Trippin' down memory lane

The girls and I visited my old haunts at the hallowed halls of UBC last week; we were warmly greeted by the old gang--Herbert (photo credit), Amanda, Ramona, Vera, Estella, Francis, and Judith--at the Writing Centre. Recent visits to the island by Betty Anne and Angela also reminded me of those heady summers (largely spent playing Scrabble) in my youth...Those past 20 years are truly blurring into misty memory--a pleasant sidetrip from my current world of milky mammary!

Showered with love

Baby Aurora's arrival was celebrated in style with some 30 admirers in our old neighbourhood on Melmore at Deb and Rik Stringfellow's place. Friends brought lovely food and gifts, and we happily spilled out into a sunny afternoon in the garden, where the younger set enjoyed the goldfish pond and jungle plants. A wild party in the sunlit rainforest for our little monkey!

Either the (yellow) wallpaper goes, or I do!

Love this photo (taken by Nanny Lorna on one of her visits to the rustic little cabin in the woods, a.k.a. graveyard of the fallen ants): the wee girls look so grown up and serious (they haven't entered fully into the spirit of ant-killing, as I have), with their devoted yet scatterbrained (doesn't "pregnancy brain" self-correct after pregnancy?) Mom grinning naively from present chaos back at the past and into the future. Meanwhile, creamy, flaky, yellowy-white drywall is raining down at the big house, along with what Jonathan (now helping Steve daily with the renovations, along with co-worker Adam) refers to as "significant evidence of rodent infestation." I'm not sure if I have that quote exactly right, but you get the idea (if I haven't corrupted my sentence structures with too many brackets--oops! I did it again! It's the way I think these days, you see...) Gosh, when I think of all I planned to accomplish while "on leave"... On any given day, it seems as much as I can manage (sometimes more) to get the dishes and the laundry done. Oh well! The girls and I are planning a trip to Ontario and New Brunswick at the end of July -early August to get away from it all. Smile!?! Click.

'Sssssss Canada Day, 2010!

Yes folks, that's Miranda "chickenheart" Forster cuddling a snake!!!! at the annual Canada Day festivities at Bowen Island's Crippen Park. Aurora slept elegantly (click on the photo to see the tiny maple leaves on her outfit) through it all--live band and interactive reptile display notwithstanding. She did wake up to watch the rest of us consume a fabulous chicken dinner at Carmen and Peter's later in the day; Wilson (transformed from a spirited runaround to the world's most articulate--and patient--eight-year-old) read his old favourite stories aloud to both girls, and we got to take the books home with us for keeps. Canada Day just gets better every year, as Miranda observed! (though I don't know how we'll top the snake experience, in 2011)...