Tough Day

Looked out the window this morning, saw the mountains covered in fresh snow. Checked my email, grabbed a bite of breakfast, dropped the kids and Gesa off at school.

Called my client at the ski resport, arranged a fifteen minute catch up. Now had an excuse to go, so drove up the mountain, did three runs in foot deep fresh powder, met Adam briefly, back in the office by 11am.

Winter in Cumberland is tough.

First skiing trip!

So we live just half an hour's drive from a great ski resort, Mt Washington. We have managed to get ourselves sorted out with season passes, skis and gear for us all and winter tyres for the car, so we're looking forward to many days up on the hill.

Since the kids have never been near a pair of skis before, we booked them into lessons for this morning. They had a great time, Max is getting the hang of it and Issie appears to be a bit of a natural.

We put a bit of video of Issie here on youtube

Issieism

We're walking home tonight and Issie says....

"I'm so accident prone, if I had a dollar for every cut and bruise I'd had, I'd be a millionaire...."
"Hmm, you're not accident prone.  And anyway, a millionaire?" 
"Yes, a millionaire"
"So Issie, how many days have you been alive?"
We work it out.  8 years is about 3000 days so that means about 330 cuts and brusies each day.  I think someone would have arested Mummy and I by now.
"A thousand dollars every time.....??"

Maybe it's tough having a dad who insists on the numbers.....

Friends & Family Visit

Sometimes I just need to remind myself how rich we are to have such a wonderful family and group of friends. We are fortunate to have had many come and visit us in our new home this year. We loved showing them how gorgeous British Columbia is and why we chose to call it home. We have still so much to explore, but Vancouver Island alone can keep us occupied for years!

In March, Nick's sister Beth and her husband Phil flew over from England. We enjoyed walks in the Cumberland Community Forest, sipping coffee in the local cafes, beer in the local pubs(!), checking out the music scene and pulling out my guitar (Phil is an awesome musician). In April, my Dad arrived from Montreal for a three week stay, taking advantage of the glorious warm, bright spring days to explore the surrounding area. In May, Nick's parents arrived from the UK, enjoying a few days of overlap with my Dad, and applying their joint gardening skills to our garden (thank you!). By June, my friend Helen had made her way from Amsterdam to BC for the start of a two month break. We loved having her drop in and out between her adventures in the Rockies and the island. Julia and Aiden took on a mammoth adventure driving up from Carlsbad, southern California, to little old Cumberland. Beach, picnics, sandcastles, Dairy Queen, need I say more? Awesome fun. Finally, at the end of the summer we caught up with an old Cambridge volleyball friend, Kevin, now living back in Vancouver.

We love our little corner of the world, and especially sharing it with friends and family. Our doors are always open, so come on by.

Trains, Beavers & Bowling Balls

Nick started his journey to England on Monday 31st May by catching a ride with me in our car from Cumberland to Courtenay. From there, he hopped aboard the VIA train that runs once a day from Courtenay to Victoria. He only needed the first leg of the journey which would set him off in Nanaimo. From there, he walked down to the marina and spent the night on TyDewi, before catching the early morning ferry on Tuesday that would take him to Vancouver on the mainland. From Horseshoe Bay he took the Express bus to downtown and switched over to the SkyTrain that took him right to the airport. A few hours wait and he was on a plane and 8 hours later landed at London Gatwick. Hmm, then not sure if he took a bus or train, but once in Cambridge, I believe he took a taxi from the station. Why do I mention all this? Because Nick was extremely proud that he used his own power and public transport for all but 10 km of the journey. Ever since moving to BC, we have been trying even harder to reduce our dependence on a car. We still remain a one car family, yeah!

For the rest of us left behind in Canada, sigh, we have kept busy. We started swim lessons again, and enjoyed several Beaver outings. Issie and her friend Isaac, swam (graduated) up to Cubs in a ceremony at Camp Gilwell. It was also a chance for all the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Ventures to have a final get together and send off before the summer holidays. We enjoyed cake, a walk down to the river, and an impromptu game of football (soccer).

