Saturday 27 December 2014

CHRISTMAS AT THE DUCK INN

For as long as we can remember, the first weekend in December has meant parades of the Ladner Carol Ships on the river in front of our house and the Duck Inn. Years ago, when Allen still had his commercial gillnetter, the Stormy Monday, we would light up the boat and join the procession. Many of our friends had young children then, so each little person had a turn steering the boat. 
Picture a stately parade of 15 to 20 Carol Ships,
 with one little fish boat weaving back and forth as small hands grappled with the wheel!

Now we are content to watch from home, with a few friends over to join in the merriment. 
Here are some of this year’s ships.
The larger ships have church choirs on deck, singing merrily as they make their way to the Government Dock in the Ladner Harbour ~ where more choirs and lots of warmly dressed families welcome them.

Those of you who have been here know that we use the Duck Inn as an excuse for keeping our Christmas lights up all year. And then we add a few extra lights to mark the season. 
Allen, the ardent hockey fan, has to have this
 Vancouver Canuck lit up to help the team’s chances.

Every year we decorate a Grand Fir for the house 
because we love that Christmas Tree scent.
But our favourite tree photo is this one taken by Cora last year. When we took the tree down in January, it still had lots of life in it, so we put it in an oak barrel and let the rain and snow keep it fresh. It finally went out with the yard trimmings in April!
We strew the house with more lights to keep the winter darkness at bay.

And, of course, the Duck Inn  gets a holiday sparkle, too.
Each cottage has a fibre-optic tree ~ very hard to capture as the lights move constantly.
Here's the Water Garden

And Willow Cottage


And finally, Willow the Cat, gets the Christmas spirit!
 ~ or not ~