Off to the lake...

Off to the lake today with Val and her lovely family...and I think I am more excited than the kids :) It's one of the highlights of my Summer now :) I love the swimming, I love the beach, the sand, the company (of course), the fun, the sunshine, the breeze off the water, the picnic, running on the beach.....

I can't wait to go!!!

Chris of course isn't going...he didn't inherit my love of things like this! lol!

Happy Canada Day 2008!

I hope you all had a wonderful Canada Day 2008. We had a great day - spent far too long in the sun :) Had great fun at the festival :) Got our tattoos, our flags....wore our red t-shirts, sang our national anthem, had a cake with sparklers on it, played carnival games, had s'mores on the fire,

And now we're going out to watch fireworks!

Everything a great Canada Day should be!

Chris slept over at a friends last night! He came home in time for cupcakes and cake!! Laurie came to the festival with us this morning and took part in his annual remote control car grand prix which he won again OF COURSE lol!!! (twice this year!!!) and then he ran into his friends who invited him to sleep over tonight and they are taking him to the races tonight!!!

The farmers market was nice this morning - although VERY tiny!!! I treated myself to a lovely necklace though! It's like a seagreen pendant on a silver chain...It has silver wire tied around it. I love it :)

We came home from the festival and Lloyd and I did a bee hive inspection while the children played in the pool which they have put at the base of the slide. Lloyd took Susie out on the quad bikes. He also cleaned out the garage and the mudroom. I took some photographs of the hummingbird and my flowers and pottered about.

Anyway, that was our Canada Day - I hope However you spent yours, you had a great one!

My Canada Day Visitor...

Now you see me:




Now you don't:




Can you spot my hummingbird darting about amongst my honeysuckle? My hummingbirds are loving feeding from the tiny scarlet flowers...I guess it tastes even better than the sugar syrup we make for them that is hanging from the feeders directly above! I have sat beside the honeysuckle a few times trying to get a picture of them at the honeysuckle but every time I sit there they go to the feeders instead! How typical lol! So this is the best picture I have so far lol! But I will keep trying!!! :) I think my next quiet day is Sunday! So maybe Sunday I will get to relax on the porch and take pictures!

Urgh isn't Summer supposed to be about relaxing in the sunshine and reading?????

Anyway click the top picture to see it bigger and spot my little hummer. The bottom picture is just a picture with the hummer :)

Slip and slide fun

Susie and her friend on the slip and slide on Friday....

sunset 3

S'mores time

Last night we headed out to Elk Island Park to have s'mores while the sun set. We got there around 9:30pm and most people were leaving so we had the place pretty much to ourselves which of course we love (we're so anti-social lol).

The children played at the playground and Lloyd lit the fire and everyone had s'mores. I walked down towards the beach to take photographs of the sun setting over the lake and the island.

Laurie and Lloyd played soccer for a while, Abigail and Sam watched the squirrels up in the tree for ages. Then around 10:30pm we put everything back in the truck and then we went for a walk around the boardwalk. We saw the American pelicans landing in the water - they flew right over our heads! Then on the path ahead of us were two brown lumps! It was a Mommy and baby porcupine! I got a few pictures but it was too dark to get very good pictures! The Mommy ran off and left the poor baby there! So we changed our path and went a different way!

We headed back through the park and drove around the bison trail which we love as its getting dark! The bison tend to circle the truck :)

Ok blogger is driving me nuts and not letting me add the rest of my pictures...

I hope you are all enjoying the gorgeous weather we are having :) I am LOVING it :) LONG LAST SUMMER!!!!!!!

And HAPPY CANADA DAY to you all for tomorrow :)

When we got home we saw a big white creature moving sloth-like into the bushes by our garbage bin at the end of our driveway. We pulled up slowly and shone the headlights at it and got out to go and look. Turns out it was an albino porcupine! So we went and got out garbage cans and recycling and brought that down with a torch to have another look for it and we found it climbing the tree - so we have an albino porcupine on our land! It's almost all white with kind of gingery patches here and there! Its BIG though and slow moving....very cute! Odd looking! :)

sunset 2

sunset 1

For Val!

Two Pelicans landed by the boardwalk on Astotin Lake last night and they made me think of Val :) I was reminded of the story of the lady who was speared in the face on the beach in Florida by a Pelican! Val had said it was another reason NOT to move to Florida lol! As I watched these birds land last night I could quite see how sharp their beaks were and how painful it would be to be hit by one!!!

