What I found on my PHONE (not camera!)

I often use my camera phone (phone, not camera!  sheesh!!) to snap pictures, and then forget that they are on there!  So when I went looking for photos for the last post, I stumbled on some that should be shared!

1.  Derek giving Roxy a bath in a very small tub!  Still makes me giggle.

 2.  An item of clothing, normally worn by women for support, adorning a power pole at Attons last year.  Also made me giggle.

3.  My mom and some of her siblings, gathered to celebrate a couple of birthdays.  Sweethearts, all.

4.  My sweet perogie, playing peek-a-boo with auntie.  

This is how he sits in his highchair.  How I wish I was that flexible, though I question the hygiene around having one's feet so close to one's food, especially when one uses one's hand to eat and to play with said feet!

 

5.  Clem tying Derek's tie.  He was getting gussied up for a provincial hockey game.  He cleans up not too bad.

That's it for now.  What - two posts in one day isn't enough??? Sheesh!
Chandra

Lake life.

Hello again!  We're back, after an amazing holiday.  Clem and I haven't spent that much time together since our honeymoon, and it was wonderful.  It would have been nice to have Derek spend some time with us, too, but he was having too much fun with his friend (and his friend's dad's sea-doo!).  We have a camp site at Attons Lake for the summer (it's nice and close and we can run up there for a night or two if we get a chance) but we booked a spot at Brightsand Lake for ten days.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  It is really a beautiful lake, and the powers that be give campers the advantage of being close to the lake - the cabins near the public area are all back from the lake.  We had never been there, so I relied on the gal taking our reservation to pick us out a good spot.  She rocks!  We were right on the lake, just down from the public beach.  We couldn't have picked a better spot if we tried!  We were able to dock the boat just in front of our site, and the lovely breeze from the lake kept us cool in what turned out to be the hottest part of the summer so far.   Heavenly.



Every morning and every evening, we would walk over the boat and go for a little cruise.  Again, heavenly.
 

                                  





 

We tried taking Derek tubing, but our poor little craft doesn't quite have the gumption!
 
      

 He much preferred tubing with his friend!


 















We took advantage of the air-conditioned truck on a couple of very hot afternoons and found some interesting museums.  The old church in St.Walburg is now the museum, and we were lucky enough to arrive when there were three wonderful volunteer guides there.  They told great stories, and let us enjoy the displays.  Of course, the church is decorated with Imhoff paintings, and even though they are now weathered and darkened, they are still fabulous.

 

 Interesting sign!

After that, we checked out the Imhoff Gallery, a provincial heritage site.  It is just a couple miles out of St.Walburg, on Imhoff's original farm.  His grandson lives there now, and they rent out the land.  The grandson's wife runs the tours in the original studio.  We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but even the outside of the building is decorated.  Imhoff also did the paintings for the Holy Rosary church at Reward.

 

 

               This website has some good information, and a link to the gallery website.    

           Our camping neighbours had two cute little girls, and I couldn't resist snapping some shots of them playing in the sand.

 

 We spent a couple of days back at Attons, since it had rained at home and the farm and field work was on hold.  Luckily, Stephen and Adam had been holding down the fort, with help from our wonderful neighbours, the "Wright" people!  We are truly blessed!

                       

                           

 Since then I've been spending a lot of time in the garden, catching up with the weeds!  Everything really grew, and we already have peas, beans, beets, and potatoes.  So, so good.  That first pot of borscht was incredible yesterday!

Thanks for checking in!

Chandra

Sittin' pretty

Yep.  Feeling rather smug right now.  It's raining (which is nothing new this year), but my garden is weeded, the potatoes are partly hilled, the next batch of lettuce and peas is planted, and (most of) the grass is cut.  Not bad, eh?  Oh, and all the food prep for the lake is done - just a few groceries to pick up on the way.  I even made lemon syrup from the lemons that were ready to go bad, so we can have lemonade while we camp.  Oh, that reminds me - I should pack some vodka!

I had a bowl of strawberries and cream on Canada Day - my red and white contribution to the day.  They were the first from the garden.  It never ceases to amaze me how good they taste, and how much better they are than the ones from the store.  Even when you get some that you think taste really good - they're still not as good as home-grown.  But nothing is.  I can hardly wait for the tomatoes!

Everyone is well here.  The boys survived the grad weekend - I think Stephen partook of three such celebrations over the weekend.  Oh, to have that stamina again!  Adam had planned to attend at Kerrobert, but I think he ended up working.  Derek, in spite of what he believes, is still too young.  Besides, he was busily doing all the chores assigned to him so he could go to the lake with a friend's family for the weekend.  He had quite a good report card - I'm never sure how our boys pulled that off, given that I always found unfinished homework assignments in their rooms during the summer.   They must be good at taking exams.

Clem has been busy trying to get the summerfallow covered in between rains, not an easy task.   Stephen will take over the tractor duties for a few days while we are gone, until he has to head back north.  Hopefully Adam can be tagged for the next week, plus we have really good neighbours to fill in.  We've never gone away for such an extended period of time - could be interesting! We've had a busy June, though, so it will be nice to get away from it all for a while.

My uncle Carl is celebrating his 90th birthday this month.  Amazing.  They live in Prince George and his family was going to put on a big party for him, but he said all he wanted for his birthday was to go to Saskatchewan for a visit.  Isn't that nice?  So when they were here, we put on a big party!  Some of his family were able to attend, and we had about 60 family members there.  It was a grand time, as it always is.  I called it the qualifying event for the 2013 Schan Olympics.  Everyone did quite well, I think, so the big event itself should be a blast next year!!  Here are a few photos.

This little cutie patootie was checking out her cousin so she could try to sing along!  Too cute!

These guys look like they are going to fight, but they were just chatting!

Aw.  My favourite little man, enjoying his dad's music.  What a dancer!

Derek's foot is half as long as the perogie is tall!!

 Love this shot.

The skies have been incredible this year.   I'm glad we haven't had the worst of the storms, though!

That's it for now, folks.   Thanks for stopping by!
Chandra