This is a family tradition started with Brendan at about this age, then with him when Dylan was just a babe in arms. Wish I had that photo on the computer.
We had an exceptionally wet and stormy July but the countryside, gardens and crops all look wonderful. Oh yeah, the weeds do too!

I'm still plugging away at the UofS TEFL courses and trying to fit in a little painting for fun. There is never a shortage of yard work but I've enjoyed being outdoors considering the six months of winter behind us and ahead of us. Why couldn't Dylan have fallen in love with soccer instead of hockey?







July was a quiet month in Kerrobert but Grandpa Peter, Dylan, Milkshake and Chris got up to Turtle Lake for 3 days. The idea was to go fishing but that plan failed yet again, first the boat battery was dead then the next day the wind was up. No one was around and it was as quiet there as at home. The weather was lovely and we ate all our meals outdoors cooking over the fire, including steaks and baked potatoes. Yum!


Dylan gets suited up for Hockey Camp at Notre Dame. He's there this first week of August. On our way we stopped at Dog River and took some photos of Corner Gas. Its certainly rural prairie. Athol Murray's Notre Dame College makes up most of the wee town of Wilcox.

2008 A very good year

We were so thrilled to have a nice visit from Nathan Schraefel and his family this past winter. Its hard to believe that Dylan's cousins are having babies.

How did it get to be July of 2008 already? Dylan's hockey season was a success and to prove it he won the 'Most Improved Player' award. However, we were visiting his dad in Mexico in late March so missed the banquet. Our two week vacation south was quite a change this year. Bob had been very busy building brick raised gardens and a new patio extension out the back door. It all looks quite lovely. We had great weather and Dylan caught two very large Yellow Tails. If I get this going I'll post photos.

Back in February I received an invitation to a wedding in Ontario for June so quickly booked a flight just thinking about getting out of Saskatchewan, but of course, even our winter finally ended and June was a good month here. I rented a car and Brendan and I picked up MaryLou and her Aunt Jean and all headed north of Toronto to Mansfield Outdoor Centre for Adam Palmer's wedding. It was so beautiful and wonderful to see all our Hendry family gathered as well as some old Mansfield staff friends.

Toronto was hopping with noisy flag waving Soccer fans and lots of summer activities. I took loads of photos and had a super time visiting with Brendan. He is so very busy that our time was limited. I did get to see my university buddy Caroline Goodfellow a few times and she and I saw one of Brendan's short plays down in the Distillery District.

Winter wonderland in Canada's outback

Well what a year to choose to stay in Canada for the winter! Bob got his share of snow shovelling in late November before he headed south on Dec 9 with Milkshake.





By then Dylan had been honing his skating skills for a couple of months and had started playing hockey in earnest. After arguing for hours with Dylan about doing his share of shovelling I just realized that it would be my winter exercise program and have had no shortage of opportunities.

Vancouver Wedding

Despite what you might think, these cherries were not in Vancouver but right here on our own tree in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan. Between holidays I picked two ice cream pails and today another. That part is easy but pitting them by hand is time consuming. Now if only I could make pie crust.








Alicia [Nokony], my chum since grade two met Carl and I at the airport on Sunday, August 19. We delivered Carl's bags to the Rosellen Suites and then visited Janet and Nicky at their Granville Island townhouse.









That evening Terry and Jeannie Moore hosted a barbeque at their new home in Kerrisdale for the Snell and Langley families. The surprise visitor was Heather [Gray] or was it Gail? Jim Langley, Ian and Florence, his folks were there too. Terry's daughter Cloe sang a beautiful song as her wedding gift to Janet and Nicky. You could hear a pin drop and there were lots of tears shed as a result of her moving performance.





On Monday Alicia took me shopping to one of her favourite stores at Broadway and Macdonald. Carl had the wedding gang in and out of his place storing decorations for the next day.

For lunch on Tuesday I had a surprise visit from Mary Lou and Joseph who were en route from their home in Sydney on Vancouver Island to visit her sister Janice on the sunshine coast.
Weather continued to be fabulous for the afternoon wedding which was held on the fifth floor penthouse patio half a block from Stanley Park.
























Cliff gave a beautiful toast and welcomed Nicky into their family. Nicky's older son Dan gave a very funny speech ending with 'Mom, you're here, you're queer and we love you'.










Wednesday afternoon Simon took time from work and drove Alicia and I up to Alice Lake after a brief stop at one of his building projects at Squamish. We had a picnic and I walked around the lake while Simon and Alicia read.









Thursday morning, the day of departure Alicia and I walked over to Granville Island and visited another of her favourite shops full of beautiful imported cotton clothing and bedding. I couldn't resist getting some lovely colourful Indian pillow covers. We had brunch and coffee in the market building and wrote a card to our buddy
Annabelle in Scotland, who was missing from our usual trio.

Brockville was our first stop

After a shaky start when our Edmonton flight out of S'toon was delayed we finally got the red eye at Calgary and arrived in Toronto Wednesday morning. We picked up a rental car and drove straight to Brockville since Brendan had a very busy week rehearsing two Summer Works plays. We kept seeing boy scouts - at the airport and the two rest stops along the 401. After a short power nap I left the 401 and took the very pretty Thousand Islands Parkway at Gananoque to Brockville. Amidst all the visiting with the Hendry family - Hank, Susan, Chris, Blake and Adam, David, Kelly and James and later Neil and Alex arrived - we managed to find a few things to interest Dylan. He saw two new movies, we swam in the rock quarry at Lyn Pitt and canoed on the St. Lawrence from Susan's peaceful cottage on the bay. Neil gave Dylan a guitar lesson and Grandpa Hendry drove us along with Kelly and Chris to see the Iroquois locks where we had ice cream but didn't see any big ships.

