Canadian winter!

I can't remember having this much snow for years. It's piled high along the sides of the driveway. I have been getting an excellent workout shovelling the stuff - not only in our drive, but also neighbours' drives. The temperature has remained between about minus 9 and minus 18 Celsius, with promises from the weather people that it's going to get colder.

Thankfully I didn't have to drive anywhere yesterday. I was very pleased that I had done my Yule shopping the day before. The grader didn't make it up our road at all, but I hope they have cleared it overnight or tomorrow's trip to the grocery store and the library will be less than pleasant.

Snow is beautiful to look at and to play in, but no fun to drive on (unless you like sliding sideways or spinning your tires). (There's a road in that photo above - somewhere.)

The kids had a great time - I finally managed to convince them that they really needed to wear their snowpants, and they sat in it, jumped in it, made "thrones" in the snowbanks, and played with the sleds.

It's snow-shovelling season

The snow fell yesterday and continued to fall today. Of course, that means the driveway has to be cleared so we can get in and out - it has quite a slope to it.

However, it wasn't just our driveway that needed to be cleared. We're "housesitting" for some neighbours. The kids are responsible for taking in their mail and newspapers every day, and every few days I will be going in to check that all is well inside the house. If the snow builds up on their drive, then the place looks unoccupied.

The two younger boys and I went over there yesterday and cleared their drive. Then we did ours. Then we did the neighbour's across the road (she is 7 months pregnant and her husband is out at work all day) and the boys received a bonus in the form of a paper bag full of candy canes! We were just about to go inside for hot chocolate when another neighbour called us over and asked if we could clear her drive too. The boys received $10 from her.

We had a good workout, some fresh air, some neighbourly chatting, and some excellent hot chocolate when we came back inside.

The snow hasn't stopped, so the shovelling has to be done once or twice a day. Thankfully it has been the light powdery stuff today. The temperature has dropped to minus 10 Celsius this evening and it's expected to be way colder than that the next few days. This is the view from my back deck. The pile of snow on the railing is our depth marker for snowfall - it was about 6 inches high earlier today - probably more like 8 by now.

Thoughts on knitting and gift-giving

I think we're due for a miscellaneous update tonight!

Let's see, what's been happening. Well, I ripped out the red and pink yoga sock-in-progress last week because I didn't like the puckering that was happening with the checkered pattern. Yesterday I started again and I've nearly finished one yoga sock. It's red with pink stripes on the first section, then after the gap for the heel I've made a rather cute stranded pattern which I wish I had thought of at the beginning! I don't know whether to make the second sock the same, or go for something different just to be contrary. I'll wait to photograph it when it's done, so I don't jinx it and then have to rip it out.

The Denise needles are very comfortable on the hands compared to the aluminum needles - maybe that's why the vest is not progressing very fast. I seem to be deliberately distracting myself from it. Still, there's no deadline, so it doesn't matter.

Did you know the Winter Knitty is out? I haven't had a proper look at it yet but I always love something in it (and the patterns are FREE). I think this has to be the wonderfullest (!) photo in the world...

it's a Tushy Cushy - yes a cushion in the shape of a derriere. But it's the baby that makes this photo so darned appealing.

To change the subject yet again, I made a rough meal plan for December. I generally have a plan for all the dinners for the week, then make my shopping list from a master list of all the foods I usually buy. For December, Lego Nut decided he was going to make the meal plan for Yule week (from the 18th on). He went through a vegan cookbook from the library and wrote out his plan. It's way more detailed than my plan for the rest of the month, but we're going to be having extra desserts and mince pies and our Solstice dinner that week, so it's worth thinking ahead.

At the weekend, I did my weekly shop, but I doubled or tripled the non-perishables in the hope that they'll last until the end of the month. I don't want to be fighting the crowds as it gets closer to Christmas (and listening to all those tacky Christmas songs) so if I can stock up on everything except the produce then that works for me!

When I look in my kitchen pantry, my refrigerator and even my cold storeroom in the basement (which is holding the overflow) I feel so blessed that we can afford this abundance. I thanked Tai Chi Man for earning the money that allows us to buy all this wonderful food. We're not extravagant .... we don't entertain at this time of year or go out to parties .... we don't buy alcohol .... we go out to eat once a month at most .... our Yule meal will just be something simple for the five of us .... and our gifts to each other will be inexpensive .... but we buy and eat good quality food and consider ourselves fortunate to be able to support our health in this way.

