the Performers

This is my first attempt at uploading a home video or any other kind for that matter. This one harks back to the silent movies because the photographer didn't turn on the sound recorder. These performers make a lot of noise but not much in the way of lovely tunes - they need more practice.

Bright Spots

Do you think you could see these guys in the bush on a snowy day?

This particular style is for the avid hunters or parking lot attendants. Especially made by Opa Z.

The three in this picture are "models" - only one is a hunter. Two of the toques are for his friends.

Fall Colors

These pictures give an idea of how the fall colors are on display right now or have been in the last week.

The yellow leafed trees are our apple trees today. The top one is taken through the kitchen window.













The small red tree is a Amur Maple that belongs to the neighbor across the street. The dark red one is our Chokecherry tree. The Amur Maple has lost most of its leaves now.

The arrival of fall is a week or two late this season - many times most of the leaves are on the ground by mid October.

Quiz

Is there anything about this picture that reminds you of Polk Blvd. in Des Moines?

Be sure to make the picture as large as possible.

"Aliens" and Serious Work

The other evening we were invaded by some "strange" characters. This is a "macho" form of dress-up particularly for boys.







After all the equipment was tried out the serious work began - however, you see it is hard to work in all that equipment so the worker is down to the bare essentials.

Tid Bits

We traveled 5000 or more kilometers, spent two days in the forest and picnicked in various wooded places without any encounters with "bad bugs". I get home last evening and today I sit at my computer in our study and get a tick crawling up my shoulder right out of my reach so had to get H. to pick it off.

Activities in late June

" Abby stinks" T. said when he passed the dog in the back landing. That was the "sign" to Opa that the dog needed a bath according to T. So lots of doggie shampoo to sweeten her up; then the rinsing and finally the towel drying and the big shake that I didn't get the picture of. Sorry got the drying photo on here twice.



























Unexpectedly one day I noticed a big puddle of water coming out from under the washer and dryer so thought that the washer was leaking. It turned out that the water was coming in under the basement wall behind the washer. So my H. had to take down the paneling and try to seal up the seam where the walls meet the floor. The water was actually coming from a leaky faucet on the out side of the house - so that part was remedied with a new washer in the faucet.

Pine Bluff - Pebble Beach Lake

We really love having a home on Pebble Beach - it is such a famous location. This is our lake side dwelling on this very rainy Friday, June 6th.

In the top picture you see the car that decided not to try passing through the deep waters. The driver stopped right where you see the car backed up turned into our driveway and turned around to go back the way he/she had come from.

In the 3rd. picture you see the lake from south to north on the Pebble Beach Rd. it extends from our driveway at the back edge of the house to the drive of the house across the street from us - about one block.

The 4th. picture shows the length of the lake east to west from the curb (grassy area) at the bottom of the picture to the driveway of our next door neighbor - the lots are 60 feet wide plus about 14 feet from our lot line to the street and the width of the street.

5th. picture is a brave soul testing out the depth of the lake - the water comes to the top of his boots - when he told me he was going to wade out there I thought he was going to put on his swim trunks and go barefoot - I thought it was a bit cool for that. (We used to take our kids out to swim in this lake when they were smaller and it formed on a hot day.)

Last - most vehicles go right on through like this truck. It was fun to watch a little Smartcar driving through.

This lake has been here since early morning - it is 1pm. now and the city workers are out there now trying to figure out how to get it to drain. It continues to rain.

First Week of June 2008

The top and bottom pictures are of two of our four apple trees while in bloom last Sun. evening.

Then you see some of the first tulips to bloom on the east side of the house.

Next the lovely lowly chives that come up year after year near the back door.

One of my projects this week was to paint the enclosure for the air conditioner.

Abby enjoying a sunny afternoon - all the white dots on the lawn are the apple blossom petals.

Tid Bits

It is high time for a new post. I am feeling a little like spring today as it is lovely out.

These orchids are native to Manitoba along with many others. We were quite surprised about how many native orchids can be found in our Provence. We didn't see any of the others at the orchid show that we know of. The grower of these said that they are quite hard to grow in pots and force to bloom for the right time of the show.

Another person who was promoting the MB search for orchids had a big chart of pictures of the various types that can be found in MB. Hikes are sponsored by this group to go looking for the orchids - you need to be a member.

I thought on such a nice day I should clean my oven - for some reason the self-clean program doesn't want to work so I just cleaned up the worst part with a wet cloth and scrubbed the racks. Forget the "self-clean" - blah!

Not much is growing in my garden yet as it has been far too cool so far. No daffodils or tulips or apple blossoms yet.

Treasures

" Lay up treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves break through and steal."

My husband was cleaning up this week and found five of these old coins. The 1886 one is the oldest and the youngest is a 1918. In the top picture you see the face and the rear of the coin.
In the second picture you see the coins compared to a modern Canadian $1 and a penny.

The old coins are Pennies. On one side it says ONE PENNY and the date; on the other side it says "VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP
Does anyone have an idea what country these belong to?
H. doesn't know how he got them unless he found them in an old piece of furniture that he recovered.

Global Warming - What A Laugh

People often don't believe we go out in this cold weather. Here is how I get ready to go.
First layer - nylon stockings and longjohns.


Layer 2- cotton socks and sweat pants.










Layer 3 - wool socks and nylon wind pants.












Up top; layer 1- t-shirt (not visible)
layer 2 - heavy hooded sweat shirt.
This attempt at a self portrate is a little fuzzy.













Final layer - hooded parka, boots, mitts & hand warmers ( the green blobs in the cuffs of the mitts). If the wind is really bad I can tighten up the parka hood until it is fairly snug around my face.










Last picture is how I looked after being out on foot for some errands. I was gone about 40 minutes. The temp. was about -28c with some NW wind blowing. I don't know what the wind chill temp. registered at.

More Folks I Know

At the top we have T. eating the finished product ( except the photographer didn't aim well). then a view of the Ultimate Chippers. Third is T. helping R. make cookies.

The two little girls in the bottom two pictures helped to entertain us at our breakfast date in NE.

Helper

This is Oma's helper. Vacuuming is hard work you know. Inspecting the slot in the tubing where it is so nice to stick the dirt in and see it get sucked up. After doing that in the hall way we went to the living room where he found dead blooms from the house plants to stick in the slot to be sucked up.

Tid Bits

I think my fan club is asleep. The only comment on my last two postings is something I don't understand., Ha! It is in Spanish or Portugese.

I am currently without pictures because some of us fiddled around with the computer so long that we "lost" the access to the pictures. Mr. Fixit hasn't taken time to "find" it yet. We got a new camera but also have to learn how to transfer the pictures from it to the computer.

Today was largely taken up with getting the annual letter and family picture out. It is rather pleasant outside and I had a walk to the shopping center to buy stamps and mail the letters.