July, where it went.....

Where did July go? Its been a busy, hot month.
First of all we lost both of our trees outside in Arthur. That was pretty depressing but I know that unlike many other people, two trees and a power outage that only lasted for the day was lucky.
Half of one came down by 8am and had to have the remained taken down by our neighbour and his chainsaw. The other had a slow split down the middle but was too tall for us to remove as it would have taken out the power lines, so we bandaged it up for two days until someone could deal with it for us.

We have had many pool days:

and a beach day (just one, I cant believe I have only had one)

We went to a wedding in the Valley:

 and Chloe got her hair cut, shes donating her hair to locks of love, so that children that dont have hair due to illness can have hers:

Right now its Natal Day weekend so we have three days off which is great as we have lots planned, mostly including doing very little.
On Tuesday I start a new job, I am tres happy!

well hello summer!

Well it kind of landed on us overnight, here and loud.

I cant move in the house without feeling like I am wrapped in a warm damp blanket the humidity is so high.
Yesterday it took three attempts, with FB and a cold drink interspersed, just to put all the laundry away upstairs. Granted, there was a lot. Just about every garment we all owned required hanging or being placed in drawers and it was just SO hot.

I am not complaining of course, far from it. I get to lie by the pool and listen to the sweet sound of childrens laughter as they spend all day in it. Thank God for it.
Honestly, for 9 months of the year there is absolutely no point at all in having a pool. I look at it through slanty eyes thinking about how silly it is to have it and then bam, summer is here and its insanely hot and energy sapping humid and suddenly our home is THE place to be as all our friends come round to hang out in it.

And then its worth it, its a centre point in our lives, its the place to hang and chill and its worth every cent of chemicals in it to have.

Its super warm today as we have the first Hurricane of the 2014 Hurricane season advancing up the Eastern seaboard. Hurricane Arthur is expected to make an appearance tomorrow as a tropical storm.

We have made plans for a wet and windy weekend that involves all the essentials - beer, wine and propane for the BBQ and in addition we have decorating of the hallway planned out and some cushion making and pinterest activity. I see some rather scrumptious soft furnishings in my future.

some rejuvenation

I just had the BEST 5 days off, it was  a little hectic as we had more guests arrive on top of our resident guest, and with a service dog - 3 year old huge and a little overwhelming Dexter.... but it was great. It was hanging with best friends time, it was family time and condo planning time and dog hair time. There was an overflow of dog hair in the house.

We bbq'd, we hung out on the day of torrential rain that sounded so loud outside, we blew away the cobwebs on the following hot days, we drank too much wine, we swam in the pool. It rocked....

It was 5 days of rejuvenation with the important people in my life, in the most important place called HOME and I even finished my first ever painting furniture project... It turned out very well and I require photos to post on here.

We also made these little apples for the teaches for the girls last day of school. Its messages in their handwriting stitched on:

Happiness is home time in a NS summer.....

in summary

Its the first really hot hot hot day of the year and the girls are in the pool for the first time this season and it struck me that my children are going to grow up in a completely different world to the one I grew up in, in the 1980's in the UK. Some things are similiar, some far from it.

Very different:

• They have a pool, for them its normal to be able to go and hang out in the pool in the summer.
• They ski in the winter, theres a ski resort up the road, granted its no Whistler but it has runs and chair lifts and snow and its an all singing, all dancing ski resort.
• They have a basement that everyone watches warily when theres a monsoon outside and theres often someone in the subdivision that fell victim to basement flooding.
• They live in a subdivision in a community. We had villages, towns and cities.
• They swim in beautiful lakes off of lifeguard watched beaches with jetskis and speedboats destroying the peace from time to time.
• They live in a large detached house with a separate family room. Only my richest of rich friends as a child has a separate family room and they ended up going to Roedean School for Girls.
• They have Z's where we had S's - eg: finalize
• Z is spelt Zee and not Zed, water is warder, not warter
• They travel to school on a yellow school bus wearing non school uniform every day.
• They can travel to the US of A in a car, watching movies on an Ipad and stopping for a drivethrough slushie.
• Walmart is a normal part of life.....
• BBQs are an everyday feature, even in the winter.
• Ticks are a part of summer, as are mosquitos, blackfly and the wham bam of the screen door.
• White Christmas is a given, along with the cutting down of the perfect family Christmas tree from the Christmas tree lot. 

Somewhat similiar:

• There is also a local outdoor summer pool where they have swimming lessons in the community. When I was 8 I swam in an unheated outdoor pool at school and got changed, shivering, in a little wooden changing hut. Bingo on the outdoor pool, the hut and the  unheated pool bit.
• We have dogs, I had dogs as a child, dog hair is a fact of life in this house.
• They swim in the sea and the water is clear and the ambience peaceful, as children we would sometimes have to brave the brown cold water off of Brighton with its pebble beach, or if we were lucky Devon or some such beautiful spot.
• They live in a world where rust exists on cars. That was perfectly normal on a 1982 Ford escort.
• They play outside until the street lights come on. We did that too, even in Brighton

In summary they seem to have the best of my childhood in the best of today (sans ticks!). I couldnt have wished for more, for them.

