News from the WET Coast

Things here have indeed been damp! We've had a few breaks from the rain but for the most part, the past week has been fairly wet.

We've been busy getting our fundraising plan in place for our Ghana trip - we are so excited and are really happy with the blog we have set up to keep people up-to-date with progress on the fundraising front and with our overall experiences in the program. Check it out at: BuildingForGhana.blogspot.com.

Otherwise this weekend was fairly relaxed through we were out and about doing a few things. Though I'm afraid we didn't take any photos . . .

Thursday night we had the pleasure of our friend Aman's company for the evening. He was in town from Hamilton via Vancouver where he is spending a few weeks and we enjoyed lunch at Willie's Bakery at the bottom of Johnson Street (or as it has been newly re-christened LoJo as in Lower Johnson). I headed back to work for the rest of the afternoon and we all met back at our place and enjoyed a beverage or two and then headed up the street to check out the new small plates and wine bar across from the also fairly new pub. Unfortunately by 7pm on a Friday night it was packed. As I reported in our last post the wine bar, Stages, is indeed fabulous so it was sad to not be able to get a table. So, instead we hit the patio of the Fernwood Inn across the street (our neighbourhood has gotten damn convenient, too damn convenient, lately!) and promptly ordered a jug of the beer we had just finished savouring at home. Phillips Blue Truck ale is very delicious and light and crisp and perfect for summer. Unfortunately the jug that was served to us tasted a little too much like bleach/soap/cleaner to match up to our at home experience so we sent it back and order the old stand by, Okanagan Springs Pale Ale. This indeed tasted normal and we enjoyed most of a second jug as well. We had a few treats for dinner including a pretty nice cheese plate (though they charged us $2 for more bread??) and a crab cake (yes, there was just one for $7 - again???). Anyway we didn't finish the beer (so sad) because we are getting old and it was a work night and we were tired. We stumbled back down the street and promptly fell into our beds.

The next morning I had the pleasure of enjoying my third restaurant meal with Aman. We had our usual at John's Place and shared an order of eggs benny and The Exotic French Toast (yep, french toast made from banana bread . . . pretty darn good!) from the breakfast menu - I was full for the whole day! Aman walked me to work for the day and then we parted ways (sniff) but hopefully we'll be able to see him again soon before he heads back to old Ontario.

Saturday morning we headed downtown to get some supplies for our fundraising and job searching blitz's and on the way we stopped at a few garage sales very close to home (fun!). One of my best finds of the summer, hands down, was this:

Any flashbacks Brandon? He has a pretty nasty scar inflicted by one of the corners of this roof!

I initially left this behind and thankfully, since it was just around the corner and Bruce had to come home for a pee break I had a chance to think . . . what if I never see one of these again? I really want one!

Here's Mr Pig and his friend little mouse with the silo and one piece of the original fencing.

When we were kids we had the house and our neighbours Craig & Crystal had the farm (yes I know the silo is missing it's barn) and I think maybe the Monkman's had the school and someone else had the bus. Those are some good memories and I think I am now officially on a quest to find as many original pieces to go with the house as I can and to ad the barn and all the other fun sets to the collection too! I just expelled a few loud ooo's and aaaah's at this site. It took me right back and I remembered how the barn door moo'd and the gas station had a little fuel pump with a nozzle on a cord that fit into the little cars and I loved all the little furniture for the house!

Here's the (blind? no eyes left!) farm dog in front of a fairly grubby front door of 952 Fisher Price Ln.

The interior view of 952 Fisher Price Ln. which is apparently the 1980
re-release of the 1969 blue and yellow original.

Okay so you are now officially on the lookout and if you see ANY 1980s era Fisher Price Little People sets or pieces, please know that those would make for the most amazing birthday and Christmas gifts ever - yes even over and above a Le Creuset dutch oven or a KitchenAid stand mixer. Yes I may indeed be newly obsessed.

Okay so now that I've shared my most exciting weekend news on to other happenings. On our way home from downtown on Saturday we stopped at the Moss Street Paint In. This event stretches from the top of Moss Street at Fort all the way down to Dallas Road and the street is closed off to traffic so people can walk up and down checking out all of the artists who are displaying and/or demonstrating their work. We only took in a block (including a garage sale or two) since the ankle was pretty tired but we saw some amazing stuff and also saw Ted Harrison painting away which was pretty cool! The funniest part of this little side trip on Saturday was the garage sale advertising we saw for a sale on a Moss Street side street - an old veneer coffee table with cowboy boots on top and one of those blow up Santas stuck in the boots - I wish we had the camera for that one!

Today we headed out for Bruce's first bike ride of the summer (can we say it one more time? damn ankle!) and took the Moss Street route all the way down to Dallas Road (this time stopping at as many of the garage sale aftermath free piles left on the side of the road as I was 'allowed' to). The weather was not rainy but was a bit misty and foggy so the air smelled super sweet like it can here in Victoria, all salty and wet and clean smelling - yum! We biked along Dallas Road and tried to take a photo at Clover Point but the batteries were dead (boo!) so then we biked along the break wall where we stopped to see two little seals then on to Gonzales Bay which, on sunny days, turns into a busy sandy beach haven for Victorians. Today it was fairly barren. Then, since we lost our corner store(it closed down just over a week ago now) we had to hit the grocery store for banana supply replenishment since some monkey around here eats 5-10 a day! ; )

Then it was home for more blogging and fundraising plans - now we're really ready for bed!

We'll write more soon!