Feeling better...

...and ready to play ball, or better yet, get wet in the water play area and then go sit in the sandbox.
Yeh, that's what I want to do. Let's go!

Sick Baby

Poor little Jboy was a sick baby last week. When we got there first thing in the morning his temp was 103. After meds it started to come down, but it fluctuated all day - going up, coming down, going back up. He just wanted to be held, so we held him. Even in the middle of the noisy living room...
he fell fast asleep while I held him, and I might have dozed off too. It was a tired stressful day all around.
By the end of the day his temp had returned to normal and he was feeling much better. Amma and Buppa on the other hand were worn out!!!!! Such a worry when a little one is sick. Thank goodness kids bounce back so quickly.

Bottle!

Sometimes the girl just needs to be babied a little. On this particular morning she wanted Buppa to help her with a bottle. Buppa was more than happy to oblige.
Little Brother had finished his bottle, but sat on the couch with Big sister while she chugged down a second bottle. Goodness she was a thirsty girl.
Almost done
Time for some breakfast.
Not quite sure what I think of this hair-do Amma.

Sunday Adventure - Part 2

With hats firmly in place, and cameras in hand, we got boldly out of the car at look-out number three.
What a view. The best one yet, and it seemed to be free of caterpillars. Wrong!
What a beautiful country we live in.
There was a path leading down into the treed area, but I thought the caterpillars might be raining freely down there, so I only went down a little way...
to get a few more pictures from that angle.
AC stayed up top
while I took this picture at the bottom of the stairs.
As nice as the weather was and as beautiful as the surroundings were, I was getting creeped out with the furry critters so we set off for Wakefield. The drive was beautiful, relaxing and caterpillar free. Or so I thought. When we arrived back home I walked past the mirror at the front door and noticed a caterpillar on my back.
How in the world did it get there? I had a hat on and was wearing a light jacket while we were eating lunch.
Then while we waited in line for the ferry at the end of the day, I took my jacket off and stepped out of the car to eat an apple.
We boarded the ferry to take us across the river back into Ontario then drove for another hour before arriving at our front door.
The caterpillar was still on my back, and it was alive. Yuck, yuck, yuck and double yuck.

Sunday Adventure - Part 1

The day dawned sunny and bright and the weatherman promised to deliver more of the same all day, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to visit Gatineau Park. We also wanted to explore some roads we had never been down before, ans as it turned out we found many of those. We managed to find our way to the Champlain Bridge just fine, but did get lost and had to back-track a few times once we were in Quebec. Groan! Oh well, we finally arrived safe and sound at the tourist information centre in Chelsea and set off, with maps in hand, to explore the park. This is a view from the first look-out spot we were directed to.
The second look-out area had picnic tables so we headed over there to enjoy our delicious lunch while feasting of the beautiful view seen in the pic below.
AC went in search of a picnic table...
and we set out our lunch on a great table with a fabulous view.
It would have been perfect except for one thing. It was raining caterpillars! We saw one or two on the table at first, but we brushed them aside and set out the food. No sooner had we gotten ride of those two when two and three and four more appeared. Yuck! As fast as we brushed them away more appeared. We looked up, and the trees were full of them. Groan!
AC already had his hat on, so I found mine too, grabbed a cloth to swish the caterpillars away with, and we sat down to eat our lunch but it was less than relaxing.
We gobbled our sandwiches as quickly as we could then shook out the table cloth, checked bags for stray furry crawlies then packed everything away safely in the caterpillar free car. With hats firmly in place to keep hair and neck protected from the falling critters we wandered around taking pictures.
The pic below is what I was focusing on in the pic above. The wall was literally crawling with the blighters.
I posed for one more pic under the infested trees and then we were outta there! Yuck, yuck, yuck!
Time to visit another area of the park. Hopefully the caterpillars wouldn't be everywhere.

Brooke Valley Spring Tour

After we left the Rock Wall Gardens on Saturday we made tracks for the Brooke Valley Spring Tour. We picked up a brochure about it on the Red Trillium Studio Tour and thought we would give it a gander. I am so glad we did. This one will be added to our "must see" tours next spring for sure.

Seeing as it was getting near lunch time when we arrived in the area we thought we would start with Studio three seeing as it advertised that a lunch would be served. I thought we might get a sandwich or a muffin and a cup of coffee, but that was not the case. This beautiful home in the country had six tables set up in the downstairs living room area and more tables set up outside under the trees in this delightful garden.
We were greeted at the door by the hostess and she seated us at a table by this window with a great view of the lawn and gardens. We were given a menu with many food choices and were informed that all proceeds would go to the Stephen Lewis Foundation We also discovered that all the waitresses that day were Grandmothers from the Mississippi Grannies also associated with the Stephen Lewis Foundation. AC has posted more pics and information on his blog here.
After lunch I relaxed in the garden...
Then we walked over to Studio 4 This lady's willow furniture, wooden garden tables, planters, and other assorted garden art was fabulous and reasonably priced.
The planter below for instance was only $20.
From Studio 4 we walked over to Studio 5 seen in the pic below. Too bad you can't see the detail of the building in this picture. It is a stackwall house - walls made of firewood logs,
Inside we were treated to a concert in this bright airy family room.
At the end of the concert we walked back to the garden art Studio and I contemplated buying something, but our yard is much too small for most of the pieces. They would look great at Riverwood though.
Later this summer this studio is offering courses on how to make your own garden art, such as this piece below. I think I will sign up for the course.

Rock Wall Gardens

The weatherman sent fabulous weather our way this weekend, so in spite of our colds we set off on an anniversary weekend adventure. We grabbed an extra box of Kleenex and lots of stuff to drink and off we went.

Our first stop was the Rock Wall Gardens. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised to find such an interesting place so close to home. This is what you see as you drive up from the road. Looks intriguing doesn't it? We later found out that it was an old dairy barn, built in 1921, that was left to decay until the present owners rescued it. They saw beyond the ruin, and after lots of hard work have a very interesting garden that we will visit again for sure.
Amidst all the crumbling stone walls you can see the most beautiful stained glass pieces.
What a contrast!
Each room that we entered gave us another feast for the eyes.

This is a view looking back at the old barn from the gardens in the next pic.
Lovely huh?
Stained glass pieces were tucked in corners of the garden too.
Along with interesting garden creatures.
Yes, this was a very interesting garden and a wonderful first stop on our adventure.
Next stop, The Brooke Valley Studio Tour. I'll post those pics tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Another mystery solved

We were wondering the other day why the doll stroller was all bent out of shape.
Little Sir Bruiser has apparently been using it for his workout!!!!

Water Play

We enjoyed sunshine and warm temps on Wednesday, so the kids indulged in some water play.
They both love water play and happily spend a lot of time at this little sink while Buppa and I relax and put our feet up. We needed time to relax today let me tell you. These colds are knocking us off our feet. Groan.

Catching the morning rays

What a nice way to start the day. Brother and sister having a little chat while they catch the morning rays.
Poor Buppa and I are sick with nasty colds so we rather enjoyed a little bit of peace and quiet while the kids caught their rays. Then we looked forward to sitting outside in the sunshine to catch some afternoon rays of our own to help us fight these nasty cold germs. Cough, sneeze, hack - yes bring on lots of sunshine ALL WEEK! Please!