It Was a Dark and Stormy Summer

A brief halt in the torrential rains yielded a quick chance for sun exposure. I think there's been about 20cm rainfall everyday here. There are definitely no fires, tho....

Mr. and Mrs. Wharf-Finch (above) have been lovely hosties .... so have the musical clan below (at "Violin Camp"!)

We got treated to a concert at the end of the violin camp! (Yes, it was at a Senior's Centre... which is probably obvious from the reflective heads at the bottom of the picture).

Then --- it was Ballet in the Park with the students of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet!

Later, we put our collective craftiness together and sewed an "ugly bunny" (and it sure was ugly!)... I think it's named Robert or Billy or something but I wanted to call it Tommy-Two-Teeth!

'Pegged!

Folk Fest '09 ended with a WA-BAM! .... thanks to the sturdy folk above!  Many whales-tails were eaten (and almost regurgitated), much kettle corn, Alex Cuba's rhythyms were enjoyed, as were Patrick Watson's (click HERE for a view) .....
After festing, came sailing (in the form of "yard sailing") ... tho' we still haven't found a sewing table!
It was Katy's 22nd birthday (woo hoo!) so we celebrated with an indulgent "Spa Gal's Night", complete with peppermint foot scrubs and....
Mint-tea, eye-soothing treatments
Then .... it was a trip to Matlock, Manitoba to visit old friends in their super splendicular digs out there~

Acres and acres of praire peace and tranquility and herbs and veggies and (here and there) some little, teensy mosquitos to serenade us....
And then it was straight from the Matlock porch to the Moose Lake porch .... rough life!

Moose Lake is Manitoba's "cleanest" lake, you know! (or, so Mrs. Mulgetta Wharf-Finch claims...) Mr.Finch was unavailable for photo opportunities (he's super shy anyway!!) .. but I did catch the young Finch in action (below, zipping along on that clean water)..... 

More Festie Fun and Fotos

For those blog-hogs out there who wanna see MORE photos of the Katy-Kristin roadtrip, go to Katy's blog:

www.katyemma.blogspot.com

Festers

We've successfully tripped it over to the grand praires of vast Canananada.  Below is some of the grazing praire wildlife (giraffe, perhaps?) in and around Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

The aforementioned waterway (which is neither "swift", nor "current")... but sure is nice for an afternoon picnic and walk & talk....
Look out for pigeons under the bridges, tho!
Next stop: Regina!  We stayed at the Turgeon Hostel and, through a happy mixup, got a massive top floor room.  Yoga in the park, along the river .....
The luxurious hostel suite .....
And, finally ---- Folk Fest!!  Small amounts of time were spent in the beer gardens...
And then, just a tiny little bit of tail-gating....
And now we're back in Winnipeg, staying with the lovely & super-hospitable Caines who, with their four fab kids are, I think, (perhaps?) helping Katy find her deep-seated love of children (she is sooooo  maternal)!!

What happens in Medicine Hat stays in Medicine Hat

Below is the restaurant at the Banff's lovely Y-Hostel where we spent two peanut-butter-covered-bagel mornings before we went to .....

exciting and wonderful >>> Medicine Hat!

Alright... hold your applause because ..... we actually had an amazing time! Medicine Hat is kind of a Canadian "oasis - in - the - desert". We enjoyed a relaxing hot tub, our room is ridiculously huge, we're watching TV and keeping up on the unfolding Michael Jackson drama ... this place is da bomb !!

Kosher Mountain Retreat

So the trippers are finally on the road (see packed car below)!

First stop: Banff! Staying at the Y-Mountain-Lodge hostel (an old, converted hospital). Awesome place -- right beside the beautiful Bow River and just across the bridge from downtown Banff.
http://www.ymountainlodge.com/

Last night we hiked up to the Banff Springs Hotel and discovered that it was populated with interestingly clad (black robes) men with long single dreadlocked sideburns .... aka... Hasidics! It was a "Kosher Mountain Retreat"! (we weren't invited, actually)...
http://www.kmrtours.com/

Then, today, we hiked along the Bow River trails, way past the falls and up into a meadow where we plunked down our blankets and picnic supplies and proceeded to take in the scenery (grazing deer included)!

Bye Bye Garden (just for now.....)

Well... it's the thick of growing season around here, as evidenced in the towering pea plants below .... so, logically, I'm off to Winnipeg!



But ---> before this "garden blog" reverts back to a "travel blog", just thought I'd capture a few more pix of the lovely garden in all its glory .... raspberries are juuuuust ripening in the last few days!

Butterflies and lavender will be missed!

Happy Canada Day!!

Gardens are Growing!

Ay... these photos were taken weeks and weeks ago.... all gardens (below) are now overflowing with vegetables and flowers and fruits!

Rasberries are just starting to ripen and, so far, the silly scarecrows are doing their jobs....

Not that the birds are really scared of anything around here. Tim utilized his "bird whispering" ability again the other day and connected with an evening grosbeak hanging out in the driveway.

Frank & Lucy (resident Mallards) have been poking around the pond but have disappeared lately ---- which might mean we'll have fluffy little ducklings swimming around soon!

Luckily, these gardens mostly grow by themselves now because I have not had one second to tend them (too busy solving quadratic equations and balancing chemical reactions and predicting the parabolic paths of objects and ... etc etc)

** SaoMai Sunshine **

April showers blew me down south & I landed in the middle of Sunshine (in the form of SaoMai's smile!)

We visited galleries and the Living Desert and we howled at the full moon and ate fat oranges from the trees in her yard.... it was fun to be "almost three" for a few days!

How can it be possible that she just gets cuter and cuter and cuter every single day? The smile below is known as "camera smile" and she just tries her darnedest to get that smile as big as possible for pictures!

Swimming makes it easy to smile .... and so does visiting the desert zoo in a gold-lace ballerina skirt!