Back from Camping

We're back from our annual church group camping trip. I love this campout! We establish a date, a location in the campground, and then put an open invitation in the weekly church newsletter. Everyone is welcome. You provide your own camping equipment and food, reserve your own campsite, show up, and then we just let things happen. No one feels like planning a big church camping event so this works for us. We had a wonderful time together, socializing around the campfire, at the beach, over food, and on our walks. It's great!

The first day there was my birthday. They surprised me with a birthday cake at the campfire that evening.
The kids prepared a photo scavenger hunt for the adults. Here's a picture of "at least three people eating ice cream". To get this picture we had to go and buy ice cream. Good thinking!

Here's another item: 10 people on a rock (there are a few in behind the group you can see).

Relaxing together down at the "rocky beach" at sunset.

A Quick Peek at the Garden

This rose of sharon bush is just loaded!! with flowers this year. I've never seen it like this before.

The zucchinis are doing well this year. We've picked and eaten a few already.

And these snapdragons surprised me in the vegetable garden. I didn't plant or seed them. They just showed up!

Purple coneflowers - one of my favourites!

Alida Shoes

Look at this! The brand name of Rosemary's shoes is the same as our daughter, Alida's, name! Henry noticed it as everyone was packing up after the birthday celebration yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Henry!

Today we celebrated our son, Henry's, birthday. Karen & Anna did most of the preparations for our pad-tai dinner. It was a treat!

After dinner and my favourite dessert of tiramisu, Mark & Rosemary showed us pictures of their vacation in Newfoundland.

Junior Caribana Parade

Yesterday Karen, Anna (my nieces) and I went to see the Junior Caribana Parade. So much sound, rhythm, colour, and energy! It was great! And the kids were so cute!

Quote from the Junior Carribana Parade website: The Junior Parade is a volunteer driven parade designed to teach children about how to celebrate the Caribana Festival. Traditionally held two Saturdays before the main Caribana™ parade... Close to 2,000 children and over 20 float trucks and sound vehicles will be taking part in the Scotiabank Caribana/Yorkgate Mall Junior Parade... Registration numbers make this the biggest children’s parade EVER!!!

Camps are in Full Swing!

Now that our mission's head office is in a new location, we actually have one of our six summer day camp sites - that are all over the city - right in our building. It's great to see all the kids and their pile of back packs every day! It helps me feel more connected with what my administrative work is all about.

Alida's Visiting at Christmas!

Our daughter, Alida, told us today that she's coming to visit us from Australia for two whole weeks at Christmas time. And she's already booked her flights. Yay!!!!!

100% Compostable?

We'll see... I buried it in our compost heap today and will check on it every once in a while.

Sunday

One last look at all the international flags that have been on display and for sale here for the last four weeks during the World Cup tournament. Very festive! I love flags!

And here are some treasures I found in the garden early this morning - our first zuchinni of the season, part of a robin's egg right in the middle of the lawn, and rhubarb! Real rhubarb! I have about ten plants and they just don't grow any good-sized stalks. Over the last fifteen or twenty years I've surrounded them with compost, with manure, have transplanted them, watered them, gotten new plants from people who have massive rhubarb plants - but no luck. And so about three weeks ago I dug out two plants and moved them into my sunny flower beds in the front yard and guess what?! - good-sized stalks of rhubard for the first time in years! Should have thought of this earlier. Oh well, better late than never.

Yay! It's Raining!

After four days of very hot and humid weather, it was a great relief to wake up to cooler temperatures and rain this morning! Our big golf umbrellas - I never play golf, but the umbrellas are great! - came in very handy on our way to and from the pool this morning. While there I picked up some ingredients for our small group dinner tonight and some magazines from the library to read at the beach tomorrow.

I love the smell of rain! Here's our own little waterfall coming out of the downspout. This is supposed to be going into our rain barrel, but almost two years since buying it we still haven't hooked it up yet! Something I need to move to the top of my priority list - one of these days:)

I managed to stay dry all the way home in the pouring rain, and then when I bent down to get a picture of these impatients that are heavy with rain, my umbrella slipped and all the water coming off the umbrella ran down my back. O well... I love how the rain makes everything look so fresh and clean!

Rose of Sharon - a type of hibiscus.

Green Bean Plants in Hot Sunshine

Have you ever noticed how green bean plants turn their leaves straight up and down in the hot sunshine instead of lying flat-horizontally, the way they usually do? I guess that way not as much water evaporates from the leaves.

This is how the leaves are positioned in the hot sunshine at midday.

And here are the same plants early the next morning before the sun reached them.

I think it's amazing how God created these plants with the ability to adapt to different circumstances!

Tall Ships in Toronto Harbour

This weekend there were about ten tall ships on display in the Toronto Harbour. My favourite one was the "Europa" which just happened to be from The Netherlands.

The "Empire Sandy" was out giving harbour tours.

It looked so gorgeous and majestic!

There was going to be a "Parade of Sail" on Sunday afternoon - with all of the tall ships with their sails up going out into Lake Ontario. I really, really, really wanted to go to see them, but it was so very, very hot out, so I decided not to go. Heat and I don't go well together, but I'm really sorry that I didn't see them. I'll have to be satisfied with seeing this one on Saturday evening. It was so beautiful!!! We watched it go back and forth in the harbour. What a sight! Absolutely gorgeous!

Movie Under the Stars

On Friday evening Gerard, Karen and I wandered on over to our local square. Our local city councillor has organized a family event for six Friday evenings this summer. He's arranged for booths selling a variety of ethnic foods and artists showing and selling their work, entertainment and then a family movie. It was great sitting out there on a warm summer evening watching a magician and then "Night at the Museum". A wonderful community event!

Zuchini Flowers

Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July!

I'm so thankful for the privilege of living in this beautiful country where we can experience peace and freedom!

We started Canada Day bright and early by giving R a ride to the airport. Then we went strawberry picking. It was at the very tail-end of the season, but we still found lots of beautiful and delicious berries. It was a gorgeous sunny and windy day and it felt so good to be out in the country.

And then I did something for the very first time! I picked raspberries at this same pick-your-own farm.

We enjoyed fresh strawberries in the field, on our sandwiches and with some ice cream. Nothing like fresh strawberries straight from the plant and still warm from the sunshine! We also moved a bed to H & M's and watched fireworks at Downsview Park.

School's Out!

I guess they figured since school's out I don't need this anymore and added their lock to the collection on our bus stop post.