Everybody has a different lifestyle and living experience. These snapshots from the last couple of weeks does give a hint of ours, anyway. Busy busy busy! but with lots of time for the improtant things, such as play and gardening, fmaily and friends.

BTW: You will see some pics of Sugar and Spice’s friend Tigger.  Guess what? she is going to have a new sister. Check out the Drinkwater’s blog for the cute pics of tigger’s new sis!

Of all the strange places in the world, I finally bought my very own injera pan in… wait for it… New Norway, Alberta. Look it up on google maps and you’ll know why I was surprised. 

Jrock and I were taking a round-about way home, wandering through the secondary highways looking for antiques, when we pulled into the unmarked antiques store.

Just when Spice and I were about to leave, what should I see but a PILE of BRAND NEW INJERA PANS! And I mean stainless steel, North American plugs, super duper looking injera pans! 

Well, it makes sense, since Norwegians use the same pans to make lefse (Norwegian pancakes.) But it was still surprising.  So if you want a pan, call the lady there!  She was super nice and is happy to ship them. The pan cost $170ish… but worth every penny if you ask me. I’ve been trying to get my hands on a good pan for ages, and finally, I have one!  Now, I just have to start making better injera….

To buy your own pan…

Call Joan at Nifty Things in New Norway, Alberta. 780-855-2696!

Last year we had this grand scheme for the side yard, which was basically this grassy, weedy pit of a place. The previous owners has some half-baked plans that never came to fruition. We decided to build a shaded play area, with butterfly attracting, soft plants, trees to make shade, and many indigenous plants. Then after we took all the gravel and stuff out last year – oops! off I went to Ethiopia.

But we still had the plans. So this year we’ll see it though. The girls helped us pick rocks last week. there was a considerable amount of dirt to move, and a lot of weeds and grass to take out. Then I staked it out with our plan, and today we bought most of the plants.

Today I started planting, but stopped after an hour. This could take a while! The only ingredigent that we’re missing is the thyme for the middle. We’re not sure if we can get away with white creeping thyme, instead of the thicker stuff we had planned (but don’t have enough of at the store…)

I’ll post more pictures when it sharts to grow in more…

The Easter Bunny paid us a visit Saturday night. He brought candy and Lindt chocolate Easter Bunnies for the girls (dark chocolate for Spice and milk chocolate for Sugar, of course.) Then he hid their eggs all around the bedroom, and they had to find them before they could eat them for Sunday breakfast…

… and this afternoon we went to the neighbors for an Easter egg hunt in their backyard. The girls had a blast.  The neighbors’ little boy goes to the same preschool; the rest of the people were new to us, but a nice bunch. As I type this (to be posted tomorrow!) the girls are settling down for a nap. I thought that, after all the sugar and chocolate, they would be too wired, but they seem to want a little downtime. They’ve goot all their goodies screwed up tight into spaghetti-sauce jars on their dresser, far from Maggie and Laughlin’s prying noses. Now, if I can just restrain myself…

I feel sanity approaching… for the last couple of days the girls have spent at least an hour outside by themselves, mucking about in the dirt. They are working on a couple of vats of dirt soup, and discovered the water standing putrid in the wheelbarrow. You know – kid stuff. Aside from having to wash the dog, and one of the girls (who “forgot” to ask to come inside to pee,) I definitely am in favour of children and dirt.

Spice beside one of our youngest apple trees.

Sugar on the prowl for marbles buried in the dirt.

By the way, the yarn extensions are still holding on.  Alhough they have pulled loose quite a bit on the “part” areas. Note, Jrock actually did their “two puffs” for these pictures. His first time handling elastics! and he did a good job.

Sugar turned down the opportunity to go to the movie store with Daddy tonight, just so she could help Mommy cook a fish! 

BTW, have I told you this kid is destined for culinary genious?  She tasted my wine a few weeks ago, and for the first time, I asked her “what do you smell?” “Strawberries,” Sugar replies.  Are you kidding me?  It was totally a strawberry-forward Grenache. Get out. Since she’s picked up the lime in a Sauvignon Blanc too. I would kill for a 3 year old nose like that!

To Spring
by William Blake

O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Thro’ the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

Duck watching

The hills tell each other, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turned
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth,
And let thy holy feet visit our clime.

My four stooges on a walk.

Come o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our love-sick land that mourns for thee.

Huck and Tom

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languished head,
Whose modest tresses were bound up for thee.

Our neighbor and our conjoined twins swinging.

Eat your hearts out, prairie folk – we have tulips 4 inches high in our yard. (And the Vancouver people say “so what?” lol!)

But with the Olympics on the tube every night, we felt inspired to spend our day off up on the skihill.  Despite Spice’s pleas to ski, we decided they should start off tubing (read: cheaper) and had a blast going up and down the slopes together.  Then off to a Tapas bar for dinner – yum yum! What a nice day.  And a real pleasure to get it away from it all. It’s so nice Big White is 45 minutes away – we really should go more often.

This just gave me mushy eyes when I saw it.  Call me a sentimental ole BC Girl.

The snow bear, a communal effort.

The "baby snowman" – it looked like an invading alien to us "Big People".

We’re all pretty settled in with each other now, and ALMOST at the point where we feel “normal” again.   I’m sending off some emails today to some people I told myself I “should” contact sometime over the next month, for a new work gig / resume builder. 

Things are trucking along and it feels good.

And it’s time for fall activities – hikes, cracking nuts, crunching leaves, making birdfeeders, and getting the most of sunny days before the winter rolls in.

Enjoy the pictures from the last week or so.

July 1st came and went last week, so now we are in the meat of the summer.  We had a nice brunch out at J and C’s – goggled their new baby girl (new from China, anyway!) and then headed out to Harambe (family camp for families with kids of African heritage.) We actually had a camping place reserved, but had to cancel when we figured out the kids wouldn’t be here after all. We went for the afternoon instead, and ate T & J’s food and watched a West African drumming/dancing concert. Pretty fun.

Today is a rare rainy day in the Okanagan – it is a semi-arid climate, after all.  I guess when you live in a place like this you are greatful for the rain.  It means I won’t have to water the veggie beds; the one spot in the yard not yet tapped into the irrigation system.

Our yard is coming along nicely, by the way.  We harvested the cherries off our little cherry tree a couple of days ago; alas (I love that word!), alas! we had a worm in every cherry.  So our organic farming methods will have to be slightly tampered with in the cherry department next year.

Here are some pictures of the front and back yards.  Now I’m off to get out the tent.  We are supposed to be camping tonight but if the weather now is any indication, we may be sleeping in the back of the truck tonite and not the tent after all!  Oh, there is no bliss like sharing a bed with two wet, muddy, smelly, cuddly dogs.

Cats can get very poisoned by lilies – if they eat enough, they get kidney failure. So after a close call once with Haatim and some tiger lilies (he was force fed charcoal and barfed for two days) we only have lilies outside! It’s a bit of a shame, since they are Jrock and I’s favorite flowers… but they do look lovely out on the porch.  And the smell – hmmm… heavenly floating on the summer breeze.

 Ingredients for a nice summer afternoon:

• Green sun tea with mint (Add green tea bags to water in glass jar along with sprigs of fresh mint and set i the sun for a couple of hours.  Then chill, baby.)
• One friend with nice pastries from the bakery
• Her cutester daughter
• Mint and chicken spice (sage) ready to be picked, to amuse a 4 year old
• Good conversation
• A camera to capture the moment (and for the 4 year old to take 4 pictures with – see below!)

And here are Z’s pictures she took with my camera – there you go, kiddo!  Live on the internet, as promised!