I'd still rather recover by the pool in Florida than here in Alberta though ;)

Sorry Val ;)

Katies Crossing

We always celebrate the first day of the summer holidays by going out for ice cream! So on Friday we picked up two friends and headed to Katies Crossing in Ardrossan. Katies Crossing is an old Engine and Caboose. The kitchen is in the engine and the restaurant is in the caboose....then afterwards you can walk around outside where there are all kinds of carriages and old tractors and cars and trucks etc etc to climb on and investigate :)

the kids had a blast on the haybales and at the old station, climbing in the rails and just having fun together :)

In bed with another guy....

Lloyd caught me in bed with a young blonde guy ;)

Lily in the rain

Anyone know this flower?

This is a bell shaped flower - very delicate with a clover/club shaped leaf. Lloyd found it hiding amongst my daylilies and we transplanted it into my main flower garden. I am hoping it reseeds. I'm not sure if its a perennial/ biennial or a wildflower (or perhaps something that came from one of the seed packets I scattered? I have scattered various packets of seeds some a mixture of flowers) - I can't find it in any of my books and I have some of perennials of Alberta and some of wildflowers of Alberta.

It's so pretty and I was so happy Lloyd found it for me!

Hummer in the evening sun....

Just a short clip because my camera battery was dying - I'm charging it now so hopefully will catch a longer video over the next few days.....if the Hummingbirds are happy to play along of course....they're so temperamental ;) Today they have been drinking out of the Scarlet Honeysuckle which is amazing to see :) I didn't think they would really drink out of the tiny flowers but they really do!!!! The honey suckle is COVERED in flowers this year!!! The birds LOVE them :) The weather hasn't been too great this year and I haven't spent as much time out on the porch as I normally do - I haven't tried to hand feed the hummers as I wanted to....that was going to be my goal this year - to feed the birds by hand but I'm not sure I have the patience this year. I know its possible though. Maybe I'll feel differently over the next few days when the temperatures are going to be hovering around and above 30c...

Edited to add: Ooh just watched that for the first time and it looks like the hummingbirds wings are beating really slowly....isn't that weird? Maybe its because it was so windy out because it was after a storm? Or maybe its just a really bad recording? I'm not sure....but its not a very example of a hummingbird on a feeder :) I'll try for a better example lol.


Hahahaha that wasn't much better and my battery has died totally - try again tomorrow :)

Last Day of School

Last day of peace and quiet. And I am having a very lazy day. I can't believe how fast this school year has gone. Seems like only yesterday we waved the children off on the school bus - including Abigail on her first day of kindergarten - she was so excited until the bus pulled up and she put one foot on and then took it off and got off the bus :)

And now the year is done!

Susannah took all the teachers gifts and cards with her today. And the gifts for the school bus drivers. The boys are too old for that nonsense now! But not too old to get gifts from the bus drivers of course! The bus drivers give out freezies :) And even though the boys weren't on the bus this week the bus drivers made sure to give freezies to Susie for the boys! Which was really nice of them!

Today Chris and Laurence have gone to Galaxyland (the indoor amusement park at West Edmonton Mall) for the day and will stay afterwards to go swimming at the Water Park. A very cool last day of school I must say! Susannahs last day of school is being spent bowling in town and then at a pizza party in town! I'm sure she'll have great fun despite the fact she has inherited my crappy bowling genes!

We have been sorting the recycling. I sat in bed last night reading the local paper - almost the whole paper was full of articles on the new recycling program in our County. So many letters of complaint about it and to be honest it pisses me off - all these petty complaints about it - there was a news report about it on tv as well - they are giving it two months and then if there are enough complaints they may change it - which really saddens me because I don't think two months is long enough for people to get in a routine with it and get used to it. People need time to get used to this new way and they need at least 6 months!

There is a letter by Jago Powell in the paper that REALLY pissed me off because her/ his letter makes so many petty mistakes and points and is completely wrong and it ends in saying that he/ she is refusing to take part and is now going to stop recycyling and just not take part in it at all - I mean why??? when he/ she just hasn't read the book properly and isn't doing it properly anyway?

This program HAS made big changes to our lifestyle and MUCH more work for ME personally - garbage is now MY job and not the kids job because I want to make sure it is done properly but I am thrilled with this new program. I am LOVING it - I love the difference it is making.

Strathcona County has reduced the amount that is going to the landfill by 52% already!! In just the first 2 weeks! Thats wonderful! Yet still people are being petty! And in the one road they filmed on tv yesterday I saw bins with their lids not shut and bins with their recycling bags right next to them....Why can't people bloody read!!!!!! That makes me nuts!

Ok anyway...a storm coming in. Lloyd just phoned to stay its downtown right now and I can see the dark clouds rolling this way so I'm going onto the porch with my cup of tea to watch it come this way......

For those of you with kids who finish school today - HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!!!! :)