Radishes in the salad!!

Here is a real close up of a radish in my square foot garden.  Picked a few of those to go into my salad tonight!!

I am happy!!

Therese

Garden plot

       The garden plot is doing very well!!
We have had lots of rain so I have not had to water very much!
  
 My double row of potatoes above.
Yellow, purple and red!                                            Zucchinni  - I have two plants.

 
 I have 14 plants of tomatoes - all Spring giants.
and some sunflowers too.

 
Above you can see the parsnips on the left and the beets next to them.  Then my double row of carrots and my one row of onions!!  I picked onions and beet leaves to add to my lettuce for supper tonight!!
I am so happy with how this is working out!!

Therese

Sylvia's visit!!

 We had a good weekend!!  Sylvia was out so we could do something special for our birthday!!  We went to the Ellis Bird Farm on Saturday and we made decorative paper on Sunday!  We managed to make several sheets a piece so it as a productive day!!  She has a project in mind for hers.  Mine - I am not sure where they will end up!!

She had brought a large bubble maker and we almost forgot to get it out and make some bubbles!!  Here you can see that it worked perfectly and the bubbles just kept floating away!!

A good way to celebrate our birthday!!!

Therese

First garden produce!!

Here are the very first radishes out of my new square foot garden!!  They were very yummy!!  A wonderful treat for Brian!!

Therese

Ellis Bird farm - birthday experience

Sylvia arrived on Friday afternoon.  She slept in on Saturday morning because Brian was out  the door at the same time I was - he was headed fishing with Bob (neighbour) and I was headed out with Alison (neighbour) to our Run OR Dye run!!  I got home later than expected but with the weather so perfect she spilled the beans that she was taking me out to Ellis Bird Farm for our birthday!  So I showered, we had something to eat and we headed out.  It is not very far at all!!  A beautiful location with a pond, gazebo, wetland habitat and display, a flower garden, a visitor's center (a large new one ready to be opened), a tea house and LOTS of bird houses!!  We had a pleasant stroll around the farm, took a lot of photos and ended up at the tea house where we had a cup of tea with bit of a treat!!  It was a great afternoon and we really enjoyed all the birds.  Unfortunately, we did not see any bluebirds.  The above photo was taken in the visitor's center.  There are no bluebirds nesting on the farm this year but there were a lot of purple martins, swallows, sparrows and wrens  - many of them using the little bird houses along the fence.  There were goats and chickens as well.  We had a great afternoon!!

Therese

Run or Dye - 5 km run

 I did the Run or Dye run (June 21) with Alison (neighbor), her daughter Katie and Katie's friend Bailey!!  Katie signed up for a team very early this year and we have been looking forward to it for a while.  I bought myself a white T-shirt in case the dye did not wash out!!!  Here I am first thing in the morning - I applied my tatoos which had been included in our swag bags which Alison picked up the day before.  On the left here you can see Bailey and below you can see Katie!!  We left home at 8am and headed to the Canyon Ski Resort for our 9am start time.  By the time we turned off the 272 at 8:30am we were in line!!

We had more than 8 kilometers to go!!  We speculated as to how long it was going to take us to get there - very quickly we realized that we would not make our 9am start time.  But they were starting runners every 5 minutes until 10am so we figured we would get in there before the last ones left the starting line!!  We were committed to getting there and doing the race.  Many others were getting out of line and heading out!  We suspect the organizers were overwhelmed with the amount of last minute registrations they got.  Needless, to say it was after 10:30 am when we arrived at the start line and I was truly grateful that Alison had taken her truck because the last mile or so was in deep mud and we did it in 4 wheel drive!!  My little PT would have been hung up on the axle in the middle of the road!!!

 Here are Alison and I before the start of the race. The race route had been severely modified - either because of the rain or because of the number of participants.  We walked and did three laps of the course though I don't believe that was more than a few kilometers.  There was a LOT of mud!!  Many were partaking of the fun of slipping and sliding in it!! On the one hill, Katie and Bailey ended up on their backs the first time around and did their fronts the second time around.  All of the Dye stations were out of dye by the time we went around but there was plenty floating around which was being released by participants.

 We had several dye packs a piece thanks to Katie and made sure that we were well chalked by the end of our trips around the course along with as many others that were in need of some colour.  A wide variety of groups - some all dressed up and funky, runners, families and young adults having a good time!!
 

We were finished walking and ready to head home by noon.  The girls were wet and dirty but fortunately had brought a change of clothes so we put up the blanket between the opened truck door and the back of the truck and they changed.  Just like when we went to the lake as kids!!  I just stripped off my colourful T-shirt and was good enough to get in and head home.  We left the ski hill at noon but now the exodus was leaving so it took another half hour to get to town and I was home by 1 pm!!

It was a fun run and we will be doing it again next year if there is one organized. I was grateful that the rain stopped while were still on our way into the venue and that the sun appeared by the time we were walking!!

Therese

On the road for my birthday!

