Camping in Waterton

The kids and I went camping in Waterton. We had a very nice time trying to kill gophers (Columbine Ground Squirrels), the place was infested, throwing rocks, climbing dead trees, hiking, swimming (it is so cold), window shopping, riding Surrey bikes, playing at the park, cooking over the campfire, photographing deer (the place was infested) and sleeping in our tent. Waterton is a very relaxing place and I really enjoyed our little camping trip, even without Edward. As if I didn't have bears on the brain enough, the nature show was all about Grizzly bears. Try sleeping all night on the edge of the wilderness with 5 children in a tent after viewing an hour long film on bear attacks, all this while your heart is still pumping with adrenaline from your last bear encounter!

Summer Job

I've cleaned up the kitchen 19 times yesterday. It must be summer vacation and all the kids are home! I forsee no knitting time for the next 2 months.

Close Encounters of the Wild Kind…

Ever tried to take a picture of a baby grizzly bear while running across a foot bridge in high heels while also looking back over your shoulder for the mama bear? This is what your picture might look like if that ever happened to you.

Oh, you want the rest of the story? (Words in brackets are the corresponding emotion to that particular thought.)

So Erica and Bentley and I went for a little birdwatching excursion out at mom's. I saw a fluff of white in the water and got out to investigate. It was a dead trumpeter swan. (Awww...)

We were just standing there taking pictures speculating how it could have died, when Erica heard galloping footsteps and turned and yelled, "A Bear!" (Surprise) Said bear was less than 8 feet away and heading straight for us. Then Bentley saw it too. Now bears are not unheard of out at my dad's, but we were several miles north of the mountain forested area they would normally frequent. My first thought (and the following thoughts went through my mind at about mach 7!) was that they were pranking me. (Unbelief) My second thought, one half split second later, when I actually saw the bear, was that it was just a baby one. (He's so cute!) My third thought, coming as rapidly and almost on top of the second thought, was , "Where's his mama?" (Fear/Terror) Simultaneously as I thought this, I looked to see how far we were from the car. Too far. (Panic) Fourth thought, get precious children to safety. (Protect the offspring!) I instructed them calmly and forcibly to Get. In. The. Car. As we three made our way nimbly over a plank foot bridge (well, me in the heels wasn't so nimble), I had my brilliant 5^th thought: Get a picture. (A-ha, blog fodder!) So I did. And now you know the rest of the story.

PS: We never saw the mama bear and we can't decide if it is a grizzly or a brown bear. So far, we've had more votes for Grizzly. Feel free to cast your vote, there may be a prize drawn out of the guesses.

Warning: legal cuteness limit exceeded

I got my toes painted this morning. They are blog worthy. In fact, they are Flower Friday blog worthy, since none of my other flowers are deserving of that title. Don't you agree??? Had a great knit night with my blogless knitting friend the other night. She is trying to get me to knit more than dishcloths. I like knitting dishcloths, especially since my favourite mother-in-law brought me some rescue yarn back from the states so I can finish the dishcloth-that-wanted-to-be-a-placemat. I started the Sproing socks. I am doing them in a green that is so dark the pattern doesn't show up very well. Oh well, they are still an awesome fun easy pattern to knit. Some people are so clever!

Sproing into Spring

I absolutely adore this new pattern. I have some tweedy dark green wool that wants to be made into these Sproing socks. Move over dead-beat poncho, here come the Sproings. For flower Friday I have a cute little blossom on my strawberry plant. My chives are also coming out of their cocoon.

Here is an interesting and thought provoking selection of Erica's artwork. I call it Shoe Goo.

Here is an art project by Lincoln that I thought was pretty. I like the colours - you'd never know he was colour blind. That's all for now. Maybe I will get some knitting time this weekend...

Mystery Tuesday

This is on my neighbor's roof. Is it what I think it is and what on earth is it doing there???

Thinking ahead

Boy, someone is thinking ahead. This darling sweater is from the Berrocco Fall collection! That's Fall 2008! I think it is very cute, but it would not look good on me. So I will not be knitting this, but I really, really like it. The sun is shining today. I was starting to pretend I lived in Vancouver! The green grass is totally refreshing after our brownish winter. We'll see how long it lasts...