I Don't Feel Tired...

Yet I am not going to bed lately... well not until it is quite late! The days are so very long right now, and we have been having such beautiful weather... it feels wrong to go to bed when the sun is still shining! Last night it was still bright out when I made myself go to bed at 11:30... Next week is the solstice... I think my body is gearing up to watch it!

Sandals and Snow

Spring is definitely upon us here... about two months earlier than last year, although there is still a very good chance that we will see snow again before summer arrives, it isn't likely to last.

I have flowers blooming (and yet unidentified - I need to download the pics from my camera) and tulips, iris' and dahlias coming. My trees are budding and my grass is growing! Today we are expected to reach 24 degrees, and it is beautiful outside! While dropping the kids off at school the people are all in the mood for warm weather... shorts and t-shirts and sandals on almost everyone... including me. Yet, I still have snow in my back yard! Only a little bit, the remainder of the snow-slide Hubby built for the kids and it is in the shade... but it seems strange to be wearing sandals and to be able to kick snow!

Home...

We are home after a rather long time away. It was spring break and therefore time for my son's annual check-up with his doctor in Victoria. We take advantage of the fact that we will be on the Island to visit with all the people that we love and miss during the rest of the year. This year we were there even longer than planned as hubbies grand-father passed away just before spring break so we went down early for the funeral as well.


It is almost shocking, going down to the Coast and the Island now. It is so moist and so very green... almost suffocatingly so at times. The damp is everywhere and I never noticed it at all for the first 34 years of my life! It is beautiful and stunning to look at, but also rotten and decaying at the same time... The rain that used to seem so normal is now overwhelming and seemingly, constant. It is not home, anymore. It makes me sad to admit that, and I do know that if we were to move back I would soon adjust, but it is true. I have grown out of the bonds that held me to the coast.

I still love the ocean and the gardens and the green... I love the clean. Everything is scrubbed clean down there by the frequent rain, unlike the dust and dirt that coat everything up here. More than anything though, I miss the people that I love, both family and friends. However, I am not yearning to move back, as I once was.

Now we are settled, happy where we are. My kids have so many friends and such a fabulous school. The town seems to be getting smaller to me, which I assume means that I am now part of it... I can barely go downtown these days without stopping and chatting with someone I know. Not to mention the wonderful job that hubby has, which allows him to be home enjoying his family more than any other job I have ever heard of. The big sky is fascinating and full of beauty, the rivers we still have to explore... The fossils that seem to be all over, if you have the patience to look for them and the wildlife that is everywhere.

Yet we are not certain that we will remain here forever either... I think the one thing we are certain of, is that we are uncertain what our future holds. There is something exciting about that... so many options and possibilities it is up to us to find the path which is right for us.

Bugs...

I have never liked bugs. Everyone who knows me knows this and they also know that I have a particular loathing (some might say phobia) of spiders. So knowing these facts people also couldn't help but taunt me, when they learned that we were moving up North, about ALL the bugs they have up there! I heard plenty of...

"They have two seasons up there, winter and bug season!"

"Well you can't go outside in the summer, the mosquitoes are so big they will carry you away!"

... and many other pearls of wisdom like that.

So right now we are still in winter so it isn't bug season... but by that it means there are NO bugs... AT ALL! Every time I turn the light on in the basement bathroom, I cringe. Waiting to see the scurrying away of a spider or some other basement dwelling yuck but there aren't any and there haven't been for months. Even in the summer we only had small spiders in the basement and not that many. As for the mosquitoes and other flying bugs... yes they are around in the summer, especially if you are anywhere near a beaver pond. But all in all I have never experienced the quantity and size of the bug life that is on the Island... Holy crap!



The spider in this picture is on the ledge of my bathtub in Duncan... it almost takes up the whole ledge!! I thought it was a toy spider when I first saw it, and this is just a house spider - those bloody jumping spiders that infested my house in Ladysmith where terrifyingly aggressive and fast and big... and then those ones that were really long but so thin you practically couldn't see them (they looked like balls of hair) and that isn't even touching on the wood bugs, centipedes, earwigs, and all the other nasty things.

So as far as bugs go, I prefer the ones up here!

We have been having an amazing winter this year. We had a couple weeks of the very cold weather and then a couple weeks of snow and for the last while we have been sitting between -10 and +2 and this week has had the sunshine as well... it is beautiful. I can hear birds singing, the icicles were huge from the melting during the day and freezing at night although ours are almost gone now. We still have a fair bit of snow but if this weather keeps up... who knows maybe by the time spring break is here, it will already be spring?!

Spring

Walking around Stump Lake in Squamish with Nana & Grandad

The last two weeks have been spring break for Maria so we took advantage of the time off to go back to Squamish and the Island to catch up on some overdue visits and for Allan's yearly check-up with the cardiologist. It turns out that two weeks is not long enough to see everyone, but we managed to see many of our much missed family and friends.

Getting in the good books with the Easter Bunny...

Having a lovely visit with Granny Green brought the unexpected surprise of more cousins!

Our trip to Squamish was wonderful, it is funny how we have come full-circle now that we have left the Island. For so long after leaving Squamish, we couldn't stand going back to town because of all of the changes and building that was never-ending. We loved seeing our families and friends, but it was hard to see the town itself, it was no longer our home-town. Now that we have left the Island and moved up North, we can see the beauty of Squamish again, it still isn't "home" but it isn't so disturbing to see the changes... maybe because it really isn't home anymore? (anyway, I side-track) We had a wonderful visit with everyone we managed to see while in Squamish and we enjoyed the lack of snow.

Maria stopped by at her old school during lunch hour to see some of her old friends, then we went to Transfer Beach after school to meet up with more friends... it is always fun to throw rocks

Our visit on Saltspring with my Sister and her family was great fun!

We left for the Island after a week and managed to see so many people and had such wonderful visits, it really was awesome on the Island too. We managed to get to Salt Spring to see my sister and her family, visit my other sister and family in Ladysmith as well as most of our friends, we visited much of our family in Duncan and managed to join in on the annual easter egg hunt which was great fun. We also spent one day in Victoria after Allan's Dr. appointment (which was excellent) and we went to the Royal BC Museum and watched an Imax movie... so it was VERY busy, but so wonderful.

We had a great time at the museum

We saw an otter on our walk out on the breakwater

The easter egg hunt was awesome... even if it was pouring rain!

Then to top off a wonderful trip, we arrived back in Fort St John to spring... the snow is almost completely gone and it is warm. Ahh spring, I have missed you!

Our trip home was good... but a little over-stuffed!