Peter's Picnic and Bill's Birthday

Bill and Peter both had recent birthdays.  "Who is Peter?" you might ask.  Peter is Mali's brother, and we've only met once, although there have been several "almost" meetings.  Mali is a colleague and friend.  You can see a picture of her near the end of a post written quite some time ago. I'm hoping one day soon to get a picture of Peter, since his birthday picnic inspired this post.  

As for Bill, we celebrated his birthday yesterday.  Our friends, Kitty, Jock and Mali joined us at Tang's for a great supper, and then at Greens and Gourmet for dessert.  Bill says the fresh fruit cheesecake at Greens and Gourmet is the best in the city.  I had my camera hanging over my shoulder, but was enjoying the company so much, I forgot to take any pictures.  That was disappointing, but I have some pictures of Bill from Peter's birthday picnic adventure last Sunday.  That day, I forgot my camera, but Bill fortunately had his, so now for the story, courtesy of my vivid memories and Bill's camera.

Through a comedy of errors, Bill, Black Jack and I never did meet up with Peter, for his birthday celebration last Sunday.  We thought it was to be at Spanish Banks, and I, always game for a good walk, thought it would be fun to walk there with our picnic supplies, from Jericho Beach.  I did forget that Locarno Beach is between Jericho and Spanish Banks, so we walked quite a distance.  We began searching for Mali's blond head as soon as we had passed Jericho.  Then, we saw the Locarno sign, and knew we still had a fair distance to go.  Only five days past a small surgery, the sun was beginning to feel a bit warmer than was comfortable, and my energy was waning, but I was still game, and looking forward to the celebration.  After leaving Locarno, and walking the length of Spanish Banks, the picnic food was looking more and more tempting.  Bill left me sitting in a beautiful spot, while he did a final walkabout, searching for that ever elusive blond head and signs of birthday revelers.  When he returned alone, there was nothing for it but to make our own picnic in honor of Peter. 

Black Jack definitely approved of the entire excursion.  I discovered that she really loves rocks.  I think she is motivated by critter potential under the rocks, but whatever the incentive, her agility and enthusiasm was fun to observe.  Her long leash gave her quite a bit of freedom to explore, although it occasionally caught up around rocks.  Undaunted, she waited until I fixed the problem, and then continued her adventure.

So many crevices and potential critters.
Her back end was the one that most often presented itself to the camera.
But, she occasionally allowed me a front view, as long as I was quick enough to catch it.

She wasn't keen to stop exploring, but always loves to be in Bill's arms, and took advantage of the moment to assess the bigger picture.

I finally relinquished the camera to Bill, and followed Black Jack as best I could.  Bill, in the meantime, amused himself as he documented the contrast between Black Jack's agility and my challenges to keep up with her.
His challenge was to get a picture of me looking up, as it took all my concentration to remain upright.

I really wanted to cooperate, as Bill has been such a patient (and beautiful) model for me, but I barely dared to lift my eyes.  The best I could do was to keep smiling, and keep concentrating on where my feet were landing.  
Finally, I held Black Jack, and was stable enough to look up.
I would like to say that we saved the picnic supplies just in case we finally met up with Peter, but in fact, all that picture taking and rock stepping consumed quite a bit of energy, so we had the most wonderful feast.  There were beet and sweet potato chips, hummus, the best little carrots and other veggies, and strawberries.  I recorded the evidence, so Peter would know that we were thinking of him.  Black Jack would dearly have loved to consume a bit more of that evidence.  She did really enjoy sharing those carrots with us.

With much more energy now, we walked back towards Jericho, still scanning for a blond head.  Black Jack took a moment to help us out with the search.

Back at Jericho, Bill took one more photo on the bridge, before we finally headed home.  We had great fun celebrating your birthday, Peter.  Thank you for inspiring a great adventure.

Happy Birthday, Peter!  I can hardly wait for your next beautiful birthday celebration!

And Bill, the day you were born was a very lucky day for me.  Happy Birthday and thank you for the gift of you!