Hmmm...

Last week we went to Ottawa to pick up some bookcases for the study. We hit the jackpot at IKEA, yeah!

On the way to Ottawa, we had taken a round about route visiting some friends. On the way back though we thought we should take the short route home. We just were not sure which one that was.

I had commented to Bert that at least I did know how to get home from the airport, which we knew was not far away....but not exactly sure where. So we stopped at a gas station to take a quick peek at a map. A nice man spotted us standing over the maps and asked where we were going. Bert said the airport, cause he thought that would have been the easiest way. That man was like, “That's dead easy, just.....” I was still poring over the maps at this point cause it wasn't sounding 'dead easy'.

As he was headed out the door, the directions man asked Bert where he was from. Bert just said Australia. :) What do you do?!? How do you tell a person you are looking for Home? He was just trying to place his accent, so give him the answer he was looking for right?

What will it be...?

Dogs look up to you....

Cats look down on you....

Pigs consider you their equal...

What kind of pet would you pick?

The Boy and the Bonsai

Bert has loved bonsaiing for years. Exactly when the urge to snip trees started growing on him, remains a mystery. There is the story of a young George Washington chopping the cherry tree, so I assume the idea has lived in the hearts of many 'wee' boys since the beginning of boys.

Bert has had many bonsais. His favorite little one has been his Morton Bay Fig, planted around his 21st birthday. He lovingly nurtured it from a seed he harvested from the botanical gardens in Adelaide. Morton Bays are meant to be massive trees. I didn't know anything about bonsaiing before I met Bert, but he assured me that you can 'bonsai' just about any tree. Just snip, snip and they always stay quite small.

Net gave Bert a bonsaiing book just before we left for Canada. It supplied advice on lighting, temperature, soil, etc. for growing hundreds of varieties of trees.

Enter 'Ficus Religiosa'

Apparently the name had nothing to do with the selection. The seeds are now on their way though, so we'll see how this bonsai likes it up north.

Pepper

I like pepper. It has been this way for a long time now. Clearly it has become an addiction. Bert looked at my plate of 'goolosh' at dinner today and said something about 'volcanic ash'.

Might be time to cut back.

Wow, that was a while!

Thanks for sticking in there and checking even though we have been off the map for a bit! That was getting pretty sad.

Anyway, we are settled in Smiths Falls, Ontario. Today, marks two weeks that we have been here. We drove up in our little Penske van towing the car on Monday night and by tuesday this time we driving the empty truck back to the return center.

It was dark when we rolled into Smiths Falls the first time. There had been snow on the side of the road off and on since we left Grand Rapids than morning. On the way into SF, there was a dump truck going past us. I commented to Bert that there was so much snow on top of his load it looded as if he were hualing just snow. Not five minutes later, we saw dump trucks lined up in the Wal-Mart parking lot waiting for the backhoe to fill them up with yes, snow! We didn't know it yet, but the had a storm the day before we came bringing them almost as much snow in one dump, as what they had last year total.

Most of the boxes are unpacked now...life is good.

This little machine ate all the snow along the street in front of our house.

You can just see our car out of our kitchen window.

Our sweet little neighbor lady brought over coffee and dounuts yesterday. Very nice!