This was followed by our own Beaver group camping trip to Comox Lake on Friday. After so much rain, we had no idea what to expect. However, the weather gods were in our favour and we had the most splendid weather. Our leader Nicole had already set up most of camp by the time we arrived, leaving more time for the kids to explore and play, and they certainly waisted no time. Issie immediately scolded me for not bringing her bathing suit. It NEVER occurred to me, after the cold and rain of the last two weeks, to do anything of the kind. Especially as the lake is glacier fed. So even in the summer it is on the chilly side. However, used to improvising, the kids decided they were fine to go in their underpants. While Max stayed mainly on the beach, Issie and Isaac did brave the fridged waters, with screams of delight. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and stayed up late around the campfire before snuggling into our cozy tent beds. It was a wonderful camping event even if the rain came just as we were packing up. Perfect timing is all I can say.

June is also a time for many school field trips. Last week Max and his class enjoyed some five-pin bowling. He had so much fun, he can't wait to show Daddy when he gets back, and is even planning to have his birthday there!! In the meantime, rolls of paper towel and a soccer ball make for good improvisation. Next week, Issie braves the outdoor pool with her class, while Max's heads off to Miracle Beach to rock pool. Watch this space.

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE COLLAGES TO GET A CLOSE-UP VIEW

Snow in June!

Well, almost June! Just before Nick headed off to England, we drove up the mountain to walk in Paradise Meadows. Needless to say, the meadows are only slowly emerging, still under a whole heap of snow. This was very much to the delight of the children, while we tobogganed, built forts, threw snowballs, and generally had a great time.

Kids and their Imagination

As many of you will know, Nick is away in England for the next few weeks, so the three of us are left holding down the fort. We have been plenty busy with school, swimming, Beavers, playdates, camping and more! Today however, being a Sunday, was a chance to catch up on some sleep and for Mummy to get some work done. So, the kids were left to their own devices.

We had a mellow start with some reading, followed by some DVD's. This inspired their next game of firefighter. They really wanted to use the hose, but from the 1st of June, water restrictions have taken effect already (despite all our rain), so he made do with the watering can. While I ran up and down between the computer, trying to mulitask with househould chores and keep a general eye, I noticed all the stuffies paired up. "What are you up to now?" I ask. "Oh, we all have partners and are heading to the ball. Who is going to be your partner Mummy, Daddy's is away?", asks Issie. I chose Chocolate, our newly acquired stuffed dog, snoozing under the rocking chair. Well, in actual fact, I was deligated to official photographer, to capture this wonderful moment.

Feeling somewhat guilty, and getting extremely annoyed at how long it was taking me to sort, upload, and figure out this online digital ordering, I bribed the kids into a shopping trip with promises of cake. "Ooo, who's birthday is it?" enthuses Max. "No one's, we can just have a cake because," I reply. "Well, in that case it is Howlie's 4th birthday today," answers Max. And so it is. With kids in tow, I manage to buy my photo supplies, groceries, and of course a cake, without any trouble or complaints. After dinner, we put in four candles plus one for good luck, sang "Happy Birthday" and indulged! "We have to save one for Daddy," Max insists. I try and explain it won't last that long (although I fear it probably would!!), but I decide to freeze a piece to satisfy his wish. So, Nick, remember to check the freezer on your return.

Somewhere between all that our neighbour Chris and two of his kids come over, and an impromptue playdate begins. I don't have much time to supervise, but the kids throw themselves into their imaginative world. Before long, Reilie comes down to me, obviously bored with the dolls, and wants help with the train track. Arg, I just so want to get the photos done. But I cannot refuse her adorable face, and while she looks on, I manage in about 5 minutes to put together a respectable track. Issie and Max reaped the benefits of this construction at the end of the day.

Watching them today I was so impressed with how resourceful they were, and what fun they had. Who needs tv, computer games, or other fancy gadgets?!

Seal Bay Regional Nature Park

I love these photos so much I thought they deserved their own post!

