Creature from the Ultra-Smelly Lagoon

On a recent trip to Witty’s Lagoon, some children pause to pose with their mother along the lagoon trail that leads to the ocean:

It was a fine day for an outing...

Oh, the hijinx they got up to upon arriving at the shore... stone skipping and flamingo-legging were but part of the adventure:

All this guy wanted was to find some sand – and sand he did find:

But earlier, back at the lagoon, we noticed a man - a somewhat silly man it turns out - flailing about in knee to waist high water. He did not appear in any real danger - the water was calm and, again, only knee to waist high - but he certainly seemed to have lost all composure and decorum as he continually fished for something down by his feet. Turns out this man had brought from home two, what he described as, perfect skipping stones. He had marvelled at the fact that, having skimmed them expertly across the salty surface, they were essentially retrievable as they both landed on the sandbar halfway across the lagoon. Determined to be reunited with his stones, the man ventured into the gooey/ mega-smelly muck only to be thwarted by its quicksand-like properties. His feet had got stuck in 14 inches of muddy clay and he couldn’t move. Soon his left sandal (I’m guessing) was wrenched from his foot and thus began the half hour of flailing/ fishing in an effort to find the missing shoe. Cell phones were ruined, wallets were moistened, egos were bruised. All the while a family stood nearby mocking him offering encouragement. We got some pictures but had to obscure the man's face to protect him from further embarrassment...

video = crap/ audio = priceless...
Lagoon Drama from mesmith on Vimeo.

Marconi plays the mamba...

listen to the radio

don't you remember

we built this city

we built this city on rock and roll

[shred]

Signs of Life

Aaay...

Sooke Potholes

Twenty minutes from the house/ six years between visits... bad family!

a-ten hut:

jumping into pothole (dry):

lounging in natural slide - in front of pothole (dry)...

directing traffic:

skimming stones...

A church is not for praying

[it's for celebrating the light that bleeds through the pane]

Campout Weekend - Metchosin Style

Happy Campers (sans Adrian and Fergus):

Kelly threw this up on her faceboy page with some sarcastic comment about the size of my manly fire... but I doth ask: has one ever seen such a beautiful flame emanating from a flower pot? of course not...

Gillian-Skye

Nighttime hoop-alcious-ness (Rob manning the camera):

Here's the incomparable Sastun with one of his lists of games he had lined up for the kiddos. Sastun kept everyone entertained all weekend:

Sastun and the queue for water balloons...

Treasure hunt:

Kelly helping Ella catch up to the treasarians...





Some of the games were quite elaborate - beguiling the kiddos while perplexing the adult onlookers. Some of the games included Zip-Zap-Zop, the King game and Human Props where, in one example, Sastun was a large bowl, Fergus was the soup and Meah had to stir Fergus (all of which Ferg had to fill me in on later since, from afar, I had no idea what was going on):

Eff, Forrest, Matt, Erich:

Cooper, Ferg and Noah modeling the various stages of unschooly hairdo engaged in some zip-zap-zop:

An exhausted Effie heads for refreshment:

Nighttime games:

Even nightier nighttime games with bean bag toss and a pineapple slushy or two:

L-R, Adrian, Helen, Chris, Kelly, Rob, Chris, Skye, Paranoid Looking Guy, Kristal, Gillian...

Water Tramp Lay-down Session:

More bocci - in the shade mostly this time since it was like 28 degrees - too hot for us sensitive island dwellers:

We lost many balls (oh look, the porta-potty makes an appearance in the background!)

Blurry Adrian, birthday girl, Rob and his gang sign!?!

A lot of this pics are from Kelly - like this one of Meah uniquely helping her sister eat a freezie:

Hard at work (a photo for Fil, Jim):

GREAT weekend:

Yee-ha...