A taste of country

Today we visited my cousin Michelle out in Chilliwack. My kids were especially chatty on the long drive out there and they both decided to tell me about their dreams. Now I noticed the other day that every single time Elisabeth decides to tell me about her dreams she might do a little introduction but then she always recounts her dream in song.

Today I decided to ask her about it. And what she told me about blew my mind. Apparently her she dreams in song! How cool is that? Dreaming to music.

She falls asleep every night to music, but I'm not sure that's why she dreams in music. I mean, I used to fall asleep every night to this song and this one. And I never dreamed to song (my uncle bought me a clock radio one year and I loved it!). I wonder if she really does?

Anyway, much story telling later, we finally arrived at Michelle's new digs. Here we are ringing her doorbell!

One of her neighbors came out to check us out. Isn't he regal?

Chadya had bought me a gift certificate to Minter Country Garden for my birthday so we went there for lunch and to pick up my gift certificate. I think I'd need to spend an entire day there before I could decide what to get!

Close up of the kids with the mouse.

We had lunch in the Calliope Cafe and then headed out to wander the grounds. This is the country store, not the gardens but there is still plenty to look at. At Christmas they had some reindeer in this pen, but today there were two very friendly dogs.

I love the red in this guy's beard. He should be Dave's dog!

We wandered back to where the Christmas train goes. I love this little house.

We saw some EMUs along the way!



Back inside, David was captivated by the cacti. They are pretty weird looking! I was impressed though, he was actually brave enough to touch some of them.

Next we went to Michelle's friends' farm. Now I feel like I'm always saying I grew up here, I grew up there. But we moved a lot so I grew up in Quebec, Ontario, England and all over Chilliwack. But during my first five years of school my parents were farmers. And then in my highschool years we didn't always live on a farm, but it was home base. So I think I can say I grew up on a farm.

My grandparents owned the farm on the east side of the road. And though it had some barns and outbuildings, it was mostly used for hay or corn. So the biggest barn's milking parlour was mostly filled with junk. And today, when we walked into the barn on Sheila's property, I was transported back 2o years to that old barn on Lickman Road. Wow.

Only we never had roosters.

This barn is a little more blue than ours was. I never liked going in it by myself. I had way too vivid an imagination!

We didn't have horses either. There were seven on this farm. We fed them clover. And watched them run.




There was a mountain of sawdust/woodchips beside the barn. I remember we used to get a load of similar stuff dumped at the farm when we were actually farmers. The cows would go crazy. They'd be running up and down and frisking away like a bunch of children. It was awesome to watch. And that's a little how my kids acted on this mountain of wood chips today.


There were a few old tractors on the property too. I think David wants a tractor.

After asking if it was okay for him to climb up on the tractor, David sat in the driver's seat and pretended to drive around. He was a little disappointed when I told him he couldn't start the tractor.

So then he proceeded to examine every square inch instead.

A Trip to the Nursery

This time of year I get the gardening bug! I can't seem to stay out of the local garden centres and I start dreaming up all kinds of projects for our yard. So earlier this week I decided to drag David, Elisabeth and my brother Dave to Arts Nursery for a spin aroun in the golf carts and a looky lu at all the plants they have out for spring.

This is their waterwheel feature. It's kind of cool. I love old buildings on a property. They add so much character.

Dave and the kids found a golf cart and got ready to follow me around the property.

Now here's something. I have been driving all over hither and yon looking for blossoms to take pictures of. Why didn't I clue in and just go to a nursery? Trees galore. Silly me!


And every time the kids started to get bored, Dave would whiz around the track and hey presto, he bought me more time looking at plants! Yay Dave!



I love the pink Dogwood trees. I've been seeing them and the yellow ones everywhere this year (why have I never noticed them before?) and I want at least one of each for my yard. They're so pretty!


See what I mean? Luckily I have lots of room for trees. I think I'm going to have a few ornamental trees at the top of the yard and then my fruit trees all at the bottom. We'll see.

While I perused the herbs (in search of Lovage which I finally found at Potters), Davey snapped some pictures.

And later we picked up Andrew from work. I snapped this picture of the sky. I had to darken the shadows so you could see better, but I really liked the two layers of clouds. Fluffy white clouds close to earth and then the stripey thin clouds way up high. Really pretty!

Sweet Ride

Last Friday was Movie Night at David's school. For $10/family we get to watch a new release kids' movie (this month was The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel), everyone gets a bag of popcorn and a drink. There are chairs set up but most of the kids come in jammies and bring blankets, pillows, or even sleeping bags. David and Elisabeth brought their blow up beds and cozied up for the show.

We let the kids drag their beds up to their rooms that night. Well Saturday afternoon I over hear David deciding to ride his bed down the stairs. I did what any careful, responsible mom would do: I sat at the bottom of the stairs and took pictures!

Check out the look of pure glee on his face. This is fun!

Elisabeth was too scared to try riding herself, but she was more than happy to hold David's bed while he climbed inside and give him a good shove when he was ready to go.

David looks happy, but can you see Elisabeth's face in the picture above? No? It's fuzzy, but here's a zoom in of the same picture.


Good times.

Awesome Blossoms...and yet another walk!

Here are some pictures from yet another walk around our neighborhood. We decided to take Andrew around and show him some of our favorite spots. I believe it was Sunday afternoon. After that flurry of pictures, it's been a bit miserable this week so nothing more to post for a while...

Here's Elisabeth, ready to get walkin'!

Okay, I know I've posted a lot of pictures of blossoms lately, but they are so beautiful. And there's one tree in particular that I absolutely love. It's a weeping style, but with russet red blossoms and leaves that are green and red...its beautiful. I'm glad I took so many pictures of it. I emailed the pictures to Art's Nursery and his staff is going to try to ID it for me. Yipee!

Here's a different tree from last Sunday's walk:



Apparently Elisabeth shares my obsession with blossoms!

I think I'm going to look into dance lessons for her for next year. I think she'd like them!

Thanks Kelly for your comment on an earlier post. Here's that lilac tree again. I've wanted my own tree since I was a teenager. I think I will definitely go looking for one this spring.


David brought his nerf gun for this walk. Just in case.


I think this was right after I shot him with his own gun :)