The Baril Homestead and other beautiful places...

A few weekends ago I made a road trip to Camrose to visit Mamma G.  On the way down I made a detour to Jenny's farm which was interesting.  Apart from getting slightly lost and my poor Corolla getting tossed around on the gravel roads, I did make it and managed to snap a few pictures.  Unfortunately, the Baril's were no where in site, and with a massive rain storm coming, I decided to make tracks after waving to Peter Piper and Pandora.

If you look carefully in the second photo, you can see Peter Piper and Pandora in the distance behind the sheep.  Sorry... I couldn't muster up any more courage to get closer.

Turkey's and a rogue chicken.

While visiting Mamma G, she took me on a trip to Anita's House where, I've decided, I'll be moving to next week as a permanent guest--or perhaps more accurately, a squatter.  

View from back balcony and"Anita's Cafe."

 

A very thorough demonstration of Anita's exercise equipment.

My favourite room in the house.

A delicious shrimp sandwich

After the sandwich, we went for a walk in the woods outside her house.  Here are some of the surprises we came across on our travels. 

The bridge is built entirely without nails.  Just dowels.  

The walk finished with a raid on Bengt's wood shop.

Mamma G also took me to Pigeon Lake where I had clam chowder and a grilled VEGETABLE (believe it or not) panini that was surprisingly delicious at the Eco Cafe.  Unfortunately I did lug my camera around on the boardwalk but must have been too distracted to actually snap any photos.  Guess we'll have to go back!

Familjebilder

A few months back, I received these lovely family photos in the mail.  Kerstin was kind enough to make copies and send them to us from Sweden.  These photos are of Mamma G and Kerstin's Grandparents.

These first two photos are of Mamma G and Kerstin's Farmor and Farfar. (Roger's Great Grandparents)

These next two photos are Mamma G and Kerstin's Mormor and Morfar.  Apparently they never married, but he always knew where to find a good deal on bread.

After about 4 weeks without rain, and a 600,000 square hectare uncontrolled forest fire burning about 65 km north of Fort McMurray, we finally got a good down pour this past weekend.  The rain has been good for many things including our garden.

What I thought were weeds ended up being baby's breath and poppies!  I was sooo ready to pull them out.

By the way, we shipped my beloved (but broken) bike to Calgary in the hopes that my dad can fix it.  This poor bike has moved from Edmonton to Medicine Hat back to Edmonton then out to Waterloo riding atop our mini-van attached to my dad's make shift bike rack made out of 2 X 4's and lots of string, then to Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Calgary.  Hopefully this will not be it's final move.  

Come back to us dear bike! (..but if you want to use it mom or dad, go ahead, but treat it nice.)

A Visit from the Nutrition Police

My parents recently came up to Fort Mac for a visit.  While they were here, I did my best to cook little food as requested, however it did get a little out of control on Saturday night when our neighbour showed up with Newfoundland  fish and chips.  Yum!

We managed to play a game or two of Jenga which my dad very prematurely decided was "easy."

We took them on a brisk walk of the Birchwood Trails...

 

Where we saw flowers shaped like stars and butterflies.

 

My parents enjoyed working out on the outdoor exercise equipment

Lastly, Roger and my dad enjoyed some Youtube videos of gross animals eating other gross animals.

All in all it was a relaxing visit and stimulated Roger and I to use the outdoor equipment more regularly after our runs especially in lieu of this.  (thanks Lindsay... groan...)

Dune

Finally, after months of Roger pestering me to read one of his favourite novels of all time, I've done it!  I've read Dune from cover to cover.  I must admit, I resisted reading Dune for a long time simply because it was "Science Fiction" (...and had a boring cover...).  But Roger was persistent.  He told me that Dune had just as much and likely more scheming and back-stabbing AND double crossing as any of my favourite soap-opera-ey shows on television.  So... I decided to give it a read with one condition.  Roger had to read one of my favourite books ever. 

 I was determined to not enjoy Dune--at first I read it grudgingly--one page a week--then those darn Harkonnen's had to attack and despite my best efforts, I liked it.  I REALLY liked it.  A page a week became a chapter a week, and before I knew it I was done.  I figured that would be it, but I had so many unanswered questions from the first book that Roger went and grabbed the second book in the series which I've already completed and am now well into the third book while Roger is on page 32 of my one favourite book.  When I ask him how he likes it he says "..it's not baaaaaddddd..."

Chives from our garden.