Mexico 2012

Abbotsford airport very early in the morning.  After a evening drive and a late night visiting at my brother Doug's with him and his 7 children.  He kindly arose early and drove us there and took care of our vehicles.  And here it what I love to see - my two very different daughters companionably reading together.

This is on the bus from Puerto Vallarta to Rincon de Guyabitos.  I just love the light in the picture.

Also on the bus.  This is one excited kid!

 Our first moments in the hotel room.  Towel art on Rhiannon's bed.  She took this photo.  Actually she took most of the photos seeing as it is actually her camera that I use all the time.  She commandeered it.

Dinner out after our first full day.  We're already looking brown.

The beach at Los Ayalles.  Not as crowded as the beach in Guyabitos.  We spent several days there.  The first day we were beat out by the blue hairs who hogged everything.  The next time we were better prepared and got our spot in the sun, beach chairs. 

 My girls.

Kaetlyn and Nadia

 The recent very pale addition to our family who was full of surprises.

January 14, 2012 = El Deano is 50

 So glad they made it.  Best Christmas present ever!  It wouldn't have been the same without them.  Don't even want to think about it.

Andrew and Chelle on our last evening photo shoot

my four favourite people in the world

Last night on the beach at sunset

Sunset with my man

trying to get a jump photo

probably my favourite photo

For us it was the trip of a lifetime.  We went to the same resort that we did last time but it felt completely different.  I was there with all my favourite people in the world.  There was no one to miss.  And I was completely confident in my friend Abbie looking after my farm and so I didn't give Renauld and the gang a single thought.

We laid in the sun and explored the village.  The kids all bought things for friends back home but I had all of them with me so I had nothing to buy.  The weather was perfect - high 20's to low 30's everyday.  My hair adored Mexico.  In fact, my hair says to say that it misses Mexico.  As for the rest of me, I miss the guacamole and the fresh pineapple and cantelope... Oh, and someone else doing all the cooking!

Of course a bizarre ending to our trip, we fly into Abbotsford and find it and Chilliwack buried under drifts of freezing blowing snow.  I thought the plane had made a wrong turn and we were really in Prince George.  When we got gas, I had to clear the snow out of the slot my bank card...  Luckily as we drove NORTH and EAST, there was less and less snow...

We just had so much fun hanging out with each other for a week with no other demands than to have fun.  We thought we would try to repeat it every couple of years. 

Skating on the Lake

We have been making the most of this time off - trying to do things that we can only do now. Dean has taken Rhiannon sledding a couple of times, they've been to the matinée at the cheap theatre and today I took Rhiannon skating on the lake. It is only the fourth time in 15 winters that I have lived here that it is possible to skate on Kal Lake. It was a beautiful winter day and thanks to the -27 weather we have survived, -7 felt positively balmy! We were the only ones out and as we drove there, it started to snow huge flakes.



Here she is starting off on one of the cleared spaces.









And this picture doesn't really need any comment, does it? Her face says it all!

You Know What They Say About March....

In like a lion, out like a lamb? These pictures were taken this morning. It's March 3 and its the second time it has snowed in March.... So I am wondering if there will be more to the old adage about March than there turned out to be about the groundhog this year.... because according to that little rodent, winter was over....

The Coming of the Light

I love this time of year for the same reason I don't like fall. I don't like autumn because it means the shortening of days and the coming of the winter cold. Oddly, I love it when it gets past solstice and I know the days are getting longer, minute by minute, everyday. And we have had days of glorious sunshine here instead of our usual 'valley bottom cloud'. Not every day but every other day or so. The returning of the light. Here is Rhiannon in the sunshine with the cats. I was inspired to offer this from my enthusiasm at the Inner World School:

Welcoming the Light – A Candle Making Workshop for Children (ages 6 – 10)

As the days get longer a minute everyday, we welcome the light. This will be a day of science – studying the meaning of the solstice and the return of sunlight to different indiginous cultures around the world. We will also study the properties of different kinds of wax and how they move from solid to liquid and back to solid. We will make candles and light them with our wishes and intentions for the New Year. There will be playing, learning, wishing and magic!

Date: Saturday, January 27, 1:00 – 4:00pm
Cost: $30 ($7 for members)
Place: Inner World School, 3306B – 32 Ave, Vernon, BC
Facilitator: Andrea Clarke

To register call 503-5416 (Andrea) or e-mail innerworldschool@shaw.ca

In a month it will be time to plant seeds in anticipation of our gardens. Tomato seeds and basil seeds and cucumber seeds and zucchini seeds and cantaloupe seeds and pepper seeds, and, and, and. I can hardly wait. Soon I will be buying soil and and peat pots. I couldn't hold myself back at Swan Lake Nursery Land yesterday. I bought these sprouts - Irises. I hope they are purple.... (and that, Laura, would be my photo of the day...)

And for some real fun, check out this video clip on YouTube that Rhiannon made with her new camera of our crazy cats... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu4jpbPjxYs

Christmas Music

Couldn't resist adding this picture - taken during the snow storm yesterday afternoon. This is the view from the window by the computer. Isn't the lilac bush beautiful in the snow?

So, for most of my childhood my favourite Christmas Song was "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day". I liked it for the second to last verse: "Then peeled the bells more loud and deep/God is not dead nor doth he sleep/The wrong shall fail, the right prevail/With peace on Earth, good will to men". The idea of peace on earth prevailing has always appealed to me. I have come to believe as I've gotten older that it is something that each of us must create - starting in our own hearts and in our homes. I no longer believe it is something that will be thrust upon us - I don't think it is possible that it would work that way.

But these days I have a new favourite. Its "Little Drummer Boy". I've always enjoyed that song - since I was a child. The last few years it has really been speaking to me. I think I finally 'get' the meaning of the song. More than a cute story about a poor drummer boy's imaginary encounter with baby Jesus, it is about (to me) the purpose of life. You know the song - the little drummer boy is invited to come to see the 'new born King' and bring his finest gift. He has nothing to bring that is 'fit to give a King' but asks to play his drum. He is permitted and then plays his very 'best for him' and is rewarded with a smile. It occurs to me that this is all that is required of any of us - not expensive gifts of fine things but simply to do what we love and what we are good at. I believe that our purpose in life is to be our best self. Not to try to be like anyone else but to bring what is inside of us, out - the be who we honestly and truly are - to do what we love and what brings us joy. Like the Little Drummer Boy. This is why we are born.

So that's my favourite Christmas song. What's yours and why?

More on a Winter's Dawn

I couldn't resist taking another picture of the winter dawn. (although as Rhiannon would point out, it is not yet winter...) Here is the view out of my kitchen window as I stood there cooking hashbrowns and eggs for Kaetlyn and her friend this morning. I love dawn - the sunrise.

What is it I love about dawn so much. I suppose it is the same thing I love about piles of fabric and piles of wool - it is the potential. Dawn is so quiet and still, there is a peace about it. A promise. Nothing has happened yet in the day. Everything is possible.

Winter Dawn

Here is what this morning looks like at my house. The Black Locust trees - so artisitc in the way they grow they look beautiful without leaves even. And the elm trees with several empty bird nests. Will they return? And then the line of willows to the east - a pretty yellowy brown against the more somber winter colours. Here is the winter dawn with the pheasants squawking and running hurridly through the trees. Why are they always in a hurry?