Wednesday, July 30, 2008

You know you have moved to the country when....


A stranger shows up on your doorstep and asks you if you would like to buy a beautiful arial photo of your acreage.  Curtis couldn't resist so, we now have a nice shot of our place to hang on the wall with the nice picture that we have of his Baba and Gedo's farm back in MB.  



The following picture is the print that I got from Mom and Dad for Christmas a couple of years ago and was supposed to get framed.  I finally got it done this spring and Mom has not seen it yet.  So, here it is.  I think that it looks smashing.  The print is a pencil drawing of my Grandma Pollock's farm in Brandon, MB.  This is the house that my Dad grew up in!  Pretty cool!  I can still smell the warm wind laced with the coal from the back porch.  


Pollock Family Reunion in Fernie, BC

On July 20th, our entire family, Curtis included, headed to Fernie, BC for a Pollock Family Reunion.  Mom and Dad and Stephanie and Aaron met us there.  I think that this may be the 1st time we have all been together since Steph and Aaron's wedding two years ago, so, it was really nice to be together.

The week before we left, the kids had been in MB visiting Curtis' family and I took some of my free time and cleaned out my office and put stuff away.  So, when it was time to pack for our trip, I didn't even think about my camera and left it at home, deep in the drawer I had put it in when cleaning.  Didn't even realize that I didn't have it until about 30 kms from Fernie.  I asked, but Curtis wouldn't turn around and go back for it.  So, if you would like to see some awesome pics of the fishing portion of our holiday please visit Stephanie and Aaron's website.  I am sure she will have the pics up sometime this week and she took some great shots when she went as the official photographer on some of the fly fishing expeditions.  

We rented a condo on the upper part of Fernie and it was great because we had lots of room and were able to cook lots of our own meals.

We did, however, dine twice at the Blue Toque and had a great dinner out at the Island Lake Lodge.  Another great thing about where our condo was, was that you had a great view of the Ghost Rider on sunny days.


 

Lying in the shadows, a legend waits for the afternoon sun. On a summer evening, out of Mt. Hosmer’s face, comes the Ghostrider – the shadow of a distinctive horse and rider, the ghost some say of an angry Indian Chief and his jilted daughter pursuing William Fernie.

As legend tells it, William Fernie was courting an Indian Princess to learn the source of her sacred black stone necklace. It is said that after learning the secret location of the Morrissey Coal Seams, Fernie stopped seeing the Princess and the tribe’s medicine woman placed a curse on the Elk Valley.

Residents of Fernie feared the curse was real after several tragedies struck the town. Fire reduced the town to smoldering rubble in 1904 and again in 1908. In 1916, the Elk River flooded and in 1917 there was a mining disaster. A public ceremony in 1964 officially lifted the curse. Members of the Kootenay Tribes assembled in Fernie and Chief Red Eagle (Ambrose Gravelle) and Fernie Mayor James White smoked a pipe of peace.

Although the curse was lifted over 35 years ago, on summer evenings, the ghost of an angry Indian chief and his jilted daughter still rides above Fernie and their legend lives on in the shadows of the mountain.


While the boys and Steph were fishing Mom and Claire and I spent some time relaxing on the Elk River with our books and Spitz and we spent a couple of afternoons/evenings at the Fernie aquatic centre and Mom and I even swam!   Claire and Daniel swam in the Elk River, but it was WAY too cold for anyone else.   The following are pictures that I took with my phone at the River and then had to upload to Facebook and then copy to my desktop so, needless to say, the quality is a little shitty.  



Daniel and Claire walking across a more shallow part of the River.



Claire chillax'in on a tree in the water.



Claire found a deep spot!



Claire close up.



Daniel and Claire swimming for the opposite shore.


Of course, if you know me, my Mom and Stephani, you know that at least a couple of afternoons were spent checking out the downtown shopping.  They have some great stores in Fernie with lots of neat artsy things.  I bought some clothes for the kids and Curtis and also a beautiful vase from Naked Earth Pottery and a small print by Melanie MacVoy 



Naked Earth Pottery



Melanie MacVoy Print


And that is it.  We are hoping to plan a cruise to Alaska next year so that will be amazing and I can hardly wait.  Hopefully we will all be together again at some point during the Christmas Holidays.













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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Curtis' Garden



This spring we decided that we would plant a garden and see what happened.  Claire and I were very excited about this until we had to do the work.  She is my daughter!  Curtis ended up planting while we were in Seattle because it was too wet for us to do it before we left and since then he has taken the reins and it is amazing how it is growing!  We are already eating the lettuce and the rest won't be long coming.  The only thing that is not doing well are the peas because the deer are eating them.  Oh well, now we know not to plant peas!



Canada Day at the Cabin

A few days before Canada Day, Daniel, Claire, the greyhounds and I headed to the cabin to spend a week.  We were very lucky to have Curtis come and join the night before Canada Day.  We love to have him come and stay with us, especially when he brings the boat!!

This is a video of Claire tubing on Canada Day. Sorry in advance if it makes you sick!! The kids love to do this activity and the night before they went out in the big lux 3 seater tube and had a great time then as well.

This is a video of Daniel on the tube. He is having as much fun as Claire, but he is much harder to flip out of it!!

Claire swimming beside the boat in deep water after tubing


Daniel swimming in deep water


Here is our version of the "cheese"!

The rest of our week was spent at the beach or watching movies at the cabin.  The kids love being in the water and this trip they decided to use the boogie boards to collect big rocks!  Kept them busy for hours!  I am just as happy to sit in my chair with a book and just relax.


Claire really loves having her picture taken these days (sigh)


Daniel and Claire collecting their rocks.

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!