Blue skies, nothing but blue skies from now on...

We hope everyone enjoyed a lovely Christmas with family and friends. We also hope you have had the opportunity to experience both serving... as well as being served. We all need a bit of balance, right?

We were fortunate to host a wonderful couple from San Francisco, Jing and Matt, earlier this week. Jing left her job last February to follow her tug to learn to become a chef (we love stories about people following their tug!). And Matt works in computer graphics on big Hollywood movies (so we sort of had a celebrity in our midst... well, perhaps a few degrees of separation, but it still counts!). We had a great time getting to know them. If you're interested in reading their guestbook comment, click here.

In other news... Kevin spotted the Blue Heron on the bank near the bottom pond (where there is no trout). He took the picture from quite a distance and we don't have a zoom lens so when I enlarged it, I lost the definition, but you can still see it in the pictures below. The heron still comes around, but the good news is the wire we've put around each pond with trout seems to be a great deterrent.

It's not often I see our three original bulls all together, but this week they've been grazing nearby in the pasture where we can easily see them from our back terrace. Kevin went up and took this picture of Redford (on the far left), Newman (in the middle... he used to be just as blonde as Redford when we first got him, now look how dark he is) and Jackson (far right). They were our first three bulls and they are now nearly 15 months old. When I think of how we almost lost Redford (three times!) and how Kevin nursed him back to life, it's amazing to see how big and strong he's grown to be. Redford is still a bit smaller than Newman and Jackson, but this particular perspective creates the opposite illusion. They are all still docile and affectionate. They love getting their necks rubbed, and they especially love to see Kevin.

Kevin was very productive with some spring cleaning this week... he repaired the cracks between the tiles on the outdoor oven with new mortar. He did a great job and the oven looks great!

He also power washed the plastic surrounding the hatchery greenhouse. Another great job!! And I've been watering my seedlings and gardens in hopes that the flower seeds I sowed last week will germinate. You know it's officially summertime here when we have to get the water hoses out.

Christmas day was gorgeous. Sunny, warm, high of 24.5C/76F, and nothing but blue skies. We went to Martin and Clara's rustic restaurant for our traditional Christmas trout lunch (we've gone there four years in a row, so it's now considered tradition). And we spent much of the day on Skype, catching up with our children, our parents, and our sisters. God bless the internet!!

Now we are getting ready for guests who arrive tomorrow for a couple of days, then more guests after them... and more guests after them... basically until mid-February. The usual trend is that once Christmas holidays are all done, we'll get more bookings for the rest of February, March and April. We anticipate a hopping 2016 season.