Utopia - in too many places.....

I was wondering if there is a perfect place to live and would you ever find it. I don't think I would.
I like so many different places for so many different reasons that you would have to amalgamate them all to make them into my Utopia.

I love Key West for its ambience, its restaurants, it chilled out feeling, its oceans, its beauty and did I say food? I would love a little Conch House in old town within walking distance of Louis Backyard, so I could be found there when I went missing on a Sunday afternoon, with a pina colada on the afterdeck.

I love Halifax NS, for its smallness as a city but it still has the tall buildings and city feel in its streets. For its harbour walkway and its funky Tug boat. For its little shops and its Cows Icecream and Beavertails.

I love Peggys Cove for its serenity and peace, even when its crazy busy. Theres something about that place and the drive there, that beauty, that calmness.

I love downtown Orlando, its nice, its not touristy but its pretty actually, like St Augustine with its heat and its Spanish moss that hang from trees. I like its road names like Orange Blossom Trail that is actually a 6 lane highway in places. Downtown Orlando is somewhere I could work and live I think.

I like Rome, with its craziness and awe-inspiring history on almost every corner. The food is flat out wonderful too and its the only place in the world where I choose to go and check out religion. For those that have not yet seen the Vatican or the Colosseum (amongst other wonders) I recommend a visit, if you can. And while you are there, have some lunch at a little Italian restaurant down a backstreet, the tomato sauce in the pasta and on pizza, alone, will blow your taste buds.

Gibraltar - gorgeous, Spanish with a twist of English, with red phoneboxes and a runway that crosses a road, or maybe the road crosses the runway. The streets curve and twist and its quintessentially Europe.


And there are SO many places still to see, on my personal to do list:

Cape Code - Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard
Boston
The Carolinas
Nevada
Arizona
The Grand Canyon


Ah, theres more but I am starting to feel like I should be travelling rather than at work, frankly.

Alpine and a rainy September Day

Its feels like summer is over and then it doesn't again as its all warm and humid and hot but its damp too, it rained ALL FRIGGIN DAY yesterday, it was like a Monsoon out there.
It also happened to be the day that our new puppy Alpine let me into the secret that he likes to dig, in mud!
He was outside doing his thang and it was peaceful, no jumping on Dukie or throwing himself around the house in his exuberant fashion so I left him out there until I was ready to leave for work.
BIG MISTAKE!!

He ran back into the house in a very happy wet muddy dog way and created havoc with the couch in the family room. I was stunned. I have never seen a dog so dirty and so happy about it.
He was literally plastered with mud, his little white face was black with it. And I was now late for work.

So I stood on the deck in my work clothes and work hair and washed him down, in a relatively furious fashion. I was soaked, he was soaked, he was muddy, so was everything in a 50 mile radius.

I then went to leave, late, and of course I am out of gas. So I stopped for that, it was still raining, at an angle, I got wetter (if that's possible) at the gas pump.

I drove to work in driving rain and gusting winds and figured that my house is awash with wet muddy dog, my work hair is now a curly fluff and I am later than late.

It rained all damn day and Alpine spent more happy time later that day out there cleaning out and widening the ditch in our yard, so successfully that the little bridge now no longer spans it as its too short.
I went through most of our towels and more water in an attempt to stop the house turning into a damp, muddy dog disaster.
And here he is, hes meant to be company for Mr Duke, but currently hes melting hearts, making a big mess and driving Duke insane with his crazy energy. Hes certainly young and I look forward to the day he grows up just a little bit and calms down a touch.
Hes a husky, collie, lab mix with just a touch of polar bear (we feel)

Labour Day weekend

I was just indulging in my Sunday fest of online Tan Lines on the Key West Citizen on a Monday as its the long Labour day weekend and the column was about the significance of the Labour Day weekend to the writer and I realized as I read that that significance was starting to become our world too.

Its the last weekend before school starts this Thursday and my mornings of relative relaxation before work end. No longer will I be able to be all about me in the morning with my leisurely dog walk and preparation for the work day as all I need to do is pick the girls out of bed and drop them at the sitters, breakfastless and in their PJs with tangled hair and frowsty eyes.
It will replaced by increasingly frustrated tones (from me) of GET DRESSED, EAT YOUR BREAKFAST, BRUSH YOUR TEETH etc etc so that we can all leave together and they can be dropped off at school on my way in, before 7.55am....

I will start to arrive to work on time, that hasn't happened all summer, by really most people at work, as the summer carries on and people are barely there as they all soak up the heat, spend time in their cottages and go to bed late each day.

My children will start to view the Labour Day weekend as that weekend where they sort out their carefully selected school supplies into the new bags from that great shopping trip where I wanted to bawl in the aisles of Staples as I tried to follow the very specific lists of - 8x10 lined artists notepad with 2mg paper and pink spine etc etc and then had to pay out vast sums for the whole lot including the new Disney lunchbox that was a "must have" according to my youngest and has now joined the cupboard where there are other gently used completely serviceable lunchboxes that I had already bought for last year.....

We had planned to go to the Ovens today but the forecast looks damp, I don't mind, I am not sure I can be bothered to actually do anything today. Its been a nice weekend - we had late nights, walked down our road at 11.30pm on Friday night and picked out the Big Dipper in the clear starry night with the girls after hanging out at the neighbours at the end of the street where we ate horribly bad food and drank very nice beer and wine. We had a hot Saturday of a girly lunch for me and my pal and a Costco trip and then a pool afternoon and smorgeousbord of food get together as we all hung out. We do it so well. That was another late night. Yesterday I got in a run, a family movie afternoon and a family dog walk, then a movie evening with a on the edge of your seat thriller - oldie but goodie - Red Dragon.

