...and we were there too.

This was early August, and a week on the Magdalen Islands was a welcome segueway between my summer job and another year of teaching. There were five us: Kevin and Angélique with Ruth, Simeon and me, and we started on PEI, where (as you can see) we took some time to reflect.In a shop window, downtown Charlottetown. Simeon eased comfortably into his role of smile-magnet in the backpack carrier worn by his papa.

...and in a very cool mirrored folding screen.

Sunset over Cavendish Beach. Here we had spent the afternoon, swimming, reading and sunbathing - which was to set the tone for the entire week ahead. The next day, the end of a five-hour ferry ride found us sailing past the enchanting Entry Island, the first in the Magdalen archipelago. We would return to it late in the week, to climb those hills and roam the trails a while.

The house we were staying in had a greenhouse, and that greenhouse had a snail. This snail. I think he dreamed of flying while he traversed the glassen roof.Suppertime - nothing to see here, everything under control...

Most nights, after supper was had and the sun (who'd had just as long a day as us) was going down, we'd walk across the road and onto this beach, which every night looked like this: not a soul around, just us, the sunset, and the Atlantic rolling in. Almost the entire archipelago is surrounded by sand, after all, so it's not hard to find a beach with no one on it. And then we'd gather driftwood, light a fire, and plan the next 24 hours....the plan usually involved a lot of sleeping on beaches and shopping in shops and eating in

cafés. The following is in Café de la Grave, once a general store. Evenings there were bliss: live music, fine coffees... what more can I say?

Simeon gets rock-skipping tips from Kevin on a windy day.
Miles and miles and miles of this, and hot hot hot (though warm weather is uncommon there). What a welcome break it was from the unending shower that was June and July.
Entry Island: We hiked, Simeon rode. It was a good day.Atop the aptly named Big Hill.

Horses and cattle roam the back of the island, the residents having found it needless to build a better fence than the Atlantic Ocean.I'm not kissing this horse; it only looks that way.


Inside the island's tiny church, the notes of hymns are transcribed in solfège for the organist.

Roving.

In our humble opinion (of which I've been asked, "If your opinion's so humble, why do we keep hearing from it?"), the Magdalen Islands is one fantastic getaway, very close to home. Give it a shot.

Simeon Does the Magdalen Islands :)

The next three are courtesy, with our thanks, of Angélique.


Go ahead - pick a favourite;)

Picnic at the Park

A few weeks ago we went for a walk at the Irving Nature Park (we've got a lot of catching up to do with our posts, I know). Well, we had a false start on Saturday when we packed our lunch, stroller, etc. etc. etc. only to find out in the parking lot that we (ahem, Sean) forgot the handle for the stroller. But on Sunday we were back with all our gear in tow. It was a bit cloudy, but great Saint John weather for April. We ate our lunch of bread, meat, cheese and apples on the beach- Simeon seemed particularly fond of the apples:Simeon warned us of some approaching danger so we decided to skedaddle--but not before a short photo-op with daddy!

Hey look!

I have a flower! Ok, so not that impressive but at least it's something. I've decided to put in a vegetable garden and just focus on cleaning up the yard for this year (i.e. get rid of the ugly gravel and industrial pavers that the previous owner thought were decorative. Sigh.) Next year I'll worry about planning my flowerbeds. For now I'm waiting to see what's coming up from the ground; and the answer is a whole lot of nothing. I choose to see this as a blank slate for next season, rather than a depressing rectangle of dirt :) I hope your yard is a bit more cheery - come see us for some veggies in a couple of months!

Lately

To supplement the income I've signed a part-time contract with Seaboard Transportation, hauling their trailers with my Accent. Sure it's destroyed my gas mileage but, hey, I'm hauling fuel - I help myself now and then.

Three Mirrors

Shelburne, N.S., Easter weekend.

Ephesians 4:5

We were in Shelburne Easter weekend for the baptism of our niece and nephew. Here, with his father, is Shiloh before his baptism -

and Abby after hers -

It was a lovely visit; many thanks to our hosts:)

Superstore, I applaud you!

The other day I was perusing the internet and decided to check out the G.R.E.E.N. Insider's Report for Superstore and on the last page I saw that they're no longer going to give out complimentary plastic bags. Now they'll be charging 5 cents a bag and the proceeds are going to the World Wildlife Foundation. What a fantastic idea! A friend of mine was saying that these reusable bags that everybody and their aunt is peddling is just a big money grab (I agree with her). They're not working to reduce pollution they just want to profit from the warm fuzzy you get when you impulse buy it and then let it rot on the floor of your closet. Now, I know that some people are faithful in using them and I freely admit that I forget mine quite often - so I'm not trying to sound high and mighty here. But the point is that Superstore is offering a pretty big incentive NOT to forget them and in a way to quasi-bully us into doing what we know we ought to be doing anyway. So be nice to your cashier because I called customer service to express my appreciation and apparently they're catching a LOT of flack for this.

PS-It starts April 22nd and any reusable bag will do, it doesn't need to be their brand.

Welcome Home

Here it is! That last post was a bit of a lie... our phone lines have been fine for some time now:) Better late than never, I suppose.

*COTH will be offline until the phone lines in our house get rewired - keep checking*

It's official!

Sean and I are now homeowners!
We are extremely excited and are looking forward to moving in on Saturday. We'll post some pictures after we've settled, which shouldn't take long as we've had so many people offer to help us move in :)
Sean's had a rough few days because he's got laryngitis (wow, I spelled that right on my first try) but he's got antibiotics now and we're hoping that it'll improve drastically very soon.
Well, back to packing boxes. Toodles!

Squeaky clean

We've neglected the blog again, but this time we have a really good reason....we're moving! In 7 days we'll put our John Hancocks on the dotted line and we'll have ourselves a house. I can't WAIT to have my own backyard. I must admit, I'm still nervous that some catastrophe will befall us and it'll all come crashing down. Cheery, eh? That's why no pictures of the house yet. So...I'm going to post about Simeon instead (I'm sure no one will mind).

I was doing the dishes and I heard a lot of wild laughing coming from the bathroom where my son was supposed to be getting his bath. When I saw the cause of the ruckus I had to grab the camera.


We've always blow dried Simeon hair because 1) there's always been an unreasonable amount of it, and 2) his softspot always made me wary of towel drying the top of his head. Now he's taken matters into his own hands.

So that's an update and hopefully no meteors land on our home.

Bleak.

The Marina in Winter.