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When the Sun Shines

The time has changed here in Nova Scotia, and I’ll be the first to admit that it kicked my butt.  I was exhausted.  I hated waking up in the dark again.  But I certainly did enjoy the lighter evenings.  So when a sunny Saturday arrived, I just wanted to go for a drive.

I’m not sure what it is about the early Spring weather that makes me want to hit the highway.  I would love to stay home all winter long.  If the weather was the lest bit bad, I just wanted to be under a blanket.  But, the sun has changed it’s glow and it’s time to explore again!

Saturday evening, it was time for a drive.  We didn’t venture far.  Just to Caribou Island.  The sky was blue, there is still ice in the strait and thankfully they paved the road at some point or it would be a mud bath for the car.  Not that that has ever stopped me from going on a drive!

The lighthouse at the end of the island looked so stark against the blue sky.  It was so perfectly Nova Scotian.  I think I may want to hit as many Nova Scotian lighthouses as I can this summer.  They are just so interesting, historic and scenic.  All things we love to explore.

We stopped at Waterside beach but the seaweed had taken over the beach and we just had a quick peek at the shore and turned around….besides, we didn’t want to disturb the couple that has found a sunny, quiet spot to enjoy their evening, either.  Beaches in March tend to be a lot more private and it felt wrong to evade.  Besides, the girls wanted to run on the boardwalk. And I wanted them worn out for bedtime.

When we left Waterside, we headed down the Sunrise Trail.  The light had changed and the sky glowed with an eerie yellow light and the rain started to hit the windshield.  Lena spotted a huge, vibrant double rainbow so I pulled over and turned to capture it, to no avail.  It’s just always better in person.  And it was way too big for one camera frame.  But you get the idea.

Since it was the day before St. Patrick’s Day, finding a rainbow to dance under, to think on the promises God gives us and to just appreciate all that we have seemed perfect.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday evening.

Colourfully yours,

Lori

 

March 19, 2019 By
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4 In Life/ Our Family

A Dutch Gift

Every year, Mom and Dad gave each family a gift for Christmas.  In the past it’s been tents, family excursions, but this year it was a nod to our Dutch roots.  A big bin filled with tasty treats and Delft blue goodness!!

Mom and Dad both immigrated to Canada from Holland through Pier 21 as children and settled with their families in Ontario. { You can read about our Christmas gift family tour of Pier 21 HERE. } Then they met, married and started their family before moving to Nova Scotia in 1974, where I arrived the following year.  They farmed here in Nova Scotia from then until they retired just over a year ago.  You can read that story HERE.

But anyway, this isn’t a family history lesson! This is about the goody basket!  Guys!!  So many treats I remember from being a kid, treats we still enjoy – so much goodness!  And this is actually an introduction to some other things I haven’t had before but look forward to having again.

I’m not going to tell you what each thing is or review it. I know some people will know what some of these treats are, some might cringe at the yummy ‘double-salt’ candies and for others this might be a nice walk down memory lane.  For example, the King peppermints, which would be handed out at the beginning of the sermon each and every Sunday morning! I love it when Mom still digs a roll out.

One of the non-edible goodies was this Delft blue ornament.  I love it so much!  In fact, I may make next year’s Christmas tree all blue and white as an ode to my Dutch roots.  What do you think?

Every Christmas, without fail, we are given a Chocolate letter, on of the traditions in not just our family, but a lot of Dutch families, too.  Sometimes we get the correct letter and sometimes we get a fun poem explaining why we’re getting the letter D or I or P when our name starts with L.  And that is all part of the fun, too!  Sometimes we play tricks on our parents and slip a deck of cards in our box and eat the chocolate long before we are supposed to unwrap gifts 😉

Christmas is filled with traditions, new and old and it’s exciting to see how each Christmas plays out, year by year.  I know it is long past us now, but still, the fond memories live on.

Colourfully yours,

Lori

 

 

 

January 10, 2019 By
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5 In Our Family

My Festive Family

Last weekend, we were out and about and we ran into Christine and her sweet family at R + R Handmade‘s Studio Sale.  She said she had a few openings in her mini shoots over the weekend and to drop out.  Everyone loves to get up-to-date family pictures, right?

I thought I’d share some of my favourite here.  My girls are growing and maturing before my very eyes, and check out the handsome Mr. Byrne….

Sometimes if we have too long to think about family pictures, we tend to over think the outfits and styles and trying to get everyone coordinated, which when dealing with winter layers, gets even trickier.  But I LOVE these.  We’re all in our natural elements, wearing what we love and what we live in.  And the location is just out in the middle of the field. We didn’t need any special props or staging.

I love this one of the girls.  They were hugging and it went too far, more of a wrestle but it’s just so fun!!

But the next one has them back with very natural smiles, not at all posed for the camera.

Can we talk about this beauty?  Who is this gorgeous kid??  It’s so fun watching her mature and gain confidence in herself and her sense of style.

And then we have our sweet Hannah, who is losing that little girl look and really growing into herself.  And those freckles….

I feel like there are more pictures of me and the girls that Christine has taken and more of Michael and the girls that I have taken.  I’m sure it all evens out in the end, but it sure is fun to have these milestones and stages documented.

