Late To The Party

On our front deck, August 2015.

Hello there! I'm late to Amy's last Five on Friday link up until September which is a shame. However, I am back to write a weekly post regardless! Unlike the Five on Friday link up posts where I offer up five tidbits of what we've been up to, I thought I'd concentrate on my travelling 'Commitment' sweater so you can see what it's been up to.

Kelly Park, Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove, August 2015.

According to Ravelry, I started Jane Ellison's Ayrton Sweater last August (2015). (I've been calling it my 'Commitment' sweater ever since because this pattern is really more of a coat than a sweater and the instructions start off with "...knit 23 1/2 " in garter stitch". If that's not commitment, I don't know what is!). I was making great inroads with it at the time and kept at it completing both sleeves (I like to do sleeves first or after making the back) and was half way up the back when another project lured me away. There is no project monogamy in this house. None.

I picked this sweater up again about two months ago and have been knitting furiously ever since. Let's see some of the places I've been knitting.

Back to Kelly Park.

On the beach after a wonderful day on Bell Island complete with a tour of the Miner's Museum.

True colours. Love!

Enjoying the boys playing with their cousin at the Johnson Geo Centre.

Watching Eldest play soccer (football) whilst his brother's played in a different part of the field. I am always the only one knitting.

This one should be pretty obvious;)! The boys were in the play place after a 'healthy' lunch. Don't judge.

Back to Kelly Park and a view of my new knitting project bag.

Back and sleeves laid out on the back deck so you get some idea of my commitment levels. It measures 37" from the top of the back to the bottom, most of it garter stitch (which I do love the look of on a sweater by the way).

And though I didn't get a picture, I sat this afternoon working away on the last section of my sweater with a WONDERFUL group of ladies at one of my LYS' (local yarn shops) called Cast On Cast Off (COCO). I hadn't been in this shop in quite awhile and wasn't aware of the knit together on Saturdays so it was a pleasant surprise to join in with the very welcoming group. What a lovely experience. I will try and make a point of dropping in more regularly though there may have been some yarn acquisition while I was there and it is singing it's siren song.... I'm trying to resist and knit this sweater already! Thanks for the warm welcome, Katie and Katie and Katie...

Week of July 18 - 22, 2016

Hellllloooooooooo! Can you see me waving from my front deck with a cup of tea in hand? Actually, I'm typing from my gloriously cool and extremely messy basement but we can all use our imaginations, can't we? I thought I'd drop by and slip a Five on Friday post in and hook up with the lovely Amy at Love Made My Home once again. Yippee for being on time-ish! Amy is taking a break from the Five on Friday posts in August so I'm happy to slip in under the wire.

For my Five on Friday posts, I usually like to choose five pictures to talk about and that has been a bit hard considering I have been absent for so long and have been SO busy. Here are a series of five pictures that sum up the past few weeks yet still leaves out a considerable amount for me to write about later.

So far the summer has been cool and slowly warming up but the good days we have had have been fantastic. Blue, blue sky and white fluffy clouds. The kind that make you fly along with them when you're laying on your back, staring up at the sky.

I have been knitting. A. Lot. You'd never know it with the progress of this now year old WIP (Work In Progress) and it is firmly being called my 'Commitment' sweater despite the fact that that isn't its real name. It has earned that title because it has been a real commitment getting to the finish line! This picture shows off the gorgeous yarn and its true colours though.

The family reunion is done and dusted and was FANTASTIC if I do say so myself. The only complaint I heard was that it wasn't long enough! This was our view from what I believe to be the best camping spot in Gander Bay, in front of my parents new house.

No trip to Gander Bay would be complete without a picture of a Gander River Boat.

Finally, my roses have bloomed and a couple have made it inside. The colours on this particular rose just makes my heart sing!

Don't forget to drop by Amy's blog and see if there's another blog or five you can start to follow regularly!

Twenty Years is a Short Time

Twenty years ago today, July 12 , 2016, DH and I got married.

It was a time before texting. We had only just started using email and the Internet. In fact, DH fought with me to even put a line in to have the Internet when we were living in Goose Bay.

Fast forward two years and I was using email regularly. I finished my Masters degree in Social Work and would not have been able to do so by distance in Germany were it not for the wonders of email and access to the Memorial University library via the World Wide Web. I started my first blog.

DH shining his shoes.

DH was married in his MacQueen family tartan.

My dress hung in our family room in Upper Gullies.

It's amazing how much technology has changed the world since we got married. And how little has changed for us in some ways.

We still love to be outdoors and tenting. We still love to hang out together and with friends and family. We love introducing our children to the things we love to do and see how much they enjoy it too.

Vienna, Austria.

We love to travel and have just started travelling further and further with the boys. 

Trevi Fountain, Rome.

Wales.