And finally:
I made a gift for a friend today and it made me think about sharing my philosophy of gift-giving. In a free magazine that I brought home from the health food store this week, I found a recipe for spiced roasted almonds. I made a double batch, knowing that I would want to eat some myself! I filled a jar with some of the almonds and put a cloth square over the top of it to pretty it up a bit. I made a pomander out of an orange, sticking cloves into it, making a hanger out of some i-cord (from my knitting mill), and tying some cinnamon sticks and a pine sprig on top. I wrote out a coupon offering my friend a free computer-help session (she usually insists on paying me for my time, so that coupon is worth about $20 to her). This bundle of gifts from me to her took a little of my time and very little money, but I know she will appreciate it.

I want to encourage more people to think simple for their gift-giving each Christmas. Why get stressed and in debt every December when you could step back from the pressure and think of things that people will like that might only cost you some time - like hand-made coupons for things you can do for them in the coming year?

Having those almonds already made today had a side benefit. A neighbour called at the door to say Happy Christmas and have a chat and he offered us some of his apples from this year's harvest. When I went around to his house to collect them, I took a jar of almonds as a Thank You - great timing, eh!

Pajamas and logging trucks

As usual, today was a busy day. Mondays are for vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, watering the houseplants, yada yada yada. I think I crossed most items off my to-do list, including this one...sewing Lego Nut some new pajama bottoms.


He had worn a pair of his pajamas through at the knee yet again, leaving him with only one decent pair. So I visited Fabricland yesterday and bought two metres of flannelette. I had asked him for colour preferences before I went - he said blue or black, so this is what he ended up with - a sort of blue on blue check.

I cut the old pajama bottoms up - along the crotch seam and up the inner leg seams, removing the waist elastic and bottom cuff - so that I had a piece I could use for a pattern. I folded the new fabric into four, then cut around the old pajama piece, allowing extra for seams and hems. I have made many pairs of pajamas for the kids when they were smaller, so it didn't take me long to do the sewing. A piece of elastic around the waist and he had two new pairs.

Any more growing and I won't be able to get two pairs of jammy bottoms out of only two metres!

He doesn't wear the tops. They always last longer than the bottoms anyway, but usually they stay in the closet. He'd rather hang about the house with a polar fleece blanket wrapped around him! Today he didn't get dressed at all, but I did insist on him putting on a t-shirt for dinner.


Tai Chi Man drove 400 kilometres today. He had to go further than usual for work and took a new route that he hasn't used before. With the traffic stoppages down in Summerland (they are blasting rock out to widen the road and there are regular AND additional unscheduled road closures) many people have been trying to find alternative routes. Looking at the map, there seemed to be a reasonable road to get him where he wanted to be. It started out OK, but then became a Forest Service Road, which is unpaved, and then things became snowy and icy and steep. It was a bit of a white-knuckle ride for him in the work van, but he made it home safely.

Unfortunately the driver of this logging truck wasn't so lucky. It obviously skidded and overturned (photo taken through Tai Chi Man's windshield). Luckily it didn't completely block the road so traffic could squeeze around it. I hope the driver is OK.

It's nice that after such a long driving day, Tai Chi Man has the next two days off. It's his birthday tomorrow and the family is going out for dinner, and the day after that is our 21st wedding anniversary. He keeps saying he's due for parole!

Kettles and kids

Canadian Tire has this kettle on sale for half price this week. We decided to take advantage of the deal, which was advertised in their flyer, as our existing kettle had a damaged lid and had started leaking around the spout. Tai Chi Man had done a repair on it, but this half-price deal seemed to be a well-timed hint that it was time to get a new one.

It has a feature that I like and hope works well....you can set the temperature that you want it to heat the water to. So it's not 100 Celsius or nothing. You can heat it to anywhere between 30 and 100, which is great for things like hot water bottles which can't take boiling water. And we like our hot water bottles!