And then it came to Michael and I together.  There’s some lovely pictures of us together.  The best was when she got us to stand side by side and started asking us a few questions.  I laugh.  A lot.  With my head back.  But this one takes the cake…

But seriously, the love.  Ah, the love.  I sure am happy to have this handsome fella as my partner in life.  We don’t always see eye to eye or approach things from the same angle but still, I miss him when he’s gone and love to be snuggled up close at the end of each day.

We’ve ordered prints and can’t wait to bestow some of these on family this holiday.  I highly recommend getting pictures taken every year or so when your kids are still home.  The years are fleeting and before long, our sweet girls will have flown the nest and my heart will be broken.  The saying about the days being long and the years short rings very true with this momma.  It seems like not that long ago my babies were little and we were in the thick of diapers and daycare.  And now we’re in pre-teen years and navigating friendships

Ugh, I’ll just be over here scrolling through them all!!

To be continued,

Lori

 

 

December 7, 2018 By
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In Our Family

All Dressed Up

Halloween 2018 has come and gone.  We carved pumpkins, the girls got dressed up and they knocked on doors.  There is candy, everyone, the main goal of it all, right??

I just briefly want to share the pictures from this year because it’s just so fun!  And honestly, I’m not sure how many more years we’ll have, Lena was a little on the fence this year so I’ll take it as long as I can get it.

Hannah has known for months what she wanted to be – a shepherd.  Fitting, eh? Complete with her Opa’s actual shepherd’s crook, no imitation crooks here, folks. I’m sure there’s probably poop on it somewhere it’s so much of the real deal. She also carried an old metal shopping basket filled with sheep stuffies and wore clothes she wears all the time, those overalls are always in the wash!

Lena started out talking about being an English Rider, especially since she’s been doing a little english riding during lessons lately.  But somewhere along the way, she decided against that and borrowed a deer headband from a friend instead.  We did her makeup and hit the road, nothing more than that.  This indicates to me a kid that is transitioning out of Halloween, no?

One of our stops was Mom and Dad’s.  I’ll start with Dad’s costume….the girls decided he needed to be The BFG.  All he had to do was wear a vest, that he commonly wears, over his shirt.  Easy peasy and about as much effort as he’s willing to put into this foolishness, but anything for the grandkids, right?  I think he just wants to eat his supper…

Mom, on the other hand, has way too much fun with this and thinks long and hard about her costume.  Let’s remember one year she was an iPad.  This year – a nod to Geocaching!  She’s a Bison tube.  Hilarious.  And fitting given her enjoyment of geocaching.  Not everyone will appreciate this, unless you’ve searched this earth for a tiny tube hanging in a tree alongside a road somewhere.

And one last picture of the girls showing off their freshly carved pumpkins because they’re so darn cute!!

Hope you all had a great { and safe } night getting candy!!

To be continued,

Lori

 

November 2, 2018 By
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2 In Adventures/ Our Family

Parts Unknown – Day 2

Cape Breton can’t be explored in a single day.  You don’t want to miss anything, and there’s so much to see! Join us for our second day of exploring!

Our first day filled with unexpected pit stops, fun and beautiful vistas, which you can read about HERE. When we headed to Cape Breton, we didn’t intend to do any hiking.  The stroll we took at Cape Smokey didn’t really count and we passed trailhead after trailhead throughout the Highlands National Park.  The Skyline Trail was calling my name so loudly, I managed to convince everyone we could do it and that it would be fun, too. It has been on my bucketlist for so long.

So after a tasty breakfast, and good restaurant coffee, we headed down the road to the Skyline Trail. Now, I’d like to pause here to say again we hadn’t planned on doing this hike.  So, we aren’t dressed in typical hiking gear.  And the majority of the other hikers look a little more prepared than us….but whatever….we headed out.  Michael wore my MEC bag so I could carry just my camera to take pictures, Lena had a backpack on and Hannah carried a doll the entire way.  When I see the following post floating around social media, I think, yep, that’s us…minus the crocs but that’s a whole other post 😉 { I pulled this image from Pinterest, but clearly credit goes to Jack Boot on Twitter }

 

Guys, if you have the chance to hike the Skyline Trail, do it.  The views at the end of the hike are amazing.  AMAZING! Quintessential Cape Breton vistas.  You can see out to sea, the twisting Cabot Trail and the valleys and peaks of the highlands.  And, if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll see a moose.  We didn’t, whomp whomp, but they are doing some interesting studies in that area about the impact of the moose on the landscape.

The handsome Mr. Byrne ventured further than the rest of us.  That tiny dark speck out at the end of the trail is him.  I can just imagine the views he had waaaaaay out there….I’m not sure I could handle it, I’m getting more cautious in my old age, lol!

When you are that high on the edge of the ocean, it’s a mite bit windy….

After our hike, we headed to Janice’s for a tasty lunch with her family and Barbara’s crew.  I love being welcomed no matter what time of day or who’s in the car.  That’s what true friendship is, right? Coffee, dessert, hugs and good conversation.  It was the perfect homey break in our getaway.

Our plan was to head for home after our visit at Janice’s.  But the girls wanted to go to the beach.  That was one request they made.  So we swung into the beach at Port Hood for a walk in the sand and a little wade in the water.

And this girl left a note or two on the beach….sound advice, eh?

Cape Breton remains a favourite of mine.  It never gets old.  I’ll never tire of driving up and exploring, or of not exploring and sitting at the table of my friends.

To be continued,

Lori

 

October 9, 2018 By
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