Community

A friend of mine added me to an east end mom Facebook group a few days ago (something I'd never join on my own) and I've been idly browsing the posts in my spare time. It's a big group -- somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1200 people -- but I was impressed to see that everyone's posts were greeted with helpfulness and warmth.

On Sunday morning I noticed one woman's post asking to borrow a bassinet for the summer. She had an offer within 30 minutes. Within an hour, there was a second reply offering a free bassinet to keep, the only stipulation being that she too pass it on when she was done with it. The woman who posted the request responded that she'd already agreed to borrow the first one, so I figured I'd see if it was still available and sure enough it was. I offered to pay her something for it because I know how expensive bassinets are, but she politely declined and again just asked that I eventually pass it on. Spence and I drove to pick it up tonight and had a good chat with her and her husband. The bassinet itself is in excellent shape and will be absolutely perfect to have at Twin Ponds this summer before we eventually upgrade to a crib.

All this to say I'm really glad to be part of such a generous and helpful community. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute in a more meaningful way in the near future too. I guess community does exist in big urban areas after all.

Things that make me happy

Continuing my last things that make me happy post, this video ranks high up there. I thought we lost it when our RAID crashed last week and am overjoyed that we didn't. Makes me laugh every time!



Wow, the video quality on blogger is atrocious. Protip: apparently you have to upload to YouTube and embed the video to make it watchable.

Good morning sunshine

Or in this case, hello moon.

I hit the sack at 2am after spending a great evening with some of our best friends. That's officially the latest I've stayed up in probably 6 months. It's 6:16am as I type this, and I've been up for over half an hour after tossing and turning for a while in bed. At this point I'm used to waking up every 60-90 minutes to go to the washroom and going back to sleep (yay pregnancy!), but sometimes you just need to cut your losses and get up and do something.

In my case that something is making a latte and watching last night's episode of 48 Hours. The subject's Robert Durst, someone who's been getting a lot of attention lately. His story is so bizarre it's like rubbernecking a car wreck. I don't want to, but I can't help myself.

I watched HBO's The Jinx and have to say the thing I find most fascinating about it is the way he answers questions. He states his reply in a direct, non-editorialized manner even when his words have damning implications. He doesn't try to explain them. Just answers matter-of-factly then sits and waits for the next question.

I've heard a theory that he has Asperger's Syndrome and that's why his emotive response appears off. Maybe. But regardless, why would someone in his position seek out the production of that kind of show after expending great personal effort to fly under the radar for decades?

It just makes no sense to me.

Guess who's back?

Thanks Julie for the inspiration to actually post something and to broaden the focus of this blog. Look! I'm posting!

Winter seems like it's been dragging on forever so I thought I'd post a picture that makes me happy:

That's Spence planting a maple tree he brought out from the back of the property. Look at all that lush greenery!

Yesterday's temperature hit a high of 8°C which felt amazing. Had a great visit with Julie and we came thisclose to having our inaugural porch sit to enjoy the sunshine at the new house. But we got to talking and didn't manage to make it out before sunset. Soon. It will happen soon.

May 24 and other good times

I think I'm overdue for a post here. I'm going to blame a couple of whirlwind weeks and leave it at that.

Keeping with tradition, we hosted some friends for the May 24 long weekend, and again keeping with tradition we had an awesome time. There was swimming, archery, badminton, baseball, frisbeeing (is that a word?), lots of bon fires and sing-alongs and, of course, fireworks. We were lucky enough to also have a friend perform a fire show which was nothing short of incredible. What an awesome way to start the summer!

In other news, there has been massive progress to our hill clearing project. It looks amazing. Unfortunately it looks like our efforts have displaced a family prickle of porcupines (did you know that's what a group of porcupines is called?) who have decided the best course of action would be to start eating our new shed's foundation. They've since successfully gnawed around the entire base. There is only one solution: they must be annihilated.

As of Sunday night last week, the "successfully eliminated" count was 5. Guess we'll see what this weekend brings. For the record, I really dislike killing things, however we really have no choice in this case. If we want to keep our cabin and shed intact, that is.

I'll leave you with some photos from the long weekend.

Twin Ponds makeover

Our land is extremely rocky. Choose any spot to dig and you'll hit a rock, or worse, an immovable boulder.

Our hope to have a yard where we can host picnics and maybe even a badminton court were dashed when we realized just how many rocks we had to contend with. Because summer is just around the corner (right? RIGHT?? Mother Nature I'm talking to you...), last week we hired a landscaper. 

Here's what our yard looked like a week ago:

This week, we came home to this:

And not only did our amazing landscaper bury all the rocks, he also extended our driveway to nicely lead up to our deck's second staircase!

Our driveway used to end at the set of stairs on the right. Not anymore.

Difference of time

This weekend was weird weather-wise (see what I did there, again?). Saturday morning we woke up to a lot of fog sitting heavily over both land and water. Everything hazy; muted, calm colours. Beautiful.

A few hours later we returned from town with some new lawn furniture. I snapped this picture which couldn't be more different than the scene a few hours earlier. Crisp, bright colours awaiting the sun. Happiness.