So now I must walk the dogs (yes dogs) we have a new puppy, I will write about that adventure in my next update. Right now, I am savouring the calm before the storm and enjoying this long weekend....

Wedding in NS

We went to the most magical wedding (after mine of course!) at the weekend where my Chloe was a flower girl and Lily was a guest as she couldn't handle being in the spotlight AT ALL

It was up in Windsor and meant staying away for the night in a hotel, big hurrah for the girls and we booked the Super 8 - not my thing, I have to say! The carpet and comforters were dark green and screamed 1983, I have realized that I am officially allergic to that style of hotel room décor.

The wedding was amazing, our two friends Sam and Kensa tied the knot outside a magically whimsical barn and I have been banned from posting any of their wedding photos online as they await the official pics.. so here are some of us attending that wonderful day:

It was a really nice venue with a great pool, where we hung out and drank too much sangria. And I mean LOTS of it...
Later on.........

I wish I had gotten more shots of the pool as it was very tropical and being right here in NS means I can have the same ambience in our pool at home, which of course, is also right here in NS!!!

There were tropical looking greenery in very nice planters, and a tiki bar., It was surrounded by some palm tree like trees.... so now I am on the hunt for similar green stuff and plan a massive overhaul of our pool deck next year. I mean, we spent out on the pump and the filter and the liner and new water this year,... lets add some ambience!
I think I may have to draw the line at the tiki bar though sadly, not quite enough space.

Sunday morning

So yesterday morning at a little after 8am I pulled on my sneakers and took the dog and started my run. I planned a 3km run with very little belief that I would achieve it, its been weeks (feels like months) since I ran and that was only 5km.

So off I went and I damn well did it,easily. I feel SO pleased that I can still do this. I certainly felt it more afterwards than I did before, but its still achievable and that means I can get back to 5km and build it to 10

I was stopped in my tracks on one road by a rather large spider. It was just sat there and I spotted it because
a) it was big, and
b) it had wasp like markings colour wise so it stood out on the asphalt

So I went and stared, its wasnt striped like a wasp but rather had almost like a skull on its back that was bright yellow. I was pleased it didnt jump or anything, or actually even move. That would have creeped me out.
I have just googled it to see if I can figure out what it was and now I feel all shuddery from all the images and a little disturbed because I can't find it, there are a number of spiders with yellow markings but nothing the same....

It was hot too, I had started to think that hot mornings were in fact, a thing of the past but not yesterday. The heat was on. Its cooler this morning, of course, so I am going to walk the dog in a moment in complete comfort for him in his husky like fur coat. he did good yesterday though, hes a fit running companion. And he doesnt pull, he runs alongside, long tongue hanging out to one side.

Having almost gone through our 3rd summer and only being in the pool three times this year, unlike last year when it was consistently extremely hot, I have come to the conclusion that we need a pool heater. The pool has to be over 80F for me to want to be in it, its only hit that twice when I wanted to go in and sits at about 76F, tooooo cold for me.
So, I am going to check out solar heaters as our neighbour has one and it makes at least a 5 degree difference. Ideally I really want to extend our pool season anyway, so this may be the answer.
I mean its been hot and humid, but its been *blessed* (according to my friend, but not me) by some slightly cooler days and some rain..... I like Florida hot and steamy like last year.... all summer.

So... thats my next project along with some renos for Lilys room, her closet is too big and in the wrong place, some repositioning and downsizing of that will make a real difference.

Oh and the rain has meant the mozzies have been happily out and biting, I was bitten on Friday night near my eyebrow so now that whole area is swollen and makes my eye look slightly wonky in a most fetching way.
Pfffffffffftttt!

where has my running mojo gone?

Its Saturday morning at 8am and I am sitting here on the old FB (again!) trying to drum up some enthusiasm to go for a run. This running lark that I used to do for fun is now feeling like a potential chore. I am not even sure I *can* run anymore anyway. Maybe I couldnt in the first place, I was hardly fast. I could go for 5km but it was slower than most people run for most of it, I got some speed up after the first 2km. I am a slow starter!

Since I had my surgery my enthusiasm for it has waned, it didnt help that for two weeks I could barely move around the house without feeling wiped out, but now its been 2 months and I am back to working out anyway so there is no reason not to get back out there. The weather is cooler already (whats with that?!!!) the air is warm but the humidity has eased back so its possible to do things again without feeling like you are in a sauna.

So frankly I am nervous of the results, of finding out that actually I am a pussy and cant do this anyway. So whats holding me back? It clears my head, its a great start to the day, the dog is waiting expectantly - hes a great running partner - my sneakers are looking at me. I should go and see how far I can get.....

August 2013

Its been a busy few weeks.
We had some friends stay from the UK, we hung out lots and went out for dinner at the fabulous Stayners Wharf and then wandered along the boardwalk.

When they sadly returned to the UK we had 2 days and then we went to PEI for the Natal Day long weekend with another family. It was great to be back there and I had a flashback to my youth when Ruby and I jumped into the pool in intense rain in our clothes. It was great to be so spontaneous and irresponsible - I had on my new glittery t-shirt (its survived), and the kids loved it! Its not often they witness me being a nut.

We ate out, we had fun, we ate BADLY and I mean really BADLY.
The mosquitos were BRUTAL. they were everywhere and they were feisty.

We drove back on the Monday into a thunder storm, always good fun to drive into the rain you can see in the distance.

Its taken me a long time to get back to any kind of form since my surgery and running has even been on the backburner. Thankfully, I have only gained 5 lbs but thats 5lbs in the wrong direction.

This week has been a return to health and exersize, Paul and I have joined the beachbody plan and our working our way through the Les Mills combat programme.
I will go back to running, just not right now, I am not feeling it.