Grass Creek Sheep Dog trials.

There was Sheep!

And of course sheep dogs!

Puppies!
Police Horses

Police Dogs

Birds of Prey!

Horses Big and Small!

Lumberjacks!

Llamas!

Dockdogs!

Well worth the $10 admission!

Summer Vacation 2009

Last week, we took off on a road trip to PEI. I rented a 2 bedroom cottage through a co-worker in the teeny tiny town of Burton. I'm not sure why it even has a town name. Nearby, is the larger towns of Bloomfield and O'Leary.

It seemed like everything was against this vacation happening. Hayley who was going to come with us was to take the via rail Friday from Toronto. Well Via went on strike. My old car has no air conditioning and even though I'm confident running around the area here with it, Toronto is about as far as I think it should go. Jeff's Jeep just isn't a long distance vehicle even though it's quite new so we decided to get our GMC Safari back on the road. It had a shimmy and that's why we took it off the road about a year and a half ago because at the time we didn't really need it and couldn't be bothered to fix it. It's a great vehicle for long trips with lots of space for carrying gear along. Unfortunately, after sitting idle for a year and a half more had gone wrong with it. Jeff was clear with the garage that the shimmy was his first priority and if they couldn't fix it he didn't want the other items fixed. Well to make a long story short we spent over $2000 and we still have the shimmy. Thursday I made the executive decision to rent a vehicle for the trip. Friday we picked it up and I headed off to Toronto in my car and Jeff headed home to pack the rental car. I scooped up Hayley, who hasn't had a real vacation since we went to Mexico for her 19th birthday. That's 4 years!!! She was in dire need of a vacation. We drove to Drummondville QC Friday night and then took the final piece of the trip on Saturday. After 6 nights in PEI, we headed back and stayed 2 nights in Quebec City.

It turned out to be a wonderful trip that we will remember forever. Here are some of our memories. Enjoy!

The Bright Blue Cottage where we stayed in Burton.

The view up the road from the cottage.

The Beach Across the Road

North Cape Wind Farm

Hayley and Jeff Enjoying a Cold one in Old Quebec

Building in D'youville Quebec

Fireworks competition at Montmorency Falls to cap off our trip.

Thematic Photographic #57 Distance

Carmi's photographic challenge this week is around distance. http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2009/07/thematic-photographic-57-distant.html So I present to you my entry for distance. Back in May, Jeff, Mike and I attended at concert at the community LVEC (I think that's the terminology). So a little background, the year before when this LVEC opened we attempted to buy tickets to the first concert but they were sold out immediately. The attraction was local band, the Tragically Hip. The day of this concert my husband heard on the radio that they just released another set of tickets so I get on the computer and attempt to gain some tickets on our ridiculously slow dialup. Luckily, it only took 2 attempts and we had tickets. We rush into Kingston that night. Our seats were right beside the stage and we could see the guitar tech working all night. We had such a great view of the stage it was unbelievable. That night I fell in love with Gord Downey because of his playful on-stage antics. This year we wanted to take the kids to see the Hip but unfortunately Hayley couldn't make it but Mike did. This time even though we ordered the tickets the day before they went on sale through the fan club we were right at the back of the arena. It seemed a bit of a let down after the first concert but it was still a good concert. The ironic part is standing outside the K-rock center we over head someone telling someone they were there to see if there were still tickets. The responce was "yes they just releases a section right beside the stage."
Here is my distance shot!

Thematic Photographic 55 - Cloudy

Carmi's Thematic Photographic Challenge this week is Cloudy. Check it out here. http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2009/06/thematic-photographic-55-cloudy.html

Yesterday the weather was very unsettled and we experienced several thunderstorms, one of which was extremely intense. As usual the thunderstorm was short and the sun came out rewarding us afterwards. We headed for Kingston for supper and to run errands that night and as we were heading home the rain started again. Not thunderstorm rain but just a quick rainstorm. As we arrived to North Shore Hay Bay where we live there was a beautiful rainbow which Jeff captured with my camera and I caught the clouds on the other side of the road.

Rosebud and friends

As I drove home from yoga last night, there were many boats docked at the small marina area in Napanee. I don't even know if you can call it a Marina. It's just by the park and the bridge that goes over the Napanee river. Sometimes there is a couple of boats but last night there were many. I decided that on my way into work I'd stop and catch a picture of them when it was quiet.

At 6 :30 am however it wasn't so quiet. There was some kind of boot camp group working out in the park and I could hear the instructor yelling. On my way home tonight I noticed every boat was gone. I have to wonder if it was the wakeup that they got from the boot camp instructor or if they were just heading out on the road.

And if you didn't already know, my favourite is the little red tug boat. Her name is Rosebud.

She's trying again!

Ashley & Hayley

http://www.wfn.tv/adopt/view.php?entry=119

My daughter's friend Ashley is obsessed with fishing. She recently visited Hayley in Toronto and Hayley told her she should move to Toronto. Her response, "But where would I fish?" She is definitely one of my daughter's favourite people and my husband and I love when we run into around town. She's a nice girl, full of life and happiness.

Last year she entered the World Fishing Network's to win a fishing boat package. She came in the top ten I believe but ended up only winning a Bass Pro gift certificate. This year she is attempting to win a dream fishing vacation. I'm asking all that come into my blog if they could take the time to click on the link and view Ashley's video and give her a vote. The first part is based on the number of votes. Like last year I will be voting daily but I figured if others could even vote for her just once she would be so thankful.

Happy viewing!!!

Thematic Photographic 53

Carmi's Thematic Photographic Challenge 53 this week is Road. If you'd like more information about his challenge head on over to http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2009/06/thematic-photographic-53-road.html Carmi has a new challenge every wednesday. I posted a picture early from my trip to San Francisco of the crookedest street in the world. It has a series of 8 hairpin turns in one block. This is a shot looking down from the top which is a different view from the bottom shot I previously posted. Good brakes are mandatory to take this stretch of road.

Here is a picture of my own driveway. It's a tad bit bumpy and at one time there was a promise from a neighbour. He used to come pick up my daughter to take her to events with his daughter when they were in public school. He said that if he ever won the lottery the first thing he would do his pave our driveway. Since he doesn't come to pick Hayley up anymore I think the promise is probably defunct. There was also the friend who didn't realize that we had a turn around at the top and backed the whole way down. A month later she still had a stiff neck. After living on a busy road for two years it was nice to live here tucked away from all the traffic. My children could roam free without worry. I still love our bumpy country lane driveway...except in the winter when it needs to be plowed.