Easter Weekend

With Spring Break done and dusted, our Easter Break consisted of a four-day long weekend. Good Friday we sat out the fearce Spring storm that hit the island and west coast with wind gusts up to 98 km/h recorded at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal! Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oozH6Veba-Q&feature=related for a short news video to see how bad it really was. The historic Mill Bay Marina near Victoria was destroyed with many boats tossed ashore like toys. Although our marina in Nanaimo had their hands full dealing with lines and wandering boats, TyDewi, thankfully weathered the storm well, needing only a few extra lines to keep her safe and secure.

By dinner time Friday, the front had passed, making way for a beautiful, albeit cool Saturday. We were very grateful for the turn as Cumberland was holding their 2nd Annual Easter Egg hunt down by the No. 6 Mine Park. As part of Cumberland Community Schools Society, I was one of the volunteers, donating my time to help set up , hide eggs, and of course paint a few faces. Issie wanted to help too, so she painted my face! It was a superb event, with a bunny, donkey, music, and of course many smiley faces!
In our family the Easter Bunny arrives on Sunday morning. Issie and Max felt it only right, that if Santa and his reindeer can get cookies, milk and carrots, so should the Easter Bunny! So they left out a plate of goodies before heading to bed and hoping for dreams of giant chocolate Easter eggs! Well, the Easter Bunny did not disappoint. The kids spent a good portion of the morning, looking in boots, under chairs and in the book shelves to fill their baskets with goodies. Even Mummy and Daddy got a few treats!

Now, not that we did not have enough Easter delights, we took the children to the annual Comox Valley 'Easter at the Barn' event put on by the Therapeutic Riding Society. We had no idea what to expect. The kids passed on the egg hunt in favour of horse rides and games that guaranteed a winner every time. Whether it be a free pony ride, a bag of crisps or a stuffed animal. The later adding half a dozen to our growing collection at home!

To top off this wonderful family oriented weekend, the weather brightened up on Monday afternoon prompting us to explore someplace 'new'. Seal Bay Regional Nature Park did not disappoint. Only 20 minutes from Cumberland, it has very well layed out trails, especially designed for those in wheelchairs, that lead us through an amazing second growth forest down onto the beach. It was all so vast, beautiful, refreshing and wonderful. The kids came alive and all at once I realised how much I missed the ocean. Unfortunately, with the promise of a family swim (at the Aquatic Centre!!) our time there was all too short. We look forward to returning and exploring many more of the park's walking and cycling trails, especially as the weather warms up.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!

Issie Celebrates 8

Issie was very excited about turning 8 and all she wanted was a sleepover. So after an evening play date with some school friends, that included pizza, movie and popcorn, three friends remained for the sleepover. Downstairs became the girl's den, and after a little bit of excitment, pillow fights, nail polish disasters, etc., all was quiet after stories by 11pm.

Saturday the 13th was her actual birthday and she awoke to a table full of goodies. This was followed by a decadent breakfast of fresh fruit, waffles and hot chocolate. So all in all, not a bad way to bring in your eighth year!

Snow in March

Just as the crocuses start to poke their heads out, and an entire winter passes with almost no snow, Cumberland woke up Thursday morning to some of the white stuff. It was our first time during the Spring Break to finally have a lie in, but afraid it would all melt away, I let the children know. Well we discovered our children can actually get up, dressed and out in less than 15 minutes!! The next day, to their enjoyment, even more snow fell which meant record snowfall on Mount Washington: 43 cm in 48 hours. Perfect powder conditions!

Saturday afternoon, to help celebrate Issie's 8th birthday, we packed all our snow gear and headed up the mountain. We actually hoped to go tubing (sliding down a snow covered hill on giant inner tubes), but with flurries in the forecast, and our car not equipped with snow tires, we only went part of the way up. We were thrilled to find a prestine snowshoe path, that doubled as a perfect tabogan run. The views were magnificent, the snow superb, and the sledding (skeleton or luge) a blast!!

