How Was Your Weekend?

This weekend George and I tuckled in.
We had about 50 trick or treaters (after being warned of 100's) so have a LOT of candy left over.

Sunday turned out to be beautiful and warm so we headed off to Robert's Creek beach. Such a great day!

Check out my flickr page for some more pix.
Hope you had a lovely weekend!

A day at the beach...

so needed and appreciated!

One more weekend down...

Feeling a bit unsettled this week. Lots of things happening (see here for details) and I'm feeling a bit out of control. Nothing I can't handle. It seems to happen once in a while. One thing that made me feel better today was finally getting my hair cut. It probably wasn't that long according to most people but to me, I'm used to having my hair pretty short and it was driving me a bit crazy. Better now. Didn't go too short as I'm going to get it coloured before the wedding and my hair dresser needs something to hold on to:)
This past weekend we had our great friends Lorraine and Greg over for some golf, food, wine and crazy card playing. Lorraine and I have known each other since elementary school and we've shared a lot of good times over the years. It was great catching up. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. So much fun! The last time they were here we golfed too but it was soooo cold and almost snowing so - this time was much more enjoyable.
(you can see more pix on my facebook or flickr pages)
Tomorrow we're back in the city (or 'town' as they call it from here) and this weekend have more friends visiting with our god-dog, Bean! Can't wait.

Another weekend on the Coast...

It was a jam-packed weekend...again! Friday night our good friend, Doug, flew over from Nanaimo and we made our now regular jaunt down to Smitty's Oyster Bar for a delectable feast. Saturday, Barb made her way over to be part of the live radio event happening down at the Lane. I got interviewed live twice on the radio which was great promo for Bodacious - there was also fantastic live music by Verna Chan and her crew. George and Doug headed out on the boat for a 3 hour tour.
It was really hot and we were all pretty much done, so we headed down to the newly licensed Black Bean coffee shop for some cold coronas and snacks with new and old friends. So much fun, sitting outside on a hot summer day looking at the ocean view.
Saturday's dinner was at home - our now infamous maui rib tacos with homemade guacamole. So yummy - if I do say so myself! ...and then the badminton challenge was on. Always good for a laugh - especially when the boys try to get the birdie off the roof ("we used to do this in university!")!
Sunday we breakfasted at Molly's Reach, and headed down to veg at our beach for awhile. Barb had to get back to the city earlier and Doug flew home to Nanaimo in the later afternoon. This weekend - we'll be driving Big Momma in the Sea Cavalcade parade.
Now, when am I supposed to get the housework done???
Check out my facebook page for more pix since every time I try to download pictures here, my computer crashes. Hope you all had a great weekend!

weekend update...

Success! Both staff bbq's went really well and I think all who came enjoyed themselves - and didn't leave hungry:) The weather cooperated for both events - whew!

Here are the beautiful Bodacious ladies in Barb's flowery backyard...

and the gift bags...

G's staff bbq in our backyard...

enjoying our new swing...

An amazing rose from our garden...I wish I could scratch and sniff the beautiful scent for you!

my backyard patio...it's coming along and my strawberries are almost ready to eat...

A couple of our friends stayed the night so there was some extended partying into the evening, fantastic breakfast of leftovers and then off to the beach for the afternoon.

All's quiet now and I'm sitting in my backyard watching all the birds enjoy whatever they can find on the grass and a cruise ship slowly going by.
Another pic of our living room colour...

How was your weekend?
Oh, and remind me to tell you how much I love badminton! Ummm...I guess I just did.

The Time, It is Flying!

I'm not making apologies anymore about my lack of blogging frequency. Typically it means that I'm busy enjoying my life so I'll catch up when I can, ok? Geez, I don't know why you have to give me such a hard time! :) Oh right, that's just me giving me a hard time.

I hope you all enjoyed the sun as much as I did this past weekend! It was so healing and warm. One of G. and my favourite things to do on a weekend without houseguests (and sometimes with houseguests) is to go on driving adventures. Yesterday we hit another jackpot. I still can't believe all of this beauty is right at my doorstep!

We drove down to Robert's Creek and picked up a couple of peanut butter balls and drinks at the Gumboot Cafe and then walked down to the water. Instead of just going to the end of the road like we usually do, we went down the side path and onto the rocky ocean front. The tide was quite a ways out so we just walked and walked - through what seemed like acres of seaweed and kelp beds which led to hundreds of brilliant purple starfish basking in the hot sun. They were absolutely everywhere! A local expert joined us on our journey - we named him Simon. He lost interest when we didn't share our peanut butter balls and wandered back home.

Of course, there were also heron, seagulls and eagles to keep us company.

G. spotted this baby wolf eel and carefully carried it to safety.

Driving further down the lower road, we next discovered Robert's Creek Provincial Park. Who knew!?!

