snakish

On Sunday we joined tens of thousands of onlookers to witness the Chinese New Year celebrations in Vancouver. The year of the snake was celebrated with firecrackers and smoke, drums, lion dancing and a bit of a photo opportunity too. It was quite the spectacle.

And talking of spectacles, I wore my sunglasses today. Whoopee, I do believe this could mean Spring is on its way. Little bulbs are bursting out of the ground, trees are furiously budding away and the birds are singing their merry hearts out. It's quite an exciting time actually as we don't know most of the birdlife here, although I shall miss the blue tits I used to watch from my sewing room window back in London.

Ah, but the mention of sewing reminds me my transformer has arrived too, which means there is no excuse not to open up those fabric boxes, sift through some patterns and rev up the sewing machine. Hmm, a slightly scary thought, truth be told, given I haven't touched the thing in nearly four months. What's more, what ever am I going to do about my knitting?

weekending

I looked at my previous post and decided February was romping away without my having made much note of it. The truth is we have all been travelling along our Canadian journey at full pelt, particularly at the weekends when we remind ourselves that we came all this way for change and so we must go find it.

I am exhausted! This last weekend, a three-dayer due to BC's first 'Family Day', has been so packed with activity that I feel in need of another few days to recover, I think. I do believe two full days of skiing have made the husband and I realise there is work to be done if fitness levels are going to improve and it's a good thing those days were separated by a drive along the Vancouver-Whistler road to Squamish to do some eagle viewing. Every year thousands of bald eagles descend on the river to feast on salmon and the spectacle is supposed to be incredible. Unfortunately we were too late in the season and saw only a couple. It wasn't a wasted journey, though, the scenery was breathtaking.

I've been snowshoeing again. Those mountains are pulling me upwards all the time, I can't get enough of them and when I'm not actually up there, there they are on the horizon, a constant fascination. The clean, fresh air is a tonic to my lungs and a perfect antidote to London's fumes and smog. I'm rather taken with snowshoeing, actually. I love stopping to soak up the views .. well that's my excuse anyway!

I also met a second good bloggy type, someone I'm convinced a lot of you will know! I met wonderful Koralee in the city centre, where we ate some of Vancouver's finest and chatted away as though we had known one another all along. That's the beauty of blogging and it was a treat to see her.

I'm also rather in love with my new iPhone which is so cool I only know a minute percentage of its capabilities but I did have to move continents to persuade the husband I really needed it. And of course having fun on Instagram, experimenting with all it's settings. Do come and join me if you're an Instagram fanatic too!

But you know something .. every paragraph here begins with 'I'. So tell me, what did you get up to at the weekend?


* all photographs were taken over the weekend using Instagram

february

Happy new month to you and huge, big fat thank yous for all your sweet comments, I think those positive vibes have done their work as I have a slight spring in my step today. My little spot in the world has, wait for it, sunshine this morning and I have not one but two bloggy dates in the diary.

Yesterday I drove the boy and some of his class mates to a curling centre for their school field trip. Watching a whole bunch of twelve year olds having fun out on the ice, followed by a tasty buffet lunch is definitely a good way to spend a few hours. And volunteering is most certainly the way to go for meeting other mums and teachers.

Another reason for the spring is that the first shipment of our contents has arrived. Now, the husband was far more organised than me back in November, as he gave instructions to have his wardrobe contents put on first delivery. Unfortunately all I could think about was my sewing room so I have ten massive boxes of fabrics, nine boxes of books (mostly crafting but some cookery) and glass beads, and a dilemma as to where it's all going to go. Oh, and no clothes! No matter, I now have a sewing machine, my overlocker and knitting needles so, once the transformer is installed, I'm good to go and clothes making here I come. Woopeee!

By the way, what do you think of my new (old) tea cups? I almost forgot to mention I've discovered a promising thrift shop ..

Happy weekend.