Spring.....

The snow is melting! There are huge puddles everywhere and the grass is brown and mucky. The off-leash park is a lake and Doog has to be thoroughly washed before he's allowed back in the house. But at least we've had some sunshine and the temperature is usually above 0 in the daytime. It even reached a whopping 10 degrees a couple of times!

Here's Doog enjoying the warmth and sunshine on the deck. He's pretty happy winter is finally over.

This is a close up of the moldy carrot and tomatoes I found the other day on the front lawn. They are all that remains of the snowman we made with Kate when it first snowed back in October. (Yep, the last time I saw the lawn was in October!)

And here is the last bit of our once giant snow piles.

I really hope it doesn't take too long for the grass to recover. It doesn't look too healthy at the moment. In fact nobody is too healthy at the moment. I've had a cold and Neil is just recovering from a bout of bronchitis/pneumonia! I won't go into detail but we both feel pretty crappy.

In other news, and I'm sure everyone will find this highly exciting......we now have cabinets and counter tops in our laundry room as you can see in the beautiful photograph below. I bet you're happy you decided to read this riveting blog today!

Hunter...

Look how big he is now!

Funny sunset...

I took these photos about a week or so ago from our back deck. I thought it was kind of odd how the sun was leaving a trail as it set. Just to prove it wasn't me wobbling whilst I took the picture here's another one from a minute or so before.....

I've never seen a sunset like this before and thought you might want to see it too.

Today in Beaumont....

We took Doog out for a walk and then took a little drive around taking a few photos of the countryside around Beaumont.

We even saw a herd of dear!

And Doog made friends with a cute little puppy at the off-leash park.

Banff, last weekend.....

Here's Neil knocking on Mandy and Kelly's door at 7.30am last Friday. Our destination for the weekend....Banff ! It was snowing when we left Beaumont. First stop...Tim Hortons.

We stopped in Canmore for lunch and then had a nice relaxing evening of eating and drinking in Banff. On Saturday morning we headed up to Sunshine for a spot of skiing. Here we are ready to leave the hotel with Neil, Mandy and Kelly all dressed in black like a group of ninjas!

On the lift......

Mandy striking a pose on the slopes.....

Here's Neil with a breathtaking Rocky Mountain backdrop ( I don't know if you can see but Kelly is pissing against the tree in the background!)

We stopped a passer -by for a group shot but he wasn't the best photographer and managed to cut off all our feet. Never mind it's still a good one of alll four of us.

BIG MOUTH

Do you think my mouth looks big when I wear these glasses?

HAHHAHAHAHA

Sorry, I'm lazy!

I know I haven't posted anything for ages and so you've all probably stopped looking at this blog. Well I just haven't felt like blogging. I've been a bit homesick lately and have been so busy!

Anyways the big news of the week is that Doog has hurt his leg. We don't know how he did it, we just came home one day and he was limping badly and not putting one of his front feet down at all. We don't know if it's a break or a bad sprain but poor little Doog doesn't like it one bit! We tried him with a bandage but, like when he wears his booties, he just can't walk. He tries to do this Bambi thing where every step is exagerated into a giant leap! Eventually we took the bandage off thinking he was bound to damage himself further by wearing it.

He he is looking a bit freaked out !

In other news, we went to visit a baby donkey the other day. Her name is Lightning McQueen, yes you heard me correctly! HER name is LIGHTNING MCQUEEN! One of my friends from work has 40 acres just outside of Beaumont. She has three donkeys, some fainting goats, a couple of dogs and lots of cats. It's a really cool place, tucked away in the trees. Anyway her donkeies Fancy and Thunder, have had a baby. It was born last week and we got to go and visit when she was only two days old. She was very cute indeed!

Here she is, little Lightning! Ahhhh!

And this is mummy, Fancy the donkey.

Here's Neil with Dad, Thunder, and below, with the fainting goats (which really do faint apparently!)

We haven't done much lately.....

So I thought I'd add some more pics from Kate and Pauls visit.

Wandering Whyte Ave.

Paul, pint and paper, in O'Byrne's.

Neil awaiting meze, Koutouki Taverna. THE best food in Edmonton.
Kate, Hunter-sitting.
Kate and Paul, Whyte Ave.

Me and Kate and pints in O'Byrnes.

Kate and Paul, just before we all said goodbye.

My drive to work!

The alarm clock beeps at 0600 and I drag myself out of bed, outside is in complete darkness.
I make my way slowly accross the room trying to open one eye on route towards the shower as I go past the window and glance out...............

HOLLY CRAP!

It looks like it has snowed for a year non stop! everything is white, well it has been for some time, but this was different! I couldnt even see the outline of things. Normally you could see the pavement and roundabout behind our house. NOT TODAY!

Sophie is lucky, she has the flu and is in bed, no work for her! I on the other hand had to drive into the city. This is what I saw.

HAHAHAHHA UNLUCKY KIDS!

This guy obviously thought he could beat the

weather in his big truck! HAHHA

Couldnt even see the road.

Left my car for one minute to get a car park ticket.

I think I may need my snow shovel after work!

Its funny, i paid for the ticket and went into the office and thought DOH! Its not like the tocket guy can even check them with the snow on the window! What a .......

So if you are reading this in London. dont moan about the roads!

BLIZZARD WARNING.......

SEVERE WIND/SNOW

The Australians!

We had some extra visitors over new year.

Charlie and Alex.

Alex is a friend we have known for many years and Charlie is Alex's farmer boyfriend we have only just met. This guy has got to be one of funniest guys I know. He is nuts.

What do you get if you cross a Australian farmer with Canadian roads?

Yep you got it..... Total Carnage!

I enjoyed myself! HAHAHHAAHH

So After a vast amount of discussion we decided it would be best for Charlie to drive something more his style..... Soooooooooooooooooo

$650 later Charlie is the proud owner of a old 1973 Ford pick up truck...

With a little rust!

Charlie reckons "She'll be right" to drive to Los Angeles!

MMM, not so sure.

Later that day charlie decided that he may need some money to pimp his ride.

Only one way to get good fast clean cash..........

And yes he did win........ Lucky Bastard.

Kate was our waitress for the evening!

Because good old Charlie won at poker he could afford to pimp that pile of crap he bought......

Then after a really great fun time Kate and Paul had to go home to England and Charlie and Alex where going to drive 4500Kms to Los Angeles! Good luck.