As our stomachs were starting to grumble and G. was itching to get back to his new bbq, we finally found someone to fill our propane tank on a Sunday and headed home to enjoy our yard and the view. (The cruise ships are now part of the 7pm-ish show)
...and on a quick side note - Barbie took me for my birthday lunch last week (I love celebrating my birthday whenever I can!) at an amazing new French restaurant on Cambie called Pied-a-Terre. If you have an opportunity to splurge anytime soon, you must try it. They have a set menu for lunch which was reasonably priced and the food? Well, we couldn't stop ooh-ing and aah-ing the whole meal. Soooo good! Here's a glimpse of our dessert.yummmm!

hello again...

mother's day - last weekend - with both of our lovely moms. ALL weekend. There were pedicures, plant shopping excursions, lovely dinners, brunch at bonniebrook and more family visits.
a glimpse...

and then...my nephew lost his frisbee in the culvert
whew...he found it! crazy kid!

Finally...this is what I've been waiting for!

Sunday, Sunday...Sitting outside on the back patio in the sunshine,

with friends,

and a beer,

and some bbq'd wings,

and some Bob Marley,

YESSSSSS!

Today, I put my hummingbird feeder up after a hummingbird whizzed noisily past my head while I was out thinking about where to plant my new bulbs. Can't wait to watch them feed! OH! OH! OH! - I just watched one land and have a sip! Yay.

Today's been a catch up day. Had guests all weekend again which was great so today is back to the reality of emptying the laundry basket, dishwasher, recycling...and getting some more vitamin d in the back yard. Our uber-gardener neighbour stopped by last week with a big bag full of coffee grounds (thanks Starbucks!) to add to our flower beds. Apparently it's very good for the soil so that was another project I crossed off my to-do list today. http://www.sustainableenterprises.com/Business/coffeefert.htm

Oh yeah, I also caulked around the windows on the outside of the house. Am I handy, or what?!?

George is on his way home and the sun is still shining. Maybe it will be warm enough to dine outside this evening? Or is that pushing it:)? Hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

xo

Oh yeah, we also had the ceremonial planting of our lilac tree this weekend. I LOVE lilacs!

It's All Good...

One day soon, I'll have my camera, charger, adapter cord and computer all in one place at the same time. I finally got my computer back (she was very much missed!) and now I can't find my camera adapter cord to transfer my pix on so...I'm writing anyway (pictures to come soooon).

I feel very settled today - in my jammies watching the snow fall and working away on some new Bodacious stuff. We had lots of company over the weekend which was pretty great - my dad, step-mom, grandma, brother and his whole family and my uncle and cousin were all here at some point over the past few days. Lots of great visiting and catching up.
One of my favourite things is hearing my dad and grandma tell stories from the "old days" when my dad was a small boy in Mexico. One I hadn't heard before connected Pancho Villa to their hometown of Chihuahua (well before my dad was born but still connected to our family)!

My grandma moved to Mexico when she was 4 years old with some of the first Mennonite settlers over there. The land was cheap and uncultivated and they were able to practice their religion without the threat of being conscripted. Their culture wasn't necessarily welcomed by all of the local Mexicans and the families had to find a way to communicate and do business in this new land.
Apparently, my grandma's uncle found a stash of gold (we're talking several gold bars) on their land and decided to make a dash for the border - thinking it would be easier to keep it if he was outside of Mexico. Unfortunately, that's as far as his plan went, and all of the gold was confiscated by the border patrol. This was the year before Pancho Villa was killed and there were rumours that his gold was hidden in the vicinity. That's as far as the story goes for now but I'm looking into it:) Imagine how history might have been different had his plan worked!
Hope you all had a great weekend - now it's hailing!!!

sunny monday!

Just playing around today - trying to give my blog a new look/sound without so much stuff! Thanks to Danielle at whitehottruth for the song!

I was getting frustrated at not being able to utilize the whole page.
Had a great and once again, mellow, weekend. Picked up a couple of treats on friday for g's valentine. Got an amaryllis plant that's just about to bloom (i'm quite fascinated with bulbs at the moment) and a dragonfly decoration for our garden with a glow-in-the-dark marble/orb-thing that we'll put in front of our bedroom window once we put some plants out there.
Had a sweet Saturday - drove to Davis Bay (our new weekend morning stop) to get coffees/teas and snacks and then meandered around Sechelt and checked out the shops. Our welcome wagon lady gave us a bunch of coupons for free stuff so we ended up going to Casey's Country Gardens for our free 2" plant (i chose an ivy) and picked up a beautiful bromeliad plant called "guzmania torch". Apparently easy to care for which works for me!

Headed to Smitty's Oyster Bar as mentioned in my earlier post and had some yummy food and drinks and then a mellow night at home.
Yesterday was so beautiful here so we decided to get some projects done around the house - not a chore to hang out here at all! Washed the car (dirty, dirty, dirty!), cleaned the gutters (i held the ladder:) and tried to convince ourselves that it was warm enough for a picnic on our back patio. Didn't last too long but it provided great anticipation of things to come - backyard bbqs, croquet, bocce parties, shared with friends and family.
Two weekends in a row we've been on our own and now we're ready for company again. I believe we're starting to get booked up so...if you're planning on coming, give me a call. Barb and Brandy on Wednesday, Karin on Friday and the Manuel crew for the weekend. Woo hoo!