Yesterday was a strange day for us. It started peacefully. The smoke from the fires seemed to be dissipating which was a good thing.
As I was sipping my morning coffee and thinking about how much I could get used to this view, I noticed a plume of smoke to the north of that fire but thought nothing of it.
After breakfast we had our usual conversation about what we felt like doing during the day. Paul wanted to visit a winery in Summerland that we had been to on our last visit. It was not far from one that I wanted to visit so we set out.
The Okanagan Crush Pad was our first stop. It is designed as a hub for local winemakers. Heritage techniques, modern knowledge and the spirit of collaboration fuse to form a vanguard for the Okanagan’s next generation of wine making. Okanagan Crush Pad’s labels include the single vineyard Haywire collection, Narrative series and Campus wines.
When we arrived there was a semi parked in front of the facility - it was a portable bottling machine filling bottles with the latest vintage.
The tasting room is small and it was crowded with a large group. Once they left we were able to enjoy a tasting of 8 wines.
The winemaker uses a very minimalist approach: wild fermentations and innovative techniques like using concrete tanks and relying on the flavour you get in the grapes with good organic farming. You won’t find new oak or any flavourings or additives that change the taste of the wines—these are about texture as well as complex and evolving flavours.
Our second winery was Dirty Laundry. Dirty Laundry is fun - with a story that starts in the late 1800s when a railway worker decided to open a laundry/bordello and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Dirty Laundry Vineyard, and its jaw-dropping gorgeous scenery that produces outstanding wines, has become a destination. It was the most commercial of the wineries we have visited but NOTHING like one would see in California. It was also the place where we least enjoyed the wines - they were good, but the wines at our other destinations have been GREAT!
Lunch was a picnic on the patio at Bench 1775, the winery below our house. Bench 1775 has two patios - the lower one is for picnics, the upper one is reserved for those who are served food prepared on site. I went in and bought a bottle of wine. they have some weird rules with certain wines being only available on the picnic patio and others only available on the full service patio. Once I navigated that I had a bottle of white merlot on ice and two wine glasses.
Paul had set up on a sunny table outside with a gorgeous view.
Apparently our sandwiches looked really good - someone came up and asked where we had bought them since they looked amazing. I think if we move to wine country I have a business proposition - making picnics. LOL
It was an amazing way to enjoy lunch - and would have been more amazing had it not been for the loud folks at a large table beside us. :-)
Other than the loud dudes discussing 'hat' size ad nauseam it was peaceful and relaxing sitting at the edge of the cliff overlooking the lake. To our left workers were tending the vines, in front of us people were out on the water enjoying themselves, I won't go on about loud people on the right. LOL The sky was a gorgeous blue with those fluffy, wispy, white clouds bouncing about.
Back at the house we relaxed in the full heat of the sun.
Naramata has a market on Wednesday afternoons so we thought we'd go and check it out to see if we could find anything for dinner. Most of the vendors were selling crafts or were information booths. They also had food trucks. Lots of people from the area were wandering about enjoying themselves.
We didn't buy much - some iced coffee from a local coffee roaster, scones for breakfast, soap, and two hand pies made with fresh, local fruit for dessert. Dinner remained a mystery until we stopped at the Naramata General Store and picked up some sausages and buns. Now dinner was planned. We would finally use the grill.
The wind had certainly picked up at this point and with it the fire over in Peachland. That small plume of smoke from the morning was a raging torrent now.
You can barely make out a water bomber in that picture - we counted 12 - they would swoop down to the surface of the water, skim along it to fill their tanks, take off again to douse the flames. It was fascinating to watch. The air was full of the hum of the planes and helicopters which carried huge containers of water up from the lake.
We are completely safe on our side of the lake. The only challenge is that the highway to Kelowna, the one we need to use on Saturday, is right in the middle of that smoke. in fact, for much of yesterday afternoon the highway was either closed or held to one lane both ways with cars requiring an RCMP escort.
Hopefully things will be under control in a few days.
Over here on this side of the lake, the locals are just going about their business as normal, you hear the odd conversation about the infamous 2003 fire which destroyed 238 homes, 25,900 hectares, and forced the evacuation of more than 33,000 people. It was also started by a lightning strike.
The winds really picked up at dusk and it was not long before you could see the flames up and down the side of the mountain.
A scary reminder of the power of Mother Nature.
Locals can’t help but get really nervous when the fires are close to home. We are always reminded of the 2003 fires. No one wants a repeat of those circumstances. We are thankful for our firefighters and all the volunteers.
Posted by: Val Harrison | July 20, 2018 at 12:38 AM