My girls

Rosie and Amber don't like the heat so we cooled them off regularly with the hose......hence the fact Rosie has a cute crimped hair-do!!!! And as you can see, Rsie is never far from her baseball.......she loves 'fetch' even in the heat!

Water fun!

I was sat just beside the pool and Sam had so much fun pouring cold water all over my feet. I kept squealing each time he did it and he thought it was hilarious!!!!

Flowers

More pictures of my garden as it flowers through the summer........

Butterfly delight

The Bugs of Alberta book says that when you see the White Admiral butterfly, it means that school is almost finished for the year. How apt!!!

This beautiful butterfly was fluttering around for a while this afternoon.....it perched on the water table for a while and let me take its picture......a few minutes later Rosie caught it mid flight and ate it........

Nature...will I ever get used to it?

The tent is up!

The tent is up....Laurie and Lloyd put it up this afternoon. It didn't take long at all :) Sam had a blast running about in it!

Wondrous Water

Water. I love it. I could happily be a fish. There is nothing I like more than splashing about in an outdoor pool...any pool is wonderful but outdoor pools..the smell, the colour.......the sounds!!!! Oh wow they just remind me of summer evenings as a child spent swimming in the pool until late.....until my skin was so wrinkled I resembled a prune......until I was so cold my lips were blue.....and even then I would stand in the middle of the pool and refuse to get out, knowing only too well that my parents couldn't swim and so couldn't get me out!!!

My favourite colour is turquoise....aquamarine...the colour of swimming pools and water.....

The picture above represents summer to me.....summer fun and happiness.....and many many memories of good times with friends over the years.......playing 'miss world' around the edge, pretending to be jaws.....pretending to play 'Its a Knockout' on inflatables.......of George (the filter even had a name!!!) and of hot chocolate to warm up afterwards.......

Even now when I am upset or angry I retreat to the bath for several hours...often emptying the tub when its cold only to refill it again and stay in.

Water......I love it.

Hot potato

It's hot. Very hot. The potatoes are on the fire ...yum! I'm craving ploughmans pickle......wish they sold it here.......maybe a trip to WEM is in order - to the British Import store......summer should include Ploughmans pickle!!

The girls and Sam are outside - they have filled the sandbox with water so its a slushy mess and are making sand pies and lakes and rivers for their toys.....messy fun but they can wash off in the paddling pool and then pile up for baths.......

Everyone helped Lloyd put up the tent earlier.....not sure if anyone is camping out tonight or whether we'll just air it tonight.

blog recommendation

You have to check out this blog:

http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/

Its wonderful...the baby turtle pics are soooooo cute!!!

Scenes of our Sunday

Lloyd and the girls bringing the straw for the chicken coop

Close up of clover

Our second crop of rhubarb

Taiga Bluet

A few more pictures from our Sunday. The dandelion season seems to have ended and our pasture is now covered in the sweetest smelling clovers of all shades of pink and purple.....the hum of bees amongst it is incredible and the smell intoxicating. I tried to find the family of grouse in the woods but they weren't around. As you walk through the clover, dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies of all kinds fly up......Lloyd spotted a large White Admiral this afternoon.

Sam working hard...

A hard days work for Sam.....fixing bikes, taking straw to the farm animals......busy busy busy!!!

At last the chickens fly (to) the coop!

Everyone getting things ready

The chickens take their first look at their new digs

Moving the chickens from the garage to the coop

The new coop before the new residents move in! We ran out of wood chips so have to get more.....

Chickens on the move.....

The chickens are moving into their new digs today...YAHOO!!!!! The run isn't really finished but the coop is, and the run is safe from animals at least. We just want them in their coop before they start laying!!!!!

Yay we get our garage back......and next week we get to strip the whole garage down and empty it and strip out the carpet (yuck - who carpets a garage???) and clean out the whole thing!!!!

We are looking for a goat...a Nanny goat......Lloyd says we need to go to 'Goats R Us'........I guess really we'll search the classifieds.......anyone have a goat for sale????????

Time with Lloyd

Last night turned out nice after all......we had the fire outside and the kids made hotdogs...we played out there for a while and enjoyed the cooler evening until late.....and once the younger ones were in bed Lloyd and I headed into town for some much needed time alone.....and ice cream :)

This morning we headed back into town for breakfast alone :) Just coffee and croissants together but it was nice :) very nice :)

I had never had a blizzard before....but I tried a cookie dough blizzard from DQ.......YUM!!!! I like those a LOT!!!!!

Why is it?

Why is it that as soon as a girl reaches the age of 8 they are expected to wear miniature clothes designed for women? I'm sorry but I don't want my daughter looking like one of Charlies Angels. She's EIGHT!!!!!! They turn 8 and all of a sudden it seems impossible to find a nice pretty sweet one piece bathing suit. They all look like something tarty women wore in the 70's or are tiny little bikini's. We found a lovely shimmery one for Abigail that was aged 5......why don't they do those for aged 8? Why do little girls have to be forced to grow up so fast these days?

It's the same with shoes......it seems that it's impossible to find pretty little girl shoes for age 8.....they are all miniatures of the ones for adults or teens.....all Hillary Duff etc etc......all heels and points and strappy things.....

I want my daughter to be eight. I wnat her to dress like she is eight. Who the hell designs this stuff???? Do they just have paedophiles designing kids clothes these days????????