June? what really? so wheres the heat?

I am here at work, making my way through a homemade Greek salad and contemplating my very sore muscles from Saturday mornings combat 30 workout and listening to chilled out "driving though the Keys" music. Its cool outside, way too cool for my June liking actually. Its been rather blissful but its gone back to shit today weather wise and its put me in a rather bad mood.

In fact its been two rainy Saturdays in a row which lined up reasonably well with plans to go to the cinema. We haven't been to the cinema this much in the three years we have been here but there is an abundance of good childrens, adults can cope with , movies out this summer.

Last weekend we went to see Maleficent and it was all of the Disney magic that I love. It was also an excellent way to spend a rainy afternoon. This weekend we went, again on Saturday, again in the rain (pppfffttt!) and watched How to Train your Dragon 2 - uber sweet and now we all want a glow in the dark real Night Fury called Toothless for Christmas.

Trailers showed previews of A Dolphin Tale 2 which is coming out in September ( a must see!!!!) and Planes - Fire and Rescue, due out on July 10th, its on the list cant wait etc etc

SO..... now we are officially enjoying spending vast sums at Empire Theatres and STILL waiting for the real heat to show up. I am tempted to move South, like now. I am starting to think that this summer will not show up and before we know it we will have slide straight into November without realizing that the waiting is now in vain.

I am wanting to get back to the beach, feel the sand on my toes, dip in and out of the warm ocean and watch the shadows change across the sand as we waste the day away breathing in the sea air and listening to the sound of water lapping..........

what I have been up to

I am feeling really behind on my blog life. I have logged in and read others but not posted but heres a little snippet into my life lately:

1. Bootcamp
I joined a bootcamp and tonight will be my 4th session. I am really hugely loving this. I am not sure if its because actually I am fit enough to cope and so I can actually enjoy pushing myself instead of it being torture or if its because I have finally found my thang. Its like being back in pony club minus the unco-operative, highly excitable crazy ponies.
Its a team spirit and its personal too. When we are running shuttle runs I can be in my own world whilst being aware of my "team mates" around me. I love the fact that its variable impact, so those bursts of high impact are an adrenalin buzz and easier than pushing through a long run.

The other night we were running through the trails and I could just see myself in the silence of the lambs and about to be stopped by an FBI guy, coming to give me the message to come and see some highbrow investigator who wants me for his team.....

2. Mothers Day
Yesterday was Canadian Mothers Day and it was rather lovely. It was conveniently part of a weekend of late nights and quiet relaxed early mornings. I am also rather fortunate that my two adorable girls are older now and less demanding, so they do what they want to (play with Monster high or make up some world with safari animals, or log on and feed their moshi monster, or go next door to their little friend, or tear up the neighbourhood on their bikes) and so it was a quiet peaceful couple of mornings, with me and Love it or List it Vancouver and a coffee.

So I decided to go to visit Peggys Cove with a couple of my friends who are mothers but we went sans children. This is because whilst I so very much love it there, in my mind its so much more enjoyable when you aren't having to watch your small adventurer like a hawk as they insist on going into the black rocks "death zone"

We got there about 1.30pm and lay on the rocks for a couple of hours and watch the waves crash and pound and the sunlight sparkle on the water. It went from warm yet misty to warm and sunny and the sound of the waves was sublime. We also whiled away the time watching some numpties climb around in the areas clearly marked as highly dangerous...  idiots. I wasn't terribly keen on being witness to their demise as they were dragged out by the undertow, should they be caught out.

We got back around 5pm to a hearty meal and a new log pile where Paul and pals had dragged the 4 cord that had been residing on the drive since the mid week into a tidy and effective log pile, all next winters heat stacked and waiting.

Had a bit of a result at the weekend too, was walking the dogs past a neighbours house just as they were taking down their pool and in short, we are now the proud owners of their solar heating system - I see potentially 6 weeks more pool time this year!

girls birthday weekend

The girls had their birthday sleepovers this weekend. Their birthdays are not actually on the same weekend but we decided to go through this particular pain on the same weekend due to Easter. We are coming to the end of the second sleepover and in exactly 2 hours and 8 minutes our final overnight guests will have gone safely home and hopefully peace will descend on this party house.

From the point of view of effort involved, this has been low maintenance. Pizza, chicken nuggets (homemade of course) and fries and a cupcake cake and a movie for both on both nights followed by hot cinammon rolls for breakfast and some PJs and thats all that was required.

Its been fun.
Weather update - I think mother nature is having some sort of emotional crisis, and its still cold and it snowed in the week - WTH!