Talking of boiling water, something happened earlier in the week which I've been meaning to tell you about. I went out to have my hair cut around lunchtime the other day. Before I went out, Ninja Boy put a pan on the stove to boil water for cooking pasta. I left the kids to their own devices and walked up to the salon (yes, nice and close, it's handy having a little shopping centre within a few minutes of our house) and then I walked the "long way home" giving myself a bit of exercise in the process.

When I walked in the door, I was informed that Ninja Boy had attempted to "burn the house down". Ah yes, good news, just the sort of thing I want to hear when I get in!

Turns out he had turned the hotplate to maximum to heat the water, then gone downstairs to watch what Lego Nut was doing on the computer. He promptly forgot that he was making his lunch and even (this is what blows my mind) started on his own computer time once his brother had finished. The oldest went upstairs for a drink of water and discovered a very hot dry pan and a very hot stove. The element had been on for, what, an hour and a half, and nobody had been aware of it all that time. Thankfully nothing was sufficiently close to the heat source to catch fire. And the pan survived.

The vision of fire trucks parked outside my house putting out a fire is not one that I want to see come true.

Good morning

Did anyone else have trouble with Bloglines this morning? I clicked on it as usual, and some of my regular blogs were highlighted, as if there were new posts. However the numbers said 121, or 200, or 43 and when I clicked on them they were all old posts. Bizarre!

I had a good start to my day. I dragged my butt out of bed extra early and drove through the stormy windy wet weather to the rec centre for a yoga class. An hour of me-time - yeah - and very relaxing and invigorating it was too. I doubt it will become a regular event - I can save myself the $9 and the gas and do it at home. Sometimes, though, it's nice to take a class to make sure that you're doing the asanas properly.

I will be going to the gym for weight-training and another yoga class at the Y with a friend next week, so that'll be more of a social event. Have to keep up the fitness while I'm playing hooky from Taekwon-do.

Knitting, buses and studs

Funny how sometimes I can go for days without posting and then other times I can post two or three times in one day.

I was going to photograph the progress on the vest earlier but couldn't find a clean sunny spot to do it and then I realised I had to run off to the bus.

Buses (waiting for them and riding on them) make excellent knitting opportunities. This morning I had to drag myself out of my warm bed to take the car to the tire place to get winter tires put on. It's getting harder and harder to find any tires for our Ford Festiva - it takes 12 inch ones and most cars are now 13 inch or bigger.

As I didn't have an appointment, they said to drop it in and leave it for the day. Assuming that they would get around to my car late in the day, I walked downtown (about 40 minutes - I could have taken a bus but it was a nice day and the exercise was good). I was early for the bus so sat on a bench waiting - and knitting. Two teenage girls sat down next to me and after a short pause, one said, "Is knitting hard?" Kudos to her for knowing I was knitting, and being interested! I told her no, it's easy, well, after the initial learning part, which doesn't take long.

Waiting is SO much nicer when there is knitting in your hands. I have now decreased for the armholes - started out with 98 stitches at 5 stitches to the inch - knitted 14 inches - decreased 9 stitches each side for the armholes - and now that I'm down to 80 stitches per row (which isn't a whole lot less really) I feel like I'm moving on much faster.

The funny thing is that I arrived home at about 11.10am to find a message on my answering machine from the tire shop - my tires were switched and the car was ready for pickup! I could have run off to the bus straight away to go back into town, but I stayed home, ate lunch and did the housework first. Mid-afternoon, I caught a bus, my husband picked me up at the station and drove me to the tire place.

Be envious - I now have STUDS on my tires. They don't look anything like THESE studs though - shame!

Dr House (and some other less important things)

I found out something amazing yesterday. When I actually pick up my sock and knit on it, it grows quite fast! I am almost as far as the heel flap on the second sock. Obviously I don't knit socks as fast as Torrance. This crazy lady made four pairs of socks in five days. Wow!

This week's DVD watching has been season 4 of Corner Gas. This is a great little comedy set in a little town in Saskatchewan, Canada. After all the episodes of House MD and various British murder mysteries, it is a refreshing change - no dead bodies, at least! (I can't believe I just googled House MD and it came up on Wikipedia!)

Talking about House, here's a little bit of Hugh for you...Ahem...attention, please. Thank you.

