Last few Edmonton Photos and on to Long Point

 I found there were a few photos, from Edmonton, that I had not yet put up on the blog, so lets get them out of the way first.

Michael massacring the turkey in an awful Christmas sweater.

The tree in their backyard. Luckily we hung the lights on it before it snowed.

Michael volunteered at a Jujitsu tournament, run by his gym, so I did too. 4 mats in use all day.

Numerous TVs with the bouts and scores.

250 participants.

Mike worked in the podium/medal area and I ensured all the participants had their T-shirts and sold them too. We each came home with a shirt.

The night before I left, a beautiful sunset, taken from their front door.

I returned with plenty of frig decor.

Its that time of year again, the thousands of Sandhill Cranes are back in the fields near Port Rowan.

And a few Swans.

Still more in the air

and, as they drop their landing gear early, they look very funny coming in to land.

 

From there we drove to my old place at Long Point and walked on to the beach.

It had been quite windy and cold in Port Dover but here it was calm and therefor warmer.

Nobody on the beach though.

We watched flock after flock of tiny ducks head out to a "raft" on the lake before heading south.

Then

over the

dune

to where the duck hunters camp during the season.

I really DONT

UNDERSTAND IT!

This is my kind of duck hunting

I can't find my bird book, so unable to identify them. (Maybe Canvasback?)

Bufflehead ?

And a flock of these sweet little things in the Cedar tree

No idea, I need to find that book.

Misty morning on the lake.

Edmonton - random photos and videos

 

From when Chris and Jason were here. Unfortunately River was sleeping so no picture of the whole pack of grandchildren. Photo by Chris.

 This video was also taken by Chris. I wanted to try the electric scooter that Mike gave Aimee for her birthday and that he now uses to go to work. He doesn't use a helmet (Chris got him one for Christmas!) but I used Aimee's motorcycle helmet. The top speed is 30km/hr but I had it on "eco" and didn't want to go any faster. Fun though.

Picture by Chris when we were all on a walk after Christmas lunch. Just got the top of River's hat and half of Cigi's face.

 

We have recently discovered that Daniele has a baby foot fetish (a fetish for baby feet) so Chris took this photo of River's and sent it to her.

Mornings are her best times, which means that Mike gets lots of baby laughs before he leaves for work. Photo by Aimee.

I gave Maya this kit for Christmas. Using a pointed tool you push squares of fabric into the numbers on the cushion. The next generation of crafting has begun.

This is Iggy, half Italian Greyhound and half Jack Russel. He is as much a cat as he is a dog, sleeps most of the day, rarely barks. Pretty well the perfect dog because he is also a cuddler. I took him for a walk the day after a large snowfall and he limped and whined because of the salt on the sidewalk so I went out and bought him a sweater and boots.

Aimee and I were killing ourselves laughing at his antics. First he pretended he couldn't walk, then he tried to shake them off and then he just walked like he was drunk.

We let him wear them in the house, hoping he would get used to them but he just lay beside me with a very "put upon" expression on his face so I took him for a walk. He spent the first block periodically walking on only his front paws, with his back ones up in the air like a circus dog, but tired of that. As soon as he accepted them and started walking normally his little tail started wagging as he realized his feet weren't cold and the salt didn't hurt. Had a happy winter walk.

Edmonton - the whole family together

 So first, the dragons:

In the end, Avery wanted his dragon to be in a cave and having smoke coming from his mouth. He's now framed and up on his bedroom wall.

Maya's was actually faster to do as she didn't want any background. Also framed and up on her bedroom wall.

This is the book that provided the inspiration for their odd looking dragons.

Both are back in school but daycare is still closed, Judo happens in the evening. Maya is all business

She's also very helpful with River. Holding her, while Daddy feeds her and helps Avery with something on the tablet.

And

supervising

"tummy time"

Remembrance Day we went

for a long walk/scooter.

The neighbourhood used to be a military base

so there are lots of plaques

and other places for poppies.

Seriously duck, you can fly, why would you sit on a frozen pond in Alberta?

A group of Gray Partridge running across a building lot.

Chris and Jason have rented an Airbnb close by, but spend the days here.

Cigi is usually so happy, but a sleepless plane ride and too many strange things, left her very unsure of Mike, much to Aimee's amusement.

She got over it and quickly got to grabbing handfuls of Iggy's hair and going for River's eyes.

Jason and the kids teaching Cigi to climb the stairs (may have been a tactical error)

Five adults, four kids and a dog in a small house makes for high levels of noise and activity. I have retired to the relative peace and quiet of my room to write the blog. Aaaah.

Edmonton, fall 2021

 Our final day of driving from New Brunswick was uneventful and then I "hit the ground running". Both Caleidoscope and Spellbound were taken out of the water and I helped Rick put her to bed for the winter. I had visits from Aimee and Eve and went to Fort Erie for lunch with Mum and Dad. The garden needed final fall chores done - planted a Golden Spruce, put away the rain barrels, mulched the flower beds, cut the grass twice (in between rain storms). There were various appointments - physio, doctor, massage, snow tires. All in all a busy 2 weeks and then off to Edmonton.

This is a busy household and I have found very little time for taking pictures. Mike is working, Aimee on maternity leave, Avery home from school with a cough and after two attempts to get it done, had a covid test that came back negative (he can go back to school on Monday), Maya's daycare has covid so she just has her half days of kindergarten, River at 1 month is still a feeding (every 2 hours night and day), pooping, cranking, sleeping machine who objects if not in someones arms.

I have been walking every day, slipping out of the house with Iggy (and sometimes Maya) for a walk around the neighbourhood. It is cold enough that there is a thin layer of ice on the ponds.

One of the big attractions of this area is "the hill" or as Maya calls it "the mountain", unusual in this flat landscape. There are trails, stairs, benches at the top and tobogganing in the winter. We walked up one evening to see the lights of downtown. Every night I hear the coyotes that live in the bush and fields nearby.

Avery is the "gamer" but there is one video game that they play together.

Maya likes to bake - so far lemon muffins, tea biscuits and cornmeal muffins. She also likes to eat them.

Avery had taken a fantastic dragon book out of the library with

beautiful water colour pictures of different dragons. I must remember to take a picture of the cover of the book, to give credit.

As I bought my watercolours with me he asked me to paint him another dragon (this may become an annual activity). So what I did, with each of the kids, was ask them to create a dragon from their favorite parts of the dragons in the book, so each will have an individual dragon of their choosing. ie the body of the sky dragon, head of the city dragon, wings like the fire dragon ..... They also instructed me on the colours and the setting.

This is the start of Avery's dragon, so much fun to do with Avery looking over my shoulder saying "that's pretty good" and then making more suggestions ie "one of the eggs could have a dragon coming out of it", "he should have fire or smoke coming from his mouth"....

I suspect that Maya will have just as much input although at this point she keeps changing her mind regarding the colouring.

Back in Toronto, Cigi was an elephant for Halloween.