Chillin' with Connie

I spent a large part of the last couple days before I headed back to the UK hanging out with Connie. We went for a walk the one morning, down her "street", and were delighted to see so many songbirds, as well as a couple of evil geese, out and about, especially around the marsh that lives at the intersection down the road. Even if a couple of them did try to kill us (I mean, Connie said they were probably just chasing each other and we just happened to be there, but I maintain that they were trying to kill us). 

It really is a gorgeous little bit of land, I took a lot of pictures of this corner from the car while staying with Connie and Brad, but it was nice to walk down there and get some really clear ones.

It certainly didn't hurt that it was such a gorgeous morning.

I love the fence posts in the water. One of my favourite things about being in the country in all these farms is seeing all the places where nature has taken back over from human attempts to tame it, whether that be the rather small fact of marshland taking back over drained land as in these fences, or all the flooded bits beside Stony Trail, or the more obvious sight of decaying barns and sheds that slowly list over and eventually succumb to gravity (there was a shed on the corner leading into Christine's farm that slowly, over the course of my childhood, went from standing mostly upright to leaning over and then disappearing entirely).

The redwing blackbirds were one of the most populous species of birds that morning - the red flash as they fly is so beautiful.

This guy was being very nice about posing for me (but refused to do the same for Connie - hahah).

Mum and I also ended up taking a couple of trips into the city - after I got home, my mum put me on a wait list for the dentist for the couple of days before I left back to the UK, and I ended up getting in due to a cancellation, which mum was *extremely* excited about.

(so of course I had to counter that by continuing to drink as many slushees as humanly possible before heading back to the land of no slushees).

The same day that we went in to the dentist, we stopped by to see Grandma Jones, as well as Lorraine, which was really nice to see them one more time before I hopped back across the pond. We also stopped into the mall and went into Sephora where I cried over the fact that they don't have it in the UK (just kidding I didn't actually cry... much). Mum bought me a Stila liquid eyeliner for my birthday, and I also used my reward points to get a really nice Clinique mascara, AND got my birthday treat from Sephora. So it was a pretty awesome trip. Mum also bought me a book for my birthday. It was awesome.

Then we went to COSTCO. Nothing quite like that big box shopping experience. Plus we hit it at a really awesome time - all the samples were out so we got to try loads of different things. Except the fruit liquorice. The lady serving that didn't seem to actually want to serve it to anyone.

We stopped at the dome briefly on the way home, and I lamented again that I was leaving before there were actually any strawberries.

Roadtrip! (redux)

Roadtripping with Brad is a bit more of a chill affair than driving with Logan (aka Brad actually stops). And he let me choose the music the whole time, which was fun. 

As I've mentioned before, I love this drive through the Crowsnest Pass and up Highway 22 so I took loads of pictures as I always do.

Logan told me that he once saw the 18 wheeler in front of him tip up onto one wheel while driving this stretch of road - it wasn't that windy when we drove it, but it obviously can get extremely windy!!

This sign always makes me laugh, because on the other end, when you're existing Longview, it tells you that there are no services for the next 100 and some kilometers, which is crazy. No big deal for people just driving through (though you are gonna wanna make sure you have enough petrol to see you through) but I can't imagine what its like for the people who live on the farms along this stretch of the highway - they must be very self-sufficient to live so far away from any services.

It was a gorgeous day for the drive, with only a couple of bits of rain on what was otherwise a gorgeously sunny and blue-skied day. We got Tim Hortons before we left Kimberley so I was sipping an ice cap through the mountains (*sigh*).

Of course, we saw lots of animals along the way - mostly cows, but we saw the occasional pasture full of horses. And you know how much I love seeing the calves, and there were lots of them to see!

Its crazy how much flood damage is still obvious all the way down into the Crowsnest. Loads of rivers are still full of trees, and you can see where the banks got pulled down. The section of Highway 22 that fell into the river last summer has been fixed though, so thats good (though the section of road that has been super uneven for years and they were ostensibly fixing last summer has, I think, if anything gotten worse...).

And then we were back at the farm!

There was a brief storm, during which I read, and then I helped Christine chop some rhubarb. Dad and I watched a movie that night, and ate some baked mac and cheese that mum had already prepped for us (we were feeling rather spoiled).