five minutes in the garden

The tomato production is out of control.

We are definitely not keeping up.

This was 2/3 of what we uncovered this morning.
Time to get cooking!

stanley park

 Downtown Vancouver

 The totem poles in Stanley Park

 The workmanship is phenomenal

 North Vancouver

 No, it's not the Little Mermaid -

just a swimmer.

Lion's Gate Bridge

harvest

 Harvest has been in full swing for over 2 weeks now.

 The weather has been perfect - hot, dry and windy -

allowing for a lot of straight combining.

We haven't seen many swathers at work this year.

 The straw bales seem to get rolled up just as

soon as the combine moves on.

I love harvest season on the prairies.

lake louise 28 years later

 On our way back to Manitoba

we made a few very important stops.

One was in Lake Louise.

 We stood in this spot while on our honeymoon

28 years ago.

 We took pictures then too, however, we did not know at the time

that our new camera (a wedding gift) was not registering

one - single - picture.

 We made this discovery after we arrived

in Manitoba.

And we were both heartbroken.

We had not understood how the film automatically

wound itself into the camera

and as a result

we had not loaded it correctly.

 So we've never seen the pictures we took of 

Prince Phillip

who was visiting the park to help in the celebration of its

100th year.

Or the picture of me with a real Mountie in red.

Or the pictures of us at Lake Louise.

But now we have those pictures.

We are older

and hopefully wiser

but most definitely

still in love - 

more now than ever.

happy birthday to my husband

Today is Howard's birthday.

I have been blessed to be a part of his birthday for 29 years.

There are moments when I wonder about him.....

(This is, apparently, his idea of a walking stick)

....and his attempts at, dare I say,....humour?

But I can look past that because he actually is

quite funny

and

sensitive

 kind and thoughtful

generous

intelligent

my biggest fan

the world's best dad

and

the person I always want to be with

He loves Jesus

and he shows that to me in many ways

every

single 

day

Happy Birthday to my wonderful and amazing husband.

The years just keep getting better.

I love you!

the lower mainland

 While we were in BC we went to what is called

"the lower mainland".

It is a heavily populated area encompassing 

several towns and cities

that are suburbs of Vancouver.

 We went on a hike with my sister, Heather, and her family.

It was a popular venue!

 

Nowel, Derek, Heather, Brodie

 Brodie looks like me.

I saw it for the first time on this trip.

 Last summer we touched our toes into the cold Atlantic ocean.

This summer, walking into the Pacific was much easier as the water

was surprisingly warm.

This is in a town called White Rock and yes, there is a white rock

which, unfortunately, is painted white.

I did not think it merited a picture!

 This is an amazing bridge - the Port Mann Bridge.

It's brand new.
Shortly after it was opened last winter they had a storm

and huge amounts of ice collected on the cables

and fell onto the cars below.

I believe they have now solved this problem by slightly

heating the cables during cold weather.

why I plant a garden

I do not plant a garden for the veggies.

I plant it for the flowers!

I think it's the English coming out in me.

couldn't resist!

along the way

 We stopped in Calgary to visit some friends

and see my aunt.

We were shocked that there were no signs of a city that had

recently experienced a terrible flood.

The city had 10 days to get ready for the Calgary Stampede

once the flood waters had receded and they obviously

worked like crazy to clean things up.

 Dear, dear friends from our BFA days.

 In Banff National Park.

Love these wildlife overpasses.

 This was a stunning bit of highway driving!

 This was also stunning - in a different sort of way.

 This was only one very small part of this building.

 There must be a lot of people out there missing hubcaps.

It's always nice to see a bit of Europe on the roads in Canada.

the weddings

 We travelled out to BC - Vernon/Kelowna - to attend

two weddings of two nephews.

Josh's wedding was first.

When he got out of the limo I thought - Whoa, he looks terrified.

When he walked up to us he said, 

"I was just hit with my first wave

of nerves!"

But he did great.

 The wedding tent was gorgeous.

 This kind of tent was definitely a first for me!

 The flower girls wearing what Katy called "their fluffs".

 The bride - Kelsey - was gorgeous, of course.

 As was the groom.

And he did shed some tears.

I thought he just might.

 Now they can really smile.

 Wedding #2 - eight days later - our nephew, Jori.

 Another handsome groom looking pretty calm and collected.

 

And another beautiful bride, Rebecca, and a pretty

sharp father.

 Got 'er done!

What a treat to be able to celebrate these two special days

with our nephews and their brides.