Everything under the sun!

Grad walk
Wine Gals
I just don't know where the past months have gone! Since we got Libby life has been a whirlwind of goings on. Just after Bronwynne arrived home from Costa Rica I went on a week long tour of the Okanagan Valley with a group of wonderful woman (there were 6 of us all together) Two of the gals had birthdays during the week, one turning 48 the other turning 50. They had always wanted to do the wine tours so thats what we did. I'm not much of a wine drinker myself as it stuffs up my nose but I found out what wines I can drink. We had a wonderful time and experienced some fabulous meals, great laughs, incredible places, and met some far-out people. The day after I got back we moved Bronwynne to Victoria, she got herself a job the next day and is now saving up for her trip to Thailand. She has caught the travel bug and wants to get it out of her system before continuing with her schooling. All the power to her I say! She came back for her Grad the weekend of June 9th which was 3 days of none stop activities and fun ( and tears for me as another of my chicks graduates and flies the nest!) She just loves Victoria though and if they are happy so am I! Through all this the renos have been happening to the house so life has felt a bit more hectic than usual!! I just spent 2 days at the pottery studio doing what we call "pot till you drop". This is when we all get together to make as many pots, dishes and other stuff using "club clay" and then the things are sold to raise money for the Fine Arts. It's a lot of work but also fun.
Two of my (remaining) children have now finished school for the year, they just have exams left to do but Declan still has two more weeks to go! I am going as chaperon on his classes year end trip to Vancouver where we will get to sleep at the Aquarium! I'm sure this will be fun but I just can't wait for summer and some down time.

Our New Girl Libby

I feel just like a new momma, as we have a new member of the family, our new puppy Libby. Declan and I went to Barbs on Sat. then on Sunday we all traveled to Vancouver where we picked up my oldest Kerian and his girlfriend. Spent about 1 1/2 hours at Metrotown Mall where we got a bunch of cloths for Declan at Old Navy as he had grown out of most of his stuff! Then it was off the the Animal Hospital to pick up Libby at 1:30. Spent about an hour there getting filled in on all her info. she is about 3 months old. It was love at first sight for me! We took her to visit Gwen and Gwen's dog Scout who is about 5 months. Along with Casper they played and raced around the yard like crazy, it was great for Libby to stretch her little legs before the drive and ferry ride. Libby just seemed to fit in with everything we did and we had no accidents in the house at Barbs I just couldn't believe it! She also slept right through until 6:15 am! Took her and Casper for a long walk on the beach before once again having a car ride and another ferry! For such a little thing she did so well and has fit into our household as if she was born here! We just love her to pieces!

New Pond

I spent last weekend at my sisters as it was her 60th birthday. Caitlin and I went down on Sat, Em and Aethan were already there and Barb picked up Gwen and her new dog Scout from the ferry an hour later. Aethan was so good with being surrounded by all the women! It's like he sees us every day! We had such a fun day, walking the beach with the dogs, looking at photos (Gwens from England and mine from Costa Rica), and just having a really great gab session! We all went out to the Japanese Restaurant for supper and Barb had got us each a goodie bag, what fun! Sunday saw more walks on the beach. Em and Aethan had to fly home at noon and I put Caitlin on the bus to Vancouver to visit her big brother Kieran for a few days(they are going to take in a concert together). All in all it was a much needed gathering of the women in the family!(we were just missing Bronwynne and our mom)
I spent all week working on my pond. Some big dog got into it just after Christmas and tore a hole in the old pool liner that I used, he knocked over all the plants, fountains, and killed all the fish. I did find 3 little baby fish in the muck at the very bottom! A friend had given me a new (real) pond liner but it was a lot of work to put it in as I had to move all the rocks, plants and stuff away from the edge of the pond to install the new liner. I finished up yesterday and am very pleased with the results!