Anyway, what was I saying. Oh yes, this evening was another sweaty session at Taekwon-do. We didn't go at all last week. Today I was vacillating about going, feeling lazy, not wanting to go out on a cold dark night, but as usual Ninja Boy and I made the effort and really enjoyed it. Ninja Boy finally received his new instructor-type dobok (uniform) which has a black edging to the jacket. The club recently switched from ICTF to ITF affiliation (International Chang Hon Taekwon-do Federation to International Taekwon-do Federation) which means everyone's doboks have the wrong logo on them and have to be changed. However Ninja Boy's new one is the new style and it fits him perfectly - I don't have to shorten the arms or legs.

In theory, I should buy an ITF dobok, but am reluctant to do so at the moment. We still haven't received our embroidered belts and certificates, even though we passed our test at the end of April. I am reluctant to pay out more money until I have received the outstanding items, and have told the senior instructor so.

The class tonight was a "conditioning" one, which translated means "I'm gonna make you sweat and get you fit whatever it takes". Lots of jab punches, dizzying combinations of kicks, push-ups, sit-ups, stretches. I feel great - when it's over! I told the instructor that he should be my personal trainer and make me do that sort of workout every other day, because I certainly don't make that amount of effort at home!

Maybe if I sent the kids to school and hired a maid, I'd have enough time in my day for everything I'd rather be doing. Just kidding ;o)

Knitting stalled...stop...life getting in way...stop

A quick telegram - er, I mean blog post - to say the baby blanket has not grown at all the last two days.

Monday is usually my housework day. I did the bathrooms but the vacuuming was put aside so I could start blitzing the kitchen. Dusted the tops of the wall units - yuk, don't do that job too often, the dust was flying everywhere! Started tidying and cleaning drawers and cupboards. Still lots to do on that.

The joy of cleaning was interrupted by a visit to the dentist - we were collecting a nightguard for Computer Geek (so he can't grind his teeth in his sleep).

And Ninja Boy and I had a Taekwondo class in the evening. So the knitting was neglected.

I did get to the vacuuming today. I also had a haircut this morning and a visit from a friend this afternoon (we traded fruit - she brought prune plums and took peaches home).

At 4.30pm, Ninja Boy and I were to be found at the Taekwondo dojang again. The instructor had asked us to help out with the kids white belt class as there were some new students and he would appreciate the extra instructors. There was a good instructor/student ratio in that class - four black belts and six white belt kids. After that class, there was another for kids with a bit more experience, so we stayed to help out at that one too. And THEN we trained in the mixed family class - all ages and belt levels. And that's not all - we stayed on for a fourth hour and participated in the boxing/kickboxing class. It was a mighty relief to get home and have a shower and something to eat!

I shall have to drag myself off this computer soon if I am to knit a few rows before bed - so no Bookworm for me tonight.

Friday update

I've just realised I haven't posted since Monday. Sorry to make you wait so long! When I started this blog, I was posting nearly every day - now, I find I'm spending less time on the computer, sometimes only using it in the evening rather than morning and evening.

I was "on the go" all day today, except for a small window of opportunity for half an hour before Taekwondo, when I picked up my knitting and did a few rows. We don't usually go to TKD on a Friday, but the September schedule has started and there are lots of new classes. Apart from our main classes, which are for red and black belts on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7.30, we now have lots of other choices to make. Do we go to an extra sparring class? A self defence class? A kickboxing class? The young man who's running the club these days is very motivated and an excellent teacher and is committed to four hours a night, five nights a week, at the dojang - in addition to his full-time day job.

I decided to freeze some of the tomatoes that we bought last weekend. I used 12 wide-mouth Mason jars, just washing them and pouring in the tomatoes that I had chopped up in the food processor. I did this last year and used them instead of canned and they tasted way better in recipes. We still have a pile of them left on the kitchen counter, but they are keeping well and we are doing our best to eat some at every meal!

I now have three trays of peaches in the cold store room. During the last week, I have been going down to the peach tree every other day and checking every single peach for a bit of "give". If it seems a little soft, I pick it. The first batch still looks good and I am hoping that they will store for long enough that I can enjoy eating some of them without actually having to live on them for a week. I don't want to freeze or can them - my freezer is full enough already.

