Summer is here!!

Well its always a beautiful day for a blog. I want to start telling everyone about our outdoor summer adventures. Hopefully they will include some hiking, but both of us are doing shift work and its hard for us to get one day off together let alone enough time to go hiking for more than a couple days.

We are hoping for mid July to get some time off to come back to Calgary and visit everyone we have missed so much because the trip is long overdue and I find myself missing everyone else more and more these days...

So last Sunday we were lucky enough to get the day off together and the weather was just gorgeous, so we went back to the place where we spent the summer last year. Spent the afternoon on Elliott Beach and reminisced with one of the guys that so kindly let us stay with him.

Log dog fetching his own sticks.

Gus enjoyed his usual stick fetching in the ocean while we all caught up on our lives together. At one point we had stopped throwing the sticks for Gus and he decided he would just fetch by himself, so into the water he went to find his own sticks. He just went out into the water on the hunt for driftwood and when he found one he would bring it back to shore, chew on it for a short while, then go back in for another. It was pretty cute that he can make his own fun like that.

Our friends' beautiful home.

I was able to spend an hour or so in the sun alone, got to do my nails, catch up on a few YouTube videos and get a nice little tan before the boys came back to visit bringing our Gus' beloved dog friend, Ziggy, who is now unfortunately deaf but he sure remembered us and it was clear he was happy to see Gus. Shortly after, we went back to the house where we stayed and visited with our friends and they gave us a wonderful and beautiful housewarming gift which consisted of a Japanese tea set with four cups, a cute little flat ware set (which I'll be using for my miso soup) and also a sushi making kit, complete with nori to wrap up our creations. It was extremely sweet and we both felt guilty that we hadn't been there to visit sooner (like I said our stupid busy schedules have prevented us from doing many things we have wanted to do so far.)

The plot where we pitched our tent for 2 months.

Afterwords, we went to a little pub outside of town for two 4 one steak night. The food wasn't fabulous but the company sure was! It was so fun having a double date, the first one in... well... ever! It couldn't have been with two more awesome people.

So overall, it was a very successful day complete with a manicure, dip in the ocean, & getting a slight tan. Here's to many more!

Where is spring?!

Since moving out to the island from Calgary, the weather has been considerably milder for me, to say the least. I don't think we had a single day that went below 15 degrees, however, sunshine is scant.
Its really affected my mood in the past months. Sunshine really makes me happy! Every morning here usually starts out with a clear sky and false promises of a beautiful day, however, by noon, its overcast and if its not raining, its about to or it already has.

The dog doesn't even enjoy going for walks and it seems like he trudges along because he knows of the impending foot rinse off waiting for him when we get home. Plus hes put on weight because we put off trips and walks due to rain or impending rain. Actually, now that I think of it, we have all put on weight!

No, I don't want to take vitamins to supplement for sunshine. Nothing can replace the warmth on your face or walking wherever you want in flip flops and a tank top without people thinking your nuts (people are trying to pull it off at this point but between the puddles and the not quite warm enough weather either their parents will be blamed for under-dressing them or they will get looks resembling 'its not summer yet, hun...'

I just want summer to hurry up and get here! Considering this is my first winter here, you would think the island would show off a little more and say 'heyy its still a little tropical here, so you can have a little ray of warmth but only a little so stay and hold on and see what spring is really like!'

Granted, the long standing residents of the island are all saying 'Its been a bad winter... raining so much... not normally so wet...' and I so badly want to believe them. I want to believe that this time next year the winter will be a little shorter, a little drier, but for now it looks like I'm just going to have to be patient, and keep dreaming of the day the island decides summer is officially here and we can spend our days on the beach... with a nice cold drink and be happy soaking up some vitamin D.

Mooned you!

This picture just does not do it justice. Tonight we had a perigee moon, which basically means that the moon is about 50,000 k closer to earth than it has in the last twenty years. I got to play around with my camera a bit to try to get the best pic I could, and this is what I came up with. You really can't tell how big or bright it is, and I could only imagine what it was like when it was rising buuut I forgot until it was well into the sky.

So thats it people, go outside and enjoy the moon before its too late!