COSTA RICA

What an adventure I have had! I landed at the top of Costa Rica in a place called Liberia and had to spend the night there before I caught a little plane down to San Jose and then another one down to Puerto Jimenez. The little planes fly quite low so I got to see a lot of the country side, the whole top half of Costa Rica has suffered from a drought these past two years, the only green spots where the resorts along the coast! I then had to take a passenger ferry(more like a dug-out canoe, the more people that got on the lower the boat sank! until I could just put my hand over the edge and it was in ocean!) from Puerto Jimenez to Golfito which took about 45 minutes. Bron met me there and we wandered around until our bus at 3:00. BUS! Ok it's an old school bus that they have somehow kept running despite the fact that you can see the ground through the bottom of the bus and it seems like it's going to rattle apart! It's a 3 hour journey from Golfito to Pavones on roads that are not really roads,( if the scenery hadn't been so beautiful my hair would be white with fright!) and you are sharing the bus with everyone and their mothers and chickens! It was almost dark when we arrived at her house (sun sets at 6pm and rises at 5am) so I didn't get to the beach right away. I was up at 5 every morning walking the beach with my camera and collecting shells. We spent most days lazing around, walking the beach, swimming in the river(at least 5 times a day), watching the surfers, lizards, macaws, taking photos of all and the plant life. We did swim in the ocean one day but the under tow is so strong that you can swim with all your might and still go backwards! I took a yoga class that I will never forget as you looked out at the waves crashing onto the beach while you did yoga, it was really quite a beautiful experience! Had to do the same journey back up to Liberia but stayed in Puerto Jimenez overnight before catching the little planes up the coast. It was a most relaxing and wonderful time. If I was to go to Costa Rica again I would want to go for at least a month to see more of the sights! The one thing I couldn't get over was the amount of garbage I saw. They seem to have no infer structure for that sort of thing and people seem to burn all(plastics included!) their garbage in their yards in the smaller communities! There is no recycling what so ever! I was really shocked by this! They need to do something about it and fast!! But I found Bron and her friend Carly and Carly's brother Charlie in fine form and just loving it there. I'm so glad I took the opportunity to have this great adventure!

Oldest Daughter flies the coop

Bronwynne is my oldest daughter and has worked hard at everything she has done her whole life! She has accomplished more in her 17 (almost 18) years than any teen I know, from swimming (she has her lifeguard and instructor certs), to winning the part in a pilot series for TV (that was filmed right here in our town), to holding down 3 jobs all at once(washing dishes in a restaurant, pumping gas and doing propane at a gas station, and teaching swimming lessons!), to taking on a heavy work load at school so that she could graduate 5 months early from school! But it has all paid off, she left (with her best friend Carly and Carly's brother Charlie) 2 weeks ago to spend 3 months traveling in Costa Rica! She bought herself a top of the line digital camera and my oldest son Kieran helped her find a lap top computer so that she could keep in touch ( she has become addicted to Flickr.com just like her mom!) Her and her friends have rented a little beach shack for the month of March and has invited me down for a week! I can't wait, not only will the mother get to make sure that the daughter is really ok, but I will get to warm my bones! Don't worry, I'm taking my camera!

Pirates

I just spent the weekend with a group of gals that I have known since 1998 when I joined the Powell River Chorus. We were asked to sing as a small group which for some unknown reason was named "The Pirates" (and the name has stuck with us ever after!)and got to know each other during extra practices. The times together were full of laughter and fun. We started getting together for each others birthdays and Christmas parties then it went on to holidays together in the summer(We would go for 4 days to Savory Island and rent a cabin) We have been to Tofino, Mt. Washington, Texada Is., Victoria, Comox(the Alders) Vancouver. We get up to great highjinx together, have sunbathed in the nude, made snow angles (again in the nude!) have gotten a boat stuck high and dry due to the tide(but it meant we had to spend another night!).We even won the "YaYa's" contest from the Vancouver Sun and got a trip to Vancouver, a night in the Vancouver Hotel, champagne, goodies and to see the premier of the YaYa movie. With our photo appearing in the next paper! We have sung at Festivals, Chorfest, and even had a gig at the Sunshine Folkfest one summer. Judy has moved away but somehow we still get together, not as much as we use to or as much as we'd like, 4 of us have children and 2 of us have stopped going to choir(I took up pottery instead) But this weekend showed us that friendships like this last a lifetime. It was our belated Christmas party as well as Judy's Birthday and it was my turn to make the desert, we opened presents, ate too much food and drink, and played our favorite card game called "Asshole" (we know there is another name for it but just can't remember!) The photo shows from left to right-Judy, Patricia, Alex with Nancy(standing)(they own the bed and breakfast where we stayed and Nancy was our choir conductor for years), Wendy and Julie.I came away from this weekend feeling extremely lucky to know these woman and be able to spend some quality time with them.

LINCOLN

It is with a sad heart that I say goodbye to Lincoln, the one and only Muddy yellow dog who past away yesterday. He always greeted me as a long lost friend whenever I would visit Gwen's. I will never forget the way he would make a funny face and sneeze upon smelling my "morning breath" as we said our good mornings or how he loved it when I would give him a good scratching behind the ears. Go now and join our beloved Molly, chase sticks and run free in the waves together. Goodbye dear kind soul.