Don't tell my kids but I have simplified my bread recipe down to the absolute basics. Tonight's pizza dough was just spelt flour, salt and yeast. I cut out the sugar, the kids haven't noticed, and the dough still rises, so that's great!


I finished the knitting part of my Brea Bag and found a boring black handbag at the thrift store for $2 which has a boring handle I can cut off and use for my Brea. If I find something better later on, I can always switch it. Really, I think I should have just continued knitting the gusset strip in the moss stitch until it was long enough to make a handle, as a knitted matching handle would be much nicer. I played with the kids' Sculpey today and made some buttons. Not sure which one I'll use, but one of them should work for my bag. (The thing with fangs and the stick-man-type character on the left belong to Ninja Boy, not me!)



And my latest project: a baby blanket. On Wednesday night, my Taekwondo instructor revealed that his girlfriend is expecting in January. Very exciting news....so what does a knitter do at the first sign of a new baby on the way? Yes, of course, I went to buy more Lion Brand Homespun the very next day in a lovely shade of blue (I don't know if the baby is a boy or girl, but the blue was the nicest colour). I have knitted about 6 inches of the blanket so far. The photo doesn't really show it well, but there are three big cables and a garter stitch border. I made up the pattern. Two strands of yarn, #15 needles (that's 10mm I think), and 2 stitches to the inch.


I think we're all caught up. Back soon!

Keremeos

We managed to get ourselves (minus Computer Geek as usual) out of the house by 10.30am today so that we could head south for a day out.


Tai Chi Man was driving of course, so I made good progress on my Brea bag. By the end of the driving time, I was more than half way through the gusset piece. Just have to find a handle and button for it now - maybe at a thrift store.

We found a fruit stand that was selling 30lbs of tomatoes for $10 - so we bought three boxes! Last year, we used our food processor to chop up a similar load of tomatoes and freeze them in glass mason jars; they tasted way better than canned. At the same fruit stand today we bought some Russian Red garlic (huge heads), two eggplants (aubergines), a giant zucchini (courgette) which was really more of a marrow and a bag of bell peppers.


We then drove through Keremeos (a very small place) and driving around the back roads we found a lovely park - trees, grass, playground - where we relaxed for a while.


The weather was perfect: it was warm in the sun, cool in the shade. Tai Chi Man proved his nickname fits by doing a little Tai Chi! The boys loved the playground.

And I played around with the camera and learned a new function on it - the close-up one! (above - ponderosa pine bark and mushrooms)


We found this little wooden bridge. They call it a covered bridge - well, the sides are covered but the top isn't. Apparently it used to be a railway bridge. Now it's part of a road and cars drive over it.


We stopped at the Grist Mill on the way out of town, hoping to get a cup of tea, and discovered that we could walk around it but there was no one running it. The gardens are being maintained but the museum-type displays and the tour that we so enjoyed last year aren't happening this year.

We stopped at another little town which was on our way back home and has a thriving bakery/coffee shop. The boys had Orangina, we had tea and I bought a couple of baguettes.

It was obvious what was going to be for dinner...


ratatouille. A mixture of eggplant, onions, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, oregano, salt. Served with home-grown spuds (potatoes), salad and the baguettes. A nice way to wrap up the day.

New knitting to report

I love how this first side of the Brea Bag is looking. I found this while I was browsing the 'net the other day looking for inspiration.

I was actually thinking of knitting a backpack-style bag, but when I saw this, I was hooked.

I found some Bernat Satin at Michaels in "Wine Mist" to substitute for the angora. I'm using two strands of yarn held together with #9 needles, as per the pattern. This yarn has quite a "woolly" look to it, which was particularly noticeable when I was finishing off this section of the bag at the beach today.

That segues very neatly into the following photos. It was a fairly warm day, but there was a lot of cloud and we had a couple of showers during the afternoon. After visiting a teashop with our friend, we weren't daunted by the weather and took the plunge.

The water was ICY cold. J and I went in and were out again quickly, but the boys were in and out as if they were polar bears.


They enjoyed the home-made popcorn that I'd brought - funny how being outside seems to give you an appetite.


The water was really clear.

There are two diving boards, a zipline and a knotted rope to make getting into the water faster... and more fun!