We love animals and still enjoy having cats. We miss our puppy Para terribly and might introduce a new canine member to the family in a few years.

Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Kangaroo Island, Australia.

Ottawa, ON, Canada

We have three beautiful boys together who in turn charm us and drive us crazy.

Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada

Upper Gullies, NL

East Coast Trail, NL

We still enjoy hiking and generally anything that allows us to be outside.

Bermuda

We love being back on the East Coast of Canada despite the weather sometimes!

Quidi Vidi, NL

There you have it. Twenty years summed up in a few pictures and a few changes.

Hon, twenty years isn't long enough yet;)!

Gone Fishing

The boys theme for their party this year was fishing so it was all about fish yesterday at our house.

I purchased the fish printables from SunshineParties on Etsy. I love Etsy!

And then the balloons showed up...

It was a fun time. Sadly, this is the last year we will be having this style of birthday party for our big boys. They are getting a little big and rambunctious for the bouncy castle that we rent. I wonder where and what their party will be next year?

Week of June 27 - July 1, 2016

I'm too late to add to Amy's Five on Friday today. I thought I might get the chance to catch the link party before it ended but it wasn't to be. Oh well, I'm here to write a few notes about the week anyway.

As I've mentioned before, I've been inundated with the boys double birthday party and a family reunion. This week we concentrated our efforts on the boys birthday (which was today and was a blast but I'll write about that another time). In addition to that, DH has gotten me to make a schedule for each day of the summer so that I don't get 'lost' in the days and frustrated because the boys are a handful. Truth be told, our days go much better if we have something of a schedule and that includes scheduled at home days too. This past week went like this: Monday - Discovery day holiday for us so DH was home and we had a family day, Tuesday - hike, Wednesday - Ocean Sciences Centre, Thursday - GEO Centre, Friday - Memorial Day/Canada Day holiday.

The Discovery Day holiday isn't a holiday for all employers in NL so we were lucky to have DH at home. Most of the pictures I took of this gorgeously warm day included the boys so you'll have to take my word for the fact that we had a lovely time at Duck Pond in Bauline.

Monday evening was equally gorgeous and DH suggested I go for a walk. He was only recently back from the UAE and wanted to give me a break by putting the boys to bed so I took advantage and walked from our house, down to Middle Cove beach and then took the East Coast Trail back to our house. That's about a 5 kilometre trek. You remember my pictures of our water falls and the water below our house a few cold weeks ago? This is what you find at the other end if you cross the river and keep on walking. 

Middle Cove Beach was being well enjoyed.

As we are also preparing to continue painting, DH worked steadily at preparing the next wall for painting in our seemingly endless house of walls.

Much to my delight, he put up our sets of curtains that I purchased at IKEA in the Netherlands over fifteen years ago. We finally have the house that I want to hang them in.

The weather was simply stunning on Tuesday. With a girlfriend and her daughter and daughter's friend, my boys and myself, we headed once again to the river and across it. There was hardly any wind, it was hot and the sea was the most gorgeous shades of dark blue and aquamarine.

If you click on this picture, you can see the kelp along the shore edge.

All of the children were well behaved on the hike that took us about four kilometres round trip. We walked as far as Middle Cove Beach (again for me!), took a break on the beach for the kids to paddle in the water and have a snack and then headed back home in time for lunch.

Look at the colours of that water!

Wednesday was another hot day and we headed out early to go to the Ocean Sciences Centre only a ten minute drive from our house located in Logy Bay.

The boys were fascinated by the seals but enjoyed the touch tank more. 

We were the only family there visiting. The lady told us we'd picked the perfect time of day because by afternoon it is usually crazy busy.

A Mole Snail. Slimy!!! 

We were also lucky enough to see a whale offshore there. I think it was a Minke whale because it looked smaller than a humpback to me, Eldest argues it was a Fin Whale which is larger than a humpback. We didn't have an expert in residence to confirm or deny so the jury is still out.

Later in the day, we crossed the river again and visited the tidal pools about half way between the river and the beach. It was a gorgeous spot to sit and soak my feet while the boys explored.

Thursday was supposed to rain so we were going to go to the GEO Centre. However, I was behind in my baking so we stayed around the house whilst I baked four cakes (the boys birthday cakes were four cakes high) and painted giant bobbers for their fishing theme. This idea came from Pintrest and was cheap (under $5) and easy to do.

Yesterday dawned another gorgeous day for Memorial Day morning. It is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont Hamel for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and we decided to go downtown to watch the ceremony at the cenotaph. 

Royal Newfoundland Regiment Traditional Uniforms

HRH Princess Anne was in attendance this year and I'm enough of a royal watcher to get a thrill from that. We were only a couple of feet away from her when she was greeting the veterans. 

Click to enlarge - she's in the middle of this picture!

The middle of this one too!

And that was my big thrill for the week! Talk to you soon!