 We were on the road for my birthday this year and here is where we had supper!!  A very cool little diner in Minot, ND and the food was really good too!!  You can check out their menu on line at their website - Kroll's Diner.  They have five locations in North Dakota!!

Therese

Families at the wedding

 Todd and Anna!!

 Haley and Paul!!

Bruce and Gail!  (Todd's Mom)

 Rob and Karen!! Parents of the groom.

 Larry and his son's family.

Jason, Michelle and Evan!

We would never have imagined that this day would come but lo and behold it has and we are grateful!!

Jason, Michelle and Evan!

It was great to connect and get acquainted with those we had not yet met and to touch base with those who we had not seen in while.  I did miss a couple - Braden and Janelle!!

Here are the Malak boys - Larry, Brian and Rob with Jason!!


It was great and we had a lot of fun!  Great food and fabulous DJ who kept the party going to the very last minute!!

Therese

Katherine and Gil and family at Dylan's wedding

And here they are at the wedding  - smiling and happy to be part of it all!!

Because of the days of rain this week the wedding was moved inside to the Dugald Community Center.  The perfect sized venue for the group in attendance!!

I will post photos of the happy couple later - they are on Brian's camera and he is fishing today!!

They had two attendants and the theme was blue and silver! They had bubbles too!!

Therese

Winnipeg trip - les enfants Magne

 We arrived on Friday and headed to Katherine's in time for breakfast at 8:15am!!  She had been up since 5 am when Loic thought it was definitely time to be up and at it.  As you can see here he was in fine form and looking cool!!!!  It was not long before he was headed to bed and that worked out well because it was going to be a long day with a wedding yet to attend.

 Mathieu was wanting to take pictures so we took a few for fun!!

Here is Neomie being her best fun self!!

They were all excited about going to the wedding so they all went down for naps while Katherine made a few adjustments on her dress.  We headed to the motel for a call to Suzanne in regards to Kale's hospital visit and a nap.  No news was good news at Suzanne's. It appears that he had a seizure but was very soon back to himself and got a through check out at the hospital with no evidence of anything wrong with him.

We are grateful!!

Therese

New glasses!

Brian has new glasses!!!!!!  They are quite different than the last pair but are working very well!!  They are trifocals and very well adjusted so he does not have to be searching to see things.
We are fortunate to have eye care available so close!  We will be able to keep ahead of that as time goes on. We are also fortunate to have found a dentist and doctor as well.  Made our appointments and did the testing that needed to be done.  All is good!!!

Therese

Garden Plot

I have rented a garden plot for growing my root vegetables.  It is 10' x 20' and I have planted three different potatoes - blue, yellow and red, zuchinni, beets, parsnips, carrots and onions. Everything is now up and I just put in my tomatoes the other day.  So far, not too many weeds and I am hoping to stay ahead of them as the season goes on.  It is about 3.5 kms from home - about a 40 minutes walk - shorter on my bike!!  There is a cistern for water which is wonderful - you can just see the shadow of it in the photo - real close!
Therese

Gull Lake with Bob and Donna

 On Sunday afternoon we were invited to join Bob and Donna for a boat ride at Gull Lake.  Bob has been working on his boat this winter and wanted to try out the additions and just give it a run to how things were going after a winter in storage.
It was a fun afternoon.  We saw lots of birds including some pelicans!!
You can see in this photo that we are up to speed and things are going well.
Pretty loud out there at full throttle with the wind in your hair!!

Here we had slowed and were mostly drifting.  Donna hauled out the cooler and we had a little snack and a nice visit.  The sun was warm and it was nice to out on the water.
Eventually, we could see some dark clouds coming in and decided to head for shore. The wind was very strong and it made loading the boat difficult but Bob managed to get it on - though not without getting wet!!
It was pouring rain when we got home -  pretty good timing!!

Therese

Maria & Herb came for a visit

We were fortunate to have Maria and Herb drop by as well.  Maria was in town doing jury duty for an art show!!
It was great to see them!!  They came over in time for supper and stayed for a few hours into the evening.  We will be seeing them again next week as Maria has a show in the Gallery in Edmonton in the first week of June.  You can check out her art and her other shows on her website.
http://mariasieben.weebly.com/

Therese

Rotary dinner

We attended The Lacombe Rotary "Steak and Lobster" Dinner with Bob and Donna - our neighbours on the other side - their major fundraiser of the year.  The theme was Pirates of the Caribbean and the decorations and entertainment were all themed to that and quite a few in attendance were dressed to the theme as well. Here you can see the lobster being made ready for dinner time by the Pirate!!
It was a fun evening and the food was very good!!  We did not see too much of Bob though because he was cooking lobster but we enjoyed the company of several of their friends who were sitting at the same table!!  He joined us after dinner was served.
As it happened, Suzanne was coming over to work on her wool project so she arrived while we were out.  She managed to set herself set up and made some progress before we got home around 11 pm.

Therese