More showers and some sunshine this evening resulted in a rainbow plus it's reflection (look carefully to the right and you will see a reversed rainbow).

Signs of autumn

I really know that summer is drawing to a close when certain changes start occurring around here. I'm not talking about leaves changing colour. I mean...

...craving hot soup instead of salad
...slipping on my hand-knitted socks instead of going around in bare feet
...putting on a hoodie in the mornings and evenings and looking forward to pulling out the heavy duty stuff - knitted sweaters and shawls
...laying extra quilts on the beds
...awaiting (with a small amount of dread) the email from Self Design telling me I have to get the boys' learning plans written
...enjoying exercising because it warms me up
...choosing jeans instead of skirts or capri pants
...pulling out a blanket for putting over my knees to read or knit on the sofa
...using really hot water to wash the dishes because I'm not already overheated from the weather
...knowing that soon the two walnut trees in the garden will shortly be shedding all their !@#$% walnuts everywhere and I'll have to pick them up.

This Friday will probably be our last beach day of 2008 with our senior friend. We will make the most of it.

Weird Al Yankovic

(photo from here)

My eyes and ears are freaked out tonight. I spent two and a half hours at a Weird Al concert this evening - VERY funny, VERY loud and VERY bright, with all the flashing lights. The whole family went. The kids introduced me to this talented nutcase a while ago. I've seen a little of him on a DVD and heard some of his songs on CD.

In case you haven't heard of him, he spends his professional life mostly recording parodies of popular songs. Green Day's American Idiot becomes Canadian Idiot. Like a Virgin becomes Like a Surgeon. Michael Jackson's Bad becomes Fat. Hilarious.

During costume changes, the huge screens above the stage showed us Al "interviewing" celebrities (what he actually did was take footage of people like Cher, Celine Dion and Eminem and insert his own questions, so it looked as though they were answering him).

It was an hour's drive each way and each ticket was over $70 a pop, but it was worth it.

We even brought home a streamer that was one of many shot out into the audience and some Al "money" that fell from the ceiling.

(photo from here)

Life...

No photos today, but as I haven't blogged since Saturday I wanted to let you know I haven't disappeared.

Our summer weather has been mostly hot, though every now and again it gets so hot that it triggers a storm and then it cools off a little. We've had a few of them now. Last night's was fascinating. I sat out on the deck (which has open sides but is roofed) and watched the sky. The lightning was flashing every few seconds, brightening the sky and silhouetting our walnut tree. Occasional flashes were so bright they hurt my eyes. The odd thing was that it was far enough away that I couldn't hear any thunder.

My smallest boy was on my lap with his favourite blanket around him and after a while the rest of the family came out and enjoyed the show too.

Memorable times!

The two younger boys and I met our older friend for our weekly beach visit on Monday. I call it my therapy session as we have spent a lot of time talking about our innermost thoughts with each other this summer and I really appreciate being able to do that.

In my knitting life, I am somewhat frustrated at the moment. I have a huge pile of knitting books from the library and am enjoying looking through them for inspiration. My Interweave Knits magazine arrived today and I played hooky from Taekwondo and spent a pleasant hour on the sofa with my magazine instead! I am building up for a big project but I'm not sure what it's going to be yet. This always happens - I take longer to plan it than I do to knit it, I think.

I have ten balls of Marble in the Landscape colourway on order which will be enough to make a sweater, ruana or coat. Maybe I'll knit an Einstein Coat. I have Sally Melville's book, The Knit Stitch, but will I have the stamina for all that garter stitch? Will I make something else entirely? Will I use a pattern or will I design my own so I don't have to make my gauge match someone else's? Ah, decisions, decisions.

Tomorrow, on the way to a friend's house, I am going to call in at a yarn store where I have (a) a $4 plus credit, (b) a $3 frequent shopper coupon and (c) a $30 gift certificate for my birthday. I hope my kids realise that they may be waiting a while so I can decide what to buy!

Bridge view

We went down to the new bridge Sunday and walked along the pedestrian/cycle lane to the highest point to get a new perspective on the Okanagan. (Remember, you can click on any picture to make it bigger.)


There is an impressive pair of sculptures at the western end of the bridge, on First Nations Land. They are made of metal, each representing a wolf in front of a bear's paw.


