. We had the family over for 🐰 Easter dinner followed by lively conversations about the ways of the world. We hope you had a lovely Easter 🐣with family and friends. I have included a few shots from Vaisakhi. Hello One Third Vancouverites! Grand to hear that you are well and busy as ever. Quite enjoyed the snaps of Vaisakhi. At first I thought you were somewhere in India! Not kidding, until I saw some of the signs, in English, although with mountains in background I thought, initially, somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas! We, ourselves, are dealing with the serious illnesses of a number of close friends and sudden deaths of a number of acquaintances in Corinne's walking group or church community. Hence the undertone in the Easter message. My right shoulder replacement is doing very well and I see my specialist this Thursday. Am hoping I will be cleared for physio rehab to start and then back cycling, at some point, in the not too, too distant future after that. Fondestos from Lady Darjeeling to you, Donna Maria and Heraldo! Make sure you swing by Penticton on your way to Antelope Canyon to drool over our new electric Hyundai Kona, 16 solar panels to be installed on our roof at the beginning of May, along with a dedicated Tier 2 charger! Go Green Burns Street!!! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hello P, Cn,C hope your Easter relaxing, with a good dose of sunshine. Thanks for colorful Okanagan shots Chloe. We've had Jessie n Tom here for egg hunt then went to Dragon parade in Bendigo where the new 80 metre dragon Dai Gum Loong was stirred from its lair by the older dragons who have paraded the streets at Easter for 100 years!

We'll arr Van. 2 June, have an apt 4th n Maple until end August when K and I leave for Lyon conference plus week in Avignon. First though Colin and I are training to Halifax w visits in Guelph and Ottawa. Return drive to Montreal over 4 days. So I'll be back in Van late in June. We'll make catchup plans after then. Stay well. S

Hello Bendigo Dragon Trainite! Grand to hear that you are well and busy hunting Easter eggs. Pleased you have found a conveniently located apartment. Your cross-country train trip sounds fabuloso! I've only done the stretch from Winnipeg to Ottawa/Toronto, during high school spring breaks in Grade 10 and 11. Trained to Vancouver from Winnipeg, when I started Library School in 1974. I assume you will fly back to Vancouver from Montreal but if not, stop off in Penticton. Fondestos from Lady Darjeeling to you, Stefano and Kathleen. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Lovely Greeting. Wishing all our Canadian friends a joyful Eastertide. Tonight we join a Seder dinner at our neighbor's house, so our longing for ritual shall be provided for! 
Hugs, Nancy & David Hello Casa Vicente! Trust your Seder dinner was nourishing, both gastronomically and spiritually. Fondestos to you, Donna Florida, and Prickly Pear! Stay well. Cheers, Patrizzio! 

Thank you Guys, Happy Easter to you all, thinking of you always xx Hello Perth People! Trust you are well. Pleased you enjoyed the card. Fondestos from Lady Dar to you both. Stay well! Cheers, Patrizzio!