Christie is home!

Ok - just updating to say my friend Christie has posted to say she is home and safe from Big Valley Jamboree - so I can quit checking my cell phone and face book and LP constantly to see if anyone has any news or if she has posted anything or whatever....I know she is ok and her family is ok :)

I can go to sleep now :)

And we have power too! Fortis got our power up and running at 4pm after it went off at 11pm last night - more about that tomorrow - but have to say our freezer is FAB because everything in it stayed FROZEN!!! Even the ice cubes!!!! Wow!!! How great is that??? 25c day today and no ac on in the house and the freezer stayed frozen with no power!

Anyway, Christie is home and safe, and we can flush the toilets again and have water and turn on lights and keep the house cool :)

It sounds as though things were very scary at BVJ though.....and my thoughts remain with those who were there and were hurt and injured or affected in any way.

xxxxx

Tragedy close to home :(

www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/08/02/stage-collapse.html?ref=rss

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8180183.stm



News stories about the tragic collapse of the stage at the Big Valley Jamboree - a country music festival held close to us in Camrose this past weekend. This is similar to Glastonbury festival in the UK with people camping there all weekend and big music names headlining it - just with country music instead.

My friend Christie was there all weekend and I haven't heard from her yet.....Christie I hope you're ok. xxxx Susannah's friend from school was also there. The concert was cancelled for the rest of the weekend.

We get gorgeous Summers here - I love them - they really do make up for our LONG cold winters - but they come at a price - with our severe weather season and our severe and dangerous storms :(

My thoughts are with all those involved - those who lost a loved one - those who someone who was hurt - and those who went through it - because that must have been very frightening!

And I'm so sorry that what was supposed to be such a fun weekend turned into such a horrible event :(

yummy peas....

..eaten straight from the pod out by the garden!!! thats why we grew them!!! We never take them in to the house - we just pick them and eat them out by the garden...YUM!!!

We grew potatoes!!!!!

We decided to pull up just one potato plant yesterday to see if they had actually grown anything!!! I was doubtful because of the weather we have had this year, but never the less, we dug one plant up to see. We were THRILLED to find that one plant had seven baby potatoes under it!!! YAY!!! They are still small, but at least we now know that the potatoes ARE growing!!!!! :) So we aren't wasting our time, energy and water on them!!!! :)

Busy as a bee...

My Sunflower :)

Sam made this picture for me this morning - it's a sunflower and he tells me the writing says 'I love you Mom'

:)

Don't grow up too fast Samsam
xx

TWO squirrels!!!

We always thought we only had one squirrel!!! It turns out Susannah was right all along and we DO have TWO!!!! :) I'm soooo happy we don't have only one sad, lonely, masturbating squirrel :)

Now to name them....we were thinking of Tim and Denis, but that might be confusing lol......so then we thought of Bert and Ernie....and Sharon I can't remember the names you suggested...??????? But now I'm thinking of Jack and Jill....

Anyway, Jack and Jill live in the roof of Lloyds workshop. They access it by climbing on top of the old chicken coop. I like having squirrels - in winter we buy them extra food - special squirrel food, but in Summer they can make do with sharing and hoarding the birds nuts.....they are already costing us a fortune ;)

Beauty midst the drought....

The flower garden is doing terribly this year...I didn't even bother with the barrels down by the apple tree year. The late start to the Summer, and then the VERY dry Summer.....I just couldn't be bothered wasting the time and money on annuals for them.

A few flowers have survived the elements though, including this beauty!

Very few vegetables have done well this year - not just for us but for any gardeners this year. Our peas and potatoes have done very well. We are now getting fresh peas from the garden daily - they never make it to the house though as we just eat them then and there! Mmmmm sweet garden peas, straight from the pod!!! Strawberries and raspberries too! Our new strawberries are not doing well, but our older ones are doing well - we need to weed badly - Hmmmmm if only they could design garden plants that survive drought as well as WEEDS!!!! ;)

Smashing up the ice....

They DID have fun smashing the ice up!!!! :) Even if it WAS out of frustration ;)

Iced Treasures....

A few days before this, I had frozen many little 'treasures' in layers of water. I used a big foil tray from the dollar store. Sam LOVES those sand toys where you have to scratch away at the sand until you find the 'treasure' inside. This is the same idea except you have to scratch away at the ice until you get the treasures out.

You can hide little toys, coins, gemstones etc etc inside the ice......it's a great thing for kids to play with on a HOT HOT day.....

The older girls lost patience with it and ended up smashing it up witha baseball bat lol....but sam asked me to make him another one straight away as he wanted to finish it properly - he really likes these things - so if you have a more patient child they will LOVE this ;) and ona hot day on the deck/ patio, the sun and heat will help the melting process ;) Smaller ones from a smaller freezer will also not take as long ;)

They DID have a lot of fun smashing it up too by the way!!!

Playing with ice cubes is always a lot of fun on a very hot day ;)

Great news!!

Such great news for a homeshooling friend of mine!!!

Check out 'The Blessing' blog to the right -------->

Spa day...

The girls took all the make up outside and had a bit of a girly spa day outside - doing their nails and faces......we were impressed with Abigails 'Angelina' style lips ;)

Giant slip and slide fun.....

Sharon came over for the day on Wednesday with her girls and one of the big hits was the soapy slip and slide on the sledding hill....we replaced the 'patch job' made from bits and pieces we had around the place, with a roll of plastic from Home Depot. We've decided we'll do this every year from now on because it's about $5 more than a real slip and slide and works like 100 X BETTER than a real slip and slide - is sooooooo much BIGGER and BETTER and to be honest we have found that the real slip and slides only last us about three days and then they get broken :( either they get twisted and pop or punctured or SOMETHING goes wrong with them :( so this is sooooo much more fun and so much better!!! Yay!!!

Here's to Summer!!!!!

Cheers!!!! ;)

On the patio at Northern Bear

On Wednesday evening Lloyd and I went for dinner at Northern Bear - we had supper on the patio overlooking the 18th hole on the golf course, then we went inside and had coffee. It was funny watching all the geese around the 18th hole and watching the golfers trying the get rid of the geese before they could play that hole! There are pelican in the lake there and they fly around and land and then fly around again...it's a lovely place to have supper....they have two menu's - a casual menu and a fine dining menu - so you CAN pop in and have a sandwich or something simple!!! Or you can go and have something off their more expensive menu!! The food is FAB!!! It's no more expensive than anywhere else.....and for us it's just around the corner!!! Great service and beautiful surroundings!!