From the new bridge, we were able to see the progress that is being made on dismantling the old bridge.

They are making holes in the concrete pontoons, presumably readying them for sinking in the lake.

They removed one pontoon already so that boats can sail or motor underneath the new bridge.

Much of the blacktop (tarmac) has been taken up and hauled away. The pontoons must be as clean as possible before they sink them.

I'm not sure what's going to happen to the huge metal lifting mechanism at the eastern end of the bridge. Hopefully it will be removed and recycled.

The new bridge doesn't have a lifting section - it has a hump instead that allows enough space underneath for the boats.

The roundabout has a clever relief of Ogopogo, our local mythical lake serpent.

I felt like a tourist in my own town, camera in hand.

At the beach

The day after the storm, the sun was hot, the sky was blue, the lake was.....cool! I guess the cooler temperature and the strong wind stirred up the lake on Thursday.

We met our friend at the beach and spent three lovely hours here.


It's a small beach access, no facilities except a dock, some sand and a couple of picnic tables.


We took a picnic lunch.


We swam off the dock (and hey, no weeds or slime).


Lots of time was spent collecting rocks.

The boys enjoyed digging a channel in the sand, making dams with sand, rocks and a brick, and then pouring water down.


We enjoyed it so much, we're going to do it again soon! (Even though I did get a little bit of a sunburn.)

Storm

We had a huge storm come through the valley today. The boys and I were at the dining room table this morning doing "schooly" stuff when we noticed the trees getting blown about, then the rain came. (That link will take you to the local news website.)

We had to rescue a few things off the deck so they didn't blow away. My laundry was out, carefully pegged to ensure it didn't blow away, but of course it's now wetter than it was before!

We have heard sirens on a regular basis - the emergency services going out for fallen trees, car accidents, grass fires.

I walked up to the bakery in the rain to find the shops at the plaza closed or closing as they had no power. I just made it in time to pick up my sub buns for dinner - luckily I had cash as they had no way of accepting plastic.

I just checked the forecast for tomorrow, as I have arranged to meet a friend at the beach, and it's supposed to be sunny and 30 degrees Celsius, so that's good.

Ninja Boy, Lego Nut and I had a productive morning, once Lego Nut got over his resistance to doing his math. I wouldn't back down, he had to do the pages I gave him, and it eventually was finished. We finished reading about Rome and the Romans in our Usborne Time Travellers book, and I gave them a spelling test of 15 words each - aimed to challenge them a little. They then went next door to watch movies with the neighbour's boy, taking some popcorn with them.

The weather seems to have settled down now. Time for me to have a little game of Bookworm...

Our little car is well again

Our Ford Festiva is back on the road. My usual mechanic gave it a terminal diagnosis after looking it over - it was running like it had lumps in the gas! Something about cylinders and unequal pressure and all that. So it sat in the carport for a few weeks while we used the van, paying out way more in gas, while we considered our next move.

We ended up taking it to a local automotive place - when I say local, I mean 5 minutes away and no bridge crossing! They did a lot of work on it - the total bill was around $1500, about half of which was labour - and I happily drove it home last night. I am thinking of buying it new seat covers as a treat, and of course washing and vacuuming it so it looks as good as it sounds.

A big hole...

...in the ceiling. Tai Chi Man and I arrived home from buying the groceries today to find water pouring through the ceiling in the basement. Thankfully, the only damage was to the ceiling - there is a vinyl floor below with a mat on it, and the mat went outside to be dried.

We had to quickly turn off the water supply (if only we had shown the kids how to do it that before now)! Then part of the ceiling had to come down to let the rest of the water drip out and to find the problem. It wasn't hard to find - a pipe was spotted, squirting out water.

A weekend call to the plumber costs $120 an hour these days - ouch! Thankfully, we found a plumber who could come straight away and the job was completed in an hour, so we were out of pocket only about $140.

Of course, the repair of the ceiling will take a little longer, and won't be done until the area has been left open to dry out. With our current summer temperatures, that shouldn't take long.

By the way, I have good news. My mum and dad now have a computer and we can now email each other. They'll be able to read my blog so here's a quick virtual wave to mum and dad!