Cumberland's on Google Streetview

The google 'streetview' car has been round Cumberland, so you can now look at our village from all the main streets. Sadly they haven't done our street but the village centre is much more interesting anyway.

So if you want to look around, go to this link. In the map control on the left, you'll see a little orange dude. Grab him with the mouse pointer and drop him on a street, like Dunsmuir. The screen will split and you can click and drag to spin the photo or click on the arrows to move up and down the streets. Give it a whirl.

Found another very cool thing - 'Olympic view' lets you go down the ski runs etc for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics..... click here

Team Sweden play in the Comox Valley

We are very fortunate living in the Comox Valley with Mount Washington a perfect training ground for the Olympic althletes. Many have arrived over the past week to train up on the mountain in preparation for the upcoming Games, with the public invited up to watch many of the practices and events. Unfortunatley for us, the mountain has not really been accessible to us this year (inappropritae vehicle). However, we were able to watch Team Sweden's Women's Hockey Team in their open practice at the Comox Valley Sports Centre on Saturday. They were warming up for an exhibition match against China the next day. We enjoyed the coaches putting them through their paces (and they were good!), even if I kept thinking of IKEA on ice!! I don't think the kids appreciated it as much as we did, but they enjoyed their free 'Spirit of BC' balloons and the sugar moose cookies I had made. 1500 lucky spectators got to watch the match the next day to see the more experienced Team Sweden beat China 4-2. It will be interesting to see how they do in the overall Games. We will watch the opening ceremonies on the big screen at the Cumberland Elementary School Friday, and keep up with the highlights via computer. Nope, we still do not have a tv!!

Tesco Vouchers!!!

Arg! Look what I found in my winter jacket: £50 in Tesco vouchers (that's about $83 Canadian now, about $100 when these were still valid!!). Man you have to buy a lot of groceries for that. How times have changed for us.

The Best Birthday Present Ever

OK, so Cumberland is not the same as the beautiful blue waters of the British Virgin Islands. Nor can I ever repeat the magic of celebrating my 40th with friends and family on the tiny island of Marina Cay as we did last year, however, the surprise 24 hour visit from my sister and her family is more than I could have ever wished for. Her husband and three kids had planned to come for a few days after Christmas, but she was unable to join them due to work commitments. Ironically she was actually flying into Vancouver...so close but yet so far. However, thanks to the weather gods out east, her return flight was cancelled, she negotiated some days off, and joined the rest of her family for the remaining trip to Vancouver Island. Fog stopped them catching a flight into Nanaimo, and they couldn't get on their first choice ferry. Many, many hours later, late Sunday night, they finally arrived! The cousins played, the adults chatted over wine, and we all collapsed into bed at midnight.

The following morning was my birthday, and with only one day together, no lying in was allowed. While Nick fed the troups on home-made waffles, Anke and I slipped off into Courtneay for some quality sister time. We enjoyed coffee, some shopping (Anke always loves checking out the thrift stores!), and picked up my rather decadent mocha birthday cake from Hot Chocolates: http://www.hotchocolates.ca/index.html (not just chocolates but an Artisan Bakery as well).

On return we bundled everyone up and headed out for the tour. Town was incredibly quiet with most of the shops still closed for the holidays. My sister was last here in August when we were just starting negotiations in renting the Old Post Office (what would become the Wandering Moose Cafe http://wanderingmoose.ca/), and sadly she never got to see the cafe in operation. But on this visit we got to go in and show them the space. Well, at least next time they come, they will be able to get a coffee now that it is open again (smile!). Here is a lovely write up we got back in November http://fireflynewbeginnings.blogspot.com/2009/11/wandering-moose-cafe.html

My sister's kids don't get any sort of this outdoor life in Montreal, so they were wide-eyed and energetic, loving the playground round-about and the walk in the Community Forest. Although it was quite funny to watch Anika, her eldest, exhibiting classic teenage traits, where fashion takes precedence over common sense! After our walk we all warmed up with coffees and hot chocolates at Tarbell's Cafe http://www.thecumberlander.ca/cgi-bin/show_bizsponsor.cgi?ID=16 before coming home to watch the final Harry Potter on the projector and devour my birthday cake.

