"Purple Beauties"

Tua and I went for a walk this morning and stopped by the beach. We discovered these beautiful purple starfish and had to spend some time checking them out.

Roses are out at Butchart Gardens!

A web design school has brought me to Vancouver Island for roughly 6 months.

The Victoria School of Business is where I have been spending long days learning fun and exciting ideas and concepts. When I am finished I should be back home in time to start the winter season with Roger. The nice thing I love about Victoria is that after a full day of school there are so many neat things to do in the evenings.  Last night Tua and I spent two hours walking around the "Butchart Gardens". Right now the roses are out in full bloom and the dahlia's are not far behind. And what was even cooler is that they love dogs...yup Tua can walk all over the gardens with me. It was a really nice way to wind down the end of my day.

Laurila Lair

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to spend time with Roger's uncle out on the Seymour Arm, which is on Shuswap Lake. You can only get to it by boat, so we loaded up with great food, wine, swim suits and fishing roads. The weather was perfect and Tua swam in the lake each morning while I searched for rocks in order to help Ray build a retaining wall. Late in the afternoons it was then time for a glass of wine, and a few snacks before dinner. Ray is a barby wizard and each night we had a feast followed by a few hours in the boat search for fish. It was an awesome three days and I hope I can get back soon. Thanks Uncle Ray!

"Lucy" the Hummingbird

This beautiful little female rufous hummingbird flew all the way from South America this spring to sit on my feeder for a sip of sugar water.
I am not sure if she was sick or just too old, but I was able to take these photos because she didn't move from here all day. Late that afternoon I brought her into the house and hand fed her to see if I could get her to come around. But in the end it was not meant to be, and she won't have to make that long flight back this fall.

Bezzola's fresh farm eggs!

Up the road from us lives a fantastic gal by the name of Margrit Bezzola.
She has amazing talents from dying and spinning her own wool to planting a garden that would make even Martha bow down. But what I really love are her farm animals. If you drive up you will find happy healthy goats, sheep, funky chickens and one crazy turkey wandering around the yard. Although Mr. Turkey is absolutely beautiful to watch he takes his job of guarding the property seriously, so once you step out of the car you'd better be prepared  to run to the front door for safety.

I just love to bake with Margrit's fresh eggs, and take the chance of getting pecked and gobbled at by this big bird in order to get a few of these lovely eggs.

Flour or Flower.....

Once the snow melts I love to go searching for a different kind of flour....

I am a complete novice with a camera and lens... I just can't resist all the colors!