My necklace

This is the necklace that I treated myself to at the farmers market on Canada Day. I loved it :) The lady that ran the stall is a jeweler that hand makes all the jewelry herself and handpicks the beads and handmakes some of them too. She does all of the wirework herself too. I wonder if she is there each week....she had a few pieces I liked...

Wide load!

I TOLD Lloyd not to take a picture of my butt!

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!