All too soon the day was over, and by 8am the next day they were packed and back in the car and on their way to catch the ferry. In the meantime, we dressed in our old clothes ready to help move all the cafe stuff out of our garage and back into the Old Post Office. But I did it all with a smile on my face! There was alot to be thankful for.

Boxing Day Walk

A beautiful fog came over Cumberland on Boxing Day, so we bundled up and headed for the hills, enjoying a walk up to Allen Lake Reservoir, Cumberland's water supply. It was sad to see all the logging happening along the way, and made us all the more determined to support the Cumberland Community Forest Society http://www.cumberlandforest.com/index.php . They have already preserved over 150 acres of forest around our community which is amazing.

As we climbed up we soon found some snow, enough to have a little fun in before drinking our hot chocolate and making our way down one of the killer mountain bike trails, in this case, Hai Gai. How they cycle down these trails is beyond me, it was hard enough to walk down them!!! Over the Christmas break we were helping some friends by looking after their pets while they were away. They were very generous and encouraged us to hang out and enjoy their wood stove (we only have a gas one, just not the same). So we finally did at the end of our walk, roasting marshmallows and enjoying a fun game of Mousetrap before heading home. A fun day had by all.

Our first Christmas in Canada

Although we socialised with various new found friends before Christmas, Christmas itself was just the four of us. On Chrismtas Eve we walked down to the United Church for a candlelight service. Much to the children's delight, they were whisked away to put on costumes to join the other children on stage as angels and shepherds. Too cute and sadly only captured in our minds, the camera was left behind. The kids so loved their candles, they insisted on walking home with them still alight, and this magical moment I did capture on film. This was followed by our tradional fish meal, one present and the reading of 'The Night Before Christmas'. The kids made sure to scatter their reindeer food on the lawn before bed (thank you Auntie Beth!), and of course left milk and cookies for Santa and an extra carrot in case the reindeer were still hungry.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not give us any snow, and in fact, Christmas Day was rather dull, grey and bleak. Rather than our traditional Christmas Day walk, we hibernated instead, staying cosy by the fire while Nick roasted the other half of the turkey from Thanksgiving. After the feast we enjoyed unwrapping all the wonderful gifts that arrived in the post from friends and family afar...thank you! I particularly enjoyed the chocolates from Hotel Chocolat (one of my favourite shops in Cambridge)!!! I was delighted that the plate Max made on his fourth birthday before we left England, arrived safe and sound with our UK shipment earlier in the month. A nice addition to the wonderful collection we built over the years ("Thanks Penny" who ran Glaze to Amaze in Cambridge). We eat off them every day!

The Christmas Pudding & the Angel

As I mentioned, Cumberland Elementary has great spirit, and they will find any reason to dress up and have fun. So, on the last day of school before the Christmas break, all the kids were encouraged to wear their Christmas hats. Nana's tea cosy, made a great hat for Max and Issie borrowed Max's angel halo from the concert, added her wings and voila, bacame a Christmas angel.

Lots of Photo Updates

I have finally sat down to catch up on some much needed blogging, so as you scroll down you will catch up in words and pictures, about life in Cumberland with the Wards over November and December. Yeah, there is still a lot more to come, but at one o'clock in the morning, it is time to go to bed. Bonne nuit!

P.S. Remember to click on the photos to see them in detail.

December Snow

We had one more snowfall mid December. It was magical! It just snowed and snowed for about 24 hours and we woke to a winter wonderland. The kids had never seen such amounts and were thorougly enjoying it: eating the snowflakes, jumping in it, shoveling it, building snow gardens and snowmen. Even after the snowfall turned to rain, I could not stop them from getting the most out of it. For in a few short days, all the rain just washed it away and all our beautiful snow was gone, and never came back. We ended up having a very green and wet Christmas.