On Saturday morning I loaded up on fresh veggies from the Farmers' Market and made a big pot of soup and invited Chris and Alex to the cottage for lunch.

Since Brendan had Sunday off we headed out early and arrived at 471 Broadview at noon.

Eastern Canada Summer Holiday

Downloaded 350 plus photos onto Brendan's computer so hopefully will be able to include a few here?? This has been an amazing trip down memory lane, especially the six day jag to Halifax and area staying with old friends Bob Hudson/Carol Anne James and Brad Hodgins/Ella Holmes otherwise known as Brad'n'ella. We arrived there in a downpour. Hudson met us and took us to the Chickenburger in Bedford, a very old institution where I tasted my first real maritime fish and chips in 19 years.

We visited Peggy's Cove twice since Heather and Jill Hudson busk there every summer and we had a great lobster feast. This is Heather who just graduated from high school. Over the week we climbed the Dingle tower in Flemming park, wandered the grounds of York Redoubt, enjoyed the beautiful Public Gardens and toured Citadel Hill. While Dylan swam with friends at Centennial Pool Hudson and I hiked Point Pleasant Park.

Dylan took this shot on the ferry to Dartmouth. We travelled over with Bob Lawrence and very briefly saw Sue Dexter at the other side before catching the ferry back to Halifax.

Bob drove Carol Anne, Dylan and I down to Lunenburg via Chester and Mahone Bay with its five churches. Here is Dylan beside the Bluenose.

On Friday Hudson drove us down to the waterfront where we met Brad and Ella for lunch. They haven't changed and graciously said the same about me - but we know that 19 years must have done something to us! Out at their beautiful home on Grand Lake near Enfield Dylan helped Brad raise their swimming platform and we enjoyed a refreshing dip on an otherwise very warm day. Their son Taylor had changed from the last time I'd seen hi at four to a handsome young man of 22. After visiting the Elmsdale Saturday morning market Dr. Bob came out for a visit and we had another swim. He looked younger than any of us [well, except Dylan]. I had chased all over for batteries for my camera and am ticked that I didn't even get a photo of him.

On the flight back to Toronto in the dark we flew over a wild lightning storm, took a taxi and got to Trish and Brendan's about midnight. After a lazy morning Sunday we took the King streetcar outside their flat and had a wonderful brunch buffet - waffles with mounds of real whipped cream and strawberries, couscous, shrimp, mussels , salmon nd everything else you can think of.

We have walked miles in this city and visited lots of great music and book stores. Dylan got the new Harry Potter but was more intrigued by Suicidal Bunnies that Brendan showed him. Here they are looking at it walking down Front St.

It is such a treat to watch my two boys interact. Two nights Dylan went with Brendan while he did his plays and I visited and stayed overnight with my good friend and mentor Caroline Goodfellow. Her co-op apartment is just a short walk from King and Jarvis and the streetcar has been so handy. Its hard to believe that she's 91 as she continues to challenge my mind as she did when we met at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax/Bedford in 1985.

On Tuesday Trish and Brendan and his high school buddie James took Dylan to Canada's Wonderland while I took the GoBus to Milton to visit Shelagh and Alan Dobson. We had a great pub lunch where Alan had his last pint-or so he says and Shelagh and I sipped club soda. Before I had to leave the next day we hiked up and around Rattlesnake on the Bruce Trail which is a beautiful piece of the Niagara Escarpment.

Lost in cyberspace

April is almost over and the yard is still a work in progress, but then so is much of life. I wrote a long entry a few days ago and it disappeared into cyberspace and I was not impressed. I want to keep writing but my memory is so bad I can't even remember what the blog address is to tell friends. I'm using Dylan's computer and can't download photos since they are all on my laptop.

This has been an interesting weekend with the visit of my youngest brother Mark's son Nicolas and two of his buddies. They are looking for work not because they want to work but because they are broke and figure that is about the only way they will have any money. Mostly they were looking for trouble, though wouldn't admit it, but since it found them each night after midnight I figure they were in the right place for it - trouble I mean. Unless they thought they would get some job offers after midnight in a field beer bottle in hand. The frightening thing is that I can recall all too clearly those years and how I acted and I know people, including family, or perhaps mostly family, helped me out. I also know that no one especially parents could tell me anything.

There was a shower for Tracy on Saturday afternoon. She is marrying Don, my cousin Jack's son and they are pushing thirty so have lots of life experience and a very good chance of making it work. I don't like showers as a rule because of the silly games but this one was fun with Don's mom Margie, sister Bobbi and her daughter Jaycee singing; then a cool fashion show with friends who could fit into their wedding dresses, including the mother of the bride. She said it was only because it had some stretch.

Saturday evening was the annual Perspective Women Artists show and it was a wonderful gala event. The talent is overwhelming for this small rural outback nowhere place-Kerrobert, Saskatchewan. It was a late night as I hung in to the end and got home at eleven. Today, Sunday they had a workshop from 1-4 using several different kinds of paper, tar paper, rice paper, etc. and different mediums-oil pastels, ink, charcoal, etc. It was fun and we had two young models [with their clothes ON].

Last Friday we picked up a new Honda Civic in Saskatoon and it is wonderful to have New wheels again. Its got loads of pep and is so quiet and comfy-I love it. So tomorrow I can just head into Saskatoon to meet my sister Cathy who hooked me up with her hair dresser, who knows how to cut curly hair. I want to have it long again but need a better shape to start out. Dylan has given me a list of clothing he wants from a special Boardstore. The only Board store I know about is the LCB [liquor control board], but thats not the one, thank goodness.

Hope you are all having a great week and I promise I will try to keep writing here and hope I don't bore you. adios amigos