Field Trip to John Janzen

Today we headed to the John Janzen Nature Centre, to join them for a 'guided nature walk' on the topic of 'Backyard Biodiversity'.  It was a lovely little walk across the pond and into the woods and around.  The Guide was really nice and great with the kids - I think we all learned quite a bit - about Carpenter Ants, spruce trees, birch bark, woodpeckers and porcupine!!  

This is a bird feeder, but can't be used for bird food right now, because a squirrel moved in to it and made it's home or 'drey' in there!!!   It was full of fluffy bits and wood chips and dirt...very strange but so interesting!!

We had a snack and drink and then borrowed the 'Adventure Backpack for pond dipping' - a backpack they have created full of interesting games and activities about the pond and pond life - and all the bits and pieces needed to study pond bugs!!  

They checked the temperature of the water:

Sam caught 17 pond snails :)  

Abby found all the frogspawn on the other side and we went to see it too - and we caught several tadpoles, but they were still REALLY tiny!!!

It was a gorgeous 20c sunny day and we had a lovely time.

We also played inside in the indoor playground:

The indoor beehive is now also in the indoor playgroundand you can watch the bees through the glass and see them coming and going through the tube that leads to the outside!!

Sam bought himself a HUGE sharks tooth in the gift store - to add to his collection.  I think he said he has 27 now????

Another fun day of learning!!  Another fun day in the sunshine :)  

Mothers Day 2012 :)

Mothers Day was lovely - the whole weekend was special, but Mothers Day was perfect really - gloriously hot at 26c and sunny and just a little breeze.  

I was awake at 8am, but after letting Rosie out, I went back to bed and worked on my art journal.  Laurence woke up, made me a cup of tea and brought it up with a card and gift for me - One of my lovely Willow Tree ornaments - this time called 'Sunshine' and she is holding a bunch of sunflowers :)  

Lovely - and his card was so special too!  And his message inside was just wonderful xxx  He posted a message on Facebook to me and said I was the most important person in his life :)  I have such amazing children and I love that they have grown up feeling able to say how they feel and be emotional and kind and caring and sooooo thoughtful!!

Susannah instagrammed a picture of me and underneath she wrote this:

So wonderful and so thoughtful.  So of course my day was pretty amazing already just by their thoughtful words and actions.

We relaxed all morning and then after lunch I drove Laurence in to his friends house - as he had to work all evening.  

Susannah and I drove to Devon to the Botanical Gardens and spent a lovely couple of hours walking through the gardens and taking photographs!  We spent a long while in the butterfly house, and Susie got some amazing pictures!!

We had lunch at the gardens - the most incredible veggy wrap!!!  Then an ice cream on such a hot day!  

This is me while we were sat having lunch - yes I wore a skirt and sandals and painted my nails to match my skirt :)  In fact I have bought quite a few skirts for this Summer and plan to wear them a lot :)  

The butterfly house is always a favourite place - so fun walking around with butterflies flying about you - and all the tropical plants in there are so beautiful!  You can pretend you are far away on holiday :)  

We went into the cactus room and the Temperate plant room and spent much of the time laughing - because almost all the cactuses in there were shaped like a penis!!  :)  I couldn't resist snapping pictures of a few of them (I blame Christie for this lol):

In the Japanese garden, the blossoms were stunning - and we took some pictures of the two of us together:  

Inside the Folly - looking up:

The Folly:

The gardens were stunning and quieter than I expected for Mothers Day - although maybe we just went later than everyone else.  We were still there when they were closing!!  Even Susannah said she really enjoyed it and wants to go back in Summer when many more flowers will be in bloom!!  I'm so glad she appreciates such places - and that we have the relationship we do to just walk in a garden together, for so long - chat and laugh and compare photographs :)

On the way home we stopped at two old churches to take pictures.  The first Church was a little old Roman Catholic Church way out in the countryside - created for the pioneers of the area.:

We walked through the graveyard of one of the churches, and read the gravestones.  We noticed that on some of them there were two names - husband and wife - BUT the birth date of the wife was on there, but no death date - and we saw on another that the wife's details had been covered up with tape.  So they obviously have their names put on at the same time as the gravestone is done for their husband - but just leave the date of death off.  I find that very strange - fancy visiting a grave and seeing your own name and details on there already - and knowing it's just WAITING for you to die!!!  

As you can see, many of the gravestones also have photographs of the people buried.  I find that very strange too!!

This was a Greek and Russian Orthodox Church:

We headed home so we would be there by 7pm and then Abigail and Sam returned home from their weekend at their Dads. 

Susannah and Sam could finally give me the gift they had been planning.  Susannah had written a song for me and Sam had learned the chorus to sing too.  Susannah played guitar and sang and Sam joined in on the chorus.  It was LOVELY! Really truly beautiful!!!  A magical special moment :)  

 Later that evening we headed into town at sunset, and went to DQ for ice creams but even though it was quite late on a Sunday, the line up was out of the door!!  So we decided to go elsewhere!!  we went to McDonalds for ice cream and it ended up being the best choice - the McFlurry I had was AMAZING!!!  And we sat in there talking until Laurie finished work and walked over to meet us.  We got home around 11 or just before, and ended up sitting on my bed laughing and chatting until midnight!!!  I can't even remember what we were laughing about!!!  

All in all a LOVELY Mothers Day :)  I got to spend it with 4 of the most important people in my life - my whole world.  (#5 is in BC)  I am so very VERY lucky :)